What way to end the group stage. 18 goals in one gameday! Have to say out of all the teams we could have faced (Hungary aside) I wanted Germany. They were dreadful tonight and look vulnerable. Unlike Portugal and France they don't have any truly world class attackers either. Of course they'll probably turn up and bastard their way through to the latter stages like they usually do but I do think they're there for the taking if we actually attack them from the off. Should be some game. Bring it on
Leroy Sane as really regressed as a player since his injury, Man City did well to get as much money for him as they did. Kroos/Goretzka can dominate our midfield though. Miles better than our current two.
2008 a poor Italian side who had just won the world cup 2 years before... Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Yeah another good example tbh... played nobody until SF of 2006 WC. 2008 they got snotted off the Dutch, struggled to a draw with Romania, though did beat a poor France side. They were hardly on fire chief.
I doubt you'll ever find a tournament winner who didn't have what you would call at least two easy games in the knockouts. Might get one this time if one of Italy/Belgium/Portugal manage to go all the way. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Yeah which was clumsily the point i was trying to make. If you get to SF or Finals , who you played is largely irrelevant, especially if you win it. History shows that.
So am I. Really wise move to go to Lille and I’m glad he’s proving himself on the big stage again. Played really well last night
Well that was tosh but we avoided an England/France contest which would have happened during my flight back from Budapest on Monday so no complaints. We were quite garbage honestly. Hugo demonstrating that he's not a perfect goalie. On his line and in terms of distribution, he's fine but coming out of his goal he sometimes comes up with the stupidest actions you'll see. He's lucky he touched the ball before knocking Danilo out otherwise it would have been red. Joke penatly for us; I would have been scandalized had been given against us. Got away with it in the first half. Second half, Benzema's goal looked offside but UEFA seem to have grown an anti-VAR complex in this tournament which doesn't bother me that much. Haven't seen the replay so don't shout at me. Koundé the inexperienced (why the flipping **** was he on the pitch?) gifting Portugal a goal. Deschamps' tactics were atrocious. It's been enough to put Tolisso in the starting 11 but start in him in a position he's never ever played at club level (I think)? Ridiculous. Pavard does has one (very) bad game and he's gets benched by a virgin fullback (Benjamin is probably nursing the headwound sustained by a German tomahawk)? I actually have less trouble with this decision. Why was Mbappé on the left? Because he owns Deschamps' arse now that he's a world champion. Benzema not very good as a lone striker. Griezmann used sparingly without Giroud. Stick to the tactics that won us something in Russia, Didier. This reminds of Löw in 2014 playing Lahm in midfield and Götze as a falsch neun. He then did the sensible thing and put Klose up top and whoopdi****ingdo things worked out. I hope Deschamps does the same. Will he? I doubt it.
I've been disappointed by France so far but with the players you have there's always a chance it could click at any moment. The players are there, it just doesn't feel like you're being set up right. All the points you make are absolutely correct. I hope you sort it out because I've got France in the family sweepstake and I stand to win £50 if you win . Was relieved to avoid France in the second round because it would have been a nightmare to see money come up against national pride . I'd obviously prefer to lose the money and see England win the tournament but let's face it, that's not going to happen. So France winning is probably my best outcome.
The negativity amongst the English is staggering. When are you going to acknowledge that you have a good squad, and deliver on the pitch (albeit with shit football)? We tried to play football and got knocked out by Switzerland. Would you rather you play attractive football and bow out in the group stages just like in Brazil?
It's probably something to do with the fact that we haven't won anything since 1966, 55 years ago, you have to be pretty old to be able to remember that. So decades and decades of failure makes us naturally cautious and negative about our chances. Whereas France have won in 1998, 2000 and 2018. All in recent memory so you've got plenty of experience of winning tournaments so naturally your fans are more expectant and believe that you'll win. The stuff about the style of football is just negativity and moaning.
