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Euros 2024


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Southgate may not be the guy I’d want as manager but it’s hard to be critical of someone that has got us to finals and semi final as he has. Yes we have some great players in the squad but you can’t ignore the fact that the teams that have beaten us in tournaments have also been very good teams, ie we didn’t lose to team we should have beaten every time, whether we are talking, Croatia, Italy, France - all good teams. Of all of those I think Italy was the one we rightly felt most disappointed about.

Spain are beatable, if we get to say 75mins and we are level or ahead I’d fancy us to get it over the line. However, Spain are probably the toughest opponents of the finals we have played based on their performances in this tournament.

im going to say we win 2-1 in 90mins.

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Think we have a chance on Sunday certainly if we play as we did during the first half.  Get Foden in the pockets and play the ball into him and something will happen.  It the most he had looked like the Man City Phil Foden. 

Not buying totally into this Spain love in with quite a few going over the top.  They have played well and unlike many others have been consistent.  France were poor on Tuesday but were not a million miles off. 

Think we have the players to handle the 2 young wide players, and we can boss Morata.   The key is going to be neutralising Rodri and Olmo in the midfield so a lot of onus on Rice and Mainoo.

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I thought that we were really good first half. And to give Southgate some massive credit, there was an absolute plan to expose the left side of Holland with Walker, Saka and Foden creating overloads knowing that Gakpo wasn’t going to help Ake.

We did the opposite on the left and Rice, when Walker went, drifted left and outside of Guehi to stop the counter with Dumfries. It worked a treat after the Dutch goal.

We should have gone it half time ahead given the dominance.

But, Koeman is a good coach and he plugged the midfield and let the Netherlands get up the pitch. Even so, their threat came from set pieces and not open play. When we got beyond there midfield, they had all kinds of issues and the changes we made got control back. All three subs made a difference. Shaw was good, Palmer was good. Watkins was the missing link. When a game gets stretched, players with pace who run down the sides cause havoc and it was a brilliant run and finish.

Job done!

Some great displays. Walker, Mainoo. Kane and Foden first half were excellent. Saka was brilliant again. 

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You have to laugh though. The most successful manager England have had except Sir Alf, a manger constantly taking England to semi-finals and the second successive European final but you'd think he was xisco reading the comments.

Of course we have quality players, like we once had Lineker, Shearer, Beckham, Scholes, Gerard, Gascoigne, Waddle, Hoddle and so on. None of them got us to a final though.

TAA was an experiment far too far though and he realised it in time. A bit like when Robson was forced to play Beardsley in Mexico after a dismal start. Injury and a sending off forcing his hand. Talking of Hands!

Of course we've had some luck thus time as well. And about time.

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The only downside in all this is having to suffer the "expertise" of the glory seeker fans. The ones that normally heavily into Fantasy Football and never been to a football stadium in their life. 

With it comes that rising but misplaced optimism supported by the media, that only serves to bring that crash down to earth to be much harder.

And yes I am a miserable fucker but the weight of evidence is on my side. The celebratory mood can happen but only after the final whistle and the hoped for victory has happened as our PM rightly suggests "let's not jinx it".

 

 

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1 hour ago, mkowl said:

The only downside in all this is having to suffer the "expertise" of the glory seeker fans. The ones that normally heavily into Fantasy Football and never been to a football stadium in their life. 

With it comes that rising but misplaced optimism supported by the media, that only serves to bring that crash down to earth to be much harder.

And yes I am a miserable fucker but the weight of evidence is on my side. The celebratory mood can happen but only after the final whistle and the hoped for victory has happened as our PM rightly suggests "let's not jinx it".

 

 

It's all Man U's fault, of the hadn't so deservedly won the FA cup against a far superior opponent, then the fairweather fans would have no basis for comparison.

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Thing is if you lot win then you'll never stop going on about it and in 10 or 20 years time, to echo mk's point about social media and fairweather fans, it'll have turned into the miracle of Berlin where Southgate's tactical genius and England's steadfastness out played a Spanish juggernaut that had laid waste to all previous opposition. 

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6 minutes ago, Tylluan said:

the miracle of Berlin where Southgate's tactical genius and England's steadfastness out played a Spanish juggernaut that had laid waste to all previous opposition. 

Let's hope we're waking up to that headline on Monday morning .

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4 hours ago, mkowl said:

The only downside in all this is having to suffer the "expertise" of the glory seeker fans. The ones that normally heavily into Fantasy Football and never been to a football stadium in their life. 

With it comes that rising but misplaced optimism supported by the media, that only serves to bring that crash down to earth to be much harder.

And yes I am a miserable fucker but the weight of evidence is on my side. The celebratory mood can happen but only after the final whistle and the hoped for victory has happened as our PM rightly suggests "let's not jinx it".

 

 

I equally have turned into a miserable fooker.  Cannot do with these previous none football fans suddenly talking about it and jumping all over it.  

Same when we get to Wembley and people attend their first game. 

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4 hours ago, Tylluan said:

Thing is if you lot win then you'll never stop going on about it and in 10 or 20 years time, to echo mk's point about social media and fairweather fans, it'll have turned into the miracle of Berlin where Southgate's tactical genius and England's steadfastness out played a Spanish juggernaut that had laid waste to all previous opposition. 

Yep. And it’ll be bloody lovely to do so

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4 hours ago, Tylluan said:

Thing is if you lot win then you'll never stop going on about it and in 10 or 20 years time, to echo mk's point about social media and fairweather fans, it'll have turned into the miracle of Berlin where Southgate's tactical genius and England's steadfastness out played a Spanish juggernaut that had laid waste to all previous opposition. 

I do solemnly swear that, if we lot win, I promise that I will never stop going on about it.  For ever and ever. Amen.  

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4 hours ago, Skamp said:

Since May 2001, Spanish teams – at both club and national level – have played non-Spanish teams in 22 major finals. "The Spanish side has won all 22."

 

Just saying.

😖

Edited by Owling_Wolf
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13 hours ago, Skamp said:

Since May 2001, Spanish teams – at both club and national level – have played non-Spanish teams in 22 major finals. "The Spanish side has won all 22."

 

Just saying.

Take your point but it really does have fuck all bearing on Sunday really.

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Definition of insanity 

Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome.

Welcome to the pre match hype in the traditional media and across social media. Well done folks the English tradition of building it up so the fail hurts twice as much. 

It's bad enough when Wednesday fans do it, but the entire fucking country. The joy is the winning end of 

 

 

 

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I don’t feel the pressure this time like I did last time. We are going into this as underdogs given how Spain have played, whereas when we played Italy, we were very firm favourites.

What I want to see is England have a go.

Now, and I have maintained this for a week. Spains best players are playing in positions where we are very very strong defensively. And our best players are playing in positions where Spain are not so strong (Rodri aside - but we saw what Mainoo and Bellingham did when they played him). So, if we get hold of the game, I really fancy us to win.

But, Spain are playing without fear, and under the radar a bit.

I just have this feeling that we are going to see something very special from Bellingham tomorrow. Felt it for a few days.

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4 minutes ago, Andyben said:

Let's not forget the Fraud's ability to fuck things up monumentally at any given moment 

Watch the last final for a perfect example.

It's going to be a tough game for sure, apparently though we are a tough team to play against (and watch at times) and can put the opposition out of their stride, I just hope we don't resort to trying to sit back too much as Spain will definitely score if we do, I'd worry in any game where we went two down whether we could claw anything back.

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Just now, 80s Owl said:

Watch the last final for a perfect example.

It's going to be a tough game for sure, apparently though we are a tough team to play against (and watch at times) and can put the opposition out of their stride, I just hope we don't resort to trying to sit back too much as Spain will definitely score if we do, I'd worry in any game where we went two down whether we could claw anything back.

Like Wednesday I worry more if we go two up and then stop playing. 

When the Dutch got a degree of control for 10 minutes they created 3 or 4 chances. The Spanish are better and their movement worries me around the edge of the box 

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9 minutes ago, mkowl said:

Like Wednesday I worry more if we go two up and then stop playing. 

When the Dutch got a degree of control for 10 minutes they created 3 or 4 chances. The Spanish are better and their movement worries me around the edge of the box 

Spains movement off the ball is next level & an absolute joy to watch.

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23 minutes ago, mkowl said:

Like Wednesday I worry more if we go two up and then stop playing. 

When the Dutch got a degree of control for 10 minutes they created 3 or 4 chances. The Spanish are better and their movement worries me around the edge of the box 

I said to my lad yesterday we're probably better going 1-0 down early on so we actually come out and play as in the Dutch game.

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All good points made recently in this thread. England mustn’t sit back and play tippy tappy football. We need to press, like we did in the first half against the Dutch.

I love KMs post. For once I am feeling no pressure about this game. 

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17 minutes ago, holmesfield_owl said:

It's coming home

It's coming home

It's coming 

The world cups coming home!

Roll on 2026!!! 🤣

See I would claim it was grounds of diminished responsibility and given I only have to serve 40% of the sentence these days 

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50 minutes ago, Alan Finney said:

I got it into my head there was a third place play off but that's the WC innit? Shame, that would've been a good appetiser tonight for the main event tomorrow.

Just put the tv on and on channel 4 they are showing the 1966 W.C. final in full and in colour.First half over and apologies if posted elsewhere.

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