SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2020/21

I'll call it now... That was a crack papering performance.

A competent side would still have England out there.

 

Four clean sheets for the Pix Daddy.

 

England are gonna win this and you two are gonna say it was just because everyone else in the tournament is shite

 

Stopped reading after this wildly inaccurate statement.

Hope to be proven wrong, mind.

MTF

 

Hardly. Its because everyone else was shite, and England didn't have to play them. They were all on the other side of the draw.

England scored as many goals as Hungary, just took an hour longer to do it.

What will happen now is that, with nemesis departed, hubris will take its place.

 

Muller and Werner say hi.

 

Ah well at least the hair's like the 90s

 

Italy still the favourites for me, despite the struggles against Austria.

 

It's all about the breaks, by now.

 

Cop sirens everywhere suddenly

 

The bookies will prob have Ingerland faves because italy still have to get by Belgium and (prob) Spain....but the left hand side of the draw would probably be slight fave over the right hand side of the draw, if that was a bet

 

Whos this plonker babbling about yellow?

 

Hampden is a dump

 

Denmark did look good in their last two games but they were taking on Russia and Wales. Belgium took them apart, Finland beat them too but obviously there were other circumstances at play there. Denmark did beat us fairly comfortably in the Nations League I think though.

 

Mate... Put the books down and review that Belgium vs Denmark game. Belgium beat them but the Danes were right at it.

 

England have it fucking made here. The draws a joke.

 

Grealish has started well here for Sweden

 

Anyone watched the LUFC doc on Amazon? Its good

 

Only watched the 1st half to see if Germany could open the scoring. They didn't so for me the writing was on the wall even though neither side was really in control.

It's virtually the same theme in every one of their tournament exits.

2002 0-2
2006 0-2
2008 0-1
2010 0-1
2016 0-2
2018 0-2
2020 0-2

They can't score, inevitably concede, are forced to chase the game and typically allow a second one sealing it off.

 

Good analysis.

They're a poor side yet:

* should have taken the lead
* should have equalised

 

Aye, Irish is right. I thought Denmark were all over Belgium. Couple of counter-attacking bits of brilliance cost then the game. Denmark could have scored about six in that game.

They've been fucking impressive, Denmark. Got a real cohesion about then and they move the ball quickly and accurately to runners in behind.

MTF

 

Aye, Slice is miles off on that one.

MTF

 

I've been really, really impressed by Denmark. Not for this 'emotion' crap, but by the real quality in their play. They shift the ball really, really quickly and they get runners in between the defensive/midfields lines with real pace. They are the one side that I've seen consistently make defenders run back towards their own goal in an utterly disorganised way. They've scored a bunch of really good goals. And they should have beaten Belgium. They completely outplayed them bar two pieces of brilliance.

Genuinely, this Denmark side is a much better one than the Croatia side that I thought England would beat in 2018. They'll be looking at this half of the draw now and thinking they have a really good chance to reach the final.

MTF

 

Both sides hit the post within a few minutes of each other. Decent game.

 

Belgium
Italy

Pre-tournament i would have picked Belgium but considering current form and that two of Belgium's best players might not even be present (or damaged goods if they are) it tilts pretty heavily towards Italy.

Switzerland
Spain

Spain provides different kind of problems than France. I don't see lightning striking twice but anything is possible.

Ukraine
England

England haven't had to face any elite attacking side yet, but they've dealt with better than Ukraine already. A goal will be hard to come by and England shouldn't have the same level of trouble going the other way.

Czech Republic
Denmark

The Danes just seem to have more to offer on either side of the pitch but it won't be easy.


You still have to go out and do the job as nobody is going to hand it to you, but things definitely all appear to be in England's favor. The other side of the table is much deeper and whomever will be there on July 11th will likely be more compromised from fatigue, injuries or discipline given the tougher road. Another thing in England's favor is depth. Should they suffer some of the same problems there are more options on their bench than the remaining sides. Also unlike Germany their subs haven't been utterly useless.

 

I watched Ukraine vs Sweden, heel to toe, heel to toe.

Some observations:-

Good game, high intensity, which gave way to sluggishness and codology as the game wore on, naturally

Jonathan Peirce reminded us every 2 minutes who the winner would play.

Gabby Yorath described the game as "after the lord mayors show"- it was in fact a faster better game in many regards than England vs Germany, but the BBC gave up on impartiality- or even common sense- a long time ago.

Sweden would have given England a better game. A much better game.

Knowing this, the commentary people bent themselves into pretzels to tell us that the Swede should have been definitely sent off, they never missed a chance to remind us how bad it was, and then celebrated maniacally when the Ukrainian winner went in

 

Like I said, what will happen is that England will win it now, it is literally ALL In their favour.

They will then, nemesis banished, resort to hubris and daftness.

They will then qualify for the World Cup, and take an awful awful hiding as the smugness kicks in and the luck disappears.

 

Whit

 

It looks steep on TV. Like if you stumbled in the aisle at row 38 you'd hit the steps at row 6.