I thought it was a cracking diving header by Given for Croatia's third.
Class, pure class!
And he came up looking like a mime artist. Too busy putting on his make-up to mind his goal no doubt.



The luck of the Irish?
How's that work then?
Kean gets pole-axed in the box and no penalty as the ref jauntily waves play on not giving a monkey's. It's only football, what's the fuss you gentlemen in green?

A comedy of errors perhaps only surpassed by tomorrow night's offering?
It's just a shame we don't have James in goal to further that purpose. Like he did last time, the clown!

However England will find a way to fook up, they always do.
So don't despair the Irish. Anything you can do, we can do better. I think I mean worse!

Ireland: the Stoke of international football

Same old England irrespective of the manager.
If they score first they spend the rest of the game trying to hold on, with almost inevitable results.
Attack for goodness sake!!!
Put your dosh on France to win 2-1.








Edit
We did attack a bit and got the draw.
Fair enough.

Good result.

Lose and we're screwed.

Win and suddenly this 'low expectation not gonna do anything' thang we have going on goes out the window and people start proclaiming we will win.

I thought the performance was decent, wellbeck and young dropped into holes and showed glimpses of good link up play. Very well organised.

People need to get this idea out of their head that we are going to dominate posession and play like spain. Being organised, getting men behind the ball and then using the pace of our wide players to break is how we should be playing.

I expect us to grow into the tournament and lose on penalties in the semi final.

I think we did as well as could be expected....Not particularly good to watch, but showed some heart and were well organised.

Two things I did deduce from tonight.....France will not win this tournament, and if any side is going to do it the Greece 2004 way, then it will be England.

Impressed with England. I thought Lescott was very good, the midfield did well although sat too deep. Milner is . i think Hart could have done better with the goal.

Remember as well we were missing our main man rooney, when he's on it, england are much better team.

As always though, the acid test for england will come if they get out of the group. Quarter finals, good team...what we gonna do, go out on penalties again? or WIN

Wellbeck chasing the ball is like a dog chasing a car, he'll run and run all day after it but hasn't a clue what to do with it when he eventually gets it.

Thought England did okay. They looked like they had half a plan which is most than they've shown since probably Erickson in Japan. Not good for me though. Forgot to swap my subs on fantasy league and miss my first goalscorer Lescott. Typical lol.

Capello would have been panned for that and you all know it. It wasn't good or positive but it got the result. Any manager with half a brain could get England to play like they did tonight.

Milner wouldn't get in my team.
Not because he missed a good opportunity, but because he doesn't do what it says on the tin for the position he plays in.
Get the ball in man!
He needs an invite to do so!
And he's too slow.

England never played as well as that in a major tournament under capello.

In the group stages they were stale and turgid against poor opposition and then picked apart by a half decent team.

Under Redknapp, we'd have gone gung-ho and got picked off with ease, ending up getting slaughtered.

Unfortunately, with the players we presently have, tonight's tactics are the only way we can hope to come close to any sort of success in this tournament.

That well? How can you claim that defending for 90 minutes is playing well? Fabio had England playing well during qualification so he went with that style for the tournament. If you go back and watch the Germany game, England weren't as bad as people claim. They should have been drawing but were robbed, they were eventually picked off as they tried desperately to equalise. If Capello was 'allowed' to play the defeatist style that Roy plays, England would have played much better. He's shown throughout his career that he can get results easily, but there was always immense pressure on him to get a performance from the side -- to play the right way. If Capello had the free pass that Roy seems to have, if tonight was 'good', then we would have had plenty of 'great' performances. If you seriously believe that Roy is better at setting his side out to defend and get a result, then you have never ever seen a Fabio Capello managed club side.

It's a decent result, but we'll have to find a bit more creativity to avoid drawing the other two games as well. That is the big worry for me.

As already said, Milner is horrible. He is a player I can honestly say I've never ever seen play well. People rave about his performances for City, but whenever I've see him play for them he's been ineffective and a water carrier for the Silva and Toure show. I really don't see what attributes he brings that England need.

I'm an Everton fan and Milner is an Everton player. He's the kind of solid but uneventful player that we've had in the Premier League. How he's ended up at Manchester City and in the England squad is beyond me. The only thing I can think is that he plays in a much different position for them with much different responsibilities. His touch was shocking tonight, his choice of pass was terrible and he didn't do anything positive at all. His miss was schoolboy stuff. If you know you are one footed and a spoon, why not stop the ball and square it to the England player on the far post who would have had a tap in. He had plenty of time. Parker is another that I don't understand the hype about. Technically poor, athletically poor, just what does he do to get in the England team?

On a brighter note I thought Welbeck, Young and Oxlade-Chamberlain were excellent. Welbeck worked tirelessly and chased lost causes all night. When he did get the ball his work was dangerous and his defending at set pieces was fantastic. Young was very dangerous as well and made several runs that should have resulted in him being played clear, but for poor passes from midfield. The Ox looks a player, very strong and unlike Milner his touch was great. For the other games I'd swap Milner for Walcott and have a go at them.

Are you a liverpool fan?

You just seem to have an axe to grind with hodgson.

I think it's funny you think someone as strong willed as capello would be influenced as to how he sets out his team. Did you not see hoe his reign ended?

Today england played better than they did at the world cup, against decent opposition. Credit where its due.

I'd give credit to Roy if his side actually came out and done anything remote. They came out, sat five yards in front of the box and shut up shop. They got a goal from a set piece, never tried to create anything else or make anything else happen, and eventually conceded to a pretty average goal and sat quite happily on that for the rest of the match. IMO, it takes very little for a manager to get a side to play like England did today, it's basic so I won't praise somebody for doing very little. I'll praise him for getting what he clearly desired, but there really wasn't anything to be happy about or to make me feel confident that they're capable of progressing against a decent side.

Say no more.

Capello was panned for getting results like that against USA and Algeria. And it would appear that England havent had a manager with have half a brain for a long time.

Could Hodgson ever do anything right for you?

Edited for accuracy

Yeah, he got Fulham to the Wafer cup final, he cemented West Brom in the mid-table and he sold Roberto Carlos at Inter. I never had - and probably never will - praise a manager that gets his side to defend for 90 minutes and hopes for the best. I've said on many occasions, it shows a complete lack of ability if he can't get a side of decent players playing something remotely decent or skillful.

I thought that it would be France and Ukraine from this group before today's games and I haven't seen anything to change that opinion, except that I think the Ukranians will actually win the group.

I can see England crumbling in that atmosphere in their last game, which, after Ukraine's win, will almost definitely be a 'live' game....The only hope for England is that the Ukrainian's do a job on the French and gain early qualification, which might lead to them easing off in that last game. However, I don't see that happening.

But yet you praise a manager who spends millions, then proceeds to scrape a League Cup final against Championship opposition, whilst giving his side its worst league campaign in donkey's years???....

What, like king kenny?

PLay sh*T for 120 minutes, scrape a draw against far inferior opposition then win on penalties?

I praised Kenny for completely different reasons. I was massively critical of our season and I didn't argue when he was sacked. I praised Kenny for turning the club around after Roy, for restoring a bit of happiness in the fanbase and getting the side to play decent football. The short period under Roy remains the darkest period in my time supporting Liverpool, I have never been so unhappy in my time as a fan.



Did Liverpool sit in their own box for 120 minutes and defend? No, they didn't. We had a bad game in that final, but you cannot dispute Liverpool were a passing side that attempted to play quality football. I can barely even remember that final, but we had something like 40 attempts on goal, you don't do that playing Hodgeball.

Still, what makes me p*ss is that Ingurland fans seem to be bringing King Kenny into a debate about Hodgson. Keep cheering sh*t on a stick whilst the routine flop will happen again. When the first decent side knocks you out, I imagine it will be universally accepted that England should be outplayed by them, nothing like being consistent 'n all.