Efestivals Euro football thread

[balti-pie]

46 minutes ago, st dan said:

Obviously speaking completely in hindsight, but as the senior penalty taker and captain, Kane should have been 4th or 5th on the list for me.
I get wanting to get off to a strong start, but there is no denying the nerves get more intense as you move down the list of takers and the stakes get higher. Whether it’s the win the match, or stay in it. 

 

i always think the first penalty is the most important. If you miss it, there's even more pressure on everyone after you - and even less chance of even just getting to take five pens. I think Kane taking the first is the right decision, because you just dont know what it going to come - saving him for the fifth mightve been a complete waste of an absolutely excellent penalty taker. 

 

this is all with the benefit of hindsight though of course!

[august1]

51 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

So much for that rumour that Pickford was one of the five.

He was 6th and it looks like Southgate almost bumps him to 5th at the last minute

 

 

[gooner1990]

35 minutes ago, waltere said:

Not quite first 5, but the Portuguese keeper took the sixth to knock us out in either 2004 or 2006

2004.

Ronaldo scored the winning one in 2006.

[Homer]

3 hours ago, jackarmy said:

Wondering if anyone who was at the game saw any of the scenes of violence in the concourses/fans trying to jump the turnstiles?

It looked pretty mental from the videos I've seen, but not sure if Twitter is a fair reflection of what was actually going on.

 

Literally the two people in front of me as I went in, they both jumped into the metal 'cage' turnstile thing and got in that way. There were no security guards on either side so they got away with it. Also no ID or covid checks or physical ticket check.

[Homer]

1 hour ago, blutarsky said:

I HAD AN IDEA!!!!

I saw a stat earlier about the England squad's experience of taking pens in competition conditions. Of the 11 outfield players on the pitch at the end of extra time, 4-5 had never taken a penalty before. Those who had:

Sterling 5 (missed 3)
Sancho 3
Kane 40+
Rashford 15
Grealish 1

How can you expect players to be able to perform a skill they've literally never had to do before, under the most intense pressure they've probably ever experienced?

Which gave me an idea - a parallel penalty premier league.

At the end o every premier league match teams take part in a penalty shootout. Incentives for managers to let EQPs take pens. Three points for a win, goes towards a separate premier league penalty table with prize money to make it worthwhile. Doesn't impact on normal premier league table. 

Entertaining for fans. 

What do you think? 

 

Tat doesn't really surprise me as I remember saying during extra time against the Danes that I didn't fancy us at all if it came to pens. After Kane, the only player I had a small amount of confidence in was Trippier, then I had Pickford as third. Start contract to 1996 when we had Shearer, Sheringham, Gazza, Pearce and Anderton (I think). Though, by the law of averages, if your keeper saves two, you should probably still win.

[kalifire]

3 hours ago, jackarmy said:

Wondering if anyone who was at the game saw any of the scenes of violence in the concourses/fans trying to jump the turnstiles?

It looked pretty mental from the videos I've seen, but not sure if Twitter is a fair reflection of what was actually going on.

 

I tend to think it's unfortunate that football is tainted by dickheads like this, just because they happen to be fans. There's a venn diagram, with 'is a football fan' in one circle and 'being a violent arsehole' in another. The focus is always where they overlap, but that's not where the problem lies.

[Homer]

[sime]

It's been an amazing month as an England football fan. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the manager/team and how they have performed both on and off the pitch. Reaching the final of the Euros is a win in itself. 

Onwards and upwards and onto the World Cup in 2022...!

[Superscally]

5 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Before this tournament? Not many, I’m a West Brom fan so these opportunities don’t tend to come along too often for me.

Went to Scotland, Germany, Denmark and then last night. The atmosphere in the ground has been good, Germany was something else though. That’s probably the one thing I’ll remember longest from the whole tournament.

Wow, Germany better than last night? Too nervous? 

[mcshed]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:38 PM, Barry Fish said:

Pretty pathetic and sad.

What a poxy nation bitter nation 😀

 

Looks like the Italians enjoyed the front page as well.

[steviewevie]

4 minutes ago, mcshed said:

 

Looks like the Italians enjoyed the front page as well.

Ha!

[Padgey]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Suppose we’d better back to talking about Glastonbury now…

I did see a guy in a Hope Shines Brightest in the Dark Glastonbury t-shirt yesterday on Wembley Way

[Homer]

I'm feeling pretty down - but at least I'm cheered by the thought of attending the cricket world cup in the UAE and Oman, or the football world cup in Qatar.

[Homer]

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2021/07/12/48803/andrew_lawrence%3A_now_his_agent_drops_him?rss

[found home in 2009]

3 hours ago, mcshed said:

Great tournament, great to be at a tournament again for us, really enjoyed the final, really enjoyed penalties, really enjoying the aftermath and great to see that the only one who managed a clean sheet against the mighty England was this man:

Personally I have a totally different take. Found it entirely predictable that Clarke's long ball football didn't work at the finals of an international football tournament. His tactics reminded me of Graham Taylor, who also came into international football on the back of relative domestic success with an unfancied club only to not be able to replicate it at international level.

Makes me sad that for some drawing with England is making people forget we lost the other two matches without a whimper against countries with similar sized populations as us. Others defending him because we qualified forgetting that it was Alex McLeish that was the manager for our nations league success. Clarkes contribution was to win 2 knockout ties on penalties against the giants of international football that are Israel and Serbia. Also a bit less of an achievement when 24 out of 55 nations in UEFA compared to Roxburgh in 1992 where being at the finals meant we were in the top 8 teams in Europe or even when Brown  did it where it meant you were in the top 16 teams.

We actually have a good midfield. Gilmour, McGinn, McTominay and Fleck have all shown the can cut it as midfielders in the Premiership. It's our 2nd strongest position (after being ridiculously spoiled at left back) yet we constantly kick the ball over their heads giving possession straight to the opposition. Completely agree with Graeme Souness who said our approach was from the stone ages.

I must admit I didn't want England to win the final. Just because I was sick about hearing about their team. When it was the final round of group games the commentators constantly discussed how each result in every group could effect England whilst never mentioning Scotland or Wales once. The Spain Italy semi final was best match I've seen in a long time. Yet the post match discussion was not about the game, but whether the result was good or bad for England and the conclusion was that it didn't matter as England would beat either of them in the final. The journalist Stuart Cosgrove wrote quite a good article on the subject:
https://outline.com/xcDEHF

But as much as I couldn't bring myself to support England I do find it pathetic the hatred some of my fellow countrymen have for the English. It's just embarrassing small minded petty stuff (and stirred up by the SNP who are our equivalent of UKIP). I remember being at the Stade de France for the match where Scotland beat France in their own back garden when they were world champions. The next day all the French when they saw us in our kilts and Scotland tops were coming up and congratulating us as if we'd personally been responsible for the result. On the way home we had to change trains in London. I naively thought the reaction in London would be very different to the one we had in Paris. I couldn't have been more wrong, everyone was coming up shaking our hands and saying well done. Hatred is never a good look and its even more embarrassing/pathetic when its one sided.

So in short I think serious questions need asked about the Scotland football team's management and Scottish broadcasting.
 

Edited July 12, 2021 by found home in 2009

[mcshed]

8 minutes ago, found home in 2009 said:

Personally I have a totally different take. Found it entirely predictable that Clarke's long ball football didn't work at an international football. His tactics reminded me of Graham Taylor, who also came into international football on the back of relative domestic success with an unfancied club only to not be able to replicate it at international level.

We were doing fine against the Czechs until that freak of a goal and we might have nicked something against England. The only game where we were out played was Croatia. Clarke isn't the best in the world but I can't see anyone else queuing up to take the job.

Your right that we have a bit of talent coming through and it'd be nice to think this won't be the only tournament they'll make.

As for the England stuff it's mostly just banter, Nationalist who blame the English for everything are an issue but I don't think the football has much to do with it.

[JoeyT]

I’m still hungover.

It’s KFC for tea.

I don’t want to hear any Neil Diamond for a significant amount of time.

[charlierc]

6 hours ago, nikkic said:

Just heard a woman in Tesco say....

”Rashford should have kicked it better”.

One good thing about the tournament ending is that these kind of morons will go back to watching Eastenders. 

I saw a story that after his miss in 1996, Gareth Southgate's mum said "Why didn't you just blast it dear?"

The conversation has moved on in the last 25 years huh.

[charlierc]

It is what it was I guess. Gianluigi Donnarumma is a huge block to face, and chances are he's saved penalties from some awesome players in the days of yore, plus it's always a pain in the arse to lose the big final in such circumstances. Equally, no shot on target after the goal wasn't great. It felt like the tactical flexibility showed in previous rounds just didn't turn up this time and it's likely Italy would've won in normal time had Chiesa not been injured.

It's not as embarrassing as failing to win a game at Brazil in 2014 and that Iceland 2016 embarrassment I guess.

[Hugh Jass]

42 minutes ago, charlierc said:

It is what it was I guess. Gianluigi Donnarumma is a huge block to face, and chances are he's saved penalties from some awesome players in the days of yore, plus it's always a pain in the arse to lose the big final in such circumstances. Equally, no shot on target after the goal wasn't great. It felt like the tactical flexibility showed in previous rounds just didn't turn up this time and it's likely Italy would've won in normal time had Chiesa not been injured.

It's not as embarrassing as failing to win a game at Brazil in 2014 and that Iceland 2016 embarrassment I guess.

Not AS embarrassing?

When has getting to a final and losing in pens ever been embarrassing?

[nikkic]

This team genuinely excites me. 

We’re actually very very good, for the first time in a long while. 

It’s disappointing but we’ll be there or there abouts next year. 

[Homer]

Was a bit of a shambles yesterday. We queued for ages to get in then they shut the gate, said it was broken and left us standing there for about 20 to 30 mins, right at the front. We were discussing Hillsborough at this point.

Transpired we had to hit the button to activate our tickets, but no one had conveyed this, which led to queues. My brother reckons they shut the gate and pretended it was broken because they didn't know what they were doing.

I had to adandon the queue and go to the back again as I was so in need of the loo after waiting for so long.

[Crazyfool01]

Great stuff 

[waltere]

1 hour ago, JoeyT said:

I don’t want to hear any Neil Diamond for a significant amount of time.

The amount of times Sweet Caroline was played by people who'd brought their bluetooth speakers onto Wembley Way yesterday was absolutely insane, especially compared to some actual, long-established, England football anthems.

[Homer]

4 minutes ago, waltere said:

The amount of times Sweet Caroline was played by people who'd brought their bluetooth speakers onto Wembley Way yesterday was absolutely insane, especially compared to some actual, long-established, England football anthems.

I was trying to get Back Home off the ground but got 0 traction.