England Croatia

[sunny-dave]

Spoiler thread ...

... where are you watching?

I’m in an apartment in the Schwarzwald, with a tiny TV and a dodgy satellite signal - apparently the local Gasthof has decided there is no audience for its big screen ... the German commentary team on ZDF don’t look/sound full of joy either ...

[Old_Geezer]

England started by running rings around Croatia. But they faded throughout the game and failed to capitalize on the chances made in the first half. Croatia steadily got back in it and just got better as time went on. Can't grumble, but the weaknesses mention need to be sorted for 2022.

[-Talbot-]

We have some great defenders a great striker...we need to find some class midfielders. Henderson and Dier are well...dire.

[Tuvok]

How did that England player get away with grabbing my teams player by the shirt neck!

Yippee Croatia.

[murraymints]

overall "the boys done good" shame about the missed chances in the first half.... but well done lads..

[jackthehat]

Did someone tell Harry Kane that he couldn't take a shot at goal when standing outside of the area?

I think Southgate needs to consider tasering any of his players who adopt the default position of 'kicking the long ball over the top' when we are knackered and under the cosh...

[sunny-dave]

Croatia worked out at half-time that if they pressed forward then the England midfield simply had no idea of how to build possession - consequently all those balls back to Pickford and then long hopeful punts up the right-wing.

Southgate tried to change things for extra-time, but tired legs and lack of anyone to boss the centre of the field just gave the space to the Croatians - who exploited it very well.

Well done for reading the semis, and (as others have said) the nucleus of a good team to go forward - just find us a couple of attacking centre-halfs (if such a thing still exists).

[THECORBYLOON]

No more Three Lions and no more "It's only 24/48/72 hours til England's next match blah blah blah..."

Is any football match (including those England games before to-night) really worthy of being the lead item on the night's main news programmes?

[Garaman]

We played really well the first half, but paid for not taking our chances when we were dominating play. Looking to the future - keeper could be world class, defence could be superb, forward line isn’t great – Kane didn’t look as dangerous as he should and Rashford was less effective than Sterling - and the midfield just isn’t good enough.

[jno]

I suppose it's a matter of opinion, TCL, but currently the lead stories on the Guardian's home page are Football, David Davis, Thai cave, and Trump visit. Only the football story is new; the rest are followups to days-old stories or in Trump's case a look forward to a story that hasn't happened yet.

The silly season is nigh.

[fiction-factory]

>Is any football match (including those England games before to-night) really worthy of being the lead item on the night's main news programmes?
Well it has certainly been the most talked about topic at work recently. I'm told or asked "it's / is it coming home, sir?" or similar dozens of times times each day. I can't recall anyone raising Brexit or the Cabinet or the Trump visit.

[THECORBYLOON]

FF, on some days, the most popular topic at work might be the previous night's EastEnders or Corrie story but I doubt it would make the Ten O'clock News.

I agree the tournament is a major event but there was one England game where the BBC had it as the lead story and the second half had only just kicked off. How on earth can that be justified?

[douglas9401]

Grim fare, some tired young men with no clue how to deal with a difficult situation.

Never mind, it's only a game.

[diddlydo]

Quite. The real games are being played out in SW19 - that's Wimbledon to the uninitiated. Now we can all concentrate on the tennis.

[Arksided]

Like *** we can.

[gness]

Ark!!!!!....... ;-)

[david small]

England were rubbish in the second half. They had no cohesion and no plan of any consequence. The best team won.

[douglas9401]

Apropos of nothing, the better team won. :-P

[Arksided]

Gness, for a start this is a football thread and second there's still the world cup Final. let alone England play Belgium for third place honours which most hoped would be the final fixture.

[maggiebee]

Flood warnings have been issued across England as the whole of Scotland pi**es themselves laughing.

[Arksided]

Maggie, take a look here:

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1614488.html