Off Topic International Break Thread

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Do you think he was immense tonight? Missed a sitter, dived for a penalty and spent the night chasing up blind alleys. He has been good in the tournament I just thought he was poor tonight.

I thought he was man of the match tonight. Win the penalty and caused them problems with his running with the ball. Agree he missed a sitter but I think the penalty was given as he was body checked although it was soft.

Italy won’t like his pace and he could be the difference maker on Sunday.
 
I thought he was man of the match tonight. Win the penalty and caused them problems with his running with the ball. Agree he missed a sitter but I think the penalty was given as he was body checked although it was soft.

Italy won’t like his pace and he could be the difference maker on Sunday.
I thought Sterling wasted too many opportunities by running into dead ends. There were plenty of times he should have looked up and seen better openings but ran on and eventually lost possession. I thought man of the match was a toss up between Kane and Walker
 
Thought Sterling dived for the pen. I don't want to see us progress like that. I don't believe in win at any cost. A lot of people don't agree with that, but I happen to.

Really didn't like going to a back five at the end. Thought we gave them the initiative when we had it before we changed. That would be punished against a better and less tired team. Hope he doesn't start with that system on Sunday.

Just had to travel across London then out to Cheshunt after the match. My goodness it was mental out there, the Piccadilly line in particular. Ran into the crowd coming back from Wembley at KIngs Cross and must say they were less rowdy than those that hadn't been! Also lively at Liverpool Street.
 
Thought Sterling dived for the pen. I don't want to see us progress like that. I don't believe in win at any cost. A lot of people don't agree with that, but I happen to.

Really didn't like going to a back five at the end. Thought we gave them the initiative when we had it before we changed. That would be punished against a better and less tired team. Hope he doesn't start with that system on Sunday.

Just had to travel across London then out to Cheshunt after the match. My goodness it was mental out there, the Piccadilly line in particular. Ran into the crowd coming back from Wembley at KIngs Cross and must say they were less rowdy than those that hadn't been! Also lively at Liverpool Street.

I would agree were it not for the fact that they thoroughly deserved to win. Denmark edged the first half and were the better side with the ball but England grew into the game as it wore on and dominated most of the second half and all of extra time. That 2-3 min spell of passing to completely kill the game off at the end made me pinch myself - I couldn't quite believe I was watching an England team. The notion of game management was always so foreign to us. Panic and hope for the best basically defined our tournament hopes.

Fully deserved victory but Italy will be their hardest challenge yet by a country mile.
 
Thought Sterling dived for the pen. I don't want to see us progress like that. I don't believe in win at any cost. A lot of people don't agree with that, but I happen to.

Really didn't like going to a back five at the end. Thought we gave them the initiative when we had it before we changed. That would be punished against a better and less tired team. Hope he doesn't start with that system on Sunday.

Just had to travel across London then out to Cheshunt after the match. My goodness it was mental out there, the Piccadilly line in particular. Ran into the crowd coming back from Wembley at KIngs Cross and must say they were less rowdy than those that hadn't been! Also lively at Liverpool Street.

yeah, definitely went down too easily for me and was a very soft pen. The sort of thing you see him do for city all the time. Was a bit surprise VaR didn't overrule it but to be honest, i'm quite happy with VaR where it sticks to the refs decision unless it's super clear and obvious.

For the sterling detractors though, he only lost the ball a few times (in my memory) and i liked how direct he was. Admittedly, he missed a sitter but he caused the OG, he created the penalty and he was in behind the defence by himself a few times by being direct and skinning his FB and was generally dangerous.
 
So finally after so many years England are into a final by the South Gate. The Reverend has done his bit in producing a calm and organised squad. I am sure he will feel vindicated in his cautious manner. Having watched most of the games in Euro 2020 I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of cynicism in the games and the quality of the refereeing. The game between Italy and Spain for example was a pleasure to watch. Then we arrived at England v Denmark! Back comes all the cynical stuff we see in the PL every week, from time wasting, to diving to body checking all seen over by one of the least effective referees I have seen in the tournament. Still I suppose he managed to get both major decisions wrong (Denmark's dubious free kick and England's equally dubious penalty) but overall balance out the errors of judgement.
Praise to England for remaining calm and playing their way out of trouble and for the last hour being the only team on the pitch who actually wanted to score a goal. I would praise Sterling for his efforts but I still think we would produce more as a team with say Grealish, Sancho and Kane. It would be like Spurs preferring to play Lucas and Kane rather than Son and Kane.
Italy are a good footballing side and as England have shown in their one really good performance against Ukraine, they can be as well. I hope we see both sides playing their best stuff in the final.
 
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While we are talking penalties, I've said I thought Sterling dived, but earlier there was a nailed on penalty for Kane, given as a dive. That was equally wrong. Justice was done.
 
While we are talking penalties, I've said I thought Sterling dived, but earlier there was a nailed on penalty for Kane, given as a dive. That was equally wrong. Justice was done.

i thought the opposite. I thought the defenders foot gets there firs to "shield the ball" and kane goes through (how i would see it outside the box). Wouldn't have given either.

Now that backpass to Schmeichel in the first half i would have given. Cant believe they got away with that
 
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The Sterling penalty was the exact kind of incident where we regularly see Varpool and Penited gifted penalty kicks in the PL, minimal contact followed by falling over or throwing themselves to the floor. It was refreshing to see England benefit from some poor refereeing, rather than a team from the Northwest that plays in a red shirt.
 
i thought the opposite. I thought the defenders foot gets there firs to "shield the ball" and kane goes through (how i would see it outside the box). Wouldn't have given either.

Indeed.

Not the most blatant of dives by Sterling, but there is no
Nemesis argument for Denmark deserving to lose that way
for any antics (during that game in particular or the
tournament overall) .

And on any Nemesis potential, the next opponent is Italy ...