UEFA Euro 2024

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It's coming up. Who are you supporting? Who do you think will win? Who gets the golden boot?

How you feeling for your teams chances? I'm not massively into international footy but a tournament is always a laugh.

I have France winning the lot. Maybeee Kane for golden boot. Yeah that'll do. I'll be supporting The Netherlands I reckon.

Yep Southgate is a man with an awful lot of luck....unbelievable turn around. But it doesnt change anything; as shown by the immediate reaction to going 2-1 up. Drop deeper and deeper & invite the pressure on.

Fully expect to see Gallagher & a defender come on shortly. Probably hook off Kane & Bellingham in a show of the "time to defend" mentality!

Think you might have to because the shape is a little bit confused

Poor from England since the goal. Just inviting that pressure and Slovakia spurned a great chance...albeit may have been offside. And the players on the field don't match England's mentality.

It's just...why not try and kill the game with a third? Did this sitting back against Serbia and against Denmark, both times it didn't end well.

Not over yet. Need to keep playing rather than just sit back.

Kane off it looks like

Wow.....its like Southgate is easy too read ‍�‍�

2 penalty takers off.....while essentially sitting back...could well come back to bite Southgate. Another clear indicator the man is as tactically inept as they come.

Slovakia are going to score......

Frak hell

Never in doubt

Well if you ask George Russell it's better to be lucky than good.

Pick the bones. Maybe stumbled upon a plan with 3 at the back. If Gareth lines up like that against the Swiss we won't be close enough to be lucky

How did we do that? Talk about rather being lucky than good.

Well somehow England go through to the quarters....obviously great that we are still in tournament....but nothing has changed. If anything even more questions from this display, more weaknesses shown. Most importantly the questions asked of Southgates ability to get the best out of this team & make decisions at the right time, well they have been firmly answered tonight.

The Swiss will be licking their chops at the thought of England in the next round and I fully expect us to be brushed to one side.

England get out of jail. Utterly abysmal performance.

Let's remember, Slovakia are not France, Spain or Germany. They are 45th in the world. And they probably deserved to win.

Southgate is utterly clueless. He doesn't learn, he doesn't adapt, and he can't read a game. He barely made any changes when required. He picked the wrong XI. And he got England to sit back after taking the lead. Horrendous manager.

Not sure what the Slovakian manager is unhappy with. Why's he confronting the referee? The referee gave an enormous helping hand to Slovakia, when he failed to send off their number 19, who made two YC offences whilst on a yellow. And England, again, were too polite about it.

England, out of jail, not sure how much further they can go. No Guehi for the QF.

Especially without Guehi and probably Trippier

GSC wrote:Especially without Guehi and probably Trippier

Trippier has been awful anyhow so not a big miss quite frankly. Kyle Walker would be lucky to start next game too.

I'd be playing Trent on the right & Gomez (who has played more football & at left back than Trippier anyhow) left next game.

Thats on the assumption Southgate sticks to 4 at the back & given he barely changed anything until 83rd minute tonight despite 4 & 3/4 games of pathetic football, we all know he wont do anything drastic next game either.

Just leave Saka at LB

Seriously what was the point in bringing one LB who you can't even bring on for 30 mins by the last 16

Still shaking my head at it. England had zero shots on target, zero, until Bellingham's goal, and Southgate only made one change in the first 83 minutes...and it was injury enforced.

I can't fathom ineptitude like that. It's maybe ok to hold back on the changes if a team is creating a bucketload of chances, but England were far from doing that. What is Southgate's rationale behind it?

Then when England burgled the lead, Southgate showed that he learnt the square root of nothing from Serbia and Denmark and ordered the retreat. But he didn't actually make any changes in the first half of ET to support that retreat, so England were left with a dangerously unbalanced mess of a side.

It's comical how bad Southgate is, how far out of his depth he is, but equally amazing how lucky he gets. England should be out, but they're not. England should never have topped the group with just two goals and five points, but they did. Germany have to play Spain, and France/Belgium will probably get a tricky Portugal in the QFs, but England get a very winnable tie v Switzerland.

Konsa in for Guehi is one change that I think will happen. If England stick with the same shape, I'd expect Trent to come in for Trippier, with Walker going to the left. I don't think Saka works as a LB in a flat four, but might work as a LWB in a five, but does Southgate want to alter the shape this late? Not expecting other changes, but I'd get Foden and Kane out of the team. Kane is absolutely fu**ed fitness wise and his first touch was diabolical today. I'd put Toney into start.

England 10/11 Draw 12/5 Switzerland 3/1 (90 minutes)

England 4/9 to qualify; Switzerland 7/4

For those who like Switzerland's chances...

How the Frak are Georgia winning

Spain should win this at a canter but Georgia have enough bite when they get out to keep it interesting

Bloody good stuff. Southgate is the best England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey. The genius which has seen England stun the likes of Sweden and Ukraine in previous tournaments should be enough to brush aside Switzerland on the way to heroic failure later in the tournament.

4-1 in the end for Spain. Nice win, but Georgia gave it a bloody good try.

Ah England.

From despair to delight. Resigned to a humiliating exit only for Bellingham to produce moment of magic. Kane seals win.

Never in doubt....

Duty281 wrote:Yep, 45 minutes for Southgate to save his England career. This will be worse than Euro 2016 if England go out here. But still time to save it.

There's been some bright spots from Mainoo and Bellingham. Little flickers, but nothing more. They do worry the Slovakians when they get on the run at them. Mainoo needs to get further up.

England's left isn't working. You know it, I know it, somehow Gareth doesn't, but maybe he'll wake up now? Need Gordon on that left side. Need Trippier removed as well.

Saka, once again, has had little to no support from Walker. He's been isolated, but has shown some link up ability with Mainoo. A bizarre number of long balls have been hit to Saka.

Back four have all been dreadful in defence. Slovakia have eased off since the goal, a classic mistake, they were really hurting England on the counter before.

Give Kane another 20, then he needs to come off as well. England definitely risking a red, also, with how many cards are being produced.

Slovakia are going to be regretting that for a long time to come. You're never safe when there's only one goal in it. Once again, a side fails to make an extremely wobbly England pay the price. None of that is England's fault of course, but can they expect to ride their luck all the way to the final?

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Yep, 45 minutes for Southgate to save his England career. This will be worse than Euro 2016 if England go out here. But still time to save it.

There's been some bright spots from Mainoo and Bellingham. Little flickers, but nothing more. They do worry the Slovakians when they get on the run at them. Mainoo needs to get further up.

England's left isn't working. You know it, I know it, somehow Gareth doesn't, but maybe he'll wake up now? Need Gordon on that left side. Need Trippier removed as well.

Saka, once again, has had little to no support from Walker. He's been isolated, but has shown some link up ability with Mainoo. A bizarre number of long balls have been hit to Saka.

Back four have all been dreadful in defence. Slovakia have eased off since the goal, a classic mistake, they were really hurting England on the counter before.

Give Kane another 20, then he needs to come off as well. England definitely risking a red, also, with how many cards are being produced.

Slovakia are going to be regretting that for a long time to come. You're never safe when there's only one goal in it. Once again, a side fails to make an extremely wobbly England pay the price. None of that is England's fault of course, but can they expect to ride their luck all the way to the final?

With the draw they've got, you never know. If they'd played Germany it would already be home time.

They do have to improve for Switzerland. The concerning thing is England are not showing signs of improvement. In fact, the opposite. I'd say they've actually regressed from the Serbia game, and they've learnt nothing about tempo or mentality from previous games, and had no reaction to the rubbish served up in the group stages, which makes you wonder what Southgate/Holland are doing in between games.

Still, beat Switzerland and one of Romania/Turkey/Netherlands/Austria and England are in a final. Can't ask for much simpler to reach a final, with all the big hitters in the top half.

Nothing can change my mind that Southgate should be sacked for the performance last night, regardless of the result in the end.

Waiting until the 94th minute to put Ivan Toney on was scandalous, the fact it went to Extra Time meant he was actually able to make an impact, but it's just common sense to chuck on an extra striker when chasing a game a lot earlier than with 2 minutes of injury time to go.

Didn't actually realise at the time, but Germany/Denmark was Clive Tyldesley's last commentary for ITV. End of an era.

France v Belgium in a little bit. Will Lukaku fluff more chances from close range? Can France finally find their touch?

Still fancy France as favourites for the tournament, though their odds have drifted to 13/2.

Worry if Spain perhaps have a soft underbelly, Georgia looked like they could create good chances everytime they got out. Germans haven't quite convinced since battering Scotland. France at least know how to win

Three yellows in 24 minutes. Same ref as yesterday?

France swamping Belgium, but not yet finding the final ball. There's a few nice touches and flicks, Kounde's doing really well down the right, but nothing definitive.

Difficult to work out the Belgian plan. Doku the only one who looks a threat

France need something a bit different to break down Belgium, it's all a bit snap shots and half chances ATM. Maybe Giroud

This ref is making some interesting calls

Fortunate goal, but perhaps deserved. De Bruyne denied by a good save just prior to that.

France the aggressors in the game and probably deserved it? Was a struggle though, poor game overall.

Doku did his best, de Bruyne and Lukaku abysmal

France grind it out. 1-0 and into the next round. Not impressive, not va va voom, but sufficient. Will probably be similar for their next game if they come up against Portugal. Not playing to the full sum of their parts just yet.

Belgium, it's now ten years since they started qualifying regularly for tournaments, and go into them with genuine hope, but it's a familiar end of heartbreak and pain. Lukaku's hold up play was woeful, and I thought De Bruyne played too deep.

owen10ozzy wrote:2 penalty takers off.....while essentially sitting back...could well come back to bite Southgate. Another clear indicator the man is as tactically inept as they come.

Shame you're not in charge of all England sports teams Owen, you seem to have all the answers to everything. Have you sent a CV to the FA?

We were playing with 2 CBs, a RB, one CM, 3 wingers, one 10 and 2 forwards lmao

I think somebody had to be sacrificed for actual shape

This pitch is Poopie

Going to be extremely funny if Portugal lose this game because their top priority is to get Ronaldo a goal

Ronaldo has taken Stevie Me and multiplied it by a factor of 100.

The amount of times he has taken opportunities away from much better players tonight is unbelievable. If he doesn't retire, Portugal will keep playing him until his 80s.

0-0. If ever a game looked destined for penalties...

Portugal get a sh**house penalty and Ronaldo's effort is saved.

WTF is he crying for?

Duty281 wrote:Portugal get a sh**house penalty and Ronaldo's effort is saved.

WTF is he crying for?

I know. Not even a few tears. A full on meltdown.

F*cking baby.

0-0, penalties it is. Both teams with great chances in ET. Slight advantage to Slovenia, perhaps, with Oblak in goal and Ronaldo unable to see through his watery eyes.

Wow, awful penalties from Slovenia. Not sure I've seen a shootout end at the earliest possible point before.

Slovenia exit unbeaten, like NZ in 2010. France should beat Portugal.

Portugal get away with it. Seskos miss in ET will haunt him.

France Portugal in a rematch from the final 8 years ago. Neither playing particularly well. Does Martinez have the balls to drop Ronaldo? Is he allowed to? Because they're a better team without him. Got 0-0 written all over it atm

Lot of talk about sides of the draw, mostly there's a lot of teams playing some pretty average football tbh

GSC wrote:Lot of talk about sides of the draw, mostly there's a lot of teams playing some pretty average football tbh

Indeed. Not just England that can't actually score goals then, eh ?

Seen too many of these things to try picking a winner this early. But Spain and Germany seem to have been the only teams (of the "big" nations , anyway) to really live up to their pre-tournament status - so far. So Friday will be a big occasion.