EURO 2020 ('21) THREAD

[DavidM]

Just now, Bob8 said:

I would not want it on a pizza, nor on a toastie.

But, each to their own. I do not think it should be a major social signifier.

Didnt world war one start over this , or did i dream it ?

[Bob8]

Just now, DavidM said:

Or other countries just dont like us much so get more annoyed when we do it

I do not think that is so. A real shock of living in so many nations is realising how popular the UK is generally. There is this great romantic ideal and the rustic idyll has somehow become the British rustic idyll.

[Bob8]

Just now, DavidM said:

Didnt world war one start over this , or did i dream it ?

Perhaps there was too much cheese on that pizza before bed?

[Maximus Decimus]

10 minutes ago, Bob8 said:

There is a strange thing that people have higher standards for English people. Around Europe, people still will take your word a little more seriously (in Denmark, it used to be that an Englishman could walk into a shop and promise to send money when he got to the UK and that would be accepted. Women will feel safe around you if you are English).

I remember the 1990 World Cup semi-final. We played better football without the cynicism. The Italian press sung the praises of the honesty and standard of football. But, we lost that semi.

I've heard the criticism that England are hypocrites because we used to be the ones that didn't dive. I can see that. 

Whether that was ever fully true, it hasn't been for 20 years. I can remember Beckham throwing himself down in the box against Brazil in 2002. It was way worse than last night.

There was one making out like Italy vs England was good guys vs bad guys. Like really? Have you completely forgotten about 5 days ago when a player was caught pretending to be injured to waste time?

[DavidM]

By the way as a consolation prize i see Denmark has built the worlds biggest sandcastle . Well done . What will make them feel even worse is if Sterling comes and dives on it

[Niels]

5 minutes ago, Bob8 said:

There is a strange thing that people have higher standards for English people. Around Europe, people still will take your word a little more seriously (in Denmark, it used to be that an Englishman could walk into a shop and promise to send money when he got to the UK and that would be accepted. Women will feel safe around you if you are English).

I remember the 1990 World Cup semi-final. We played better football without the cynicism. The Italian press sung the praises of the honesty and standard of football. But, we lost that semi.

 

11 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I genuinely can't believe the level of hypocrisy about last night from fans of other countries. You'd think Sterling did something completely beyond the pale, like Maradona's Hand of God or Henry against Ireland. Not something that is attempted multiple times a game by nearly every team.

I get how people could be annoyed that it was given, and think VAR has been a let down but to use it to claim England are cheats is just ridiculous. I heard Hamann saying it's not in the spirit of the game. What a load of cobblers, diving has been routine for 20 years. 

What next? Will England be slaughtered for crowding round the ref? 

 

From my point of view it was worse because it was against Denmark. Here was a team whose best player had nearly died. Whose players had shown fantastic courage whilst he was injured and had managed to battle against all odds to the semi final. 

All other sides had shown respect towards them. Then they come up against England who beat them because of a dive from a player known for cheating. Afterwards it is discovered a laser beam was shone in the eyes of the goalkeeper during the penalty by one of their fans. 

I think if one of the other large nations had won this way then we would have felt the same. 

[Bob8]

Just now, Niels said:

From my point of view it was worse because it was against Denmark. Here was a team whose best player had nearly died. Whose players had shown fantastic courage whilst he was injured and had managed to battle against all odds to the semi final. 

All other sides had shown respect towards them. Then they come up against England who beat them because of a dive from a player known for cheating. Afterwards it is discovered a laser beam was shone in the eyes of the goalkeeper during the penalty by one of their fans. 

I think if one of the other large nations had won this way then we would have felt the same. 

Indeed. We were the baddies.

A Danish friend had commented before the game that if England win, it would be best if it is 3-0 in 90 minutes. A close game would cause ill feeling. He was right, though I think people are pretty much over it now.

[Maximus Decimus]

8 minutes ago, Niels said:

 

From my point of view it was worse because it was against Denmark. Here was a team whose best player had nearly died. Whose players had shown fantastic courage whilst he was injured and had managed to battle against all odds to the semi final. 

All other sides had shown respect towards them. Then they come up against England who beat them because of a dive from a player known for cheating. Afterwards it is discovered a laser beam was shone in the eyes of the goalkeeper during the penalty by one of their fans. 

I think if one of the other large nations had won this way then we would have felt the same. 

I disagree, do you honestly think Italy/Spain/Germany/France would have given up diving because they were playing Denmark? 

It wasn't some shocking dive where a player went nowhere near him and he fell over; he went down easily like the Danish players did many times in the game. If it hadn't been given, nobody would have given it a second thought. The anger should be aimed at the referee and VAR not this idea that England are suddenly despicable cheats.

There's been many times I've been embarrassed to be an England fan, however one idiot in a crowd of 60,000 doesn't mean anything except he's an idiot. At one of the games in Copenhagen, a number of people had thrown their drinks at the opposing keeper.

 

[Industria ditat]

2 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I genuinely can't believe the level of hypocrisy about last night from fans of other countries. You'd think Sterling did something completely beyond the pale, like Maradona's Hand of God or Henry against Ireland. Not something that is attempted multiple times a game by nearly every team.

I get how people could be annoyed that it was given, and think VAR has been a let down but to use it to claim England are cheats is just ridiculous. I heard Hamann saying it's not in the spirit of the game. What a load of cobblers, diving has been routine for 20 years. 

What next? Will England be slaughtered for crowding round the ref? 

 

A German complaining an incident in a major semi final isn't in the spirit of the game !!

Harald Schumacher ring a bell?

[Damien]

I personally think far too much is being made of the penalty, it really wasn't any different than penalties that you see awarded week in, week out.

Booing the national anthem is bad and is a real bad look, no one can dress that up. Against Germany it was bad enough, but I had half expected it because that is the mentality that some have, but against Denmark ffs. I just find it poor and really disrespectful, if anything all it does is psyche up the opposition.

As for the laser pen incident, I don't think you can ever legislate for idiots like that and there really is little the FA can do to stop it.

[Niels]

15 minutes ago, Damien said:

I personally think far too much is being made of the penalty, it really wasn't any different than penalties that you see awarded week in, week out.

 

Exactly. He is responsible for a fair few of them

 

[17 stone giant]

I thought it was a soft penalty that I would prefer to not see given, but it wasn't an absolute shocker (by "shocker" I mean a dive where nobody was anywhere near the player). VAR reviewed it and felt that it wasn't a clear obvious error to award the penalty, so I think that demonstrates that it wasn't an awful dive.

My preference would be that no footballer ever cheated, but that's just wishful thinking. Of course it's hypocritical for England fans to say they don't care about cheating when it benefits them, whilst moaning about occasions in the past when it's gone against England. At the same time, many of those being critical of England fans are hypocrites themselves. They've spent years celebrating the fact that England got knocked out by cheating in 1986 etc. The Scots even sing about Maradona and the hokey cokey. It's a good song, in fairness, but you can't do that and then moan when an England player 'cheats'. It's just the usual lack of self awareness shown by some football fans.

[Wiltshire Rhino]

 

[nadera78]

It was as much of a foul as the challenge leading to the Danish free kick.

In the main there are two types getting vexed about the penalty: those who only usually watch football during the big tournaments, and those who don't ever want to see England succeed at anything. I can, for the most part, comfortably ignore both groups.

The latter group does include some English people, unfortunately. I saw one dude on twitter comparing an England victory this Sunday to the 1936 Berlin olympics. 

[gingerjon]

9 hours ago, Niels said:

 

From my point of view it was worse because it was against Denmark. Here was a team whose best player had nearly died. Whose players had shown fantastic courage whilst he was injured and had managed to battle against all odds to the semi final. 

All other sides had shown respect towards them. Then they come up against England who beat them because of a dive from a player known for cheating. Afterwards it is discovered a laser beam was shone in the eyes of the goalkeeper during the penalty by one of their fans. 

I think if one of the other large nations had won this way then we would have felt the same. 

This is nonsense on stilts.

Finland crowded the ref, dived etc ... within two hours of the incident. As, indeed, did a somewhat shell-shocked Denmark.

And it wasn't a dive.

[gingerjon]

43 minutes ago, nadera78 said:

I saw one dude on twitter comparing an England victory this Sunday to the 1936 Berlin olympics. 

Saw that. I'm also willing to be that the person involved couldn't actually tell you anything about the 1936 Berlin Olympics beyond, at an absolute push, Jesse Owens being there and Leni Riefenstahl making a film.

[Bob8]

Denmark had a nice romantic story. We ruined it by winning.

If Denmark were rubbish, we could have done it nicely, but they were good so it was done in the way professionals play football.

That does make us the baddies in the romantic story. But, it is also how professional football is played (and why I prefer rugby league).

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, Bob8 said:

Denmark had a nice romantic story. We ruined it by winning.

If Denmark were rubbish, we could have done it nicely, but they were good so it was done in the way professionals play football.

That does make us the baddies in the romantic story. But, it is also how professional football is played (and why I prefer rugby league).

We missed this because ITV cut away for adverts.

Every England player signed it.

Kane and Eriksen played alongside each other at Spurs. The idea that the English were uniquely disrespectful is absurd and ignorant.

[Bob8]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

We missed this because ITV cut away for adverts.

Every England player signed it.

Kane and Eriksen played alongside each other at Spurs. The idea that the English were uniquely disrespectful is absurd and ignorant.

I suspect that at this stage, players are playig for their teammates. And, have rmore espect for the opposition rather than fans who are merely shoulting a lot.

[Robin Evans]

10 hours ago, Bob8 said:

I would not want it on a pizza, nor on a toastie.

But, each to their own. I do not think it should be a major social signifier.

Should be a hanging offence

[Niels]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

This is nonsense on stilts.

Finland crowded the ref, dived etc ... within two hours of the incident. As, indeed, did a somewhat shell-shocked Denmark.

And it wasn't a dive.

This is the first time I have read anything negative about the behaviour of the Finnish or Danish players that day. 

I thought it was trolliing but then I remebered there are many following England who aren't aware of the nuances of football. 

Anyone who has played football or with a knowledge of the game knew that the Denmark v Finland game was played completely differently to a normal game. 

You obviously didn't see the end of the first half. There were no tackles at all or any attempt at competitiveness. The second half was barely any more competitive. 

Whether it was a dive or not, trying to justify it with a completely false account of players who had seen their colleagues heart stop is the type of comment I would expect from those who boo the anthems etc. 

 

 

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Niels said:

I thought it was trolliing but then I remebered there are many following England who aren't aware of the nuances of football. 

Go to 1:50ish here to see a dive that would make a proper football fan blush.

The match should never have been played of course.

Sickening to see the Finnish fans celebrate at the end. The arrogance.

 

 

 

[HawkMan]

With big finals shown on BBC and ITV I usually watch BBC, but not this time. ITV have IMO the best three studio pundits in Keane, Neville and Wright,  their main commentator is a bit naff,  but Lee Dixon is quite good and insightful.  The Beeb' s Jermaine Jenas is rather dull and Shearer is overrated and although Rio Ferdinand is okay it's not enough to watch the BBC this time.

[Niels]

51 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Go to 1:50ish here to see a dive that would make a proper football fan blush.

The match should never have been played of course.

Sickening to see the Finnish fans celebrate at the end. The arrogance.

 

 

 

We can agree about the match not starting so that is a first

[Bleep1673]

Guy whose Girlfreind won Semi Final tickets gets free Finals tickets, because he missed the Semi Final to donate Bone Marrow to the Anthony Nolan Trust.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-57763362

Great story, thank you Vivo.