The Official *England to Euro 2012 Glory* Thread

[Duty281]

First topic message reminder :

46 years of hurt will end on the 1 July 2012 for this is England's time! The foreign enemy will pale at the sight of England's mighty warriors who will all be heroes over the next 6 weeks and become legends.

Yes, many may point to weaknesses in the squad but what do I see?

I see a team with quite possibly the greatest keeper in the World at the moment. A team with the greatest left back in the world. A defence full of men, full of leaders and full of warriors that will fight for the cause! A midfield general by the name of Steven Gerrard - a Champions League winner - who will lead England to that next step. Backing him will be another Champions League winner, Frank Lampard who has played against the best this season and beaten them and Scotty Parker, the glue in England's midfield. A team that has two very exciting and talented wingers - the Ox and Ashley Young who could be as great as John Barnes and Paul Gascoigne respectfully. A strikeforce led by Wayne Rooney who is one of the best and the most feared in the World at the minute backed up by his clubmate Danny Welbeck and a proven international goalscorer Jermain Defoe. The fearless band of players will be led by the impeccable Roy Hodgson, a man with international experience and someone who's actually English.

Then I take a look at the other 15 teams in the tournament and this is what I see:

France - Terrible World Cup and going nowhere fast. 1-0 England.
Sweden - Didn't qualify for the last World Cup. Next.
Ukraine - A test as their on home soil but I would still back England.

And the rest:

Poland - Won't make it out of their group.
Greece - Read above.
Russia - Probably won't meet England but if they do a 2-0 victory for England.
Czech Republic - Read above.

Holland - Tough but not good defensively, 2-1 England if the two ever should meet.
Denmark - Won't make it past the group stages.
Germany - Possible semi-final, don't think a dodgy Uruguayan will deny England this time.
Portugal - Will be edged out by Holland in the group. Bye bye Ronaldo, don't cry.

Spain - Tap, tap, tap. Play like Barca and will crumble like Barca as well.
Italy - Probable quarter-final, and it should be 2-0 England. Remember Italy-New Zealand?
Ireland - Sorry Ireland, you'll finish 3rd.
Croatia - Won't make it out of the group.

So yeah, that's how I see it. The probable path will be:

GS: France (1-0 England)
GS: Sweden (2-0 England)
GS: Ukraine (1-1 England)
QF: Italy (2-0 England)
SF: Germany (3-2 England)
F: Spain (1-0 England)

Come on England!

Spoiler:

[JamesLincs]

id love to see milner..

on a bus..

then a plane..

back to manchester

[Josiah Maiestas]

id love to see milner..

on a bus..

then a plane..

back to manchester

If he can earn that much being a "footballer" then there is hope for every sunday league player. He's a league 2 player at best.

[mystiroakey]

do you really believe that?

[Duty281]

Why does Milner get so much hate? Our best crosser of the ball and has given two decent performances.

[JamesLincs]

decent? think you should look up the description of that word in a dictionary mate

[Duty281]

Dictionary definition of 'Decent':

adequate; fair; passable:

Which is what Milner is. He'll never set the World on fire for England but he'll do his job with a minimum of fuss, tracking back and going forward in equal measure.

[Postie]

Presuming Rooney starts v Ukraine, who do you think he will replace ?

Am guessing Carroll, but Young looked a bit out of sorts against Sweden.I would be tempted to stick with Carroll and Welbeck, with Rooney playing in the pocket between the forwards and a 3 man midfield.

Flip side is that we may struggle with just 3 dedicated midfielders, but considering the opposition I think we should get plenty of possession and therefore create lots of chances.

"If" we can win and increase our GD more, then we might top the group, which would hopefully avoid Spain in the quarters..All ifs and buts I know....

[Crimey]

I think he'll replace Carroll, but I agree it'd be nice to see him replace Young who has been in dreadful form, but I think we'd lose the width in the side unfortunately.

[Duty281]

Another big step to glory takes place tomorrow, beating the co-hosts and getting out of the groups. From there it's clear knock-out football. My (slightly altered) prediction: England 2-0 Ukraine (Rooney, Gerrard)

[Liam]

England desperately need to win the group. I still don't think they'd win it but if they don't have to play Spain then anything is possible. Hopefully someone else will put out Spain, maybe Germany in the Semi's. Will be a tough game tomorrow in front of a partisan crowd, with a team who will not want to let their fans down in their own back yard. I think if England play a counter attack game they will beat Ukraine hands down.

[Duty281]

England desperately need to win the group. I still don't think they'd win it but if they don't have to play Spain then anything is possible. Hopefully someone else will put out Spain, maybe Germany in the Semi's. Will be a tough game tomorrow in front of a partisan crowd, with a team who will not want to let their fans down in their own back yard. I think if England play a counter attack game they will beat Ukraine hands down.

To me it matters little if we win the group or finish second. Let's take the favoured route and say Italy and Spain both win tonight. In that case, if we come second our probable route is:

Spain then Portugal then Germany

If we come first our probable route is:

Italy then Germany then Spain

There's little to no difference in the route.

[Liam]

I thought if England win the group they are in the other side of the draw. Any who if they get out they would have done more than I expected tbh. If Rooney can find a bit of form then who knows.

Also I think Milner's done ok and for me I would always use Walcott as a super sub. Milner can do the hard yards and when other players are starting to tire, then bring on Theo who's pace as showed against Sweden, will cause all sorts of problems. I don't think he's good enough to play from the start, he won't have much of an impact.

[Liam]

If England come second, its Spain then probably Portugal.

If England win the group its probably Italy, then Germany.

[mystiroakey]

id rather italy germany to be honest.

[Duty281]

Everything's been unbalanced by the hosts being allocated top seedings.

[Liam]

id rather italy germany to be honest.

Definately, mind you, if somehow they can beat Spain then they would play either the Czechs or the Portuguese. Obviously bad history with Portugal but they would have a better chance if they got through to play Germany.

I don't know. Eveything tells me England shouldn't win but looking at the other teams they have all showed signs of vulnerability. Spain were up against it when against Italy, who then struggled against Croatia who ripped apart ROI as did Spain who have one of the best squads ever assembled in my view. France haven't been great and Germany have also shown signs of vulnerability. Every team can be got at so I still think its wide open.

[mystiroakey]

I would love to play germany.. I can see england giving italy a really tough game and a possible win. Dont really know what to expect from a spainish game in knock outs. I feel as though we would have 30% possesion - defend exeptionally well but give away a zillion free kicks which would ultimately cost us

[Liam]

Italy have shown they are a decent side so far and have some good players and set up well. Key is they keep the ball well, something England haven't done so far. What it does is relieves the pressure when up against it. England needed to do that against Sweden and didn't and had their backs up against the wall.

I still think Spain and Germany are the teams to beat but you can't write off Portugal, they looked good last night and if Ronaldo can continue the form shown against Holland then they will be a threat. And don't write off the mighty GREEKS! can't wait for their game against Germany for obvious reasons haha

[mystiroakey]

we won the swedish game so thats all that matters..

we need to up our game to certain opposition. But in fairness to england they normally allways do. We dont allways win but we rarely loose in normal time or be it by a goal.

I am not righting of any team- and i include greece in that as well

[mystiroakey]

people worry way to much about how we play. Football is a results business and england are ranked 6th because we are the 6th best team at getting them...

[Duty281]

Halfway there. Just 3 games from glory, Italy on Sunday. Tight game, Rooney nicking a goal with about 10 minutes left. Another heroic defensive effort to come to pass I think, John Terry the warrior in the thick of it!

England 1-0 Italy

[Duty281]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

[Duty281]

Express yourself
Create the space
You know you can win
Don't give up the chase

Beat the man
Take him on
You never give up
Its one on one

Express yourself
Its one on one
Express yourself
Its one on one
Express yourself
You can't be wrong
When somethings good
Its never gone

You've got to hold and give
But do it at the right time
You can be slow or fast
But you must get to the line
They'll always hit you and hurt you
Defend and attack
Theres only one way to beat them
Get round the back
Catch me if you can
Cos' I'm the England man
And what you're looking at
Is the master plan
We ain't no hooligans
This ain't a football song
Three lions on my chest
I know we can't go wrong

We're playing for England {IN-GER-LAND}
We're playing the song
We're singing for England {IN-GER-LAND}
Arrivederci its one on one...

We can do it England, we can.

[Jennifer1984]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

England were semi finalists in 1968, in Florence, Italy and lost 0 - 1 to Yugoslavia. Admittedly, the competition wasn't played in a tournament format at that time, but your statement wasn't entirely accurate so I thought I'd just point that out.

Incidentally, in that match, Alan Mullery became the first England player ever to be sent off in an international. Just a bit of gratuitous trivia there, for good measure.


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[Leff]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

England has never a won a knock-out match in a tournament on a foreign soil.

[mystiroakey]

leff we have in 1990- obviously- we got to a semi

also what you may not realise is that world cups are 32 teams- there is a knock out match at a last 16 - They for all the quarter finlas we have got to we have won knock out matches- not sure who you came to your statement- but its very wrong

[Duty281]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

England has never a won a knock-out match in a tournament on a foreign soil.

Um, Ecuador 2006, Denmark 2002, Belgium and Cameroon 1990.

[Duty281]

He says he knows how good you are, you know how good you are. It's time to prove how good you are. Make no mistake, it's you eleven men, eleven Englishmen, against the rest of the World. A World that can't wait to dump you out and rub your noses in it.

You'll know this, that shirt you're wearing, your countrymen would give anything to put it on. Jack knew how to wear it and when and so can you. Who says you can't conquer all? Who says you can't be a World beater twice? Remember your history, it's gonna take bottle, but if you stand tall you'll make them regret the day they took on England.

So be strong, and do it for your country, for the fans, for Bobby...

Enough talk, time for action, we haven't come here to be tourists! Men of England... it's time to join the immortals.

If Carlsberg did team talks...

[mystiroakey]

Sweden have some outstanding players and England always struggle against them. If England make it out of that very tough group it can be seen as progress under Roy.

very tough? couldnt have been much better other than group A. we avoided the top teams who were top seeds. france wasnt great but are not the force they once were. now group B and C are tough groups. for the euro's its about the best we could hope for, but then again so was the world cup group and barely made it out of there

Rubbish. Sorry how would group c have been tougher than ours. Croatia and Ireland. Are you having a laugh mate..

[Thomond]

England had the second easiest group in the competition. Any one who says otherwise is a bit of a lunatic.

[John Cregan]

England had the second easiest group in the competition. Any one who says otherwise is a bit of a lunatic.

The second easiest group out of 4 groups?? What's your point??

Fair play to them for winning the group. It really was an even group, with 4 good teams - no outstanding teams - only 2 outstanding teams in the comp - Germany and Spain.

I hope England get past Italy, i expect it to be an intruiging game............2 good defences, 2 outstanding goalkeepers. Both teams good on the break - especially when England get Walcott/Oxlade Chamberlin on..............

[mystiroakey]

yep second easiet by a bit. but to try and compare englands group as easy and groups c's as tough is insane- the two worse teams in the group were possibly better than in spains group

very comparable groups.

i think people assume that england would have replaced ireland in the group- no they would repace italy!

people need to get a grip on this.

[Thomond]

People were saying England had a tough group, they didn't. England are doing well, they have a solid defence and a good keeper. Midfield is an area where they struggle a bit Gerrard is playing well but if Parker is a defensive mid, I don't think he is doing a great job at it. I think England need to stop hitting these Hollywood passes and keep it on the deck. Look at Wellbeck's goal agains the Ukraine to see what happens when they play it around. Too often they hit wild passes.


Best of luck to them tonight, all I was saying is that it wasn't an exceedingly tough group.

[mystiroakey]

no one has said it was a tough group- someone mentioned it before the tourny - saying it was tough for england!!

SR is a poster that is quite pesimistic about englands level.

there was only one tough group for the top seeds and one very very easy one.

2 were on a relative par

this has been proved by the qualfiers

2 seeds out of the easy group and one seed out of the top group.

anyway england topped theres and they cant ask for much more but the fact is based on that fact. I think its very fair to say that they would have come out of group c(yes realistically in second spot behind spain)

[JamesLincs]

lol i like how you say the second easiest, as if there were like 30 groups, when actually there were 4

[mystiroakey]

its the third hardest ..and lets be honest not even by that much

[Duty281]

Sir Bobby Charlton now believes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18568571

[Leff]

leff we have in 1990- obviously- we got to a semi

also what you may not realise is that world cups are 32 teams- there is a knock out match at a last 16 - They for all the quarter finlas we have got to we have won knock out matches- not sure who you came to your statement- but its very wrong

Of course, you are right about that semifinal loss to Germany.

[Leff]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

England has never a won a knock-out match in a tournament on a foreign soil.

Um, Ecuador 2006, Denmark 2002, Belgium and Cameroon 1990.

You are right.

Just curious, have we ever won a penalty shoot-out in the knock-out stages of tournament on a foreign soil?

[mystiroakey]

leff we have in 1990- obviously- we got to a semi

also what you may not realise is that world cups are 32 teams- there is a knock out match at a last 16 - They for all the quarter finlas we have got to we have won knock out matches- not sure who you came to your statement- but its very wrong

Of course, you are right about that semifinal loss to Germany.

Why did you have such a skewed view on England's performances.

[Leff]

Not skewed view. I misread a newspaper article. That's all.

[Leff]

Italy vs England in Men's A matches:

Won - Italy 9, England 7
Drawn - 6
Goals - Italy 26, England 26

This is a tough one to predict based on history as well as current form.

[Duty281]

England have never made a Semi-Final of a European Championship on foriegn soil, tomorrow that changes. Come on England!

England has never a won a knock-out match in a tournament on a foreign soil.

Um, Ecuador 2006, Denmark 2002, Belgium and Cameroon 1990.

You are right.

Just curious, have we ever won a penalty shoot-out in the knock-out stages of tournament on a foreign soil?

No, I think we've only won 1 pen shoot out of 6. The one we won was against Spain at the Quarter Finals of Euro 96 at Wembley.

[Leff]

What is Italy's record in penalty shootouts in tournaments? As for WC, they didn't do well except in the 2006 final vs France without Zidane.

[mystiroakey]

Not good but it's all immaterial.. there are a very good wc side obviously.. both teams will be well up for it. It will be a stark comparison to yesterday's game

[Guest]

Penalties are a complete lottery but I fear it's going to go to them.

Duty, I have a strong feeling I am going to be sending you a cheque for 200 quid come next Monday me old china!

[mobilemaster8]

Why does Milner get so much hate? Our best crosser of the ball and has given two decent performances.

Is this comment a urine take?


Milner stats vs Sweden - 80% pass completion, 40% cross completion (good stats for the "best" crosser of the ball).

On a separate note, he has been our worst player at this tournament. The only good thing he can do is run for 90 mins. That gets you goals!

Walcott had 20 mins on the pitch against sweden. He managed a goal, an assist, a higher pass rate................AND................100% Cross connection (5/5).


Pipe down.

[mobilemaster8]

People were saying England had a tough group, they didn't. England are doing well, they have a solid defence and a good keeper. Midfield is an area where they struggle a bit Gerrard is playing well but if Parker is a defensive mid, I don't think he is doing a great job at it. I think England need to stop hitting these Hollywood passes and keep it on the deck. Look at Wellbeck's goal agains the Ukraine to see what happens when they play it around. Too often they hit wild passes.


Best of luck to them tonight, all I was saying is that it wasn't an exceedingly tough group.

This guy has absoluteley no knowledge of football. At all.

Ukraine were the hosts - always going to be a tough game.
Sweden - Top 20 international side who have a fantastic record against England, so to get 3 points was above my expectations (predicted draw)
France - Again, a top 20 interantional side with big players (Ribery, Cabaye, Benzema, Ben Arfa, Evra, Clichy, M'Villa, Nasri etc). Good draw.


Look at group A:

Czech - Not even in the top 20 FIFA rankings
Poland - Hosts......bags of effort so always going cause problems
Russia - Top 20 team - Dont know how they didnt go through
Greece - Who?


Group B:

Group of death.


Group C:

Spain - Ranked number 1 in the world - you can see why
Italy - top 20 side - old players with experience. Not exactly world beaters. Vunerable.
Croatia - Decent side with some good individuals
Ireland - Who?


The point was made earlier....................all of this groups (with exception to Group B) were very close in terms of FIFA rankings, player qualities etc. You could swap them all day long, but they would still be close.


Thats the joy you get from the Euros, there ARE NO easy games.


England to beat Italy 2-0 this evening, then go on to be dominated by an organised German team 3-0.

[Crimey]

Positives of the run:

Gerrard looked like the player of the old in the group stages.
Andy Carroll and Danny Welbeck both got goals and had bright spots, which gives hope for the future.
Roy Hodgson seemed to install some good qualities into the side, looked very strong defensively.
Glen Johnson showed that he is a good defender and justified his selection.
Never lost a game in normal time.


Negatives:

Rooney failed to deliver, looked really haggard by the time he was introduced.
Ashley Young disappointed.
Gave the ball away far too cheaply in every single game.
Out on penalties again! The more times it happens, the more likely we won't ever win.
If Wilshere can't recover from his injuries, we look light of real quality in central midfield. Gerrard, Parker, Lampard, Barry all on the way out.

[Jennifer1984]

People were saying England had a tough group, they didn't. England are doing well, they have a solid defence and a good keeper. Midfield is an area where they struggle a bit Gerrard is playing well but if Parker is a defensive mid, I don't think he is doing a great job at it. I think England need to stop hitting these Hollywood passes and keep it on the deck. Look at Wellbeck's goal agains the Ukraine to see what happens when they play it around. Too often they hit wild passes.


Best of luck to them tonight, all I was saying is that it wasn't an exceedingly tough group.

This guy has absoluteley no knowledge of football. At all.

(post edited in order to clarify the relevant bits of my comment)

England to beat Italy 2-0 this evening,

[b]



I'm often amused by people who start with statements like "this guy has absolutely no knowledge of football" and then go on to display their superior knowledge of the game by making..... er..... wildly inaccurate predictions.

Thank you for putting a smile on my face this morning. Mondays are so much better when somebody gets them off to a good start.


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