| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage 08:27 - Jun 23 with 593 views | GeoffSentence |
with the same swagger that they did last time they had euro games at Wembley.
I recall the Switzerland game as being a bit nery and turgid back in 96, but there was at least one half of really good football against Scotland, and the demolition of The Netherlands was sublime.
Still, they've done what they needed to do without looking unduly troubled (yes scotch folk, even by your boys). Time to step up a gear in the next round. [Post edited 23 Jun 2021 8:38]
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| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 08:40 - Jun 23 with 537 views | Steve_M |
True, first half last night was decent enough. The second obviously wasn't.
At Euro '96 we were then pretty poor against Spain who had two goals disallowed at least one of which was a very marginal offside. |  |
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| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 08:53 - Jun 23 with 478 views | GeoffSentence |
| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 08:40 - Jun 23 by Steve_M |
True, first half last night was decent enough. The second obviously wasn't.
At Euro '96 we were then pretty poor against Spain who had two goals disallowed at least one of which was a very marginal offside. |
One was marginal, the other was just wrong. They also had a penalty claim refused. If the officials had got things right Spain would have won it comfortably.
England did look pretty open at the back at times in that game, and that is probably a good example of why Southgate's more pragmatic approach may be the right one.
I noticed pundits describing England's progress to the next round as 'efficient', and that's not bad thing. It is how we used to describe the Germans when they won everything. | |
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| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 09:32 - Jun 23 with 397 views | HighgateBlue |
England typically qualify handsomely (we even qualified for Euro 88 and Euro 92 when there were only 8 teams in the thing!) but our group performances are rarely filled with swagger.
The Dutch 96 game was the anomaly really, albeit a glorious anomaly. The Swiss game that year was below form, the Scotland game was about on form, and yes the Dutch game was great.
What mattered in that tournament was our inability to be clearly better than any 'big' team in the knockout rounds. That will be key here too. In the world cup you often get 'lesser' teams causing a shock and making it through to the knockout stage, which means that you don't have a relentless slog of big teams to play all the way to the final. I fear that we will have to beat at least 3 big beasts to win this thing, which any England fan knows is unheard of. In World Cup 2018 our best wins were against Sweden, and Colombia, the latter on penalties. I think beating the Czechs and the Croats in normal time at least matches that form (these are both sides who have made major finals more recently than we have).
Remember we lost against Belgium twice and Croatia once in 2018. I know Croatia have declined somewhat, but they're still a decent team. Yes we have home advantage (of sorts - no proper crowd yet), but we've done just fine. No goals conceded! What matters comes next. There wasn't much swagger in Italia 90 about our group performance, and I'd settle for a semi final against a top top side... |  | | |
| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 09:33 - Jun 23 with 399 views | Reuser_is_God |
If Germany had got through top of the group having conceded no goals whilst not playing at their best we'd all be lauding them. |  |
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| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 09:45 - Jun 23 with 368 views | giant_stow |
| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 08:53 - Jun 23 by GeoffSentence |
One was marginal, the other was just wrong. They also had a penalty claim refused. If the officials had got things right Spain would have won it comfortably.
England did look pretty open at the back at times in that game, and that is probably a good example of why Southgate's more pragmatic approach may be the right one.
I noticed pundits describing England's progress to the next round as 'efficient', and that's not bad thing. It is how we used to describe the Germans when they won everything. |
How can you weirdos remember details from a game all those years back?!
Anyway, re your op, I'm trying to belive what the pundits were sayingat the end about how England are super effiecient / pro and playing to their lowly strengths. Not sure I believe it yet - maybe I will if we do Germany 1-0. |  |
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| I think it is fair to say that England haven't got out of the group stage on 09:50 - Jun 23 with 348 views | Ely_Blue |
I think the way they described it last night is that we will never outplay someone of the sides such as France, Belgium etc as we don’t have the players, BUT we can beat them with the players and style we are playing.
I must say though that so much of the play last night, particularly in the 2nd half was reminiscent of us over the last few seasons, I found myself sitting there urging some attacking intent but the first thought/move was always to turn back or sideways |  |
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