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And that, *that*, is football ...

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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11 minutes ago, JonM said:

Some excellent quotes from England fans who left minutes before the end of injury time 🙂

 

 

The worst people. May their beer always be flat and their wives unfaithful.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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8 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I don't think I've ever seen a team that can counter attack better than Georgia. Alright they haven't got anything else in attack but their counter is incredible.

Literally just said the same to someone else.

Years ago, Rangers had a system where the ball would go to the middle and then Hateley and McCoist would run off it to the right and left, one would get it and set up the other. It was the foundation of how they went deep in European competitions. But they could also do other things if needed.

Georgia ‘just’ have a sweeping counter and other than that it’s rope a dope. I can’t think of any side I’ve seen that is so accomplished and consistently dangerous with it.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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42 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

I hope Maximus and gingerjon got their tram without too much of a delay.

Such a weird feeling. I wasn't just resigned to going out, I was basically making plans as if we were out.

I can't believe we're somehow still in it. 

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For all the excitement and the great escape, it can't mask what was an objectively terrible performance.

We've escaped against a minnow, but demonstrated little hope that things will improve. Southgate got very lucky because he was in for a world of criticism had we gone out: playing the same way as the previous 3 games, bringing like no-one on, wasting the lucky draw etc

The biggest positive is that it could light a fire up them. Switzerland are good but it's certainly winnable if things go our way.

On another note, I thought the referee was bad. He was overly card happy then stopped showing them even though one yellow-carded player was continually doing bad fouls. Then, in injury time he started giving it every time a Slovakian player went down. 

 

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1 hour ago, JonM said:

Certainly agree that Switzerland will start as strong favourites.

Not according to the bookies.

England are 11/10 and Switzerland 3-1 in ordinary time. 

You've gotta respect the bookies, but this is not evidence based.

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15 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

For all the excitement and the great escape, it can't mask what was an objectively terrible performance.

We've escaped against a minnow, but demonstrated little hope that things will improve. Southgate got very lucky because he was in for a world of criticism had we gone out: playing the same way as the previous 3 games, bringing like no-one on, wasting the lucky draw etc

The biggest positive is that it could light a fire up them. Switzerland are good but it's certainly winnable if things go our way.

On another note, I thought the referee was bad. He was overly card happy then stopped showing them even though one yellow-carded player was continually doing bad fouls. Then, in injury time he started giving it every time a Slovakian player went down. 

 

I thought the Slovaks were very cynical. They reminded me of how Italy used to play forty years ago.

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10 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Not according to the bookies.

England are 11/10 and Switzerland 3-1 in ordinary time. 

You've gotta respect the bookies, but this is not evidence based.

Odds for England by English bookies have to follow the trend that English fans are (a) big spenders and (b) massively deluded about how likely England are to win.

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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10 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

For all the excitement and the great escape, it can't mask what was an objectively terrible performance.

I don't think anyone is seriously saying England played well - I certainly haven't seen anyone do an about face on that.

The ref was weirdly bad so he'll almost certainly get the final now.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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In fairness to the bookies, this Swiss team failed to beat a pretty dreadful Scotland team, the only team in their qualifying group who did.

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1 hour ago, JonM said:

In fairness to the bookies, this Swiss team failed to beat a pretty dreadful Scotland team, the only team in their qualifying group who did.

In fairness to Switzerland, their high press they put on Italy was flawless, world class, and should they do that to us with how we cautiously and slowly to the point of snails pace pass the ball along the back line we are gonna get stripped of that ball every time we get it and get absolutely slaughtered.

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4 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I don't think anyone is seriously saying England played well - I certainly haven't seen anyone do an about face on that.

The ref was weirdly bad so he'll almost certainly get the final now.

He set out determined to give yellows and fair enough, but completely shied away when it meant a red might be given.

I thought we were very lucky with their goal. If he goes down after thr contact from Guehi, it's a penalty and Guehi is off as he was already on a yellow.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

In fairness to Switzerland, their high press they put on Italy was flawless, world class, and should they do that to us with how we cautiously and slowly to the point of snails pace pass the ball along the back line we are gonna get stripped of that ball every time we get it and get absolutely slaughtered.

Have faith that Southgate will change the system...

He's like the Lord Melchett of football manager.

'So, are we going to change the system around and admit it isn't working?'

'Exactly, exactly what the enemy would expect us to do and therefore exactly what we shan't do!'

 

I'm actually hopeful that injuries might force some changes that end up being positive.

Edited by Maximus Decimus
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It was low on quality, but high on drama. And because we won, I'm finding it easy to look back with fondness at the match - especially the two goals. There have been plenty of dramatic England matches involving extra time or penalties over the years, and this is another of those to add to the collection. Thankfully we came out on top on this occasion, so for me it feels great. I'd take that over having played brilliantly but losing.

We can dissect the performances and review everything once we're out. Until then, I'm just enjoying being in the tournament. I've got a friends meet up next weekend and it would have been flat if England had gone out. But we're not, we're in the QF next Saturday against Switzerland.

Come on England!

 

 

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1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

It was low on quality, but high on drama. And because we won, I'm finding it easy to look back with fondness at the match - especially the two goals. There have been plenty of dramatic England matches involving extra time or penalties over the years, and this is another of those to add to the collection. Thankfully we came out on top on this occasion, so for me it feels great. I'd take that over having played brilliantly but losing.

We can dissect the performances and review everything once we're out. Until then, I'm just enjoying being in the tournament. I've got a friends meet up next weekend and it would have been flat if England had gone out. But we're not, we're in the QF next Saturday against Switzerland.

Come on England!

 

 

I think that's why I did my post about it not overshadowing the reality of a bad performance.

Because it was euphoric at the time. It's the first I've even had a glimmer of the 'it's coming home' stuff and dancing round the room to World in Motion.

Anything from here is a bonus, because we were out, we were gone and I was already planning my week as if we were gone. It wasn't just a late winner, it was at the point where Slovakia were dragging out injury time and nothing was happening.

I can't think of a comparable sporting event for one or my teams.

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2 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I can't think of a comparable sporting event for one or my teams.

One that springs to mind is England beating Australia by two runs at Edgbaston in 2005. That was essentially done, all dice had been rolled, and we were sinking back to a belief that the summer was going to just be like it always ended up being when the Aussies came.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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