Euro 2020

[Nu-Eclipse]

Bunch of filthy, yet also brilliant, and brilliant at cheating, cheats.

Yes, because no other teams in the tournament have been cynical at any other time in any way, only the Italians.

Sorry, it just really grinds my gears when English fans (not necessarily you) start getting on a high horse about what is right and wrong about how teams behave on the pitch, especially when England are/can be as cynical as anybody!

[wheelaa]

Fair enough. I'll happily slag any and all off though haha!

Nice freekick

I might just sit in the back garden for a bit...it's compelling viewing, but almost unbearable too, guts turning over and over.

Edit - Bad Harry

[teddymeow]

England looking a bit shaky.

Big. Game. Nerves.

Nice OG by Denmark.

[wheelaa]

Good Harry

(Soft decision...)

[EJG1980]

Worst penalty I’ve seen Harry take for years, but little did I known he was just playing a 1-2 with the keeper

This’ll be a stress free final fifteen minutes I’m sure

—————

Wow, England’s first major final in my lifetime!

I’ve not always liked his football, but hats off to Southgate, a semi-final and now at least a final with England, is a brilliant achievement. He seems like a top bloke too, always glad when someone like that has success.

I would have loved it if Denmark could have got to the final after what happened to Christian Eriksen, it’s a shame today’s match wasn’t one round later, but they did him proud by reaching the semis.

Now just the trivial matter of trying to beat Italy on Sunday!

[fallenangle]

Second major final for me.

Hell's teeth I thought Southgate had blown it again tactically in the second half of extra time with the sub he made. Grealish must have been really pissed off too but the main problem for me was that bringing on Trippier was like telling the Danes England were going to go defensive and try to sit on the lead for the rest of the game.

The Danes were on the rack, they could not live with the Premiership speed football England were playing, which had been absolutely dominant and great to watch for the last 15 minutes of the main game and the first half of extra time.

Then he does that and as Lee Dixon pointed out shifted the whole game back down the pitch towards the England goal. All it would have taken is one over-enthusiastic tackle and they could have had another free kick within shooting range. That was just what they wanted as it was the only way they were likely to score again.

It turned out OK in the end but IMHO it was a stupid gamble.

Still by the skin of our teeth we're in a final, which is nice.

[wheelaa]

Yeah, maybe, maybe not. Denmark were always going to have to press hard ET second half, so he went for someone he rates as better defensively. England have been very good at not conceding recently. Even with Pickford having a poor game, we only shipped one...the first free kick scored this tournament too (out of 30+ direct).

But it was against 10 all the ET second half* so I suppose we could have pressed more ourselves.

I wouldn't have begrudged the Danish a win, but England were the better team overall imo.

*This should probably be in the irk thread but I despise matches on ITV. Woeful commentary today, as always.The ET second half was 10/11 mins in before Lee and whoever even noticed Denmark were playing with 10 (and had been since the ET second half kicked off).

Edit - Opinions are like whatsadoodles...crazy how people see things so differently...well, not really when you think about it, but....

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/07/england-denmark-euro-2020-semi-final-match-report

"But in the second period of extra time there was an unusual sense of comfort as Southgate’s players closed out the game, keeping their composure, taking care of the ball. The statistics showed that Denmark only touched it once inside the England area in those final 15 minutes."

[fallenangle]

"...........sense of comfort........." WTF are they talking about. It was the exact opposite for me and by the sound of it it millions of others too, We were all on tenterhooks waiting for that final whistle and hoping that some England player was not not going to make the mistake which would lead to a goal and the consequent penalty shoot out lottery.

I actually felt relief at the end not elation.

The ITV commentary was not just awful on that ^ sort of thing it seemed almost delayed as if he was getting so over-excited he'd forgotten what he was there for. He burbled on, alarmingly like Alan Partridge, about the importance of the game, how great England were playing and how much it meant to the country and the whole universe in general that he sometimes did not seem to notice what was happening on the pitch.

Several times I found myself articulating out loud at the TV telling him to STFU it had become so annoying.

Too much tongue loosening 'hospitality' before and during the game, possibly?

SUNDAY EDIT

.....................and there it is. Another penalty shoot out failure where I'd have been more surprised if we'd won than what actually happened. I couldn't even watch the last three I just waited for the cries of anguish from neighbouring houses to confirm what I was 99% sure was going to happen after Rashford's miss. The cries indeed came and the rest is now footballing history.

[prinnysquad]

This isn’t going to go down well in some quarters, but Southgate is a very poor tactician.

We have played with freedom for pockets of games. During those periods we looked devastating. No team can cope with the Premier League style of high pressing, fast, intense hustle. Rather than make that our primary tactic, we sat back, and sat back, and sat back, and invited pressure every single game. That may work against mid-level teams, but the Italians had our number. They used the high press on us, and we grew more and more fearful of mistakes. Sadly, though, you invite mistakes when you keep passing it around the back. This has been on the cards for weeks.

The tactics are dour and negative. We set out to match teams. Why? Let them match us. And if they do, then move to Plan B. Don’t make stifling the opposition your Plan A. Play to your strengths. We didn’t. Our strengths aren’t based in our own half. He played two holding midfielders for the entire tournament. No! Just, no. It’s inviting pressure.

I know he’s got a reputation as being a luxury player, but there’s a reason that people clamour for Grealish. He is the only player in that squad bar Foden that can keep the ball and run with it. The opposition were terrified when he was in the box, because he can draw fouls. What exactly is he meant to do coming in late every game? When the team are on the ropes and barely able to get it out of their own half? With an Alamo mentality where they panic and hoof, and certainly don’t support. No other team in the competition would have him on the bench. I’m fact, our bench was ridiculous, and yet woefully underused in the right circumstances. We knew when to make changes - why didn’t Southgate? He needs to look long and hard at this style of play. Our negativity was found out and we lost that game. It looked like we were playing for penalties from about 30 minutes in, which is suicide.

A measure of a team’s intent and tactical nous can be measured by how many goals are scored, or shots attempted, by the ‘attacking midfielder’. The player who supports the front two. How many goals did our midfield score, again? Mount? Grealish? Foden? That’s why Kane was so ineffectual so often. He had to come deep to play that attacking midfielder role. He spent most of the time ferreting around in midfield because Phillips and Rice were too busy passing backwards and sideways. Bloody Stones and Maguire made more forward passes than those two. And more bursting runs. We are blessed with attacking midfielder talent, yet it was totally wasted by poor tactics.

[charlesr]

I tend to agree. Every time the keeper rolled the ball out out a few metres to a defender with an Italian a few metres away, I was ???? Get the ball up the other end and let the mistakes happen (Italian and English) up that end. Gives us time to regroup after a mistake or take advantage of an opposition error. Even if we'd won, I still would have thought we played dull.

Also, I don't get why all penalties aren't complete missiles. Surely it's a better plan? All the stuttering around on the run up makes for a low power shot.

[EJG1980]

Well done to the team for getting to the final, first one in my lifetime, first time in the lifetime of anyone under the age of about 55, that's a great achievement that can't be taken away. But the way we approached most of the match was disappointing, especially after the start we made. Prinny's analysis sums it up.

I don't even mind Kane dropping deep as in that first twenty minutes he was running the show doing that, because the likes of Sterling, Mount, Trippier and Shaw were getting beyond him so he had options to find with his great passing range. As soon as we went into our shell his dropping deep became ineffective because we were sat back and nobody was getting beyond him, so all he could do is pop it off to a nearby player and jog back up to the front again.

And whenever Kane was up front, waiting in the box (he peeled off to the back post a number of times) we just wouldn't put in a cross. We'd take too long and the full back would come out to block, then it'd be an easy pass back into the midfield.

At least we got it all the way to a penalty shoot out, and took the lead in it (How many times does the team that misses first in a shootout come back to win? It seems to happen a lot!) so we came agonisingly close, but over the 120 minutes the Italians had more control, more possession, more chances, and were the ones trying to win the match. They were the better team and deserved to win, so congrats to them.

[dataDave]

Also, I don't get why all penalties aren't complete missiles. Surely it's a better plan? All the stuttering around on the run up makes for a low power shot.

Top-left. Every time. Just ****ing smash it.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Top-left. Every time. Just ****ing smash it.

Easier said than done.

Technique literally has to be spot-on to avoid hitting the goalframe or ballooning it over the bar, and that's not even accounting for the huge mental pressure of doing it after two tiring hours of top-level football at the climax of a high-stakes competitive game in front of a huge audience - factors that can't be replicated in training.

All that said, stuttering run-ups are terrible. They depend on essentially duping the goalkeeper into diving before taking the shot. You are obviously fooked if the goalkeeper doesn't take the bait.

[dvdx2]

What’s the craic with the English team removing their medals?

[Nu-Eclipse]

What’s the craic with the English team removing their medals?

Pretty much all losing teams in a final do it. And it's totally understandable if you think about it, especially when they've got to watch the winning team receive their winners medals and lift the trophy.