League A - Group 1-4 Fixtures - 25-27th September, 2022

[Stan]

all kick-offs 19.45 (BST) unless stated

GROUP A1
Sunday 25th September, 2022
Austria vs Croatia
Denmark vs France


- Croatia need to match Denmark's result to go through to the Finals

GROUP A2
Saturday 24th September, 2022
Czech Republic vs Portugal
Spain vs Switzerland

GROUP A3
Monday 26th September, 2022
England vs Germany
Hungary vs Italy

GROUP A4
Sunday 25th September, 2022
Netherlands vs Belgium
Wales vs Poland

- Belgium need to beat Netherlands by more than 3 clear goals to go 1st and qualify for the finals
- Wales need to beat Poland by more than 1 goal to avoid relegation to League B

[Stan]

Dead rubber between England and Germany. Hopefully not a boring game!

 

[Danny]

Pope couldn’t kick a baby, distribution is suspect

[Stan]

I know Germany can be hard to play against with their organisation and pressing, but England constantly make life difficult for themselves. Movement off the ball is barely there, or taking too many touches or too many passes in tight areas. 

[Michael]

49 minutes ago, Stan said:

Dead rubber between England and Germany. Hopefully not a boring game!

 

It is almost always very competitive when it's England v Germany, even when they've met in friendlies.

[Stan]

What a ball from Shaw, simple but very effective. Unlucky from Sterling, think he did the right thing. 

[Michael]

That was a great save by ter Stegen from Sterling. England coming into the game more now.

[Michael]

Audacious volley by Kane there, goes narrowly wide of the post.

[Danny]

Jesus Christ Declan Rice

[Stan]

England had the better of that half, in terms of opportunities/chances. 

The only gameplan being to turn the ball over and break quickly. 

[Michael]

Kimmich with a long-range effort that went just wide of the England post right at the end of that first half, but I think that England edged that first half in terms of chances, even though Germany had the bulk of the possession.

[Stan]

That's surely a penalty

Maguire fouling Musiala. Ref isn't giving much. Nonetheless surprised he didn't give that. 

[Danny]

Clear as day penalty, awful from Maguire

[Danny]

Everything Maguire does is slow and laboured, hopefully Southgate can see that now

[Stan]

Musiala . Quality. 

[Danny]

Maguire is dogshit

[Stan]

What a hit from Havertz. Maguire losing the ball so far up the pitch. Just trotted back as Germany broke. 

[Danny]

I said at the end of last season to wait until this international break as it’d be a much better indication of where we are as a team. We are looking terrible and whilst we haven’t been great the last few years, I think we’re going to see a couple of upsets in the group stage this Winter.

[6666]

Maybe meaningless friendlies against lesser teams was better than the Nations League...

[Danny]

We’ve been controlled and outplayed in the second half, not sure why we’ve not made a system change rather than like for like replacements 

[Stan]

Well played by Bellingham in the build up there. 

[Stan]

Lovely finish from Mount! 

[Stan]

Subs have made the difference so fair play to Southgate there. Saka coming on has allowed James to get further up and be more involved. Mount has made a difference too. 

[Danny]

Blatant pen VAR needs to overrule 

[Danny]

Just now, Stan said:

Subs have made the difference so fair play to Southgate there. Saka coming on has allowed James to get further up and be more involved. Mount has made a difference too. 

Yeah it seemed baffling at the time but fair play