Honestly don’t think Belgium have been that bad. Weird group, hard to judge, but thought they were unlucky in the first game, more than decent in the second and ultimately did what they needed to do in a weird last game against a Ukraine I maintain aren’t bad.
France not great but if they’d been a bit more efficient with their finishing we’d be talking them up as one of the better sides of the group stage. Solid structure and midfield of workhorses + Mbappe is a proven if uninspiring formula I still expect to come good.
France goes without saying but i’d also have fancied Belgium to go deep had some fine margins been a bit different and they’d ended up on the other side of the draw. Easy to’ve envisaged tonight’s matches being the semi from the shitey England side.
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Its funny how this is the exact (correct, imo) criiticism of Steve Clarke at this tournament but the difference is having enough quality to drag England’s twitching corpse over the line
Rolling through to Düsseldorf now, re-sale tickets are pricey af really but hoping they’ll drop to more sensible prices a bit closer to kick off, either way, we move
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Kindof enjoyed the period where Eze was playing as a LWB, he… actually did quite well there?
Pickford
Walker / Stones / Konsa
Saka / [Randomly-generated midfielder] / Rice / Eze
High Performance podcast / Foden
Kane
Wouldn’t mind that. Won’t get it, but I wouldn’t mind it.
Think the game last night has cracked my brain
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Missed the game last night because I was on a flight, heartening to see that the plucky underdog story continues though. Could this Spanish dark foal be growing into a horse before our eyes?
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Yeah, watching on the highlights this morning it was like seeing it for the first time.
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Imagine if that Slovakia shot from the halfway line had gone in 
Can’t remember whose mess-up it was, but imagine waking up this morning and your first thought being “thank fuck that wasn’t 2-0”
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Have any past major tournament winners been a minute or so away from going out or even a penalty away from losing a shootout during the tournament. Winners have come close to going out (Netherlands in 1988, Denmark in 1992, Greece in 2004 all in the group stages) but it was never quite last minute late. All I can think of is France with the Euro 2000 final, though I guess there’s Germany in Euro 96 with the two close shaves England had in golden goal extra time.
Iirc was a mix of Walker and Stones. Walker threw it to Stones who wasn’t looking or paying attention, so went straight past him to a Slovakian player
If close shaves count then the Martinez save from Kolo Muani in the world cup final is the pinnacle
That was legitimately a very late goal though- clocked at 90+4.
I think that the honest criticism of the performance, and there is plenty (not enough pressing or killer instinct for starters) is being drowned out by the bleak pessimism that surrounds a lot of England commentary/punditry. France have had similar problems (two goals all tournament- one a penalty and one an own goal) but I don’t hear anywhere near the same amount of fatalistic commentary for them. France are still, inexplicably, favourites, when Germany and Spain have been far more impressive.
Lee Dixon especially must be the most miserable man on Earth.
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Danny Murphy and Martin Keown want a word.
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Can’t think of a more potentially galvanising moment than the Bellingham goal tbh. Couldn’t ask for a bigger one. England can’t not win it now.
If they did, it would be “We haven’t won 10-0 against Slovakia. I think I’m going to go for a walk in the rain and listen to Turn Out the Lights Again”.
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Probably because we’re not in France! I do think a lot of the enthusiasm for France has dissipated after their group stage performances though, everyone’s on the Spain and Portugal wagon now, with Switzerland and Austria as the dark horses.
I also think Deschamps is a lot like Southgate to be honest in that he’s not getting the best out of the players any more it’s probably time for him to move on (cue France v England final now)
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Purely because they have to play each other in the quarters innit. Whoever wins that will become the big favourite for the tournament. Same reason England were favourites going into the last 16 after a rubbish group stage
Think Deschamps is worse than Southgate.
