Destrado wrote:I think it's unfair to only look at Ronaldo. I'm guessing people who say that only see the highlights of the game - it's not like we don't have Nani, Pepe, Coentrão, Bruno Alves, who are good players, others like Raúl Meireles who although tired is still a competent and threatning player.
I mean, this isn't Barça, it's not a one man team; he is the player you hear most about, but then again it's like saying Italy is Bolatelli and England is Rooney.
Destrado wrote:I think it's unfair to only look at Ronaldo. I'm guessing people who say that only see the highlights of the game - it's not like we don't have Nani, Pepe, Coentrão, Bruno Alves, who are good players, others like Raúl Meireles who although tired is still a competent and threatning player.
I mean, this isn't Barça, it's not a one man team; he is the player you hear most about, but then again it's like saying Italy is Bolatelli and England is Rooney.
To be fair, England is Rooney.
England is Alex Oxlade Chamberlain! soon
In all seriousness though, we have a world class keeper, one of the best all round midfielders in the world in Gerrard, the defence is pretty good (cole,lescott,terry,johnson is a good back line), and this great load of youngsters coming through in AOC, Wilshere, Welbeck, Carroll, Sturidge and the likes of Young, Milner and Parker are pretty good players too. The only players from Portugal who would get in the team are Ronaldo and Pepe, and if Cole was injured then Coentrao.
I disagree about Milner and Parker. Milner has always seemed useless to me most of the time he gets the ball. Parker just doesn't really seem to bring much to the team (so it seems to me). They are the players I swear the most at when watching England play.
Azza007 wrote:I disagree about Milner and Parker. Milner has always seemed useless to me most of the time he gets the ball. Parker just doesn't really seem to bring much to the team (so it seems to me). They are the players I swear the most at when watching England play.
I would much rather see Theo, Adam Johnson or the Ox ahead of Milner but he's a very Hodgson-esqe type of player and does get about a bit (his stats are shocking though), at least it's not Downing. I don't really see who could take Parker's place though, Carrick is too static and Barry is a bit cack.
I love your spirit! You haven't won a game against us in the past 14 years and finished behind us on every single international competition since 2002, but you still think you're the better team!
I would say that I would love to take you up on that game, but unfortunately, you are going to loose against Italy and we are going to get stomped by Spain, so neither team will be present on that desired Portugal vs England Euro Championship final.
This is a very different England team, we play very much as a team under Roy and I think we'd be able to nullify the threat of Portugal (or 'Ronaldo' as he's normally known ). England should get through tonight, Hodgson will know how to go about beating the Italians, and we have much better players, while their best two defenders (Chielinni and Bochetti) wont be playing.
Yeah, I'm not buying Portugal as world-beaters either. They're a one-man team, and fairly average, defensively. Sure, Ronaldo is god at the moment, easily the tournament's best player, but if he doesn't turn up on the night (as has sometimes been the case in big games), Portugal don't compensate very well, IMO.
So you need to be a "world beater" in order to beat England? Don't think so. Anyone who think England have looked better than Portugal in this tournament must have been watching something else as far as I'm concerned.
Glorioski wrote:
So you need to be a "world beater" in order to beat England? Don't think so. Anyone who think England have looked better than Portugal in this tournament must have been watching something else as far as I'm concerned.
Looking "better" does not win you games, ask Bayern Munich, or the mighty Arsenal.
I haven't really been keeping up to date with the Euro, but my friend asked me to come to the pub to watch the match tonight, and I couldn't really say no...
Being in a pub, I'll probably either end up toasting a victory or drowning my sorrows Probably the latter, but I hope it's the former
Been reading this thread since the beginning, and as usual the English are sure that this time - this time will be different
Tonight's match has the most evenly matched teams of all the quarter finals, but I think Italy will win in the end. Might take more than 90 minutes, though.
This match has been so frustrating to watch. Young needs to be off. Milner and Parker have once again been useless, as has Rooney. Also the pitch looks really slippery from the watering they gave at half time and I assume before match start. Not impressed England, Hart and the defence have kept us in this.
To be honest, I think I would prefer the Italians to win now, because the Germans will absolutely fething hammer England.
I close defeat by Italy is way better than getting dicked 5-0 by the Jerries and being mocked endlessly by them for the next 6 months. I just got back from Munich and I love the Germans craic, but the fethers love taking the piss out of us about football.
With that in mind I'm going to root for the Italians!
Well done Italy, Young should have scored that, and there should have been some in game penalties for England. England done well to hang on to penalties. I reckon hart should get MoM.
Fair play to Italy, on the balance of it they deserved the win. Hopefully this side can mature into something good for Brazil. Young and Rooney were absolutely shocking and we gave Pirlo far too much time on the ball.
dæl wrote:Fair play to Italy, on the balance of it they deserved the win. Hopefully this side can mature into something good for Brazil. Young and Rooney were absolutely shocking and we gave Pirlo far too much time on the ball.
On the balance!?
They 100% deserved it, unreservedly! If England went through it would have been a travesty.
Im not a man who likes to sugar the pill, and I think our pragmatic "England are gak anyway" attitude makes us look far more adult than our ridiculous whinging Scottish neighbours.
I wish the Italians luck, and I am very pleased England didn't progress to get humiliated by our infinitely superior German pals!
Refs were giving Italy BS free kicks late. Diamanti is a dick. But Italy was the better side. Lots more control. England had almost no good coordination aggressively, and their passing got worse and worse as the game went on.
England should have let Ukraine go through. Better than portugal? Every team n the quarter finals would have beaten todays team.
dæl wrote:
Glorioski wrote:
So you need to be a "world beater" in order to beat England? Don't think so. Anyone who think England have looked better than Portugal in this tournament must have been watching something else as far as I'm concerned.
Looking "better" does not win you games, ask Bayern Munich, or the mighty Arsenal.
Bayern Munich are a much better side than you seem to believe and the "mighty" arsenal haven't won anything worthwhile since opal fruit days.
I believe it was quite a fair match and could have gone either way, and both teams deserved to win. Whilst Italy played better football, they did dive several times so its swings and roundabouts really. But at least we don't have to get destroyed by Germany...enjoy that Italy.
England's performance tapered throughout the match from encouraging to abysmal, but as time went by it was just all Italy.
Time to drop off the passengers on the route to Brazil.
All I will say to the likes of d-usa and every other German fan is that Germany are breathing a sigh of relief that England are out. Otherwise, they would have been humiliated. Germany that is, not England
I was rooting for England and Germany in the elimination games, but now i'm rooting for Germany all the way!
I think that they can win. I would prefer not to see Portugal win. No offense i just don't like the team.
DeathReaper wrote:The officiating has been terrible.
I like watching the highlights, but the games themselves are way too long and nothing really happens except for people just running around.
Also there have been 5 different tied games? Games should not be tied, there should be overtime until one team wins.
Haha right.. I remember a big American chap telling me during the last World Cup, in his Texan drawl, "I hope every game is boring and a 0-0 score, that way people can forget about this crap and go back to watching real sports."
I love the NFL, motorsports, athletics, tennis, all that kind of stuff. Usually haven't got much time for football (to me, its a mix of WWF with a sport because of all the acting/diving that goes on) but the international games are great.
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:All I will say to the likes of d-usa and every other German fan is that Germany are breathing a sigh of relief that England are out. Otherwise, they would have been humiliated. Germany that is, not England
Sure...
Were all exicted that all teams are from the continent now, the place where they know where the ball belongs into.
( disclaimer: they all know, but not all manage to do this )
I actually hope it gets a bit more offensive and the games are settled in 90 minutes.
I have a piece of paper that says £20 on for Portugal to beat Spain. This piece of paper has a barcode and a promise of lots of money if Portugal win, so they'd better win!!!
We played well enough on the first half, I even allowed myself a glimmer of hope. But after the first 45 mins, it was all Spain, they deserved to go through.
As for Ronaldo not taking his penalty kick earlier: that is the coach's call, not his!
Destrado, I think pointing out I am more of an ice hockey and rugby fan may explain why I found that match so boring. Most fun bits was seeing Ronaldo mess up time and again especially the penalties.
I really don't want Spain to win this competition. Don't get me wrong - I admire their skill and artistry, what they've built, but if every team played football like that then the whole sport may become something of a snooze-fest.
My hope is that Germany win, and the style and success of the Spanish becomes a curiosity of footballing history, and not a template for the future of the game.
Azza007 wrote:Destrado, I think pointing out I am more of an ice hockey and rugby fan may explain why I found that match so boring. Most fun bits was seeing Ronaldo mess up time and again especially the penalties.
Ronaldo didn't even shoot a penalty... but I guess I shouldn't be feeding this.
Azza007 wrote:Destrado, I think pointing out I am more of an ice hockey and rugby fan may explain why I found that match so boring. Most fun bits was seeing Ronaldo mess up time and again especially the penalties.
Ronaldo didn't even shoot a penalty... but I guess I shouldn't be feeding this.
Thats my point, he messed up that bad. Should have been one of the first to go.
If Germany would have played the 1st half with the same energy that they played in the second half, then the outcome may have been different. Italy outplayed us and did a very good job attacking the goal and converting their opportunities.
Germany continues to have the record of never beating Italy in a major tournament.
I'm going to root for Italy in the final, just because I feel a little better if we lost to the eventual champions.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I thought our goalkeeper was going to shoot a goal for us there.
Azza007 wrote:Destrado, I think pointing out I am more of an ice hockey and rugby fan may explain why I found that match so boring. Most fun bits was seeing Ronaldo mess up time and again especially the penalties.
Ronaldo didn't even shoot a penalty... but I guess I shouldn't be feeding this.
Thats my point, he messed up that bad. Should have been one of the first to go.
Once again for the back seats: its the coach that decides the penalty scoring order, not the individual players.
Also, good game by Italy but now I don't know who to root for in the final. I don't like the Italian way of playing football, but I certainly can't root for Spain either!
Azza007 wrote:Destrado, I think pointing out I am more of an ice hockey and rugby fan may explain why I found that match so boring. Most fun bits was seeing Ronaldo mess up time and again especially the penalties.
Ronaldo didn't even shoot a penalty... but I guess I shouldn't be feeding this.
Thats my point, he messed up that bad. Should have been one of the first to go.
Once again for the back seats: its the coach that decides the penalty scoring order, not the individual players.
Also, good game by Italy but now I don't know who to root for in the final. I don't like the Italian way of playing football, but I certainly can't root for Spain either!
Might be a few days to late, but how the feth did Germany lose that?? Victory was within their grasp!
As for tomorrow, immortality is only 90 mins away for these players, and Spain could set a new record. I'm predicting a narrow Spainisg victory in a game that will probably be quite dull. But seeing as I predicted England to win every game 3-0, then don't quote me on this.
Finally, keep posting everybody, this thread can't finish on 13 pages!!
Whatever happened to German steel? The type that snuffed out holland in 1974 or Lothar Matthaus at world cup 1990 sticking the boot into Gary Lineker. That ruthlessness is no longer there.
Anyway, back to today's game. I'm predicting 2-1 to the Spanish.
I just want to weep with joy! That was the football equivilent of waking up next to Kelly Brook, strolling down for breakfast and the hotel manager saying to you "Good morning, Senor Bond."