Need to compensate for their own lack of talent somehow. If they put a modicum of the effort or attention they gave us in to the development of their own sports teams, maybe they would have more to shout about than one 0-0 in 23 years (in Scotland’s case).
With Scotland/Ireland/Wales I can accept it, because it's just banter (like Saints v Pompey), and I think deep down most of them know it's ridiculous. What f*cks me off though, is when you get ignorant twats from random countries, jumping on the bandwagon and displaying such hypocrisy in their reasoning. They harp on about Britain's history, as though we were the only nation to colonise others. No one gives the Germans stick for you know, World War 2, or the French stick for what went on in Algeria in the 60s. If its not that, then its booing of the anthems. Jeez, again everyone conveniently forgets the fact that in Italy (among many other nations), monkey-chanting is still rife.
Yeah it is quite funny to see so much flying around about our fans bad behaviour and our team cheating, while praising the bastion of great sportsmanship and excellent fan behaviour that is *checks notes* Italy… This is actually doing a great job of fostering a bunker mentality, which could be helpful by Sunday.
I have a lot of Scottish family because my Dads partner is Scottish and my sisters husband. It's really not banter to them and all the scots I've ever met actually. When I was a kid growing up my Dads partner would refuse to wash my Engand shirt because she would refuse to touch it. That's not as banter btw she meant it and when challenged she'd say the only way you could ever get her to wear an England shirt was in a scenario where her sons life was at stake. Again not a joke, she meant it. Whenever there was an England match on we would watch it at opposite ends of the house. She would scream and celebrate when whoever we were playing scored and I would do the same when England scored. Things would get pretty heated and I was probably only 11-12ish. Now these are my experiences with one Scot, but I've spent a lot of time with Scots over the years due to having so much Scottish family and a lot of them are the same way. And again it stems back to ancient history, anglo scottish wars etc. The way English fans are portrayed in the media because of a small minority of idiots just perpetuates their existing dislike of us. You'd think it would die out since the 1200s or whenever but it's in their blood, it's ingrained in them as they are brought up. You're not a true Scot if you don't hate the English. Braveheart has a lot to answer for too
haha it does sound like it from what I've said. I grew up with her from a young age and I can assure you shes lovely. Shes even the one that got me into football in the first place. The anti-English stuff only comes up every now and then but like I say, it's like its ingrained in them. I do find it pathetic though.
Likewise with the family thing, I’m actually half-Scottish on my dad’s side. Luckily they were/are all a good bunch, but I know what you mean. The Scots take it too far for sure. A bit embarrassing really as it just makes them seem obsessed. Have met loads of sound Scots though to be fair.
Italy will be a difficult tactical hurdle. I feel we have the quality in the side to beat them. It's difficult to look past the entire England XI in a combined XI. Maybe that's me being biased, but it's also me being honest that I wouldn't pick one Italian in a combined team. I thought we deserved to beat Denmark. They got a free kick for nothing and then illegally encroached our wall on the kick. We had a really strong penalty shout in normal time which counter balanced the fact the actual penalty awarded wasn't really a foul. I thought the ref lost control of the game from the very start. The better side went through that's all that matters for me. Whether he should have taken Grealish or Sterling off tactically is open for debate. I feel he should have brought on Grealish and Foden sooner, Mount struggled from the start. In the final I'd like to see Grealish or Foden over Mount personally.
