England'S Official 2012 Euro Discussion Thread

[MrRed]

Come on England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SantiSuk]

Come on England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good news - Schevchenko not starting. Voronin not starting. Per Beeb.

England - looks like same line up as last time except Rooney for Carroll. Theo fit and on the bench - see you at half time son!

Come on Sweden, by the way

35 mins to KO

[smokie36]

I am watching closely gentlemen....

[SantiSuk]

So far so bad. A better opponent would have creamed us already.

Is Milner on the pitch? Is Young on the pitch?

[smokie36]

I'm enjoying this!

[MrMuddle]

Got to be Walcott for Milner at half time. Is Uncle Roy brave enough to pull off* nondescript Rooney in the second half ?

*no pun intended !!

[SantiSuk]

No fluency whatsoever from England. Rubbish in fact - a huge step backwards.

Start again - Theo for the hopeless Milner at half time (surely his last appearance in the shirt). Carroll for Rooney after 60 or Wellbeck if they continue to look so out of touch (probably Wellbeck) and Jones for Parker, who looks shagged out, liable to do something stupid in defence and incapable of leading a quick break.

Young is starting to gain his touch after 210 minutes of play.

Ukraine don't have a finisher, thankfully. And they may run out of legs in the last quarter.

What price 0-0? Last game or last game but one for England? Those are the only options.

Edited June 19, 2012 by SantiSuk

[smokie36]

Come on Ukraine!!

[bangkokrick]

Rooney scores!!!!

[bangkokrick]

Sweden score!!

[SantiSuk]

Great strike by Ibrahimovich - France down a goal!!

[SantiSuk]

England defense difficult to beat my backside! Charmed life and blind refs assistant!

[bangkokrick]

England defense difficult to beat my backside! Charmed life and blind refs assistant!

Was it over the line? SS

[SantiSuk]

10 minutes to go and a goal against England in both games is required to stop us meeting Italy next! Anything could happen but surely we qualify???

[SantiSuk]

England defense difficult to beat my backside! Charmed life and blind refs assistant!

Was it over the line? SS

Looked more debateable on the second run of replays. I thought yes with the first run.

[SantiSuk]

Sweden 2 France 0 Amazing we go top

[bangkokrick]

England defense difficult to beat my backside! Charmed life and blind refs assistant!

Was it over the line? SS

Looked more debateable on the second run of replays. I thought yes with the first run.

Cheers. Sweden score again!

[SantiSuk]

It occurs to me that we won the Group having hardly merited the results we got in 2 games out of 3. Must be breaking Smokie's heart!

[mrbojangles]

And...................Smokies gone missing. Did you enjoy that !!

[rixalex]

Wasn't panicking as much as some of guys after our first half performance. Thought the game plan would be to allow them to run themselves exhausted, chasing after the win they needed, and try to get them on the break. Then as they tired, work ourselves into the game more. Think it pretty much turned out that way although we had some very close shaves and i think by rights, a draw would have been fairer on them.

Rooney wasn't great, but started getting his touch and on a sharper day, might have come away with a hattrick.

Gerrard was man of the match for me this evening. Whilst he has played well in the first two games, i haven't been quite as impressed as others have, but this game i thought he was all over the place and did a great job clearing up danger, starting moves, crossing... even his corner kicks which i think for Liverpool aren't his strong point, were pretty good.

I did think we might see Jones come on towards the end of the game. Think it would have been useful for him to have some match time, because i think we are going to need him. Although that said, i'm not really expecting to go much further than we already have, so perhaps not.

Expectations have been low, so to come out top of our group, is a great achievement and testament not to great play, but to quite a lot of hard work as well as a dollop of good fortune. Well done lads.

[rixalex]

It occurs to me that we won the Group having hardly merited the results we got in 2 games out of 3. Must be breaking Smokie's heart!

Which 2? I thought we earnt our draw with France and after a bit of a defensive collapse against Sweden, showed a decent bit of grit to fight back to a win. The only result i think we really nicked was this evening.

[SantiSuk]

Wasn't panicking as much as some of guys after our first half performance. Thought the game plan would be to allow them to run themselves exhausted, chasing after the win they needed, and try to get them on the break. Then as they tired, work ourselves into the game more. Think it pretty much turned out that way although we had some very close shaves and i think by rights, a draw would have been fairer on them.

Rooney wasn't great, but started getting his touch and on a sharper day, might have come away with a hattrick.

Gerrard was man of the match for me this evening. Whilst he has played well in the first two games, i haven't been quite as impressed as others have, but this game i thought he was all over the place and did a great job clearing up danger, starting moves, crossing... even his corner kicks which i think for Liverpool aren't his strong point, were pretty good.

I did think we might see Jones come on towards the end of the game. Think it would have been useful for him to have some match time, because i think we are going to need him. Although that said, i'm not really expecting to go much further than we already have, so perhaps not.

Expectations have been low, so to come out top of our group, is a great achievement and testament not to great play, but to quite a lot of hard work as well as a dollop of good fortune. Well done lads.

You are right about Gerrard. Best player of the tournament accross all teams so far.

[MrMuddle]

Is there any point in having extra officials when they position themselves so that they can't see properly ?

The Ukraine 'goal" was over the line, judging from the replays from the left - opposite to where the official was standing - very hard to tell from the normal camera viewpoint, impossible to tell from the right view, due to Terrys socks and the ball being the same colour.

Goal line technology should have been introduced after the fiascos at the last world cup, forget Blatter's idiotic stance of the same game for everyone, this tournament has seen countless millions invested by the Ukraine, only to see them cheated.

Was Rooney's goal the luckiest ever scored ? I've been watching football for almost fifty years and I can't remember a jammier one than that - perhaps Uncle Roy has that vital element of the rub of the green. England were lucky, can't recall a single player having a good game.

[smokie36]

Sweden score!!

The ref's assistant is unavailable for comment. Apparently he's in negotiation with SAF to ref all Man Yoo's games next season....

[SantiSuk]

It occurs to me that we won the Group having hardly merited the results we got in 2 games out of 3. Must be breaking Smokie's heart!

Which 2? I thought we earnt our draw with France and after a bit of a defensive collapse against Sweden, showed a decent bit of grit to fight back to a win. The only result i think we really nicked was this evening.

I thought we were lucky against France - although having seen their result tonight, perhaps their shots on goal/on target stats - which was way higher than ours - doesnt say that much after all. Sweden, we definitely deserved to win.

Surprised you weren't panicking at half time. Our defence looked flat footed, our midfield non-existent and our attackers disconnected. Only woeful shooting by Ukraine saved us. Could quite easily have been 3 nil to them by half time with a decent striker. We grab a lucky goal and they keep missing by inches. For me a win by Ukraine would have been the fair result.

Edited June 19, 2012 by SantiSuk

[smokie36]

Good match that...I enjoyed it. Best of luck against Italy!

[rixalex]

You are right about Gerrard. Best player of the tournament accross all teams so far.

Not sure i'd go quite that far. Think his star is made to shine brighter thanks to some of the mediocre play going on around him. He's definitely up there though and England wouldn't be where they are now without him, that is for sure.

[rixalex]

Is there any point in having extra officials when they position themselves so that they can't see properly ?

The Ukraine 'goal" was over the line, judging from the replays from the left - opposite to where the official was standing - very hard to tell from the normal camera viewpoint, impossible to tell from the right view, due to Terrys socks and the ball being the same colour.

Goal line technology should have been introduced after the fiascos at the last world cup, forget Blatter's idiotic stance of the same game for everyone, this tournament has seen countless millions invested by the Ukraine, only to see them cheated.

Was Rooney's goal the luckiest ever scored ? I've been watching football for almost fifty years and I can't remember a jammier one than that - perhaps Uncle Roy has that vital element of the rub of the green. England were lucky, can't recall a single player having a good game.

The ball was probably just over, but when it is as close as that, no matter how well positioned the official is, the decision is never going to be a matter of certainty. If it doesn't get given, you count yourself a bit unlucky sure, but it's hardly the yard over the line daylight robbery incident we have seen before and ourselves been the victim of.

As for your bitterness concerning Rooney's goal, what a nonsense. As if out of sportsmanship, Rooney should have let the ball pass his head for fear of the shame of scoring a sitter. It's what a strikers job is. To be ready for opportunities that come out of the blue like that. And he took it. He didn't cheat. Ukraine screwed up, he took advantage. Had that been England's defence screwing up, would you be bitter about the striker who took his chance, or would you be deriding England's crap defenders and goalie?

[mommysboy]

It was a win! Not pretty in fact horrible, but worth remembering this was a do or die game for the host nation Ukraine in front of home fans.

I think they scored but it was too close to tell. Not so impressed with Milner, and Young again, but absolute top marks to Gerrard.

We'll need to play a heck of a lot better next game. There were signs we can do just that.

[smokie36]

It was a win! Not pretty in fact horrible, but worth remembering this was a do or die game for the host nation Ukraine in front of home fans.

I think they scored but it was too close to tell. Not so impressed with Milner, and Young again, but absolute top marks to Gerrard.

We'll need to play a heck of a lot better next game. There were signs we can do just that.

I disagree. You will get stuffed by Italy. They are a far smarter side than Ukraine.