ENG v GER.

[twenty]

Good 2-0  win for the team this evening in the EURO Championship.........could we win it ?

[Agriv8]

If they play like they did tonight possibly! Pickford kept them in the game ! And there German striker miss fired but hey Lady Luck smiled on us.

but topping the group and then 2-0 against Germany. France and Portugal out they have a half decent chance I bet the odds have dropped a bit !

Only problem is my ticker may not be up for it !

Agriv8

[JDog]

All of the 'group of death' are out. What are the chances?

[Newbie to this]

[chrisjpainter]

3 minutes ago, Newbie to this said:

hahahaha amazing

It's fallen together well for us.  Sweden or Ukraine in the quarters, followed by Denmark or Czech republic in the semis. I'd take that any day. No Italy, Belgium or Spain until the final! These two playing right now look pretty average. 1-0 to Ukraine thus far!

[chrisjpainter]

and now 1-1, but not the best football on show!

[Agriv8]

I am no more than an armchair supporter but - there has been some fantastic football over the last 2 days.

My belief is England have seen off Germany and have some talent saka and greyish both seem to be involved and determined to case problems when they have the ball - Sterling has answered his critics.

Ps it’s a good excuse to drink mid week !

atb Agriv8

[millrace]

And other than winning which yes i get was the point....the match was rubbish some of the play at the beginning of 2nd half was 2 teams looking for a penalty shoot out.....and i recon denmark could be where it goes wrong.....

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, chrisjpainter said:

and now 1-1, but not the best football on show!

Finished up Ukraine won , scored in the dying seconds of extra time and in the extra time on top of that if you know what I mean

[Mice!]

13 hours ago, marsh man said:

Finished up Ukraine won , scored in the dying seconds of extra time and in the extra time on top of that if you know what I mean

It was a tough match to watch, players falling apart by the end, the England team must have been overjoyed watching that.

16 hours ago, twenty said:

Good 2-0  win for the team this evening in the EURO Championship.........could we win it ?

I just wish they would stop making Sterling challenge for high balls, every defender out there must have a foot on him, but a good win and hopefully a good path to the final.

[harrycatcat1]

[chrisjpainter]

Also doing the rounds

[Jim Neal]

This has got ENG-ITA in the final written all over it.

[Vince Green]

I didn't think England played that well. Reading the reports the next day I think there must have been two England matches that night and I watched the wrong one

[WalkedUp]

Southgate sets the team up with the ambition to concede fewer goals than the opposition concede. Very frugal and difficult to watch compared to a team that are pushing forward to score, but we are grinding out good results. 

Football is a low scoring game, luck and individual moments of brilliance make a huge difference to the outcome. We could easily have lost that match against Germany but took our chances better than the Hun did. When Kane bottled the right footed half volley in the first half to check back inside with the goal at his mercy I thought we were doomed. We don’t make many chances so have to take them.  

If we concede it will be interesting to see he changes the tactics to risk more. Klopp’s Liverpool team 2018-2020 had a great winning mentality of knowing that they would keep on scoring. Even if losing with 1 minute left there was a confidence they would get the goals to turn it a round. The players had belief and the opposition had the constant fear. Half the battle was already won.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by WalkedUp

[Jim Neal]

2 hours ago, Vince Green said:

I didn't think England played that well. Reading the reports the next day I think there must have been two England matches that night and I watched the wrong one

I think you'd better stick to tiddlywinks, it's easier to understand 😂

Which part of the match did you miss?

Saka running rings round Gosens and Rudiger?

Trippier keeping the ball moving round, holding his ground, making some decent interceptions and setting up chances?

Rice & Phillips crunching it out in the midfield winning tackles, keeping possession, playing positive balls forward into space making chances?

Sterling making a mockery of almost every German player that he faced up to in possession and dared to take him on? (OK slap on the wrist for the Muller incident)

Pickford making two outstanding saves, plus the way he closed Muller down forcing the duff shot spooned wide?

Walker being literally everywhere applying pressure, winning tackles, blocking shots and getting up and down the pitch like roadrunner with a train to catch?

Shaw regaining possession, winning high balls, his many intuitive, accurate passes and an assist for a goal?

Maguire covering the area in front of goal like a concrete wall?  Plus getting up the pitch when appropriate to push the attacks on, plus providing a huge threat from set pieces?

Stones dominating any German player that tried to break through on his side of the box?

Grealish for coming on late and setting up a goal almost immediately?

The only man left to mention is Kaptain Kane, who I'm not sure should be the captain as he's got about as much charisma as a piece of wet tissue...but maybe Gareth prefers it that way as it doesn't present a challenge to his leadership of the squad.  Yeah, he scored a goal, it was a difficult header having to duck his head down and get the right contact...... but maybe a lot of other less experienced players wouldn't have nailed it.  He's the only player performing under par for me.

Overall, England played a solid game.  You don't beat the current German team 2-0 in the Euros playing badly.

 

[chrisjpainter]

2 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

I think you'd better stick to tiddlywinks, it's easier to understand 😂

Which part of the match did you miss?

Saka running rings round Gosens and Rudiger?

Trippier keeping the ball moving round, holding his ground, making some decent interceptions and setting up chances?

Rice & Phillips crunching it out in the midfield winning tackles, keeping possession, playing positive balls forward into space making chances?

Sterling making a mockery of almost every German player that he faced up to in possession and dared to take him on? (OK slap on the wrist for the Muller incident)

Pickford making two outstanding saves, plus the way he closed Muller down forcing the duff shot spooned wide?

Walker being literally everywhere applying pressure, winning tackles, blocking shots and getting up and down the pitch like roadrunner with a train to catch?

Shaw regaining possession, winning high balls, his many intuitive, accurate passes and an assist for a goal?

Maguire covering the area in front of goal like a concrete wall?  Plus getting up the pitch when appropriate to push the attacks on, plus providing a huge threat from set pieces?

Stones dominating any German player that tried to break through on his side of the box?

Grealish for coming on late and setting up a goal almost immediately?

The only man left to mention is Kaptain Kane, who I'm not sure should be the captain as he's got about as much charisma as a piece of wet tissue...but maybe Gareth prefers it that way as it doesn't present a challenge to his leadership of the squad.  Yeah, he scored a goal, it was a difficult header having to duck his head down and get the right contact...... but maybe a lot of other less experienced players wouldn't have nailed it.  He's the only player performing under par for me.

Overall, England played a solid game.  You don't beat the current German team 2-0 in the Euros playing badly.

 

You were going so well there, right up until that bit. This is about as bad a German side as I can remember. Kai Havertz and Coman aside, they were really pretty average. Muller's past it, Kroos ain't the force he was when playing along side Reus, Ozil and Khedira and the young blood coming through just isn't anything to write about.

There are two ways to play Timo Werner: Do nothing, because he will be offside, or do nothing because he'll miss anyway. 

And yet despite the blatant shortcomings in the team, England were completely dominated in the first 10/15 mins. Even after that, large parts of the first half were aimless and disjointed. Unless Saka was on the ball, we looked short of flair against a German side that was there for the taking. Then Harry Kane fluffs his lines on half time. 

We were fine. We got the job done against a fading team and still haven't conceded a goal. But we will have to step it up at least a couple of gears if we want to beat the likes of Spain, Denmark, Italy or Belgium, all of whom have already scored at least double the number of goals England have. 

We can play a lot better than we did against Germany, which is a good thing because we're going to need to if we want to win this thing.

[Vince Green]

10 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

I think you'd better stick to tiddlywinks, it's easier to understand 😂

Which part of the match did you miss?

Saka running rings round Gosens and Rudiger?

Trippier keeping the ball moving round, holding his ground, making some decent interceptions and setting up chances?

Rice & Phillips crunching it out in the midfield winning tackles, keeping possession, playing positive balls forward into space making chances?

Sterling making a mockery of almost every German player that he faced up to in possession and dared to take him on? (OK slap on the wrist for the Muller incident)

Pickford making two outstanding saves, plus the way he closed Muller down forcing the duff shot spooned wide?

Walker being literally everywhere applying pressure, winning tackles, blocking shots and getting up and down the pitch like roadrunner with a train to catch?

Shaw regaining possession, winning high balls, his many intuitive, accurate passes and an assist for a goal?

Maguire covering the area in front of goal like a concrete wall?  Plus getting up the pitch when appropriate to push the attacks on, plus providing a huge threat from set pieces?

Stones dominating any German player that tried to break through on his side of the box?

Grealish for coming on late and setting up a goal almost immediately?

The only man left to mention is Kaptain Kane, who I'm not sure should be the captain as he's got about as much charisma as a piece of wet tissue...but maybe Gareth prefers it that way as it doesn't present a challenge to his leadership of the squad.  Yeah, he scored a goal, it was a difficult header having to duck his head down and get the right contact...... but maybe a lot of other less experienced players wouldn't have nailed it.  He's the only player performing under par for me.

Overall, England played a solid game.  You don't beat the current German team 2-0 in the Euros playing badly.

 

You definitely watched a different game to me. Even Southgate on TV last night commented on the audible groan from the crowd every time they passed the ball back. OK its a tactic but its becoming the only tactic 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Vince Green

[Agriv8]

Southgate has gone on record saying England tactics is boring football and that will get them through on analysis of teams and tournament!

hold the ball and pass back make opposing team play football our way .don’t concede ( suspect we have one of the best goalies in tournament) keep probing forward and creating the danger balls but not at the expense of getting caught in the counter attack!

It can be hard to watch but in a tournament where the favourites have tripped up England hasn’t yet. So if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. My prediction is if we do go a goal down we have some youngsters on the bench that have the talent to cause trouble and we will change from the safe tactics accordingly.

Atb Agriv8

 

[Smokersmith]

16 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

Which part of the match did you miss?

Most of the first 50 minutes ... fortunately my wife came in and woke me up just before we scored ...

After that, it was great ! Fans were awesome.

[Jim Neal]

20 hours ago, chrisjpainter said:

This is about as bad a German side as I can remember.

I don't think the German team that turned up to this year's Euros is a classic lineup, but they are not terrible.  Do you remember the 1st of September 2001? I was on holiday in Tenerife with half a dozen mates and we watched in one of the seafront bars.  I think there must have been about 50 pints of beer hit the ceiling all at once when Owen got his hat-trick.

13 hours ago, Vince Green said:

You definitely watched a different game to me. Even Southgate on TV last night commented on the audible groan from the crowd every time they passed the ball back. OK its a tactic but its becoming the only tactic 

I think I see the game differently from you.  You want cheap thrills to entertain you so you can call it "good" play.  England are only the second side ever to arrive at the quarter finals with a clean sheet.  You lose by letting in goals.  You win by breaking your opponent down.  Sometimes you've just got to grind it out.

If the manager and team let themselves be governed by noises made by the knuckle-heads in the crowd we'd have been saying our fond farewells after the group games.

This is typical of English people, full of criticism.  We need to give our team and manager some credit and I feel they'll improve with every further game from now.  I think we're going to face Italy in the final.  On the strength of the Italians' performance tonight they'll be a tough nut to crack, even without Spinnazzola, but hey let's indulge ourselves with the dream for a week or so rather than hurl criticism

[chrisjpainter]

22 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

I don't think the German team that turned up to this year's Euros is a classic lineup, but they are not terrible.  Do you remember the 1st of September 2001? I was on holiday in Tenerife with half a dozen mates and we watched in one of the seafront bars.  I think there must have been about 50 pints of beer hit the ceiling all at once when Owen got his hat-trick.

I think I see the game differently from you.  You want cheap thrills to entertain you so you can call it "good" play.  England are only the second side ever to arrive at the quarter finals with a clean sheet.  You lose by letting in goals.  You win by breaking your opponent down.  Sometimes you've just got to grind it out.

If the manager and team let themselves be governed by noises made by the knuckle-heads in the crowd we'd have been saying our fond farewells after the group games.

This is typical of English people, full of criticism.  We need to give our team and manager some credit and I feel they'll improve with every further game from now.  I think we're going to face Italy in the final.  On the strength of the Italians' performance tonight they'll be a tough nut to crack, even without Spinnazzola, but hey let's indulge ourselves with the dream for a week or so rather than hurl criticism

I do, but that Germany side went on to reach the 2002 World Cup Final, it included the best goal keeper in the world in Kahn and the player who'd go on to break the record for most World Cup Finals goals in Klose. This Germany side is rank amateurish compared to them. That 5-1 result was a shocker of an off night for Germany, but I would rather take a shellacking at home in a qualifier and then get to the WC final than have a flash in the pan result followed by more major tournament mediocrity.

[chrisjpainter]

I don't want cheap thrills. I want England to make a statement that makes the other teams sit up and take notice. You say 'sometimes', but prior to tonight, England had scored 6 goals in 6 games - three of which were against teams outside the top 40. 'Grind it out' is the default, but it doesn't make teams worry. Tonight we put 4 past the side ranked 23rd,  That's the result that makes people take note, not a stolid 0-0 against Scotland or a 1-0 against Romania. And we have the players to do that regularly. 

[twenty]

Just now, chrisjpainter said:

I don't want cheap thrills. I want England to make a statement that makes the other teams sit up and take notice. You say 'sometimes', but prior to tonight, England had scored 6 goals in 6 games - three of which were against teams outside the top 40. 'Grind it out' is the default, but it doesn't make teams worry. Tonight we put 4 past the side ranked 23rd,  That's the result that makes people take note, not a stolid 0-0 against Scotland or a 1-0 against Romania. And we have the players to do that regularly. 

 

Just now, chrisjpainter said:

I don't want cheap thrills. I want England to make a statement that makes the other teams sit up and take notice. You say 'sometimes', but prior to tonight, England had scored 6 goals in 6 games - three of which were against teams outside the top 40. 'Grind it out' is the default, but it doesn't make teams worry. Tonight we put 4 past the side ranked 23rd,  That's the result that makes people take note, not a stolid 0-0 against Scotland or a 1-0 against Romania. And we have the players to do that regularly. 

They looked totally in control tonight, didn't they.