England vs Denmark

[Jonathan]

But nobody is making excuses for the Danes.

Bizarre how these discussions go.

I suppose it was the bit where you attributed England’s win to “a slice of luck” that kind of gives that impression. But fair play.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I didn't  "attribute" England's win to anything. I commented that most tournament winners need a slice of luck at times and England unquestionably got one with the penalty. Overall, England were comfortably the better side and easily deserved the win. But that doesn't always happen.

England got a bit of luck last night which helped. That doesn't mean I think Denmark were unlucky.

[Alan Southstand]

As much as Italy we’re lucky to beat Spain, as Spain played them off the park.

[steve@dcfd]

It will be interesting when we see the dark arts from Italians on Sunday throwing them selves to the floor. They are Avery good side so they don’t have to do that. The video of immobile rolling on the floor then jumping up after that was cheating yet nobody as said anything about that from UEFA

[BillyStubbsTears]

Italy got several slices of luck with some shocking Spanish finishing. I don't think that makes Spain unlucky. Their finishing was awful and finishing is a rather important part of the game.

[dickos1]

Social media is awash with clowns saying nonsense like we got there despite of southgate not because of him.
Absolute shite
He’s proving himself to be a great manager.

Just got my ticket for Sunday,
Can’t wait

[selby]

Have a great enjoyable day dickos

[Colemans Left Hook]

whilst i was confident England would beat Germany 3-0   my tea leaves just say England will win eventually .. just been thinking about Braithwaite when he played for Championship Middlesbrough

we laughed when Barcelona signed Braithwaite

i even did a thread on him   ..... worth a read to calm the nerves

https://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=276240.msg950090#msg950090

well the tea leaves got it right "eventually"   my worry about Pickford was even proved right -- his geography is worse than Akinfenwas --- not knowing where the centre of the goal is for a free kick ( a possible point to defend him is the use of new balls in the semis -- the commentaor droppped that in mid-game)

After the final we will probably hear stories about Kane continually taking pain killers for some injury (ankle ?) never had a doubt England would win in the end

England to repeat have covac on their side as the invisible 12th man ....... remember this

A "COVID-19: Dublin stripped of Euro 2020 fixtures as UEFA unable to get 'assurances' on coronavirus measures" England should as we all know have played Germany in Dublin 

B Southgate had his mind made up for him on the left back slot thanks to the Chelsea pairs 20 minute conversation with the Scot
remem ber what happened when england had to pick a new cricket team   -- letting them back in the bubble was too big a risk -
C    thanks to covac ---  less German fans and Italian fans at Wembley

and the ball boys have a big part to play (again)


oh forgot and England had the easier half of the route to the final

just to say well done to Pickford in the final he alone did enough to win the final for England  - keep thinking that last penalty save was the best i had ever seen truely remarkable save

[scawsby steve]

whilst i was confident England would beat Germany 3-0   my tea leaves just say England will win eventually .. just been thinking about Braithwaite when he played for Championship Middlesbrough

we laughed when Barcelona signed Braithwaite

i even did a thread on him   ..... worth a read to calm the nerves

https://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=276240.msg950090#msg950090

well the tea leaves got it right "eventually"   my worry about Pickford was even proved right -- his geography is worse than Akinfenwas --- not knowing where the centre of the goal is for a free kick ( a possible point to defend him is the use of new balls in the semis -- the commentaor droppped that in mid-game)

After the final we will probably hear stories about Kane continually taking pain killers for some injury (ankle ?) never had a doubt England would win in the end

England to repeat have covac on their side as the invisible 12th man ....... remember this

A "COVID-19: Dublin stripped of Euro 2020 fixtures as UEFA unable to get 'assurances' on coronavirus measures" England should as we all know have played Germany in Dublin 

B Southgate had his mind made up for him on the left back slot thanks to the Chelsea pairs 20 minute conversation with the Scot
remem ber what happened when england had to pick a new cricket team   -- letting them back in the bubble was too big a risk -
C    thanks to covac ---  less German fans and Italian fans at Wembley

and the ball boys have a big part to play (again)


oh forgot and England had the easier half of the route to the final

just to say well done to Pickford in the final he alone did enough to win the final for England  - keep thinking that last penalty save was the best i had ever seen truely remarkable save

Exactly. What a shame his mates let him down.

[dickos1]

I don’t think any of them let him down Steve

[scawsby steve]

I don’t think any of them let him down Steve

What? He makes 2 fantastic saves and still ends up on the losing side? Also, why does this happen to us so many times?

Why is it that Germany never sh*t the bed in penalty shoot-outs, and we almost always do?

[dickos1]

Missing a penalty is not letting anyone down.
It’s not happened to us for a long time, could be wrong but I think maybe not for around 13 years

[dickos1]

Actually I am wrong it’s 9 years, but a further 4 years after that
So it’s not really something that happens to us so many times

[scawsby steve]

Actually I am wrong it’s 9 years, but a further 4 years after that
So it’s not really something that happens to us so many times

We've only ever won 2.

[dickos1]

Out of how many over how long a period?
We’ve won 2 over the last 3 years

[BillyStubbsTears]

Actually I am wrong it’s 9 years, but a further 4 years after that
So it’s not really something that happens to us so many times

We've only ever won 2.

We have won 2 and lost 7 over 31 years.

But I'm not sure I would read too much into that. It's small numbers.

If you flipped a coin 9 times, it wouldn't be shocking to get 2 heads and 7 tails. But if you flipped it 90 times, it would be extremely unusual to get 20 heads and 70 tails.

Similarly, over a very long run, just purely on chance I would expect England to be successful much more that 2/9th of the time. And Germany wouldn't win 7/9ths of the time like they have done so far.

Come back in 2421 and see what the record looks like then. 

[RoversAlias]

Three wins in shoot-outs, isn't it? Spain at Euro 96, Colombia at WC 2018 and Switzerland in the Nations League. Two of those three under Southgate.

[BillyStubbsTears]

The Nations League really isn't a top level competition.

[dickos1]

It’s definitely a top level competition as it follows a similar process as the euros with qualification. It’s also much harder to get to the final as qualifying is lot tougher.
I agree though it’s not viewed in the same light as a euros or a World Cup so wouldn’t be the same pressure on those penalty takers

[RoversAlias]

The Nations League really isn't a top level competition.

All four teams who got to the semi-final wanted to win it, and played their strongest teams. It is a top level competition even if nowhere near the same prestige as the Euros or World Cup.

We can't just cherry-pick matches and tournaments to suit our arguments.

[Chris Black come back]

I’ve made this point earlier. I’m not that worried about Brazil or Argentina, when a World Cup is held outside the Americas. We are realistically competing against primarily European sides for the next tournament. Nations League is maybe not played with same intensity, but it is against the same people by and large that will make up the Qatar semi finalists I would suspect.

[scawsby steve]

When England play in the knockout stages of the Nations League, do people get as nervous and pumped up as they do in the Euros and World Cup? Of course not; I can't remember anyone even talking about it.

Secondary competition, designed mainly for the smaller nations.

[dickos1]

To be fair it’s only just started and I think it’s more for the bigger nations. Gives them games that matter rather than meaningless friendlies.
The tournament when we got to the semis was great and we beat some big nations like Spain along the way

[Janso]

When England play in the knockout stages of the Nations League, do people get as nervous and pumped up as they do in the Euros and World Cup? Of course not; I can't remember anyone even talking about it.

Secondary competition, designed mainly for the smaller nations.

In the last group game against I think Croatia, Wembley got pretty damn excited, for a Wembley crowd at least. Especially when we got to a scoreline that meant we could either go down or get to the semi finals.

[NickDRFC]

If somebody asked me to list England wins I’ve seen in shoot outs that Swiss game wouldn’t even occur to me. Is the Nations League better than a friendly? Yes. Does it hold the same interest, pressure or excitement as the World Cup or Euros? Nowhere near. It will probably evolve at some stage to get closer but right now it’s closer to the friendly end of the scale than either of the historic tournaments.

[dickos1]

I don’t think anyone is suggesting it’s a tournament of the same stature, the only
Point was the teams are of the same quality as they are the same teams. So to do well in the nations league deserves credit, especially as it’s extremely difficult to qualify for