WORLD CUP 2018

Emp_Fab

RandallFlagg said:

RandallFlagg said:

I woke up this morning with a dreadful premonition Croatia 2-1 England, think I may have been dreaming or something but when I woke I was convinced the match had been played already and that was the score.

Err....13/1 odds on that score I predicted 2 days ago. £300 bet would have bagged me £3,705 on Betfair after comission. I should trust my instincts more...

Oy, Nostradamus...   What's the final score going to be?

axisus

I feel utterly flat. So disappointing. Still, well done England for giving me the best World Cup run for a great many years. Damn what a downer ..

RandallFlagg

Emp_Fab said:

RandallFlagg said:

RandallFlagg said:

I woke up this morning with a dreadful premonition Croatia 2-1 England, think I may have been dreaming or something but when I woke I was convinced the match had been played already and that was the score.

Err....13/1 odds on that score I predicted 2 days ago. £300 bet would have bagged me £3,705 on Betfair after comission. I should trust my instincts more...

Oy, Nostradamus...   What's the final score going to be?

France 1-0 Croatia

57Deluxe

I'm sorry but when you up against it and is do or die - BOOT IT UP THE FCUCKING PITCH AND GET ON THE END OF IT!

Root 1 til I die...

Fretwired

Just realised the ref was the guy Sir Alex Ferguson hated - he sent off 7 players from Premiership Clubs in the Champions League and he was the guy who sent off Gerrard when England played Ukraine. Thought he was OK tonight though.

England just ran out of steam after 30 minutes and being a young team there were no leaders on the pitch. They'll be back older and wiser.

Bellycaster

Normal service has been resumed. I will cheer for Croatia in the Final as they are the Underdog and they were the better team tonight against England.

Proud of the England team though and have lots of respect for Southgate and his coaches.

quarky

Best team won, no complaints. Bitter sweet because England GOT TO A SEMI-FINAL!!! But we could have got to a final... Croatia showed their class and experience though. Most enjoyable WC for bloody years.

Come on France

Heartfeltdawn

Why do we spend so much time imploring the referee to give a free kick when the ball is in open play? Has the phrase 'play to the whistle' been phased out? 

Bellycaster

Emp_Fab said:

What's worse than England losing is being in a pub full of pissed Yorkshiremen barking about what England's tactical mistakes were as if they were the world's greatest managers instead of builders from Bradford.

No need to single out and make general sweeping statements about people from Yorkshire. Armchair Managers from Yorkshire are no different from the 100000's of Armchair Managers from all the other Counties.

I could make sweeping statements about how all the Welsh "Sheep Shaggers" would have been in the Boozer tonight spitting Bile to the English team on TV and will now all be celebrating our demise and singing in close harmony about how Green their Valley is.

underdog

Bellycaster said:

Emp_Fab said:

What's worse than England losing is being in a pub full of pissed Yorkshiremen barking about what England's tactical mistakes were as if they were the world's greatest managers instead of builders from Bradford.

No need to single out and make general sweeping statements about people from Yorkshire. Armchair Managers from Yorkshire are no different from the 100000's of Armchair Managers from all the other Counties.

I could make sweeping statements about how all the Welsh "Sheep Shaggers" would have been in the Boozer tonight spitting Bile to the English team on TV and will now all be celebrating our demise and singing in close harmony about how Green their Valley is.

I'm not sure he put in a stereotypical, prejudice slur like you did though.

EricTheWeary

Disappointing and I have a massive headache. However, as I’ll be watching the final in Bayeux it’ll be a no brainier to cheer on France. 

Schnozz

interstellar said:

dont think Kane did much either

Kane's the new Rooney

Rocker

Croatia played the better football from the start of the second half. Modric was simply amazing. England by that stage were hanging on to the one nil lead. With better finishing it could have been two nil at half time.

Walker was found out for the equaliser  - defenders defend by attacking the ball not waiting for it! In ET, Stones and Maguire were waiting for the penalty shootout and allowed Croatia to score what proved to be the winner.

It is a steep learning curve for a group of young players. Weakness is always found out by better teams. If the England team learn from tonight's game, they will be a force in the years to come. Right now the English nation should be proud of the efforts of their team. I am Irish and I feel badly for the team. I can only imagine how you guys feel right now.

The Final promises to be a good game. Croatia are in with a very good chance of taking the trophy home. Last evening Giroud and Griesman, while not attracting the TV camera or the commentators, did Trojan work when France needed them. The young lad on the wing would be better off playing football than acting. If he plays football, it will be some game. Croatia will play football so it should be a very interesting match.

Lestratcaster

5pm learner didn't show up so managed to do my home visit earlier, caught most of the second half. I thought Croatia got the upper hand once the equaliser went in and it felt like England ran out of gas. A valiant effort to get the semi-final's however, so they can be proud of that. 

I do have concerns on midfield creativity, I struggle to see what Henderson provides to that team, he always seems to either pass the ball sideways or backwards. Also most of the goals in the tournament have come from set-pieces. There needs to be that driving force coming from midfield, like Gazza, etc.

Teetonetal

I thought England played well, bossed the 1st half and could have put it to bed by half time, Croatia had a good 2nd half, but the extra time goal was well against the run of play. Would like to think England can kick on from here, the youth teams are doing really well and if we can find one or two improvements, we could be regularly contesting. 

When was the last time 2 teams contested 2 completely meaningless matches at the WC? Belgium B vs England B again?

Bridgehouse

Modric has more caps for Croatia than most of our players on the pitch had for England between them.

Our teams average age was significantly lower than Croatia’s.

This is their golden age team and this was their last shot at it before they will be too old for it. 

Our inexperience showed more than anything tonight. Kane was pointed at as leader and was expected to do the right thing and lead like a lion. 4 years ago he was on loan to Norwich and was a nobody. Even two years ago it was a “Harry who?”

Much as I hate to agree with pundits, it’s actually a couple of simple questions for England now...

1. Can we find a creative midfielder to make play?
2. Can we build this team and continue to rise and improve - given the improvement from 2016 - so we go into 2020 and 2022 with more of everything?

Personally, if everyone stays supportive of Southgate and gives him a good run of it then I say we can.

I’m not a man who likes to predict, but this all feels very Andy Murray to me... you need to fail near the top to get the mentality you need to win. 

2020 - finalists. 
2022 - ??

Bellycaster

underdog said:

Bellycaster said:

Emp_Fab said:

What's worse than England losing is being in a pub full of pissed Yorkshiremen barking about what England's tactical mistakes were as if they were the world's greatest managers instead of builders from Bradford.

No need to single out and make general sweeping statements about people from Yorkshire. Armchair Managers from Yorkshire are no different from the 100000's of Armchair Managers from all the other Counties.

I could make sweeping statements about how all the Welsh "Sheep Shaggers" would have been in the Boozer tonight spitting Bile to the English team on TV and will now all be celebrating our demise and singing in close harmony about how Green their Valley is.

I'm not sure he put in a stereotypical, prejudice slur like you did though.

What I wrote about the Welsh was a Parody to Emp singling out Yorkshiremen in his post. It's quite obvious really.

Bellycaster

Just realised that @underdog is Welsh, so I must actually support you as I said I always support the Underdog.

Wazmeister

axisus said:

I feel utterly flat. So disappointing. Still, well done England for giving me the best World Cup run for a great many years. Damn what a downer ..

X 2 mate

AustrianJohn

Much as I like Lingard, Alli and Sterling, they didn't create enough across the whole tournament. I would have liked to have seen Loftus-Cheek for the last 20 minutes - he might have offered something a bit different. Having said that - well done to the lads (from a Scot).