Wales did well but got lucky.England did well but were unlucky. Russia looked terrible and will surely get beaten by both Wales and Slovakia if they play like that again.
The Russians attacked after they equalised. There was also a little trouble in Nice between the Northern Irish and the Polish. Skirmishes rather than full scale rioting. I am leaving Brussels this morning to head to Paris. 3.5 hour drive. Getting excited.
totally agree, if City wanted to sell him they'd be lucky to get a fraction of that £50m. It was crying out for Vardy to replace him. Hodgson too negative and that ultimately cost us
In fairness one was a Scot (Souness) and the other from Northern Ireland (Lennon). Felt it was important to point that out.
After been disapointing about russians late equaliser im satisfyed with Englands performance overall. Russians were very, very lucky to get point and England were all over them about 75 per cent of the playing time. Both wing backs Walker and Rose (well he losed the aerial battle against Berezutski in russians equaliser but then again he is 6 inches shorter!) were great and Rooney (MoM) worked hard with Dyer. Alli and Kane were ok but they will be better if Sterling is replaced. Sterling was the Englands worst player and didnt even used his speed. He losed the ball every time in 1against 1 situations. Vardy in!. Lallana was lively on the first half but faded a bit on the second. Smalling and Cahill had very little to do but were on the box as russians equaliser so not a perfect match for them. Hart could have drinkin tea 80 per cent of the playing time and wasnt a fault for russians goal so wasnt really tested last nght. All in all Im satisfied with Englands performance and they should win Wales and Slovakia without any big difficulties. Russia wasnt very good and they were totally outnumbered most of the time by england. Their goal was a bit lucky and was totally against the play but that is what happens in ball games sometimes. Im still convinced that England goes to the semis.
NI supporters and Polish supporters have a wee bit of history after a match at Windsor pk a few years back. There was trouble in Belfast that night after the match.
I think this is rather unfair. I'm not sure Roy could have picked a much more attacking, adventurous line-up. They played really well and on another day would have won by 2 or 3. I accept that you must take your chances and hopefully they will put that right. Kane is now supposed to be our biggest goal threat and he looked poor. That and Hart's distribution were the two big negatives for me. There were many pluses though, including the movement and touch of Lallana, the attacking mind-set of our full backs, especially Walker and Rooney running the midfield as I knew he could. I would start with Wilshire instead of Alli against Wales and leave the rest of the side unchanged. Hopefully Kane will prove me wrong, but he must be relieved of the ridiculous duty of taking the corners and if Alli is retained, he and Kane must link up like they do for Spurs, which involves Kane showing much better movement than he currently is for England.
All those crying out for Vardy to replace Sterling must remember one thing; Vardy can't play where Sterling did last night. He's like a fish out of water. He needs to be played down the middle which would mean reverting to a diamond. He also feeds off balls over the top, which is a very hard thing to do in International football. I'm not against a genuine diamond with Vardy and Kane up top, but then you can't get both Rooney and Alli in the team, without playing Alli wider. Rooney was our best player last night so it seems ridiculous to move him or not play him. Perhaps we could swap Sturridge for Sterling as his end product MAY be better. Or we could play the same line-up, but swap Vardy for Kane. Kane's first touch is generally pretty awful at this level so I wouldn't be against swapping him for Vardy. Plus Kane's corners were dreadful!
The problem with Woy is he is inherently a safety-first manager, yes, he picked an attacking line-up and, if they'd been on target, would have won easily. However, as the game went on and we eventually scored he reverted to type and tried to kill the game instead of going for the kill. Subbing Rooney when he was inspired was a key blunder. I suppose he would have been damned if he did and damned if he didn't if the score finished the same, but I believe if he'd brought on Vardy for Sterling we may well have scored again...
Apart from Sterling doing a reasonable impersonation of Matt Phillips I too was disappointed with Kane, he is supposed to be our main goal threat but rarely showed that last night. Lallana played well in the first but faded badly in the second, Rose and Walker were superb throughout and I thought Alli was on the fringes of the game. All that said, we did more than enough to win the game, oh well, upwards and onwards to the Wales game. Anyway, today I am a Northern Ireland fan, looking forward to it.
I can't see anyone as a natural replacement for Sterling, which is a big worry. Like, seemingly, all wingers he is a confidence player, but he lacks a bit of, dare I say it, intelligence he gets in good positions then doesn't seem to know what to do. Some intensive coaching please. I'd always seen Sturridge as a natural but lazy goal scorer. Bloody Danny Wellbeck and his injuries! Kane was very disappointing yesterday, never seemed to lose his marker and his hold up play was no better than average, aside from the touch issues. He can score from anywhere though.
I agree that Rooney shouldn't have come off and Roy is definitely guilty of some muddled thinking at times. Vardy for Kane would have been my choice to catch them on the break, but I didn't disagree with Milner being brought on. If he had gone with attacking subs and the Russians had scored he would have been crucified. I feel a lot better about the game than I did last night, when it genuinely felt like a defeat. That was the best England performance in a tournament game for many a year so I think we still have reason to be optimistic.
It's only his finishing that sets him apart imo. He won't get anything like so many opportunities in International football, though it's a shame that Lallana's two chances didn't fall to him or the one that Sterling guided straight to the keeper from close in. He needs to improve his movement at this level. Alli needs to step up too.
