Worst tournament ever? Give Euro 2016 time to come good

The 39 matches have produced just 73 goals - it took the last World Cup just 25 games to surpass that number.

Low-scoring needn't necessarily mean boring - think Brazil 2014's Germany-Algeria and Belgium-USA games.

The goals might be sparse, but their general standard has been spectacular - Xherdan Shaqiri's extraordinary volley the latest high class strike on Sunday.

But the first day of knockout football produced two games with no such redeeming features.

Wales versus Northern Ireland was a quality-free dirge, while Portugal's win over Croatia somehow proved even less diverting - Ricardo Quaresma's late winner denying us even the excitement of penalties.

Perhaps we should be praising the defenders. The fact the game went 115 minutes without a shot on target - in a tournament where Cristiano Ronaldo alone averaged 10 goal attempts per game - is extraordinary.

And if we accept that both teams were indeed trying to score (admittedly it didn't look much like it) then we must recognise the compactness and defensive organisation of both sides.

The most thrilling football comes from mistakes. Defenders out of position, not covering, not concentrating; attackers given that split second longer to produce something brilliant. End-to-end counterattacking games are great to watch because each side takes turns to over-commit to attack.

That has happened precisely once at Euro 2016, in the breathless 3-3 between Portugal and Hungary.

But when teams defend properly, when they get men behind the ball - even at the cost of possession - finding space and scoring goals is very hard.

Slovakia's stifling of an England side unaccustomed to unpicking disciplined defences was a masterclass of sorts.

All 24 teams at Euro 2016 know how to defend. The tournament's expansion did not, as some predicted, created mismatches. Instead the more limited sides concentrated on keeping the opposition out. That they have largely succeeded is to their credit; though it comes at the cost of free-wheeling entertainment.

But you don't have to go back too far to find similarly stilted fare - much of the 2010 World Cup was filth, while the only two games of 2008 I can recall with real clarity are Turkey's crazy wins over Czech Republic and Croatia.

History doesn't judge tournaments on their general standard, but on standout moments.

We don't remember the miserable, cynical football that characterised much of Italia '90. We remember Roger Milla, Rene Higuita, Massing and Caniggia, Rijkaard and Voller, Platt, Lineker and Gascoigne.

Euro 2016 is not boring, sterile football. It is Dimitri Payet and Daniel Sturridge's late winners, screamers from Modric, Shaqiri and Hamsik. It is Robbie Brady, Gareth Bale, Will Grigg's On Fire and an Icelandic commentator losing his mind.

It has produced some genuinely memorable moments, and the biggest are yet to come.

During Brazil 2014, while everybody rushed to crown the Greatest World Cup Ever, Rob Smyth wrote that it was "barely more logical than hailing the best sex you’ve ever had during foreplay."

So while the prospects for a satisfying climax might not look good right now, let's stick with it.

There are still 12 matches to play. And those matches don't know how bad the previous 39 were.