RandoEFC

Yeah you can exclude Pickford from this. I know it's what the media tells you but he's actually brilliant for Everton as well and has been our player of the season 3 of the last 5 years. Everyone needs to drop the "Pickford has always done really well for England" and acknowledge he's just a very good goalkeeper. Everton fans are used to seeing this level of performance. It's mental the praise for him still comes with this implied asterisk because it's about 4 years since he had that string of dodgy mistakes for us.

England were clearly better tonight than they have been but it's a crime against football that Gareth Southgate is a two-time European Championship finalist as a manager and potentially a winner . Sense says that Spain will clobber England in the final based on performances to this point but Southgate is so jammy, England have been so jammy throughout this tournament and continued to play just shit enough to be infuriating but not actually lose, you just never know...

England actually playing quite well now believe it or not.

Never a penalty that. Utterly horrendous decision. Clearly they've decided this match was going to bore us to death unless they gifted England a chance to equalise?

Jewish space lasers...

I'd describe the profession generally as one of vultures but there are agents and agencies who are professional and this guy has been anything but.

Scratch that. I thought Hungary was this weekend but it's not.

Results - British Grand Prix Everybody cancelled each other out in qualifying this weekend, as everyone who predicted went for the increasingly meta pick of Lando Norris to take non-Verstappen pole position, only for the two Mercedes drivers to lock out the front row. No points awarded. Likewise, everyone put Norris on the top step of their podium, scoring them 2 points apiece. The somewhat surprise HAM-NOR-PIA podium saw big points thin on the ground, with only @Stan, @Tommy and @Coma nailing anyone's position exactly, in this case Oscar Piastri in 3rd place, leaving them with 7 overall for their podium picks. @RandoEFC and @MUFC had all three of the right drivers on the podium, but in the wrong places, leaving them with 6 points. @nudge, @The Palace Fan, @DeadLinesman and @OrangeKhrush all managed to bag 4 points with Norris plus one other driver in the top three but in the wrong place. @Stan, @MUFC and @nudge all hit the bullseye with this week's random driver, Zhou Guanyu, who was 18th and last out of the classified drivers. The vast majority of people correctly backed Piastri to end the weekend on top in the mini-battle between him, Russell and Perez in the Drivers' standings, apart from @Tommy and @nudge who looked in great shape for this prediction but George Russell started on pole, but it wasn't meant to be for him at his home Grand Prix. Here's what it does for the standings: The random driver and bonus predictions made the difference to @Stan this weekend, who ended up as this week's top scorer and the new clear leader of the championship thanks to these 10 points. @Tommy is the big loser this weekend out of the four primary title contenders. Those battling in the midfield cancelled each other out with a string of 9 point scores. An improved run of form has seen @MUFC work his way back into this battle instead of being cut adrift at the bottom with @Coma, who also isn't far behind the midfield pack. @The Palace Fan and @MUFC take bragging rights as Mercedes have the top score in the Constructors' table this weekend. The top four teams are all covered by 12 points. @Stan deserves credit for leading Ferrari to the 2nd-highest score this weekend in light of his team-mate's absence. We are exactly halfway through the season, and it's all to play for in both championships. Hungarian predictions will be posted tomorrow morning.

There's a lot of messing about going on here even since the Barcelona nonsense. Everton and Hull have agreed a deal of £16m. Ipswich have clearly gone to £18m but his agent has been on to Everton claiming we're his preferred destination but the club is refusing to up their bid to £18m. One of those dickhead agents by the sounds of it. I want to feel sorry for players in these scenarios because their agent is making them look like a nobhead but there's nothing stopping them from sacking agents once they start messing clubs around.

I haven't read the whole argument but surely nobody thinks this England tournament performance has been anything but exceedingly poor? They've had one 90 minute victory after playing Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland. The reasons England are in the semi-finals are because of a kind draw so far and a couple of moments of individual quality. This team has fallen well short of the sum of its parts and I think the manager can take minimal, if any, credit for them making the semi-finals or more.

The bar was incredibly low admittedly but yes Labour have cleared that so far with a few unexpected bonuses such as the appointment of Timpson and the announcement by Reeves today about slashing the building restrictions. It's probably good to have so many MPs that have spent so long in opposition to focus the mind. Having MPs who win seats for the already-governing party and end up with government briefs after being MPs for just 2-3 years is a problem. I mean many of Labour's cabinet have been MPs longer than Sunak or Truss who have made it from outside the House of Commons to the top job and back down in that time.

Yeah and the fact that Trump is good for business with all of his scandals while Biden is generally boring and gives them no stories apart from when he staggers slightly on a step on air force one.

The English media are fucking obsessed with the "rise of the far right" in any country. It's absolutely painful. Farage and his bunch clearly have a ceiling of about 20-25% in the UK. They managed to sneak Brexit through (barely) because it's a single-issue referendum which didn't leave us with Farage with any power afterwards and because some of the Conservative Party were braindead enough to attach themselves to it out of sheer opportunism. They made a load of noise about the AfD a few weeks ago and they were making loads of noise about Le Pen just like they have done every time in my adult life that there's been an election in France. What people need to realise is that the more prominent the far right become, the more mobilised their voters might be, but for every far-right voter that mobilises in any country that isn't completely broken beyond all repair, you'll have 3-4 voters who make sure they turn up and vote for whichever party or candidate will keep the far-right out of power, even if they have to hold their nose for a week afterwards. That's the thing with the far right leaders. They inspire more love from their base than any other part of the electorate but they also inspire more hatred and fear from the rest. If any UK minded people think I'm wrong and fear Farage becoming PM in 5 years then see the polling below. If there's any remote probability of Farage getting a sniff of power at the next election, the electorate will be out in their droves voting for Labour, Lib Dem, SNP, Green, Independents and even a centre right Conservative Party if there is one, to keep him out. Starmer vs Farage provides the biggest level of support for any leader in these head to heads. Anyway, back to Le Pen. The footage of her party watching the exit poll and her crying last night is perfect.

UK ️ France ️ USA ️

That is a special result. I think I may have offed myself if Max had stolen that from him .

Mclaren are doing an amazing job of failing to win races they should have lately. Fucked both of their drivers today because they panicked with their strategy calls.

The fuck were Mclaren thinking there?

Beautiful chaos. McLarens from 4-5 to 1-2.

Mercedes comfortable so far...

What do we think about bringing Verstappen back into the predictions? Too soon?

Nobody has better odds to win today than 2/1. Always good to go into a race without it being a case of "if nobody gets Max on the first lap then it's race over" although to be fair, even that wasn't true in Miami or Austria where he did get pole.

Spain 1-0 France Netherlands 1-1 England

Good penalties from England across the board, fair play. Pickford might have saved one but he needs some ADHD tablets if there's another shootout. He was playing mind games but it's kinda pointless if you end up committing to a dive before the penalty is taken which he did on two of the others. Not to go on about it, but France and England making it to the semis with their performances is absolutely vile. Knowing Southgate's luck, Turkey will go and beat Netherlands now.

Southgate injuring Kane might be the best piece of management he's done all tournament. Not sure about the timing of it right before the shootout though. Might actually have been useful.

England are on a run of four games against Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland without winning any in 90 minutes. Brilliant players put together to make a bang average team yet they may yet make the semi final...