Maximus Decimus

This is just magic.

Just looking on some Dutch news websites and found something that would truly make the English proud: "Just as the footballers were defeated by the English on the pitch, the Dutch supporters in the stadium also had to acknowledge their superiority to the British. "Apparently, the English can handle a day of drinking in the city better than the Dutch," concludes the Volkskrant ."

In other news, rumours are that they want Southgate to stay on until the next WC. I think regardless, that this shouldn't happen. If we win, he'll never recreate it and even if we lose he has to acknowledge that this would almost certainly be a high point. Just imagine if Bellingham doesn't score the overhead kick, his reputation is near ruined. Why risk that again? It's also clear that we need something new tactically, to deal with the players we now have. Hopefully, we get a huge monkey off our back on Sunday which would help a new person stepping in.

I think you've got to acknowledge that people are going to be so interested in the final that their event is going to be heavily affected. I love the darts, but even if I had tickets wouldn't be missing the final.

It's been such a weird tournament from an England perspective for me, mainly because of the Slovakia game. For all the plaudits we'll now receive, I can't get it out of my head that we were seconds away from Iceland 2.0. Yes, we've been better since and Southgate has an incredible record now, but we were that close to abject and deserved humiliation. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it'll take away it if we win, it's just led to a weird feeling. We could win the Euros AND the Southgate haters were largely right. It also makes me wonder. I remember in 2016, Rashford had a great chance in the dying seconds against Iceland. Is there an alternate universe where that goes in and we end up winning it? Football is such a funny old game.

It was just do perfectly timed too, I couldn't believe it when I saw just 2 added minutes as they were celebrating. Also, as a negative England fan, I could already see the near misses that I'd be going over in my head for days: the weird Foden line-clearance that looked like it crossed the line, the Foden wonder strike, the Saka disallowed goal etc It came from nowhere and was a thing of beauty!

Can we not knock it? Yes we can!

All I'm gonna say is.... Take that Koeman, revenge for 1993. Have some of that you Heineken swilling, clog-wearing cheat!

Yeeeeeessssssssss

For once we've been the better team. The Dutch look dangerous on the break and it's still only 1-1. Gonna be tight all the way.

We're in an exciting game at least! Oh yeh, never a penalty but definitely deserve to be at least level.

Spain have to be hot favourites whoever they get. That said, it's football and a funny old game!

What a crazy half. France score and then have Spain fully on the ropes, before a wonder kid scores an amazing goal from nowhere and then Spain take control...

After running for about 16 months, it takes over. I dropped a laptop on my big tor yesterday, and for a while was debating whether to go the walk-in. My only thought was how long I wouldn't be able to run for.

Reactions to the QF have been interesting. Obviously, the nature of the penalty win has English people excited but there's also been some positive reviews. The pundits on The Rest is Football we're very pleased about it and felt it a step in the right direction. On the continent, reviews were far less kind. The write-up in the Spanish press on El Pais was pretty scathing (especially of Southgate) and as if nothing had changed. Similarly, I've been following the analysis on Four-four-two and he was probably less positive than for previous games. Apparently after the subs we abandoned all semblance of a coherent system. I'm not too fussed. I thought it was clearly better, without being too amazing.

We came into the tournament thinking we might be the best team. Although the bookies odds are limited, we were clearly one of the best. Things haven't panned out like that but I'm fully embracing the chaos of it. Yes we've been lucky but we've been unlucky in the past, so I don't worry too much about that. We've also been lucky in the past. 1990 was similar in it's chaotic nature, in 1996 we basically robbed Spain in the QF and in 2018 we survived a penalty shootout. Bring it on!

I was shocked to find it was only 6 million out of 17.

I've always seen it as people saying England when they're talking about the UK. I might be wrong, but I think they even used to use Holland on TV graphics and things. I watched something with Van Dyck the other day, and was surprised to hear him say Holland. I always presumed it was an error foreigners made.

So amazingly this is gonna be the first time England-Netherlands have ever played in a knockout game of a major tournament. Pre-tournament I said I'd like to see us beat one of the big nations when it matters. I'm on the fence whether this fully counts, but I'd take it! I've been using Chatgpt to get stats quite well this Euros, but got properly wrong results for when I asked for England-Netherlands results (it missed out 1988!). Turns out that I think even it struggles with the whole Netherlands/Holland thing.

Funny, I watched it again last week. I was too young at the time to know anything other than we didn't qualify. I felt genuinely sorry for Graham Taylor whilst seeing that he clearly wasn't well-suited to the job.

Ronald Koeman?

I was so pleased for Saka. Overall, we were very confident taking the pens. I agree, it's the best way to win but I don't want to do it again. I want the Netherlands, revenge for 1993!

Twice in one lifetime, what a lucky man I am.

Big improvement in general play without being too dangerous. Definitely positives if we can get a win.

Weird feeling. Still feels like a bonus after Sunday, but I can't help but get my hopes up . Just hope it doesn't go to penalties. I honestly think I won't watch if it does.