Afternoon one and one, Now that the jubilee is over and done with, thank god, we can all move on to enjoying the Euros. A brilliant start to the proceedings testerday. Poland came out of the blocks flying but in all fairness do not look like they will progress very far. Greece deserved to win over the 90 mins and looked good at times. Czech Republic do not look very good, a couple of good players but not strong enough. Russia however look the real deal. Offensively they are going to be difficult to stop but I reckon they will crumble if they are challenged defensively. That said if they cn create as many chances as they did they will score lots of goals. Early observations: Thank god we have referees like Howard Web in the premiership, he let the game flow and commanded the game very well. The ref from the Poland was dire, that sending off was an embarassment for the Greeks, who would have surely gone on to win the game with an extra man. What is going on with europes strikers ? Milan Baros was terrible. All he managed to do was fall to the floor EVERY time a defender defended against him. Kerzhakov could have played all night and still not scored. As for Samaras, has there ever been a striker at the Euros who is so poor. The guy is dreadful. Roll tonight though, Germany vs Portugal is going to be a cracker. COYW
I'm rooting for Duffers tomorrow. Apparently Kelly not in team. Here's a link to a site giving up to date results and scorers - http://www.soccerway.com/international/europe/european-championships/2012-poland-ukraine/group-stage/
Funnily enough so am I. I have no idea why Trap doesn't start Kelly. He seems to want to go with O'Shea at RB and Dunne and St.Ledger at CB when most people would have gone with O'Shea and Dunne at CB and Kelly at RB.
What a shame the luck of the irish eluded them last night. They showed great grit and determintion but were undone by a surprisingly good looking Croate team. Duff had a good game and looked the most likely to unlock the Croate defence. Whilst it does not look too good for the Irish now, you cannot write off their hopes just yet. Best game of the tournament so far though, Spain vs Italy, was a pleasure to watch. First time I have seen a team succesfully take the game to the Spanish in recent years. Spain were their usual class when in possesion of the ball but did look a bit dodgy when Italy ran at their defence. I was really impressed with Italy, for me team to watch at this tournament. Ddid not really know much about them before but with Chiellini in the heart of the defence and the maestro Pirlo in midfield they look a very outfit. Holland need to play with a bit more enthuthasm if they want to progress. Roll on tonight, I am really excited to see Roy and the boys and see if they have a place in this tournament. Come on England, give us something to cheer about. COYW
The England line up v France has been announced - Hart Johnson Terry Lescott Cole Milner Gerrard Parker OxladeChamberlain Young Welbeck Decent mixture of youth and experience and good to see Ox given the thumbs up over Downing. Right back is a week spot though.
Oxlade-Chamberlain in for Downing is interesting. Milner will give greater protection to his full-back, but O-C's pace is more likely to hurt France's defence. Mexes and Rami (if they keep Koscielny out) play a high line and a vulnerable to pace. Ox and Welbeck could exploit that, particularly if Gerrard can do a decent Danny Murphy impression with well-judged through balls. I wish Danny Murphy was five years younger.
I really want Hodgson (my adopted father for the joy he brought me a few seasons ago) and Lew to get the England boys off to a good start.
I'd like to see England do well for Hodgson and my English friends (you guys), but it's hard to see England getting through the group. France is a better team. Ukraine has home-pitch advantage and England have a strangely difficult time with Sweden. Plus, without Rooney, it's hard to see England scoring goals. Hodgson will make England difficult to beat, but you can't go through without scoring goals. Andy Carroll is the wildcard for me. This could be his chance to shine or flame out completely. I think the group will end like this: France 7 points Ukraine 6 points England 4 points Sweden 4 points
Well a solid start and I guess just what the doctor ordered. Apart from their goal, France produced very little in terms of shots on goal, dare I say it, we played good tournament football. I would like to see us create a few more opportunities, but for tonight at least I feelk they were thwarted by some fairly cynical breakup play from the French. I think things might have been slightly different if the ref had booked Cabaye in the first half after he had ankle tapped the English players for the umptinth time. All in though, classic Roy perormance and good work ethic from all involved. COYW
Not too sure how your points add up DR For France to get 7 they have to beat Sweden and Ukraine. For Ukraine to get 6 points they have to beat England and Sweden and loose to France. For England to get 4 points they need to beat Sweden. For Sweden to get 4 points they have to be awarded 4 points for fair play or something similar as everyone else would have beaten them? I thought it was decent display today. Not a spectacular display but a solid one. I can see us getting a minimum of 4 points from the next two games which will us us through. France are a good side who player for player are a better side than us, they are not the mess they were at the last world cup. I would be amazed and gutted if we don't qualify from this group. I'm not getting carried away and thinking we will win the Euros but if we don't get out of this group i'm go. If we don't qualify from this group I'm prepared to get a Chelsea tattoo.... on my "old-boy"
Tak me home Al Fahad, I would love to see you as England manager. In answer to a question of whether England will qualify ' If we do not qualify from this group I'm prepared to get a Chelsea tattoo - on my old boy ' would make for legendary TV. For your benefit I hope we do qualify. If we play as we did today we have a very good chance. It should be more possible to create more chances if we have more possesion in the midfield. Added to which, as good as Oxlaide Chamberlain was, when Rooney gets back, him and Wellbeck should play up top and Young going onto the left wing.
Yes, England didn't look half bad, moving the ball around well and looking fairly solid at the back. In the first 15 minutes when it was all France, I was worried, but England got stronger as the game when on. A decent showing.
Evra is right when he said England played the way Chelsea did against Barcelona. It really was dire to watch at times, every time France got forward, England's wall of eight players got in the way. Roy had no intention of winning the game, defend deep and hope to nick a goal from a set piece or counter attack which they did. England have the players there to attack and win games but Roy is too defensive minded. I'm sorry but France deserved the win, after the goal, what did England create? Early Milner chance and Lescott goal, the next hour was defending. Joe Hart time wasting summed it up for me England should have taken inspiration from Italy's performance against Spain. Yes they have the same amount of points but one is getting a lot more plaudits and will only further grow in confidence.
I thought England had the better of the first 35 minutes or so, but France were on top after that and probably deserved the win more than we did. That said, I think this was England's best performance under Roy and it suggests that they are getting to grips with what he wants from them. There were some nice attacking combinations to go with the solid lines of four when defending. We could easily have nicked the win, which suggests Roy's England will be capable of beating some of the bigger teams (with a following wind) even if they have better individuals than we do. I'm encouraged by yesterday, although not to the point of thinking we're going to win the tournament or anything. I think we'll make it out of the group, and then, who knows? Good spot on Roy's tie, Cottager. I hadn't noticed that. And, Frogman, if TMHAF getting a tattoo on his old man is your idea of great television, I worry about just which channels you're subscribed to!
Yeah, a decent performance and a good result. Everyone would've taken a 1-1 draw before the game, I think. A typical Roy team as well - highly organised and disciplined. Lots to take heart from and build on for the Sweden game.
To win a football game it’s simple you need to score more goals than you concede. France may have had more possession, more chances and more shots on target but that doesn’t mean they deserved to win, it means they didn’t take their chances. We didn’t have many chances but ones we had we took. The French played better football but didn’t deserve to win. We got a draw against a very good French team, they are not the mess they were a few years ago they are a solid team. Look at the positives. Evra was right when he said we played the Chelsea way. We did and we got a good result. Do you hear may Chelsea fans moaning how they won the Champions League playing defensively? Were they the best team in the tournament – No. Did they play the most attractive football – No. Did they deserve to win based on how they organised themselves to prevent their opposition playing – Absolutely. You can’t always win games playing attractive creative football unless you’re Spain or Brazil and unfortunalty we don’t have their quality of players.. If you’re not you play to your strengths which is exactly what we done.
Apparently, France had 65 percent of the possession and 7 shots on goal while England had just 3 shots, only one of which was on goal. It's funny, I think, how you can miss read a game. I thought England were OK, but the statistics tell a different story.
So, so true. What the stats don't tell you were that the overwhelming majority of France's efforts were long-range. Lescott and Terry had Benzema playing in front of them nearly the whole game - I've no idea why he was playing so deep.
