Southgate and his young players deserve an ovation at prem grounds next season.

Southgate? Every time he comes? He's got a season ticket, remember.

"What happens now?"

I know it's work in the morning but England have won on penalties.

I'm having another pint!

Just think it'd be a nice gesture.. Particulary after the former 'you let your country down' nonsense.

If we win the thing... damn right! The Quarter Finals is the least we should have achieved to be honest.

Japebe43 wrote:Just think it'd be a nice gesture.. Particulary after the former 'you let your country down' nonsense.

We've played Tunisia, Panama, Belgium and Colombia.

Let's keep the bunting down just for now.

This was expectation level at the max was to reach the QF

Anything after this is a bonus, especially after breaking our penalty shoot out hoodoo.

Lancasterclaret wrote:This was expectation level at the max was to reach the QF

Anything after this is a bonus, especially after breaking our penalty shoot out hoodoo.

Pre-tournament that was assuming we would be lining up against Brazil in a quarter-final and not Sweden.That was ugly but makes a change for England to win ugly and squeeze through on pens.

Looking at the last 8 Brazil stand out a mile can't see anyone stopping them,but any of the other 7 remaining teams could make the final.

Lancasterclaret wrote:This was expectation level at the max was to reach the QF

Anything after this is a bonus, especially after breaking our penalty shoot out hoodoo.

That's what I think. I appreciate what binontturf is saying.. On paper it doesn't look that impressive.. But tournament football is another level to beating these sides in friendlies.. They up their games and use nasty tactics to win anyway they can.. The lads have done so well IMO.

If I was a neutral, I'd be saying "England has nothing". As a keen wannawin fan I say "England hasn't got much". Today I feel as though my disappointment has been delayed for a few days.

Japebe47 you are not allowed to support a football team on this forum you need to show a level of appreciation that allows you to dissect a performance by a international football team that shows you are of an higher footballing cast than your peers. The ramblings of course have to be utter bolllcks and delivered after about 8 pints or a shift at Lupton and Place

IMO England played quite well tonight and for the majority were comfortably the better side and deserved the win.

GordonvaleClaret wrote:If I was a neutral, I'd be saying "England has nothing". As a keen wannawin fan I say "England hasn't got much". Today I feel as though my disappointment has been delayed for a few days.

I hope you are in a minority.

Trying to be a neutral I'd say I was surprised at how good England's one touch passing was. Look at when we passed it in defence when we didn't need to. Not a single side has played anywhere near the perfect game this tournamemnt. Nowhere near.

In fact, I'll tell you who has played the best football - Spain. And they got knocked out. Not a single side has yet blown this competition open. It makes you think. The World Champions of 2018 hasn't even started playing decent football yet.

All I can say is we now have executed a penalty shoot out well and have the monkey off our back. Open play simply was not good enough and will not be against a decent team.

They have plenty to work on however it will come down to smaller margins now and how they deal with the pressure.

Even against Brazil, get an early goal against them and I could see them come apart.

Raz wrote:All I can say is we now have executed a penalty shoot out well and have the monkey off our back. Open play simply was not good enough and will not be against a decent team.

They have plenty to work on however it will come down to smaller margins now and how they deal with the pressure.

Even against Brazil, get an early goal against them and I could see them come apart.

True. There is not one country we should be afraid of.

FactualFrank wrote:True. There is not one country we should be afraid of.

7 by my reckoning

Raz wrote:Open play simply was not good enough and will not be against a decent team.

I don't agree with this. It's very hard to create anything in open play if your opponent has no intention of playing football. Columbia basically let us have the ball in our half last night but whenever we entered the final third they just gave away a petty foul, surrounded the referee and took any momentum out of the game. A truly horrible team.

That was their gameplan and it nearly worked. I agree we need to be better with the ball, Sterling and Alli in particular, but I don't think we'll play anyone else in this tournament with the same "anti-football" set-up as Columbia. They disappointed me massively as they have decent footballers. Panama had to play a cynical match out of necessity, Columbia did it through choice. They were despicable.

FactualFrank wrote:Trying to be a neutral I'd say I was surprised at how good England's one touch passing was. Look at when we passed it in defence when we didn't need to. Not a single side has played anywhere near the perfect game this tournamemnt. Nowhere near.

In fact, I'll tell you who has played the best football - Spain. And they got knocked out. Not a single side has yet blown this competition open. It makes you think. The World Champions of 2018 hasn't even started playing decent football yet.

The standard of International football is pretty poor, apart from Belgium I wouldn't say any of the major nations have great teams given past squads. Like the current Brazil side is nowhere near that 2002 lot. Italy, Holland, Spain, Germany, Argentina, England, France have all had better sides in the past 20 years than they currently have.

jlup1980 wrote:I don't agree with this. It's very hard to create anything in open play if your opponent has no intention of playing football. Columbia basically let us have the ball in our half last night but whenever we entered the final third they just gave away a petty foul, surrounded the referee and took any momentum out of the game. A truly horrible team.

That was their gameplan and it nearly worked. I agree we need to be better with the ball, Sterling and Alli in particular, but I don't think we'll play anyone else in this tournament with the same "anti-football" set-up as Columbia. They disappointed me massively as they have decent footballers. Panama had to play a cynical match out of necessity, Columbia did it through choice. They were despicable.

Saying that, their goalkeeper was the less busy of the two as Pickford seemed to make more saves than Ospina, although you can see why Mina has played for Barca as he seemed to win everything in the air.

Spijed wrote:Saying that, their goalkeeper was the less busy of the two as Pickford seemed to make more saves than Ospina, although you can see why Mina has played for Barca as he seemed to win everything in the air.

I thought their keeper and centre halves were excellent. The rest were cynical to say the least. Mina looks absolute class and will get a move easily if he can't get a game with Barca.

As a neutral I was somewhat dissapointed with England yesterday. After going ahead against a team that showed nothing over 60 mins or so, they crept back and invited problems.
At this WC they have faced poor opposition to date. They have a great draw and chance to proceed but they need to revert to attacking play which is their forte.

FactualFrank wrote:True. There is not one country we should be afraid of.

Not one country will be afraid of England either to be fair - not based on those last two matches. You could win it. This is probably your best chance since 66, but Sweden won't be bricking it.

All the build up was about how great Colombia were and how they would dominate the ball.

Well, England certainly did that and with a premier league referee would of only been facing 8 men by the end. They were a horrible team to play against and I think every neutral in the world would of wanted us to go through.

I would still like to see Rose start with a left foot able to cross from that side but generally we're in a decent place. Maybe a touch too easy to score against but we have scored in every game.

Colombia were awful in the end

edison wrote:Colombia were awful in the end

You're only as good as your opponent lets you.

But you're right they sat back offered nothing and made it difficult for England and the ref.

All international games are tight at this stage, just get through and think of the next.

Quickenthetempo wrote:All the build up was about how great Colombia were and how they would dominate the ball.

Well, England certainly did that and with a premier league referee would of only been facing 8 men by the end. They were a horrible team to play against and I think every neutral in the world would of wanted us to go through.

I would still like to see Rose start with a left foot able to cross from that side but generally we're in a decent place. Maybe a touch too easy to score against but we have scored in every game.

We didn't score against Belgium.

RocketLawnChair wrote:We didn't score against Belgium.

You're right but we created the best chance of the tournament.

Conspiracy theorists went through the roof.

Quickenthetempo wrote:You're right

That's the only reply needed QTT

It's coming home lads!

I'm really happy with what we have achieved so far and I do believe Southgate is moving us in the right direction. We are a long way from the finished article yet though. To be real for a minute (and after last night that is hard), we have won two games within 90 minutes, Tunisia and Panama, neither of whom can be described as good (I think Stanley could beat Panama), we have lost to Belgium and (at the end of normal play) drew with Colombia. The real slightly worrying thing is we have conceded in every game, even against Panama, and I wonder how we will fair defensively against the likes of France, Belgium, Brazil or Uruguay? If we accept that we may well concede against any of these teams do we have enough up front, Kane apart, to deal with that situation? I actually think, now that we or on the day after and can look at it coldly, I think the way we played last night if it had been one of the other 4 above they may well have brushed us aside.

I hope I am totally wrong.

On the 'Burnley' link I think that Trippier was a possible m-o-t-m last night, he was awesome. He looked slightly to blame for the goal but not much as it is very difficult to defend a super header like that. My only other candidates would be Maguire or Pickford. Why is Stirling still starting and why was Lingard so poor last night.

houseboy wrote:I'm really happy with what we have achieved so far and I do believe Southgate is moving us in the right direction. We are a long way from the finished article yet though. To be real for a minute (and after last night that is hard), we have won two games within 90 minutes, Tunisia and Panama, neither of whom can be described as good (I think Stanley could beat Panama), we have lost to Belgium and (at the end of normal play) drew with Colombia. The real slightly worrying thing is we have conceded in every game, even against Panama, and I wonder how we will fair defensively against the likes of France, Belgium, Brazil or Uruguay? If we accept that we may well concede against any of these teams do we have enough up front, Kane apart, to deal with that situation? I actually think, now that we or on the day after and can look at it coldly, I think the way we played last night if it had been one of the other 4 above they may well have brushed us aside.

Good job we avoided their side of the draw then, eh?

houseboy wrote:I'm really happy with what we have achieved so far and I do believe Southgate is moving us in the right direction. We are a long way from the finished article yet though. To be real for a minute (and after last night that is hard), we have won two games within 90 minutes, Tunisia and Panama, neither of whom can be described as good (I think Stanley could beat Panama), we have lost to Belgium and (at the end of normal play) drew with Colombia. The real slightly worrying thing is we have conceded in every game, even against Panama, and I wonder how we will fair defensively against the likes of France, Belgium, Brazil or Uruguay? If we accept that we may well concede against any of these teams do we have enough up front, Kane apart, to deal with that situation? I actually think, now that we or on the day after and can look at it coldly, I think the way we played last night if it had been one of the other 4 above they may well have brushed us aside.

I hope I am totally wrong.

On the 'Burnley' link I think that Trippier was a possible m-o-t-m last night, he was awesome. He looked slightly to blame for the goal but not much as it is very difficult to defend a super header like that. My only other candidates would be Maguire or Pickford. Why is Stirling still starting and why was Lingard so poor last night.

We're getting to the final at least in that case!