This thread is principally a big up to Italy who I would like to win tonight to keep this pathetic saga running till the 'final day of the season' That ok mods!? On a slightly separate note... Why was Lallana used in all the main build up games to the World Cup and then not used at all?
He's not a striker or a defender. No place for him on the pitch. England were going to put 3 or 4 past a major side with that talent and tactics. Ha. What a wasted opportunity.
Same with Lambert. 5 minutes over two games. Why even bother taking him? In the first game we were chasing it with 30 minutes to go. We have this goal machine sitting on the bench. ****ing hate England. I'm actually hoping for a draw so I can start enjoying the competition.
I can now concentrate on following Germany's fortunes where I put my money.... Apart from England and the drab Iran v Nigeria game I have enjoyed this World Cup thus far...
I said it a couple of months ago, Lambert shouldn't have gone at all. Was always going to be this role of being thrown on as a target man in the last 5 minutes and Carroll is better suited to that. Anyway I couldn't care less about England in all honesty so am hoping for a draw/Costa Rica win tonight so that insufferable **** Adrian Chiles can't just talk about England in the build up to games which have nothing to do with England in any way.
sad as I am I do hope Italy win tonight though as it will at least take matters to the 'final day of the season' as it were!
Mario Balotelli on Twitter: "If we beat Costa Rica i want a kiss,obviously on the cheek, from the UK Queen."
Not really bothered now. No shame in losing to Italy but last night's performance was desperate, and if we somehow scrape through after losing two group games it would be undeserved.
Well if we do scrape through it will be because two other teams were worse than us and therefore deserved. I can't see us playing any worse than last night so I'd take a skin of your teeth qualification just to see how we do against one of the other big boys.
I think I can save you that bother: we'll lose. Infact we wouldn't get to play a big boy, as we will play Colombia and lose.
I see that Gary Lineker has nailed his colours to tha Italian mast. I like to think that Italy will confidently beat both Costa Rica and Uruguay. I doubt that England are upto their end of the bargain though, so rest of you might as well start picking your next team. Beefy has Germany by family (nice), I have Italy by the same (also nice). Anybody else..? Honorary Chileans..?
Come on Italy!!! For the hard of maths, here's my working... A draw would put Italy and Costa Rica on 4 points, meaning we are out of the cup, as we can only score 3 points maximum at this stage. A win for Costa Rica puts them through, either as runners-up or a group winners. As Italy face Uruguay in the last match, then at least one of those teams will score some points, meaning that England can't go through. So our only chance is for Italy to win tonight. Therefore we need to cheer for Italy tonight and the BBC will get a far larger audience then they'd normally get for this game. Let's say Italy win 1-0, then what? Italy will have six points almost guaranteeing their qualification. Costa Rica's goal difference will be +1 with 3 goals for and 2 against. (I'm working on a worst case scenario that still ensures our hopes of escaping the group). This takes us to the final game: In this scenario, we need Italy to beat Uruguay, but Italy themselves would only need a draw to guarantee qualification. However, because I'm being super-optimistic, I'm going to presume that even if Italy park the bus, they'll score on the break and defend their lead. Seeing is Italy, unlike England, actually have some defenders rather than a donkey sanctuary, this is feasible. This outcome would leave Uruguay would on 3 points, having scored 3 goals and conceded 5, giving them a final goal difference of -2. So, because the fates are smiling on us and everything has gone our way, we can cast our eyes back to England. We need a win against Costa Rica, but is a win good enough? A win gives us 3 points, but that only moves us level with the other teams and so we need to factor goal difference and goals scored. We current have a goal difference of -2 - the same as Uruguay should all other results go our way. We've scored 2 and conceded 4. If we win 1-0, we overtake Uruguay with a goal difference of -1. This won't be good enough as it doesn't damage Costa Rica's goal difference - they'd drop to +0, we'd be on -1 and we'd still go out. Consequence, we'd need to win at least 2-0. Of course, if Italy romp home in their games against Costa Rica and Uruguay, it would making the goal difference irrelevant. We'd still need to win though! Roy needs to utter his soon-to-be-famous battle-cry "fooled you suckers" and bring on the big guns, namely Lambert, Lallana and, as I'm a Saints fan through and through, Luke Shaw.
If Costa Rica beat Italy and Italy and Uruguay draw, we're bottom. If Uruguay lose to Italy and we beat Costa Rica, we can overtake them on goal difference. Italy beat Costa Rica and we beat them two nil, we're through. If Italy beat them two nil and we beat hem 1-0, we're through with same GD, same GF, but through due to the head to head result.
