Todays' games 2016/17

Yeah maybe. I thought Sterling was pushed over in the area just now too.

 

Missed that one.

 

Fantastic from Butland............should be first choice from now on.
France looking good with 10 men. Very good game still.

 

Missed the first half. Sending off looked harsh for a friendly. Looking ok, though they have a lot of talent on the pitch. Not sure Dier is an international holding midfielder. I love the idea of Stones, a defender who can play football, but man he makes me nervous.

 

Just about to say that France still look the better side - and they scored.

 

Does Sterling remind anyone else of........SWP? His control is a bit better but his final ball is woeful. Mind you, SWP never got to the final ball....

France look to have some exciting young players and strength in depth.

 

France were way better than England tonight, even with ten men. Pogba was much better than he shows for United.

 

You missed the first half when Sterling was very good.
You're right though that the end product often lets him down.
You're also right about Dier and central midfield is England's biggest headache.
France were excellent, even with ten men. England played quite well in an experimental 3-4-3. With our weakness in centremid I think he'll need to revert to a back four and three in the middle.

 

I watched the full game on a great stream via KODI (possibly a reflection on the interest?) and I admit that I enjoyed the game.

France played well and were the deserved winners despite having only 10 players for the 2nd half. England looked vulnerable and fragile in defence against an impressing, and very fluid French attack in numbers. Our defensive midfield was over run and outplayed. There were many incidents of French attacks that were cleared in the 6 yard box only to be picked up by the French players around the box.

As the French team attacked in numbers, it created a great opportunity to make fast counter attacks, but England were unable to controls the ball sufficiently in midfield.

It is a reality check of where England currently stand and areas to improve, as in three friendlies, despite playing "well" they lost to Germany and France, and drew with Spain. Let's see the lessons learned for World Cup 2018 in Russia, which is in only 12months.

 

Watching the ICC Champion's Trophy Final between India and Pakistan at the Oval. A cracking match and Pakistan putting the Indian bowlers to the sword, currently 167-1 in 27 overs, another batsman I've never heard of, Fakhar on 89 not out looks a brilliant prospect...

 

72-6, India being taken apart here. Pakistan will love sticking one up the Indians especially in the final. They reckon more than one billion are watching this back in the sub-continent...

 

Pakistan win by 180 runs, a fantastic all-round performance...

 

Two ex-Hoops playing for Chile in the Confederations cup tonight - Isla & Vargas - the video ref being kept busy, with a correct offside call against Chile, but Cameroon should be up 1-0 as a dodgy decision by the ref for a foul disallows what looked like a good goal (Vidal dropping to floor like he'd been sniped when he'd been hardly touched whilst defending a free kick).

 

Been watching the last 20 mins - Chile now 1-0 up, hard to believe we once had that under-utlized pair on our books back in the PL.

 

Vargas scores another goal for Chile - after video replay review.

 

Good ole 'Arry, he can spot a good-un from a 100 yards - what a joke....Isla looked good, what we would give to have someone of that quality in the team, and Vargas is a good finisher - seeing them play tonight just re-inforces how much of a twat Redknapp was by not using their talents.

 

Anyone watching eng u21s? Just gone 2-1 up, tremendous ball by ward prowse & good finish by redmond.

 

But neither still play much football and rarely score for their Clubs- both score less than even Conor Washington at Club level.

 

****. Forgot about that. Did they win?