The UEFA Euro 2016 boot battle: Final
So, Euro 2016 started one month ago in Paris, with a host-nation eager and ready to impress in a stadium full of Frenchies. Now, four weeks on, we are here in Paris with a host-nation eager and ready to impress in a stadium full of Frenchies. An underwhelming tournament which has seen more hype around Joachim Low’s balls, Iceland fans clapping and Russian ‘hard-men’ turning up to the Euros thinking it was UFC 200, concluded with France taking on Portugal.
Portugal had miraculously reached the final winning just one match, the tight 2-0 victory over Bales. Ronaldo didn’t do much until the final group game against Hungary, where he bagged that delicious flick which seemed to prompt him into turning up from then on. France started badly also, scraping through the group games with the help of a few late goals. However, they have since looked impressive after demolishing Iceland (HU!).
This is, of course, the finale of our Adidas versus Nike Euro 2016 football boot battle. Adidas lead Nike 21-16 going into the Euro 2016 final. Nike have Portugal’s Ronaldo and France’s Koscielny, Evra and Payet. Whereas Adidas have France’s Pogba. A clean sheet and Ronaldo goal would probably see Nike win the battle.
Antoine Griezmann had an early header saved well by an outstanding Rui Patricio early on. Shortly after, Dimitri Payet gave his most significant contribution to the final by coming in like a wrecking ball Miley-Cyrus style on Ronaldo. He won the ball but left a lot on the Portuguese, who seemed to twist his leg in the process. After lengthy treatment, it looked as though his Euro final was over. He heroically made it back on the pitch again, but shortly after went down and was stretchered off in tears.
That was by far the biggest moment of a boring first half that only other chance came when Moussa Sissoko shot from distance. On a side note, Sissoko seemed to be intent on charging around the pitch, barging anything Portuguese out of the way while beautifully maintaining possession of the ball at his feet.
The second half was again poor, but a slight improvement on the first. Griezmann, uncharacteristically for this tournament, missed a glorious header. Olivier Giroud missed a good chance as well when his powerful effort was saved by Patricio.
Sissoko’s shot late on forced another great save from the Portugal keeper, and Andre-Pierre Gignac hit the post in the dying seconds when he turned well but scuffed his shot from close range. Extra-time was needed to settle the match.
The first half was uneventful, but Raphael Guerreiro hit the bar with a long-range free kick in the second period. A minute later, Lille’s Eder ran away from the French defence and fired a shot from outside the box. It flew into the bottom left corner, sending their fans and bench into utter delight.
They managed to hold on in the last few minutes, with Ronaldo acting as temporary manager from the sidelines.
As for the battle, Pogba lost a point for his mediocre performance and another for his booking. He was hyped up immensely prior to the commencement of the tournament, but didn’t really live up to the high expectations. This means that Nike need just four points to win and three points to draw.
As tempted as we were to deduct Ronaldo points for his crying antics, that would just be too cruel and we kind of like the guy. He gets no points, predictably. Koscielny and Evra get a point each for the clean sheet in normal time, but equally lose a point each for conceding the goal. Koscielny also loses one for his booking, but gets one for his solid performance.
So it was left to Payet to clinch it for Nike, but the West-Ham man was pretty insignificant in the match (not including, of course, the Ronaldo incident), and does not win any points here.
Adidas
Pogba -2
Nike
Ronaldo 0
Payet 0
Evra 0
Koscielny 0
Overall score
Adidas 19-16 Nike
So it was a close one in the end, but Adidas slightly edge it and claim their spot as the best football boots in Euro 2016. If Ronaldo stayed on, maybe, just maybe Nike would have come back to win it all. But it wasn’t meant to be, and a rather average European Championships ended with a legacy of some dull matches with some extraordinary moments.
At the end of it all, though, Predators beat Tiempos. PureControls beat Mercurials. Adidas beat Nike.
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