You knew it was a boring game when the commentators started discussing the grass

jtc wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 10:02 pm You knew it was a boring game when the commentators started discussing the grass

They were watching it grow because the paint had dried.

Well Scotland ultimately were fairly poor, not unexpectedly to me. We are lacking strength and depth in the squad and could not recover from injuries to Hickey, Ferguson, Doak etc.

England still have a great chance of winning the whole thing. You feel they have the players. Is the manager the limiting factor, I’m not sure.

Thegreyman wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 11:30 pm England still have a great chance of winning the whole thing. You feel they have the players. Is the manager the limiting factor, I’m not sure.

Austria winning the group has skewed the seedings; two out of Germany, France, Spain and Portugal will be out at the Q/F stage, and England would appear to have benefitted. It underlines the importance of winning the group no matter how you do it.

There are some good sides in England’s half of the draw, though, and the outcome of Belgium’s group will be interesting this afternoon.

Southgate? He’s taken them to a WC semi and a Euro final. You don’t become a bad manager overnight. Omissions like Rashford & Grealish questionable? Time will tell. Things have definitely not clicked so far, though.

Trouble with England is the constant weight of expectations. And the silly notion among some “supporters” that they have a right to just turn up and win all the time.

But if you win every game from here on in 1-0 or 0-0 + pens you win the tournament, right?

Qué será…

The most interesting thing for me in Yesterday's games, was Robert Lewandowski's penalty technique.
The retake was scored, but if he misses past the post on his First attempt is the keeper penalised for moving off he's line ?
If the Keeper saves the second kick, is he penalised a second time for leaving he's line, so Lewandowski gets a Third go ?

My mate argued, it's a poor technique, but I think the opposite.

Regards Steve

I think you keep doing stuff until EUFA get the result they want. So Scotland didn't get the penalty, along with very many other travesties.

Great start for Georgia. But I love the Portuguese azuleijo shirts!

Georgia are doing brilliantly!

I do enjoy watching CR7 getting petulant...

Well the draw has worked kindly for England. I'm sure we will pluck defeat from the jaws of victory though.

^^^ It’s written in the starlight and every line on your palm.

Just thinking out loud, we do tend to be hard on our sports teams and participants in the UK, England in particular.

Only country to have won World Cups in football, rugby and cricket? GB/UK usually does quite well at Olympics these days. We probably compete near the top of world rankings in more sports than most countries.

In terms of population Germany is markedly bigger, France and Italy fairly comparable, Spain a bit less. They each put out one football team, UK goes with 4.

England are in a World T20 semi later. OK, I know rugby and cricket are not played by as many countries, but we’re there.

I know there are sports we don’t compete highly in that are much bigger in other countries.

Don't forget hockey! The ladies are one of the best! Equally as proud of them as the football team.

I did facepalm a bit when Kane mentioned England haven't won't anything in a long time. I'm assuming he just forgot to say "the men of".

jtc wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 10:37 am Don't forget hockey! The ladies are one of the best! Equally as proud of them as the football team.

Absolutely, Jon. Good timely reminder. Women’s teams are definitely right up there, and the Lionesses, Red Roses &c. are probably more entertaining at the moment!

So far I haven’t watched any of the matches, nor checked out any of the results, one of the benefits of spending June in Greece.

Now that we are back home I will watch England’s remaining watches. Hopefully they will go one better than last time.

Neil