World Cup 2018 | 11th July | SF: Croatia vs England Match Thread, KO 19:00 (BST)

[Pingu the Penguin]

Raz probably would miss it!

Appreciate that was light hearted but he must have had about 10 of those this year

*sigh*

 

[hilts]

Agreed. They got further than any of us thought they would.

Anyone slagging them off needs to fuck off.

If only we could have got Saudi Arabia in the semis we would have been in the final, fuck fifa and their corrupt competition.

 

[Dave S]

If we won you would say Croatia are shit and say France only team we played who are any good

Who gives a fuck
We lost
Good luck to Croatia
But why put us down in the process

I’m not putting us down, just telling it like it is.

 

[BlueHammer85]

End of day it’s knockout football. We could have lost to Columbia 5-0 in the last 16 or beat France in the Final. Anything can happen in football.
Southgate and the lads did us proud. We lost. We’re out. Hey ho. Well done England.

 

[SpiritofBurnden]

I’m not putting us down, just telling it like it is.

Were you 'telling it like it is' at half-time or are you one of those hindsight geniuses?

 

[BlueHammer85]

As for the first goal that was not Walker's fault.
It was a good goal rather than a mistake.
Hoddle said he was slow getting his header in, but fcuks sake there was no way he can react quicker than that flick from the guy's outstretched leg.

Agree. Pretty impossible to prevent that.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Croatia were there for the taking France will beat them comfortably.

Bottled it.

France are better than England

Over the last 28 months people seem to use the word ‘bottle’ when the reality is the other team is better

Spurs didn’t ‘bottle’ the FA Cup semi V United, United were just better. Similar to us V Liverpool in the CL

 

[Saddleworth2]

Any city fan can clearly see England’s deficiencies. We have a good defensive back 4. One wing back and one forward (Raz). Need at least 5 more players including at least two good creative midfielders. Southgate has done a great job but he is not a magician.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

If only we could have got Saudi Arabia in the semis we would have been in the final, fuck fifa and their corrupt competition.

Or Wigan in the FA final.
Football doesn't work like that.

 

[BigOscar]

Pretty gutted tbh but I can't complain about the result because the better team won. We absolutely fell apart second half when they pressed us and our complete lack of a midfield that a lot of people had been worrying about came back to bite us as we just couldn't keep the ball. I hate to say it as he seems a nice bloke, but I think Southgate deserves most of the blame as the system just has never been balanced and has never really worked in open play, it just took the first decent midfield we played against to brutally expose that. Kane continued to be standing in his own half trying to play long diagonals instead of being up front, Henderson got exposed for not being able to play under pressure, while Alli and Lingard just went missing. Then he takes off Sterling, the only bright spot in the team for a like for like, but worse, replacement. He just didn't seem capable of making a tactical adjustment.

All in all, a shit day