[Will Hunt]

last time I actually got really excited was Euro 96 as a teenager!

I have absolutely no idea what you do  when a team you support is truly in the running for a major title

Short memories round here! Southgate and his Lovely Lads were in a world cup semi final a few years ago!

Mike, the chants are supposed to be instructional and have just this sort of circumstance covered. You're supposed to go fucking mental la-la-la-la.

[Wellsy]

I mean have they played against truly weak sides? Croatia and Germany are arguably past it but still have top players who have seen WC finals. Denmark got through to the semis fair and square. Yes we've not played France, Belgium and Portugal but Italy had Wales and Turkey in their group, they had a Belgium without arguably their most important player, they scraped past Spain. They're an impressive side but England has also handed out thrashings and barely conceded.

I think Italy might be slight favourites but it's by no means one sided.

[nai]

they had a Belgium without arguably their most important player

Yeah, what has happened to Fellaini?

[webbo]

I picked my 7 year old grandson up from school today. He goes to a catholic school in Malton, the school has a fair percentage of Polish children. Today was football day all the kids were  in football kit and playing football and making flags for their team.The kids were all singing Vindaloo as they game out and having a great time.
Sometimes football is the best and worst of all things.
My grandson didn’t know what a Vindaloo was.

[TobyD]

I found this highly amusing

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/09/politics-out-of-sport-politicians-out-of-football?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
"Did you see the prime minister in the fancy seats at Wembley on Wednesday? He seemed to have come dressed as a particularly brutal Matt Lucas impersonation of himself. As for the young lady standing to his left and smiling indulgently at him, it’s nice that his … carer, is it? … takes him out for the day and buys him a football top. "

[mrjonathanr]

they had a Belgium without arguably their most important player

Yeah, what has happened to Fellaini?

His form dipped after La Dolce Vita.

[cheque]

Only managed 128 minutes for Roma.

[Fiend]

I don't do the football thing but happened across this and thought it was quite magnificent....

[SamT]

 

[Andy F]

The best team won, deservedly in the end.

[cheque]

First half was fantasy stuff, everything went England’s way but you knew we needed to get another goal before half time because it couldn’t last. Felt like the whole tournament caught up with us in the second and we were lucky to stay in it to the last kick of the thing. Everyone looked knackered and out of ideas. Tactics were off, substitutions were misjudged but I don’t think anyone would watch that and think we wuz robbed however close it went in the end.

I haven’t changed my opinion since the last post in this thread (last serious one, not the Fellini joke), I’m fucking psyched that England were the second best team in this Euros (Italy hadn’t been behind in a game for about two years or something but they were totally rattled for long periods in the first half) and like every other England fan I now fully expect us to win next year’s World Cup.

[TobyD]

First half was fantasy stuff, everything went England’s way but you knew we needed to get another goal before half time because it couldn’t last. Felt like the whole tournament caught up with us in the second and we were lucky to stay in it to the last kick of the thing. Everyone looked knackered and out of ideas. Tactics were off, substitutions were misjudged but I don’t think anyone would watch that and think we wuz robbed however close it went in the end.

I haven’t changed my opinion since the last post in this thread (last serious one, not the Fellini joke), I’m fucking psyched that England were the second best team in this Euros (Italy hadn’t been behind in a game for about two years or something but they were totally rattled for long periods in the first half) and like every other England fan I now fully expect us to win next year’s World Cup.

Amen to that. Hopefully the tournament can eclipse the appalling choice of the venue.

 Now thousands of armchair critics can stop pretending that they know anything about football and return to pretending to know about epidemiology and virology for the next 18 months. 

[SA Chris]

We've got a broad selection of Olympic sports to be armchair critics of before normal service can resume.

[nai]

First half was fantasy stuff, everything went England’s way but you knew we needed to get another goal before half time because it couldn’t last. Felt like the whole tournament caught up with us in the second and we were lucky to stay in it to the last kick of the thing. Everyone looked knackered and out of ideas. Tactics were off, substitutions were misjudged but I don’t think anyone would watch that and think we wuz robbed however close it went in the end.

I haven’t changed my opinion since the last post in this thread (last serious one, not the Fellini joke), I’m fucking psyched that England were the second best team in this Euros (Italy hadn’t been behind in a game for about two years or something but they were totally rattled for long periods in the first half) and like every other England fan I now fully expect us to win next year’s World Cup.

Yep, after half an hour we were hanging on for half time. Hoped for a fix that never came and it felt similar to the Croatia semi (and periods of the Denmark game), abandonded or weren't allowed to play the passing game that had got us that far and reverted to the long ball, rearguard action/chasing a goal, tactics that we've deployed for pretty much every tournament since I've been watching and are yet to prove effective.

We could have had things go our way, with another ref they could have had a sending off but not sure that would have made any difference.  In the end they were just better than us.

Roll on the World Cup, we'll be improved again and the last team that lost the Euro final in their home Stadium went on to win it.  Maybe it's coming home via the long route.

 

[cheque]

Now thousands of armchair critics can stop pretending that they know anything about football and return to pretending to know about epidemiology and virology for the next 18 months.

And I can get back to winding my other half up by pretending to know even less about cricket, rugby league and cycling than I actually do. 

[TobyD]

We've got a broad selection of Olympic sports to be armchair critics of before normal service can resume.

Ha! I'd almost forgotten about that. I look forward to everyone suddenly caring about rowing, sailing and anything else we manage to scrape up a few gongs for.

Now thousands of armchair critics can stop pretending that they know anything about football and return to pretending to know about epidemiology and virology for the next 18 months.

And I can get back to winding my other half up by pretending to know even less about cricket, rugby league and cycling than I actually do. 

The difference between 100 and a 5 day test eh, rivetting.

[danm]

One benefit of losing is that it has brought the reason the team have been taking the knee into bright focus, and show how far we have to go before we eradicate the scourge that is racism in this country. Some of the stuff on social media has been shocking and vile.

Although Italy were by far the better team in the 2nd half, they were very rattled for most of the 1st, and even when dominant had few proper clear cut chances. My only criticism would have been that once 4 of the Italians were on yellow cards, that would have been a good time to bring on another attacking player and switch to a back 4. It was all a bit too little too late but conservatism made us hard to beat and got us to the final so....

[SamT]

Overheard in a garden center (of all places) today..

"Well,, don't mention the war"

.. presumably some sort of random Faulty Towers reference..
"aye - my son went for an Italian on Friday and they poisoned them!, Got food poisoning! cause they were England Fans".

FFS - 

[SA Chris]

My only criticism would have been that once 4 of the Italians were on yellow cards,

One of which would have got a red in other matches. Blatant, dangerous and uncalled for.

[nai]

But equally if that ref had been in charge of the semi a lot of the free kicks won and likely the penalty may been waved away as dives and the result might have been different.

 

[Wellsy]

My only criticism would have been that once 4 of the Italians were on yellow cards,

One of which would have got a red in other matches. Blatant, dangerous and uncalled for.

I guess you mean the pulling on the neck of the shirt? I don't think that deserves a red. It's a blatant foul and gets carded, but it's not dangerous (or not any more than any other number of things that don't even get a yellow) so it's a yellow for me. Fouls also don't get worse because someone does em on purpose either.

[nai]

It was a long way out but wasn't he last man, so technically could have been interpreted as red by a really officious stickler.

[SA Chris]

This ^

Clearly my view from the armchair.

[Ged]

My only criticism would have been that once 4 of the Italians were on yellow cards,

One of which would have got a red in other matches. Blatant, dangerous and uncalled for.

I guess you mean the pulling on the neck of the shirt? I don't think that deserves a red. It's a blatant foul and gets carded, but it's not dangerous (or not any more than any other number of things that don't even get a yellow) so it's a yellow for me. Fouls also don't get worse because someone does em on purpose either.

The studs into grealish by jorginho was a straight red, no doubt about it. Not that it would've mattered as he missed his pen. I thought the shirt tug was extremely cynical but probably only yellow given how far out he was. Hardly a clear cut goal scoring chance.

Interesting to know what Southgate does next. There's no doubt we were the better team for the first half hour, but do they need more of a Liverpool of a couple of seasons ago approach, where they go hell for leather for the first half hour, score at least 2 or 3,and then sit back. It definitely feels like a more attacking minded midfield is necessary. I thought rice and Phillips were incredible, but they didn't seem to be quite as attacking minded as the all time greats (pirlo etc).

[cheque]

The fouled player’s got to be through on goal for shirtpulling to be a straight red. It was some serious slapstick shit but Chiellini knew he’d be fine that far out with two or three defenders back in the centre of the pitch.

Like Ged I assumed Chris meant the Jorghino thigh-tread on Grealish. The conservative use of VAR in these Euros has been praised but in the Premier League the ref would have been “sent to the monitor” after giving a yellow for that. Ampadu & that Swiss bloke both walked for lesser studs-based fouls in this tournament.

It definitely feels like a more attacking minded midfield is necessary. I thought rice and Phillips were incredible, but they didn't seem to be quite as attacking minded as the all time greats

  A lot of the most promising English players are still very young and Southgate is open-minded and growth-orientated so I’ve hope this side can evolve further.