But on the other hand, if you can keep clean sheets then you've always got a chance. Especially when there's a few potential match winners in the side. Not that I see us keeping a clean sheet in the next round mind but still!
A win against any of those 3 will surpass any individual result we've had at a tournament in decades imo. I'll genuinely start to believe if it happens.
We beat the Dutch in ‘96 and the Argies in ‘02 to be fair. I’d still personally judge the ‘success’ on the round reached than on an individual performance. But I get you.
Anyway, you'll all have to do it without me next week as I'm in Wales during the week (I know! I know! You must be gutted ). I'm back Friday so it'll give you plenty of time to enjoy the result before the quarter final thread goes up.
Fair but they were both group matches. I can't find record of us ever beating a top side in a ko game since we won the WC - happy to be corrected by one of the older posters though. I'll still judge the overall tournament as a result but if we beat Germany at Wembley in a ko match we'll be talking about it for decades. I also wouldn't be fearing Holland or Spain and we'd have a genuine chance of reaching the final (assuming France win group).
We unofficially beat the Argies in ‘98 and Portugal in ‘04 only to be robbed by FIFA/UEFA officials. Two perfectly fine winners disallowed. England’s record isn’t great but we’ve been up against the officials and lady luck for far too long. Imagine if we beat the Germans thanks to VAR. I assume all will be forgiven?
Were Belgium really a top side in 1990 or someone we were expected to beat? I personally wouldn't class them as a top side but happy to take your word for it.
'04 was our tournament. No injury to Rooney and we win that imo. Genuinely think we were one of the best teams there whereas we're closer to Greece now, but **** me I'll take that lol. As for VAR, if it gifts us a winner in the final (or saves an equaliser) then I'll change the 9-0 under my name to 'VAR Time Lover' forevermore.
It was Denmark Inglaterra beat in the ko phase in Japan after overcoming Argentina in a group.match .
‘04 doesn’t hurt as much for me because Portugal played us off the park the whole game. ‘98 really hurts though because it was the Argies, and it had just been such an epic game. To win even when we were down to ten men (Beckham sent off) would have been the greatest result of my living memory. We wouldn’t have won the tournament but it would have been an amazing moment.
Yeah just a few days away with the lad, aiming for a few short trips this year. Much needed after the last 15 months or so!
With England’s style of football, I can’t help but think that ings would have been the best choice of forward for England at this tournament. We aren’t playing to Kane’s strengths at all, let alone DCL or Rashford. At least ings would be buzzing around putting in challenges. Hope we can find a way to get the best out of Kane next game. He’s been marked out of every game so far
This is a ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ situation You want to be entertained or win or both? The journey is more important than the destination for me However I can take winning in different ways and I accept that scoring one and keeping a hard fought clean sheet can be entertaining if it’s v Germany or France or in Saints case v Man City Generally I want more of Grealish running at teams than pointless backwards passing and I don’t believe we can beat top teams without utilising our attacking strengths Come on England
We also won the World Cup in Italia 90. In my head we did anyway. Was doing a lot of drugs back then.