Its really poor. Thas a hopeful cross not really aimed palmed into thr middle and a dive for a pen win. Its very poor fare all round in the tournament where you see maybe one or two genuine ballers and a lot of very very technically weak plauers round them. The Italian striker was a proper player. But thry were not getting the ball near her.
Yeah, but they're a classic France. Look good and on paper should win, but can't do the business when it matters and find a way to **** it up. According to the rankings: Spain are 2nd and England are 5th (down to some underwhelming nation leagues games). Germany are the only other Euro nation in the top 5 at 3rd, who I think England could have beaten. I expect Spain to win.
Spain are world cup champions. They best England there and if anything elngland look worse I mean this is Gareth Southgate level rubbish. They've absolutely scraped through here. The quarter final was a debacle. Sweden are a top side, always have been in the women's game. England were 2-0 down and thats a debacle but thry did fight back to 2-2 But England missed most pens and frankly Sweden missed 2 for the win. Thas as close to out as you can get. The semi finals as also a debacle. They were 0-1 down and doing nothing. A hoof across is spilled and they get a goal and then take a dive while holding a player in and get a pen. Looked fairly blunt to me. They've lost to Spain a few times now but we will see what happens. Spain were not sensational here. They were not great v the home side Switzerland and didn't break Germany down.
Last season people would have said things like lfc have 3 or 4 world class players but the rest are just OK and worse 3 of them might go. Now while we have imo 3 real world class players 3 of them are fading superstars. We have taken action to put players around them that have the potential to be world class. Especially wirtz. We have also had players step up from just ok to being very very good players in their own right. Nobody is going to write off gravenberch and macallister as thr midfield duo and imo gakpo has really stepped up. Ekiteke could be good. He needs tike and patience. I think the club has done well to create a platform where losing salah to age and vvd to ehatever in 2 years will hopefully not look so daunting
Replacing Virgil will still be a task. Mo gets all the plaudits because of his goal-scoring but Virgil is and has been the real star of the team for me, despite an understandable dip after his injury.
True world class players are always a task. These are legendary level players but at least its not a team with just ok players like nunez, Jones etc al. Whoever comes in in time will come into a potentially very very good team. Van dijk could cruise to 38 or 39 like silva or pepe. He is that good. But in the end they all get replaced.
The forwards always get the praise because it's very easy to remember what they did in a game, match winning goals etc. The same reason why forwards overwhelmingly win the Ballon d'or. Great teams need a great goalkeeper and at least one great defender and one great forward. We're lucky to have one of each who also happen to be the best in the world in their positions. I agree that Virgil will be harder to replace than Salah.
VVD Will be virtually impossible to replace. He's as good as they come as arguably better than most of us have ever seen before.
Hansen was as good as any midfielder on the ball. He played like macalliater on the ball. But vvd is a giant who can run like jonah lomu but pass better than showboater benedict Arnold. Ultimate players.
I'll point you to the words "arguably" and "most" I only caught the back end of Hansen's career and I was quite young at the time too.
