World Cup Semi-final - Croatia v England, Wed 11th July

Keane said Southgate was a "nice guy" lol.

 

Keane can't stand him as well. Regularly mocked him when both worked for ITV..

At least they're taking it well tonight

 

"You were talking about the final. Thinking about where the parades were. You need a reality check"

 

Pretty sure i heard that Sterling had no shots nor assists in the whole tournament either.

 

In 10 hours of football, England had only 6 shots on target from open play, and one of them was a deflection off Kane's heel.

 

I would have Eden Hazard in that conversation as well he was immense for Belgium.

But today is all about beautiful Croatia. Thank you so much for making my day just outstanding.

 

Wonder what odds you would have gotten, pre-tourney, on a Russian Premier League player reaching the final (nevermind Austria, Belgium, Ukraine, Turkey, Croatia, etc).

There will be more Serie A players in the final than Premier League players (7 vs 6). And the joint-most represented league will be the much-derided Ligue 1 (along with La Liga at 10 players apiece).

Atletico, Barca, Real, PSG, Monaco and Marseille are the most-represented clubs with 3 players apiece.

Hrvatska ar la!

 

That would be the icing on the cake to watch Belgium dismantle them this time not just let them off 1-0.

 

No coincidence England finally play a decent team and they get sent packing. Modric and rakitic were nowhere near their best tonight but they never had to be.

Dele Alli is quite possibly the most overrated player in world football at the moment.

Him, lingard, Sterling and Walker in particular were terrible all tournament.

Add to that, Kane got 6 goals, but he barely kicked a ball, it’s not often the top scorer at the tournament is nowhere even close to winning player of the tournament but that’s certainly the case here.

Absolutely brilliant seeing mandzukic scoring the winner after seeing Pickford shouting at him on the deck after absolutely cleaning him out, put the * in his place quite nicely.

Southgates sub’s let him down horribly, absolutely clueless in that respect and his insistence on bring on dier in every game summed that up.

Probably the poorest team I can remember getting to the semi finals of a World Cup, certainly since 2002, and I doubt you’ll ever see an easier route, but fair play to them they somehow got there, but that feels like a huge weight has been lifted. I’ll now be able to enjoy the final without that * in it.

Just a shame it wasn’t on BBC so we could see Linekar, Ferdinand, fat frank, Danny Murphy and the rest of the * wiping away their tears after the game.

I’ll be cheering on Croatia on Sunday, but I fear France will wipe the floor with them after how much they’ve given just to be there.

 

I haven't been this nervous about a semi since the time I watched Brokeback Mountain

 

Shamelessly stolen

 

"But... it might not matter."

 

Lovely lovely lovely.

fans already trying to big this squad up for the euros.

Their squad is OK, I mentioned it before the passing between their defence is awful and could have cost them earlier in the game, they should count their blessing they didn't reach the final as mbappe would have loved that.

no way in the euros are England going to get the same amount of luck, on top of that nations like France will be better, Belgium will be hoping as well, Germany are going to be baying for blood, Spain as well.

honestly don't see England getting near a semi again for some time

 

Commentator's voice got shot to pieces after that moment, of course-he's old, but the most emotional guy we got for football games. Anyone know if there were Irish commentators that looked happy for us?

 

As an Englishman (who only really cares about club football, specifically the 3 clubs in my signature below), I was delighted with the performances of Jordan Pickford. I've always felt he would develop into a top keeper, but this tournament appears to have speeded up that process.

As for the rest of the team, it was pretty much a triumph of system over talent. England lack creativity, the ability to control and manage a game (they pick Henderson in midfield FFS !!! ), any real cutting edge, centre backs who can concentrate for 120 minutes etc etc. They did pretty well to get this far.

Whilst I'm under no illusion that this is the dawn of a new Golden Age, the fact remains that the various under age teams have recently won World and European Cups, so with a bit of luck, England could be competitive over the next decade, and regularly make the knockout stages of these tournaments. Whilst I'm not a big fan, I must admit, I enjoy the tournaments more when Eng/Scot/Wales/NI/Rep of Ire are playing.