Ukraine v England | Euro 2020 Quarter Final

[BlueHammer85]

Pickford a few times looked like his Everton self on a few occasions during the Ukraine game. Better sides would really punish that. The two early group stages wasn't too clever either. Germany game was even. Muller's miss was crucial. Not as straight forward or secure as results suggest.

So basically England who are apparently not that good - should not be letting sides have any chances at all in the whole match. Right.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

So basically England who are apparently not that good - should not be letting sides have any chances at all in the whole match. Right.

A game that we totally controlled, taking our chances when the opportunity arose. With some of the comments you’d think we’d won the last World and European Cups, having that air of invincibility that we can sweep all those before us. Just like France!

 

[I'm With Stupid]

If people are complaining about England not blowing teams away, they've clearly never watched international football. Germany have looked average in about half of the tournaments they've won up until they suddenly don't. Loads of big teams always underperform, especially the reigning champions, allowing someone who before the tournament was considered an outside bet to win, and usually not be blowing away the competition. Look at Portugal in Euro 2016.

Portugal 1-1 Iceland
Portugal 0-0 Austria
Portugal 3-3 Hungary

Portugal 1-0 Croatia
Portugal 1-1 Poland
Portugal 2-0 Wales
Portugal 1-0 France a.e.t

7 games played, only 2 won in the 90 minutes. Didn't play a traditionally big team until the final.

Germany in World Cup 2014 only scraped through in extra time against Algeria. Everyone remembers the 7-1 thrashing, but no-one remembers that most of their other games were won by a single goal, including against the USA and a 2-2 draw with Ghana (okay they also beat Portugal 4-0). And you could make the same "the big teams didn't turn up" in that tournament too. Spain, Italy, Croatia, England, Portugal all going out in the group stages. The other finalists, Argentina, also didn't win a game by more than a single goal.

Even in 2008 with that incredible Spain team, they beat Russia by 3 goals twice, but other than that, all of their games were won by a single goal. Spain in 2012 and France in 2018 were probably the ones I remember most where the clear favourite won it fairly comfortably.

It's also completely normal for big teams not to show up (especially current champions) and for a decent team that people didn't fancy to win it. Whoever wins this tournament now will be someone that was kind of written off before the tournament. An Italy team with none of the great stars of the past. The worst Spanish team in years. An unfancied Denmark. And an England that haven't won anything for decades.

But whatever happens, that's now back-to-back semi-finals for England, which is progress compared to what we've achieved for most of my life. And it seems that they might have actually done a decent job in youth development. A lot of the squad nowadays know each other from the youth setup and have played together before. In the mid-2000s, we probably had a better squad of individuals, but this team is better.

 

[bluemoon32]

You need to go on and win it now, losing in a semi or a final isn't achieving anything.
Take the opportunity, i think you will

 

[bluenova]

Pickford a few times looked like his Everton self on a few occasions during the Ukraine game. Better sides would really punish that. The two early group stages wasn't too clever either. Germany game was even. Muller's miss was crucial. Not as straight forward or secure as results suggest.

I thought he did well against Ukraine - his worst moment being the wonky clearance, but that ball was high and spinning when he reached it, and reaching it was his priority.

That Muller chance was also really tough, and Pickford did what was expected. Muller was being caught by players either side, so all he could do was run in a straight line and had no chance to round the keeper, or even slow down to chip Pickford. He was also so far out that Pickford had plenty of time to come off his line.

Muller had to wait till Pickford was close enough that he couldn't react to save, but not too close that he closed off site of the goal. In the end, Muller was still 20 yards+ from the goal when he had to shoot, and at that distance the angle was really narrow.

The shot had an xG of 0.37, and I think that's generous.

 

[RayCTID]

I thought he did well against Ukraine - his worst moment being the wonky clearance, but that ball was high and spinning when he reached it, and reaching it was his priority.

That Muller chance was also really tough, and Pickford did what was expected. Muller was being caught by players either side, so all he could do was run in a straight line and had no chance to round the keeper, or even slow down to chip Pickford. He was also so far out that Pickford had plenty of time to come off his line.

Muller had to wait till Pickford was close enough that he couldn't react to save, but not too close that he closed off site of the goal. In the end, Muller was still 20 yards+ from the goal when he had to shoot, and at that distance the angle was really narrow.

The shot had an xG of 0.37, and I think that's generous.

He can still be really shaky under the slightest bit of pressure. Both Italy and Spain will target the keeper.

 

[Cobra]

He can still be really shaky under the slightest bit of pressure. Both Italy and Spain will target the keeper.

Presumably we’d also target the Spain keeper then seeing as how he made one of the biggest howlers in the tournament so far.

 

[RayCTID]

So basically England who are apparently not that good - should not be letting sides have any chances at all in the whole match. Right.

Battered a knackered Ukraine side

 

[RayCTID]

Presumably we’d also target the Spain keeper then seeing as how he made one of the biggest howlers in the tournament so far.

Spain will press Pickford more and keep the ball better than England but it is the more winnable game for England.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Battered a knackered Ukraine side

Think all the teams have tiredness in them, for whatever reason. I don't understand why you have to constantly piss on the parade. You moan that we only scrape games, then we hit 4 and you still find a reason to moan. I think we have to get better, but even if I disagree with the team setup et Al, you can't disagree that we're doing alright.