Buzzing for tonight. Think he'll revert to a back four and hopefully he'll bring Grealish back in as a starter. Few decisions with yellows to make too, do they get reset after this round? I'm convinced that Southgate won't be letting the players getting carried away like large parts of the nation and think we'll win this relatively comfortably. 2-0 Ingerland.
I think cards can only carry over one game or something, so yeah we need the 2 midfielders to be rested ideally, but I think the occasion might be too big for Bellingham so I’d expect Henderson to start with Phillips tonight. Maguire is the other on a yellow but I think he’ll play, as Mings has been decent when he’s played and you’d expect he’d be good enough alongside stones to keep out Denmark or Czech. Spain or Italy awaiting our winners in the Final, both of them have weaknesses that we can exploit.
On another note, City fans can calm down about De Bruyne winning Balon D’or now, the guy is an utter joke on the big stage. Messi and Lewandowski will scrap that one out this year.
Sometimes he can look bang average as they come, he seems a passion player, needs to be in the right mindset. Got riled up by the crowd at St James' once and went mental. Scored a screamer and bossed the game.
No fancy football tonight, not that we really do tippy tappy, will be a hard physical fought game. Since 2009 we've played the Ukraine five times, won 2, lost 1, then the two most recent games both drawn. For me the critical part of this game early on is not to pick up any stupid yellow cards, because if we do, Ukraine will use it to their advantage. The last game our opponents played was against Sweden, who had a man sent off in extra-time, it cost them the game. Will we be able to cope with the heat in Rome!? Anyone that is still underestimating Ukraine should revisit their Netherlands encounter, two down and came back to 2-2, until the Dutch scored the winner in the 85th minute.
We’ve shut out every team we’ve played, albeit with a bit of good fortune when Mueller was 1-on-1 but still, 4 clean sheets. That being said if we score twice I think it’s a win, the defence is well drilled and I can’t see us conceding more than a single goal. My only worry is nerves, if it’s still 0-0 at 60 mins, what does Southgate do? I’m hoping again he’s gonna attack them with pace, but I think he’ll play Mount and he could slow the game down in the last third. Still very confident though, we should sweep this lot aside no bother.
I’d be happy with that. Strange not to have any game time, then start in a quarter final though. Suppose it shows our strength and depth in attack.
Teams that have turned up to games and thought they’ve already won have been put to the sword. let’s hope we don’t think we are already in the final
This is the thing with straight knock out competitions, unlike where you can recover yourself in the group stages. Ukraine will be up for this, also from something I was watching the other day, it's more than just about football to them, having already caused controversy over the design of their shirt. despite some alterations to appease the Russians, the outline of a map regarding their indepedence was still left in. I just hope our lads are up for a physical battle, because Ukraine will be loving the World stage this gives them.
Yep, and don't underestimate the 'Eriksen effect' on Denmark. That sort of thing can have a better team-building effect than any manager.
Yup, it's as much about mental preparation as it is physical, Denmark being one example, you've given. You only had to watch the Swiss last night, bottled it when it came to the penalties, something England have done countless times in history. Yet against France they were confident. The further you go the bigger those pressures become. For me one of the game changers have been red cards, the Swiss got one only 9 mins after scoring. As I mentioned Sweden got one against the Ukraine and got knocked out. If I was a Ukraine player, I'd be working out who I could wind up. Ronaldo the winker once showed us the consequences of that. We just need to keep our heads early on, and not do anything stupid. If you look at Prem stats the three most likely to pick up a yellow are Maguire, Shaw and Phillips. Both Maguire and Phillips picked them up against Germany. I'll assume, that IF either of those pick up a yellow against the Ukraine, they would miss any semi-final, and we all know how that can destroy confidence (Gazza)?
England turned a corner when it came to penalties at the WC. showing who has the balls to make the saves/score. three more 1-0 however will be great
