What're you lot going to romance about for the next four years. "1966, that was a very good year......"
Yes I agree Mbappe was kept quiet by England, in particular Walker and Henderson, but in focusing on one player they perhaps neglected to correctly cover the rest of the French team. I thought Kane had a reasonable game but appeared to be looking for a foul a bit too often. The first penalty he took was good but the second, well, enough will be said about that. He had a couple of chances but overall nothing exceptional at this level, to me he just looks a bit...cumbersome and not as mobile as some attackers. Unless Saka and Foden were injured or tired I really couldn't see why these two players were taken off by Southgate. Also let's not forget that France has 6 or 7 first team players out and so probably aren't as much of a threat as hoped, c'est la vie. Overall Argentina to win I think and Messi to get the one honour in the football world he hasn't got, but if I believed in fairy tales then Morocco. The ref was poor, almost as bad as the one in the Netherland v Argentina game. I would have thought a German, Belgium or Netherland ref would have been more suitable and more accustomed to the two styles of the teams. A Brazilian ref is probably used to a lot more exaggerated claims for fouls than either France or England players performed and so perhaps didn't think they were serious, as there were fewer than 14 rotations after the player hit the ground.
I’ve seen some excuses over the years whenever England get knocked out of a tournament but I’ve just read it could be down to ‘the curse of ITV’ ffs. Maybe, just maybe, England, the coach, the tactics, the players, aren’t quite good enough Just a thought….
