Group G Matchday 3 - 28 June - England 0-1 Belgium, Panama 1-2 Tunisia

[RandoEFC+]

Dull game. Goes to show Belgium have better strength in depth than us but that isn't a huge concern at this stage. Love how punters at the pub here think England "knew what they were doing" getting themselves in the softer half of the knockout stage .

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Ur Wales u don't get 2 speak

To be fair England have 3 semi-final since 1966 and wales have had 1 and we have about 20 times as many people

[Dr. Gonzo]

https://streamable.com/9qad1

The smile on his face when he realises he's going to get hit in the head

[Bluebird Hewitt]

4 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Not really. Belgium were better but not much in it really

Belgium could have easily had a couple more though. England had a fair amount of the ball but couldn't do much with it.

4 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Ur Wales u don't get 2 speak

Suck the dog dick of Anubis.

I couldn't think of anything else. 

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I thought both sides tonight were shit, just Belgium less so.

See above reply to Gunners.

Should England beat Colombia convincingly, I'll hold my hands up and admit I may have been wrong, but today was the first game against good opposition and despite both teams being second strings, this basically help prove that England will struggle against stronger opposition like they've done before.

[Danny]

33 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

Well it’s a made a massive fucking difference hasn’t it ffs 

Not so far no, but you'd rather keep giving a player who's just scored 23 goals in a season a chance than give a player who's scores 13 goals a chance when there's little separating them so far at this tournament.

I don't think it should be between Sterling and Rashford though and think it's fair to say it should probably be between Alli and Rashford at this point with Sterling and Lingard starting.

[Marc]

Both sides of the draw had pros and cons, both teams rested players but tried to win the game. Fucking fed up with this already

What I learned:

We rely on Kane even more than we thought we did

Pickford parries it central too often

Rose was very good until the goal

Dier is miles behind Henderson

Unpopular opinion: Sterling should continue to start ahead of Rashford

[The Artful Dodger]

1 minute ago, Marc said:

Both sides of the draw had pros and cons, both teams rested players but tried to win the game. Fucking fed up with this already

What I learned:

We rely on Kane even more than we thought we did

Pickford parries it central too often

Rose was very good until the goal

Dier is miles behind Henderson

Unpopular opinion: Sterling should continue to start ahead of Rashford

Really? Don't see what Henderson has done wrong, in fact he's played very well. Thought Dier did very little and gave the ball away plenty in the first half.

[Danny]

Anyway a 1-0 loss was probably fair, they didn't create a lot and the goal was pure class. We should have levelled but can't complain as that was our only real chance and we fluffed it.

After watching that I don't think Loftus-Cheek will be getting a start in the knock outs and is probably best for the bench as an impact sub. Didn't have many moments in that game and the two he did he fluffed an edge of the box chance and I think put in a cross instead of winding back to an unmarked Rashford on the edge of the box.

Fair play to Maguire, looked solid today and didn't make any mistakes (I don't think?). 

Southgate clearly wanted this result otherwise he wouldn't have made so many chances and then bring in Welbeck to chase the game instead of Kane. I hope we don't treat Colombia lightly.

[Marc]

Just now, The Artful Dodger said:

Really? Don't see what Henderson has done wrong, in fact he's played very well. Thought Dier did very little and gave the ball away plenty in the first half.

I said behind. As in worse.

Dier was awful

[The Artful Dodger]

1 minute ago, Marc said:

I said behind. As in worse.

Dier was awful

Oh yeah, sorry 

[Danny]

1 minute ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Really? Don't see what Henderson has done wrong, in fact he's played very well. Thought Dier did very little and gave the ball away plenty in the first half.

Think that's what he meant. I was for Dier too tbh but he didn't do enough to get ahead of Henderson for me.

[Dr. Gonzo]

8 minutes ago, Marc said:

Both sides of the draw had pros and cons, both teams rested players but tried to win the game. Fucking fed up with this already

What I learned:

We rely on Kane even more than we thought we did

Pickford parries it central too often

Rose was very good until the goal

Dier is miles behind Henderson

Unpopular opinion: Sterling should continue to start ahead of Rashford

I think that's all accurate, although I don't know how unpopular of an opinion Sterling over Rashford really is.

I think Pickford was the biggest worry from today's match. He looked pretty shaky and as you say, parries it central too often. Given that most of our starters were absent, it's a bit worrying to see one of the regular faces in the squad look so bad.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

Sterling 

 good thing they fixed the 1966 WC . Can you imagine the country with the richest football history without a world cup? hurts' s goal never crossed the line FFS

 

Germany's equaliser shouldn't have stood either. Evans out

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think that's all accurate, although I don't know how unpopular of an opinion Sterling over Rashford really is.

I think Pickford was the biggest worry from today's match. He looked pretty shaky and as you say, parries it central too often. Given that most of our starters were absent, it's a bit worrying to see one of the regular faces in the squad look so bad.

I'm that worried about pickled. He is decent

[Guest]

49 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

If Colombia play like they did today, England shouldn’t exactly be shifting their pants either.

Colombia are a similar case to Argentina. On form, they should be beating you guys but they haven't exactly shown that form.

The key is to score on them and not squander chances. That may sound obvious, but they could get a corner and get a goal from Yerry Mina on a set piece and win the game, deserved or not. That's what I've learned from Colombia in the past 2 years. They are slow, dull and offer very little in the attack. Literally the only reason they create good chances is because of how immensely talented Quintero and James are. If they had a lesser talented player there, not much would go on. Falcao can't hold up the ball to save his life.

[ASF]

From what I saw, it was a deserved win for Belgium.

England will go out in the next round.

[The Palace Fan]

Not sure how to take that. We've learned a lot about the depth of our squad. Albeit mostly negative.

I was really disappointed in the likes of Dier, Rashford and Vardy. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to make a point and give Southgate a positive headache over team selection. They failed.

The Colombia game is massive now. How we deem England's performance this tournament as success or failure really depends on it.

[Dr. Gonzo]

22 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

Not sure how to take that. We've learned a lot about the depth of our squad. Albeit mostly negative.

I was really disappointed in the likes of Dier, Rashford and Vardy. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to make a point and give Southgate a positive headache over team selection. They failed.

The Colombia game is massive now. How we deem England's performance this tournament as success or failure really depends on it.

I feel the same. It's irritating that players who were given their golden chance to show that England have some real quality in depth utterly failed. Yes, Belgium was our toughest opponent - even with a side largely consisting of second string. But you can only take the chances you get... and none of these players took their chance to solidify their status in the squad tonight; they all looked very much behind the players ahead of them in the pecking order imo.

I think whoever we were going to end up playing, the match would have been massive. We haven't won in the knockout rounds since 2006 (which I don't even fucking remember), so the good thing is if we win just that match against Colombia and then are sent crashing out... you could make a good argument that the tournament was a relative success all things considered. But if we lose, it will look like same old England again. I hope that kind of pressure stays well the fuck away from the squad though, I don't know what it is about England but we always let pressure get to us in the worst way.

[Marc]

England fans are the best in the world. Great noise throughout 

[Dan+]

4 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Not sure how to take that. We've learned a lot about the depth of our squad. Albeit mostly negative.

I was really disappointed in the likes of Dier, Rashford and Vardy. This was a fantastic opportunity for them to make a point and give Southgate a positive headache over team selection. They failed.

The Colombia game is massive now. How we deem England's performance this tournament as success or failure really depends on it.

I can't blame either forward too much. Absolutely zero service for most of the game other than hopeful long balls.

We were rubbish but I'm not too bothered. Produce similar on Tuesday though and it's curtains.

[Machado]

No one seemed particularly bothered. I don't think it's fair to read much into this match and judge those players on today's performances. Don't forget they were playing for nothing. Judge them when they are given an opportunity in a "real" game.

[Honey Honey]

[Conspiracy Theory] It was two B teams trying not to win without being too obvious 

Belgium deliberately got some early yellows and then didn't try at all in the last 30 minutes hoping England would equalise  Rashford deliberately pulled his shot wide. [/Conspiracy Theory]

What an advert for the world cup.

[Fairy In Boots]

Showed a lack of strength in depth at this level. End product was consistently poor also no England player is capable of attacking a ball on the half volley, it looks like they lack the technique to do so. Instead we get a horrible first touch that’s similar to what the Argentinian keeper did. 

[The Artful Dodger]

I don't see the conspriacy theories, England play a harder game to get an 'easier' game and then get Spain? It's no better route at all.

[DeadLinesman]

6 hours ago, Dan said:

I can't blame either forward too much. Absolutely zero service for most of the game other than hopeful long balls.

This. That was my point all along. Play a couple of lads with a decent chance of making the team with a bunch of tramps that can’t play a decent pass through an infinitely better team than what you’ve played twice so far with the actual starting 11 and they get panned. Logic right there.