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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nah. They seem to be exhibiting teamwork and not hogging the ball. And no overpaid goon has been given a red card because they can’t control their temper.

This is a very different England.

True.

I see the Fifa have stepped in and reminded the ref that England are playing and they deserve absolutely no decisions their way.

Well that’s that.

Croatia really showed their quality.

Roll on Dubai 2022!

At least a young team has been thoroughly blooded - and not built up pre-competition with ridiculous expectation and unearned praise?

Sure. Some could argue England got an easy ride because so many favourites choked early on. But they were all beaten fair and square, so clearly weren’t the teams people expected them to be (ref, England in the last few World Cups).

There’s hope there.

Three 120 minute games in a row. It's a little known fact that Croats can run on pure patriotism.

 An Actual Englishman wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nah. They seem to be exhibiting teamwork and not hogging the ball. And no overpaid goon has been given a red card because they can’t control their temper.

This is a very different England.

True.

I see the Fifa have stepped in and reminded the ref that England are playing and they deserve absolutely no decisions their way.

The ref was really off in that last half hour but that didn't change the fact that we played terribly: we got one lucky goal from Modric making a silly tackle, we made no more chances in the first half and we fell apart after 45 mins.

Croatia deserved that win. England seemed to lose their bottle with Perisic's goal.

Good experience to bring into 2022, though.

Didnt want it anyway.

England was pretty good in the first half. But after that it all fell apart. The English fans though. They were absolutely amazing. If it were a competition in supporting, England would be world champions without a doubt.

Croatia did deserve that win though. Really impressive for such a small country to make it to the world cup finals. That hasn't happened since the days Uruguay were great more than half a century ago.

Good game - especially for a semi-final - best team won - we needed to finish it in the first half .

Ah well

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
At least a young team has been thoroughly blooded - and not built up pre-competition with ridiculous expectation and unearned praise?

Sure. Some could argue England got an easy ride because so many favourites choked early on. But they were all beaten fair and square, so clearly weren’t the teams people expected them to be (ref, England in the last few World Cups).

There’s hope there.

You can only play the cards you are dealt, and the opponents you are drawn against.

I think this was the best result, because I think France would have crushed England in the final.

Now England can go home with honour, having got a lot farther than everyone thought, and lots of experience. Being the youngest team in the competition, England will have a great balance of maturity and youthful vigour in another four years.

By the by, it's going to be awesome seeing the Dubai national team given a bye into the Cup.

naaah - russians did that better.
Although bringing game to penalty shootouts is also not a good choice with Croats.

I wonder if France would play 120 minutes - As i can remember they haven't played that long yet.

Well lads - there is still game for a 3rd place on Saturday.
With Belgium.

It's pretty hard to get into a game when literally every decision, no matter how blindingly obvious, is going against you. I saw the ball roll out of play but no throw in given, I saw a ton of fouls completely ignored or even given the wrong way, every time we went into their half they had a foul for something - it was an absolute joke.

Fifa strikes again I guess, the corrupt gaks.

An ode to the current England team.

I would have loved an England / France match, just for the historical memes battle online^^
I guess it's not coming home, then

 An Actual Englishman wrote:
It's pretty hard to get into a game when literally every decision, no matter how blindingly obvious, is going against you. I saw the ball roll out of play but no throw in given, I saw a ton of fouls completely ignored or even given the wrong way, every time we went into their half they had a foul for something - it was an absolute joke.

Fifa strikes again I guess, the corrupt gaks.

Conspiracy theories much?
I also saw English fouls that were ignored. A referee can only see so much. Croatia did commit a lot more fouls. Especially Lovren and Rebić (seriously, that Lovren is a bastard). So it makes sense they also had more fouls that got ignored.

Oh thank god they are out!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The tv will be free of endless 2018 replays.

I'd like to see a system where every player gets a camera on him at all times, kind of like a ref, 22 assistant refs, and the linemen. And serious penalties for diving. Game suspensions.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 An Actual Englishman wrote:
It's pretty hard to get into a game when literally every decision, no matter how blindingly obvious, is going against you. I saw the ball roll out of play but no throw in given, I saw a ton of fouls completely ignored or even given the wrong way, every time we went into their half they had a foul for something - it was an absolute joke.

Fifa strikes again I guess, the corrupt gaks.

Conspiracy theories much?
I also saw English fouls that were ignored. A referee can only see so much. Croatia did commit a lot more fouls. Especially Lovren and Rebić (seriously, that Lovren is a bastard). So it makes sense they also had more fouls that got ignored.

Agreed - there is always stuff that is missed on both sides.

I did think the remote thingy was supposed to catch diving!

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 An Actual Englishman wrote:
It's pretty hard to get into a game when literally every decision, no matter how blindingly obvious, is going against you. I saw the ball roll out of play but no throw in given, I saw a ton of fouls completely ignored or even given the wrong way, every time we went into their half they had a foul for something - it was an absolute joke.

Fifa strikes again I guess, the corrupt gaks.

Conspiracy theories much?
I also saw English fouls that were ignored. A referee can only see so much. Croatia did commit a lot more fouls. Especially Lovren and Rebić (seriously, that Lovren is a bastard). So it makes sense they also had more fouls that got ignored.

No, it's not conspiracy theory. Fifa are patently and obviously corrupt.

Referees "miss" things all the time. I just find somewhat suspect when obvious, blatant things are missed, repeatedly, by so called referees of the 'highest calibre'. It's a joke and it makes a mockery of the game.

It wasn't just fouls that were missed. Decisions repeatedly went entirely the wrong way. Goal kicks that should have been a corner. Free kicks for Croatia when England player was fouled. No VAR checks, for anything despite a pretty obvious penalty that Sterling should have had. The game was a farce but it's to be expected. A corrupt organisation playing in a corrupt country.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
At least a young team has been thoroughly blooded - and not built up pre-competition with ridiculous expectation and unearned praise?

Sure. Some could argue England got an easy ride because so many favourites choked early on. But they were all beaten fair and square, so clearly weren’t the teams people expected them to be (ref, England in the last few World Cups).

There’s hope there.

You can only play the cards you are dealt, and the opponents you are drawn against.

I think this was the best result, because I think France would have crushed England in the final.

Now England can go home with honour, having got a lot farther than everyone thought, and lots of experience. Being the youngest team in the competition, England will have a great balance of maturity and youthful vigour in another four years.

By the by, it's going to be awesome seeing the Dubai national team given a bye into the Cup.

We gave it everything this time round.

Theres no saying we where happy to leave the group stage, we broke the cruse and played some very good football against a very good team..

Old England would have been demolished in some of those games, and we are coming home 3rd or 4th of 32 of the best teams in the world.

 An Actual Englishman wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 An Actual Englishman wrote:
It's pretty hard to get into a game when literally every decision, no matter how blindingly obvious, is going against you. I saw the ball roll out of play but no throw in given, I saw a ton of fouls completely ignored or even given the wrong way, every time we went into their half they had a foul for something - it was an absolute joke.

Fifa strikes again I guess, the corrupt gaks.

Conspiracy theories much?
I also saw English fouls that were ignored. A referee can only see so much. Croatia did commit a lot more fouls. Especially Lovren and Rebić (seriously, that Lovren is a bastard). So it makes sense they also had more fouls that got ignored.

No, it's not conspiracy theory. Fifa are patently and obviously corrupt.

Referees "miss" things all the time. I just find somewhat suspect when obvious, blatant things are missed, repeatedly, by so called referees of the 'highest calibre'. It's a joke and it makes a mockery of the game.

It wasn't just fouls that were missed. Decisions repeatedly went entirely the wrong way. Goal kicks that should have been a corner. Free kicks for Croatia when England player was fouled. No VAR checks, for anything despite a pretty obvious penalty that Sterling should have had. The game was a farce but it's to be expected. A corrupt organisation playing in a corrupt country.

That is like the definition of a conspiracy theory. Yes, there is corruption in the upper levels of Fifa. Yes, there is corruption in Russia. But the jump from those facts to the idea that "they are conspiring to keep England out" is a conspiracy theory. It is a very outlandish explanation for something that can also be perfectly explained with mundane explanations and which only works by ignoring any evidence to the contrary. I think you are just coming up with this because you can't handle the fact that England was simply outmatched after half-time and therefore lost. There is no motive for Fifa to want to keep England from winning anything.

If I were a corrupt organisation looking to get money, I wouldn't cater to the country with 4 million people as opposed to the one with 53.

 Power Elephant wrote:
If I were a corrupt organisation looking to get money, I wouldn't cater to the country with 4 million people as opposed to the one with 53.

Ah, but Fifa isn't a corrupt evil empire simply looking to get more money, they are a corrupt evil empire who hate England, or something

I mean there were 2 fairly obvious calls the linesman should have made (a corner and athrow) but calling it FIFA corruption is silly, they only go in for the give us money and we'll let you host the World Cup corruption, the foul calls are basically random, some nights you get them other nights you get a yellow because someone ran into your elbow.

The VAR system has been an utter joke, and not done anything to cure the terrible refereeing decisions in the tournament. When throw in's / corners are repeatedly called the wrong way dispite a team of people watching the replays FIFA's reputation as a bunch of corrupt scumbags isn't going to go away. I've said it before and will say it again, when did a ref in a game of rugby make so many bad call's?

England really should have taken there chances early on and had the game sown up by half time, croatia came out much stronger in the second half, and once they had scored always looked the more likely team to win. I imagine france will walk all over them in the final however.

Hope for the future at least, this team has done so much better than the over paid, over rated wasters of the last 10 years.

Yeah, I'll hold my hands up and admit Croatia were the better team - I hope you go far, guys!
England do what they always seem to do - get an early lead, and never press on after it. I know that I'm in no way qualified to give advice, but I'd always make sure I have a lead of at least 2 goals over my opposing team before I go defensive - but hey, I'm no coach.

However, while I don't think it's 100% a conspiracy against England, you have to admit, there's definitely a market to shame England. The social media explosion of "It's Coming Home", the fact that football originated in England, the fact that England always seem to be rather elitist about the sport, Brexit: for a European country, snubbing England would be an ultimate move of pettiness.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that the ref was doing it to snub England specifically. Nor am I saying it was a FIFA organised thing. What I can say, without a doubt, is that either the ref himself was an absolute joke - biased or simply incompetent - or that the moderation of a modern game of football needs serious reworking and most likely increased technological surveillance.

Even if the ref had been more fair, I can't say that England wold have won (but hey, you know what they say about Butterfly Effect), but for me, even if the ref was biased towards England, I'd still want them to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, that ref was not, and while I don't want to change the result of this match, the referee, and FIFA in general, needs some serious disciplinary action.

TL;DR Croatia won, but FIFA and that ref need disciplining and to become more accurate, through any means.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Yeah, I'll hold my hands up and admit Croatia were the better team - I hope you go far, guys!
England do what they always seem to do - get an early lead, and never press on after it. I know that I'm in no way qualified to give advice, but I'd always make sure I have a lead of at least 2 goals over my opposing team before I go defensive - but hey, I'm no coach.

However, while I don't think it's 100% a conspiracy against England, you have to admit, there's definitely a market to shame England. The social media explosion of "It's Coming Home", the fact that football originated in England, the fact that England always seem to be rather elitist about the sport, Brexit: for a European country, snubbing England would be an ultimate move of pettiness.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that the ref was doing it to snub England specifically. Nor am I saying it was a FIFA organised thing. What I can say, without a doubt, is that either the ref himself was an absolute joke - biased or simply incompetent - or that the moderation of a modern game of football needs serious reworking and most likely increased technological surveillance.

Even if the ref had been more fair, I can't say that England wold have won (but hey, you know what they say about Butterfly Effect), but for me, even if the ref was biased towards England, I'd still want them to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, that ref was not, and while I don't want to change the result of this match, the referee, and FIFA in general, needs some serious disciplinary action.

TL;DR Croatia won, but FIFA and that ref need disciplining and to become more accurate, through any means.

The ref was Turkish, so I doubt he wanted to punish England for Brexit or anything like that. I don't think he had any possible reason to be biased. That said, he definitely did a lousy job. He missed plenty of fouls on both sides, and made too many wrong calls as well (the whole thing about whether Rebić or Mandžukić should get a card was like really embarrassing, he had to reverse his decision like twice before he got it right). He definitely should have made better use of his VAR. For such an experienced and respected referee, it seems he definitely had an off day.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Yeah, I'll hold my hands up and admit Croatia were the better team - I hope you go far, guys!
England do what they always seem to do - get an early lead, and never press on after it. I know that I'm in no way qualified to give advice, but I'd always make sure I have a lead of at least 2 goals over my opposing team before I go defensive - but hey, I'm no coach.

However, while I don't think it's 100% a conspiracy against England, you have to admit, there's definitely a market to shame England. The social media explosion of "It's Coming Home", the fact that football originated in England, the fact that England always seem to be rather elitist about the sport, Brexit: for a European country, snubbing England would be an ultimate move of pettiness.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that the ref was doing it to snub England specifically. Nor am I saying it was a FIFA organised thing. What I can say, without a doubt, is that either the ref himself was an absolute joke - biased or simply incompetent - or that the moderation of a modern game of football needs serious reworking and most likely increased technological surveillance.

Even if the ref had been more fair, I can't say that England wold have won (but hey, you know what they say about Butterfly Effect), but for me, even if the ref was biased towards England, I'd still want them to be as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, that ref was not, and while I don't want to change the result of this match, the referee, and FIFA in general, needs some serious disciplinary action.

TL;DR Croatia won, but FIFA and that ref need disciplining and to become more accurate, through any means.

The ref was Turkish, so I doubt he wanted to punish England for Brexit or anything like that. I don't think he had any possible reason to be biased. That said, he definitely did a lousy job. He missed plenty of fouls on both sides, and made too many wrong calls as well (the whole thing about whether Rebić or Mandžukić should get a card was like really embarrassing, he had to reverse his decision like twice before he got it right). He definitely should have made better use of his VAR. For such an experienced and respected referee, it seems he definitely had an off day.

Agreed, I wouldn't put money on him being biased (but I think there could be reason, only on the most spiteful of levels however), but he most certainly wasn't accurate.

All the same, even if the ref was correct, I don't think England would have won anyway. We lost to a superior team, and I wish them all the best in the final!

Just have a look on the stats of the match. First time England thought it was done.... But hey football is 90 min not 45. Croatia believed they could do it. Done.

England has a very young team. And good. They will be very strong next Eurocup.