World Cup KO: En-ger-land, En-ger-land, En-ger-land (was 'Group G')

thornburyiron

It was always going to be us and Belgium getting out of the group and both then should get through to the quarterfinals. There I think it will end for us.

Yeoldhammer

baracks_a_hammer said:

Panama won’t lay a glove on England and Belgium could play a completely different 11 and steam roller Tunisia. First and second is going down to the last game, but nothing else is at stake

Don't think so, Panama did attack Belgium a few times more than Tunisia attacked England. But i think if we play like we did today we should get past Panama.

Fortuneseeker

If the referee or the ones watching on the screens operating the VAR system had done their jobs on the two penalty incidents we wouldn't have had to get out of jail at the end. ;ok

Vorselaarhammer

I thought we did ok, much better ideas than recent tournaments when playing against a defensive team....

Alli doesn’t need to be a starter... I have to say I do like the look of Loftus cheek...

Kane is a propped number 9the sooner he leaves Spurs the better.....

grey_til_I_dye

thorn

You are sure Spain would have smashed Tunisia because it suits your narrative.. There is nothing to suggest that would have happened.

baracks_a_hammer

PLF

“Against more open teams”??

Which teams are they then?? ;hmm

steve

Baz reason Sterling looks good in a city shirt is because he has good players around him , unlike England where he has bad players around him

SuzanneClaret

We can only play who is in front of us.

We did a decent job, not fabulous but not terrible.

And we won, which I think is cause for celebration.

Bazshuayi

I understand the point of view. Maybe its the City style of play too. That said, Silva and DeBruyne supplying (among others) makes it easier. However, the likes of Alli, Kane, Rashford are hardly slackers plus Trippier has excellent delivery. Sterling just seems like the player he used to be before Guardiolas influence when he plays for England. Like when it comes to him you almost expect him to poorly control, mishit, get tackled or over hit a pass.

MrsGrey

Yeoldhammer said:

Tunisia were a poor team and had 11 behind the ball the entire game. They tried settling for a point with Belgium to play next ? they might have just sacrificed their tournament with the most negative brand of football in this tournament yet.

Assume nobody gets any points from their Belgium game. A fair assumption I think.

So, 2 games to get enough points to come top of the England/Tunisia/Panama triangle.

If I was Tunisia, I'd write the Belgium game off, and look at what's left.
Thinking, a point against England and play for all 3 against Panama, it's my best bet?

thornburyiron

Grey I’m basing it on what I saw Friday and what I saw today.
I’m still of the opinion that Tunisia are a poor side and that the Spain I saw Friday would have got past them without trouble.

Lukerz

To be fair England had little trouble.

The game was closer because of a horrendous decision to award a penalty and us being wasteful.

Tunisia didn’t cause England any problems.

Yeoldhammer

MrsGrey said:

Yeoldhammer said:

Tunisia were a poor team and had 11 behind the ball the entire game. They tried settling for a point with Belgium to play next ? they might have just sacrificed their tournament with the most negative brand of football in this tournament yet.

Assume nobody gets any points from their Belgium game. A fair assumption I think.

So, 2 games to get enough points to come top of the England/Tunisia/Panama triangle.

If I was Tunisia, I'd write the Belgium game off, and look at what's left.
Thinking, a point against England and play for all 3 against Panama, it's my best bet?

Then you are relying on Panama and Belgium and potentially goal difference. Relying on two other teams to try and hitch you to the round of 16 makes me think you shouldn't be in the tournament.

PrestonHammer

I'm just in from the pub, so I might not be so coherent as I should be,

I have just moved to Manchester so the new pub isn't my old pub. I had to make do with the new boys seats, which is to say I was miles from the optimum viewing platform and I didn't bring my glasses, all I could really see was a blur. I had to make do with the oohs and arghs and goals as and when they happened.

Bring on Panama, when I might have progressed to the not quite new boys seats and I will have my glasses, just so I can see the oohs, arghs and goals as and when they happen.

claretandbluesky

Positives for me was attacking attitude and energy but the negative was that we sometimes didn't keep close enough control of possession with some shoddy passing in close, which the better teams will not be doing at this level. This is the sterling problem as has been mentioned. the close play at City is outstanding but our players cant match that, this said I think Sterling is a bit of a luxury and would prefer Rashford to start next game and allow Sterling to come on late when his pace could be even more effective against legs that have already played an hours football.

I cant have Ashley young starting either, it was awful watching him tee his free kick up looking like he felt he had a chance yet most fans i feel sure knowing he was never going to do anything with it. We do seem to lack a dead ball specialist like Beckham to make full use of what are hard to come by opportunities at this level.

We are in it still and so anything can still happen.

Cuz1

Still don’t get why henderson, don’t know what it is I’m just not a fan of his as for the game I expect nerves but three points and we go again and as for Belgium lukaku wont have it so easy against England’s defenders he just thrives on West Ham’s lol

IronHerb

Thorn.

England won against a poor team. We were never in trouble and it took a late goal to get the victory, but this is tournament football. Belguim were rubbish in the first half of their match, Mexico looked like the would score every time they broke against Germany and Brazil didn't create the clear chances we did tonight.
We won, we didn't play badly, we gave away a penalty and should of had two penalties ourselves. Enjoy the win.

chicagohammer

All in all I think we did well, dominated possession, controlled the game and tried alternatives to break them down, our wastefulness in front of goal is why we made heavy weather of it.

On almost any other day we would have scored four and not given away a daft penalty.

My main frustration was Ashley Young, I thought he had a poor game and have never considered him as good enough.

A good win and hopefully they will build from here.

chicagohammer

Was really impressed with Maguire - he was positive and made things happen

ianbishoplegend

Something about the way England play just doesn’t motivate me at all. Haven’t enjoyed a game for years. There seems to be no ideas after about 60 mins, and then it’s just so slow to build. This team has potential though.

MIAHammer

The feed we get in the USA must have had something wrong with it. Tunisia did not look that bad of a team to me. Yes, defensively they were weak but some of their players were very comfortable passing the ball.

whupathman

Apparently WWE scouts watched the game , contracts in the post

ClaretandBlueforLife

A great first half from England, a soft penalty and should have been 3 or 4 up but poor finishing. Kane led by example and showed the team how it should be done. Looking forward to our next game.

Pearces_Left_Foot

baracks_a_hammer said:

PLF

“Against more open teams”??

Which teams are they then?? ;hmm

Pretty much anyone Tunisa barely crossed the halfway line lol I meant as the tournament goes on teams need to win so would be more open and attacking rather than sitting on the edge of the box all game

Huttonhammer

On the 9/6 just over a week ago Spain beat Tunisia 1-0 with a goal in the 84th minute. before that Tunisia drew 2-2 with Turkey and just over a month ago Tunisia came back from 2-0 down against Portugal to draw 2-2.
So much rubbish being spouted about how poor Tunisia are . Why should Belgium thump Tunisia? nobody else seems to be able to.

I thought in the conditions last night and with such an awfully biased referee the England team did quite well. They will take an awful lot from winning the game last night.

As for VAR , if the referee and linesmen couldn't see those two fouls on Harry Kane then to me it was just plain biased cheating. To prove this, the guy looking at the VAR for the England game awarded a penalty in the Croatia v Nigeria game for holding on a Croatian player in the penalty box. Lets face it the refereeing is biased and FIFA should look into why we always get such poor referees doing our games.

No other teams are setting the World cup alight and with a bit of luck and much better refereeing we could have a good tournament.

Huttonhammer

Sterling is a good player but he lacks what Rashford has. Rashford has confidence and knows he is a good player and he tries to express himself.
Sterling lacks the confidence to be a top international player at the moment. If he could just believe in himself like he does when playing for City he could be such a dangerous player with his pace.

IronHerb

So Hutton, looks like England get the refs West Ham do in the Prem. ;wink

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

First 30 mins was very exciting

But it was so frustrating, and i aim it at Southgate

Why did we have 5 defenders on in the 90th minute

His subs impacted the game, but they were like for like and we couldve easily pushed forward and made it easier on ourselves if he sacrificed a defender, tunisia werent threatening

alderz

I thought that by the end we were basically playing with Trippier and Young as wingers, Walker was on overlapping runs constantly, and Maguire popped up on the left wing a couple of times. I thought that the shape was good, and personally at no point did I (or anyone in the pub around me) call for a change in formation at all.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Well its obviously a preference of opinion

Everyone in the pub i was at were calling for a change

We didnt look like scoring until lthe last 5/10 mins of the 2nd half against a pretty poor team, and the 2 goals wree from set pieces

Imo the shape was worng