It’ll be interesting to see what happens when our 8 defenders come up against a team who’re more than happy with a 0-0 draw, which all our road to the final opponents will be.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when our 8 defenders come up against a team who’re more than happy with a 0-0 draw, which all our road to the final opponents will be.
We’ve looked small time since the final whistle. Declan Rice said in his interview that we’ve “created history”. Fucking hell.
Fuck off you miserable bastards.
Aye, these occasions don't come around too often. If Switzerland can blow horns for six hours, so can we.
We’re a small time footballing nation that once won a World Cup, let them have their moment.
Well, I still don't know how Muller missed but fucking hell we've only knocked Germany out.
Beating Germany in the knockout stages of a tournament was always going to get this reaction you miserable fucks.
Gascoigne missing the cross, Southgate and Pierce missing penalties, etc. They even had more comfy trenches in WW1. Bastards. Subhuman scum. They've benefited from our misery too many times.
BREXITS COMING HOME
Ukraine will actually attack. Although they did struggle a lot against a very organised Austria.
Denmark is a toss up, they should go for it but I can see them being a bit passive considering it would be a semi-final.
Sweden and the Czechs would be more than happy for a 0-0 to penalties I feel.
Fair play to Southgate though. Everybody’s calling him a goofy cunt when the team sheets come out but he’s getting the job done.
(I reserve the right to edit this post should we get bummed by Shevchenko.)
I thought Southgate did decently. It’s easier to imagine them coming out a bit more attacking and end up getting torn apart 2010 style. As it is they managed to largely frustrate Germany and created one crucial chance. Bringing on Grealish also turned things. I’d say Grealish is what Southgate thinks Sterling is (creative spark), and it turns out that Sterling is what Kane normally should be (clinical one-touch finisher).
Luke Shaw was man of the match though.
Also, real 2018 vibes with this bracket. No excuses for not making the final from here.
Had the chance to see him play at Steve Harper's testimonial. I was all excited to see him and then it turns out he sacked the game off to appear in a golf tournament. Paulo Di Canio filled in, played the game of his life and ruined Steve's occasion. 0-0 (lost on penalties and Di Canio scored his) Shevchenko finished his golf tournament in last place.
I have no idea who I’d rather face England. Sweden I guess for the chance they shit fest their way through. Ukraine are entertaining but will concede for fun against England
Big fan of Kulusevski starting, he was brilliant off the bench in their last game.
Saying Southgate got everything right assumes the choices were binary and there was only one way to win.
Kulusevski looking like a SoundCloud rapper.
It’s an interesting tactic for Southgate. The football is so dull, but as long as they don’t concede, which they haven’t yet, they can’t lose on anything other than pens (lottery). If it works he looks like a genius, if it doesn’t he’s crucified for wasting a plethora of attacking talent to play 8 glorified defenders.
What a terrible match.
Guardiola has ruined Zinchenko. A player devoid of imagination seeking only to play the percentage pass.
Percentaged right into the old onion bag.
That's a quality goal.
What's happened to Malinovsky?
Forsberg is immense today.
Look how shit it is being posh.
He really is just a giant baby.
It's the equivalent of what I'd look like if I went to the Ballet. "Did you see that? That was a big jump."
Just do what I do with art galleries. Look at a thing, pretend I know what I'm looking at but don't say a word. Move on. As soon as someone asks me for an opinion, I'm out of there.
Forsberg is brilliant, could have easily had a hattrick today.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
England game. It was an interesting watch. The first 20 minutes I thought we were going out in a ball of flames. After that we got the ball down a bit better but we were absolutely not a threat, because all we had was a massive fifty yard gap between Rice/Phillips and the atrocious Kane. Defence made a couple of howling collective mistakes and would have been punished if Werner hadn't had his testicles removed.
Then we brought Grealish on and everything instantly changed purely because we had that extra man popping up between the German lines and getting touches. He didn't do anything outstanding but his mere presence opened it up for us. Then we scored and that was game over, because Germany are a poor side and really have little to offer.
In hindsight Southgate gets the plaudits, and fair play to him, but in reality I think we got a little bit lucky with that ultra-defensive strategy, as we really offered nothing and had we conceded and the Germans been able to adjust their approach, I think we might have struggled. However, we didn't, so fuck it and fuck the Germans.
I think we should roast either of the yellow teams currently playing on account of just being much better, but a semi-final vs Denmark would be a very different challenge. All in all, though, we should reach the final from here.
MotM: Sterling. Brilliant on the ball and brilliant runs to offer us an out ball, without which we might have succumbed to getting stuck on our own lines.
We were really lucky but one hallmark of Southgate's tactics is that we don't create a lot. I think he banks on us having the ability to take our chances rather than creating a glut of them. With a front three of Sterling, Kane and Grealish, we'll create something. Maybe more if Kane decides he's getting nowhere as the man up top and decides to supply one of the wingers. And at least we know we can change things reliably from the bench with Saka, Sancho, Bellingham, Foden and Mount.
Pickford kept us in that match, too. Not called into action much but still alert.
Not sure why I separated nerds and statisticians in that context, I assume that venn diagram is basically a circle if you work for a football club.
Grealish should be starting and it's laughable that he isn't.
Or, maybe he's seen as a super sub by design?
I can't see us sticking to that shape against a 'lesser' team, surely they go back to the 3 behind Kane.
It springs to mind that the last time England played in Rome was 'then one night in Rome...'. This whole tournament is like a whistlestop tour through the 90s. I think it might be coming home.