Semi-finals | Spain vs France | Netherlands vs England

Lyng said:
Well deserved win. England played some beautiful football in the first half.
Second half was dreadful and boring.
Ref was bent as feck.

Kobbie was immense in the first half and Watkins needs to start against Spain if England want to have any chance.
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Agreed. Spain were also great first half and poor ish 2nd half. They are slight favourites but will have to be at their best to beat England
 
Thought England were better in 1st half after conceding while Netherlands had more initiative in 2nd half but didn't create much from it.

England have Shaw and Mainoo, Netherlands have too many Liverpool players in their squad, so well done England.
 
tenpoless said:
Conservative teams are Spain's nightmare.
So we'll see.
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To be fair they just beat the best conservative team in the semi final. That French team had just the three defensively-minded midfielders on display.
 
Delighted to be in the final, will be massive underdogs on Sunday but that could actually suit us. Yes we did get exceptionally fortunate with that pen too.
 
jabugo said:
They are not immigrants, they are the children of immigrants. They were born and raised in Spain and embraced Spanish culture.
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Exactly, they are children of immigrants but to some in the Spanish fanbase they might as well be immigrants themselves. It’s interesting that Le Normand and Laporte are technically immigrants being French born, but there isn’t the same conversation around them as there is with Nico and Lamal. Civic nationality vs Ethnic nationality if you will.

All to say, when they play well, they are Spanish, Dutch, French etc. When they perform poorly, it’s Moroccan-Spanish, Carribean-Dutch, Ivorian-French etc.

Lukaku made similar statements about his time on the Belgian NT.

joedirt87 said:
Koeman’s subs were atrocious. Southgate could have battered them if he made attacking subs at 55-60 minutes.
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Why did he take off Malen for Wout. One mobile attacker for another immobile tree.
 
The scorcher from Ollie is a special moment. Pace, control, technique, awareness and execution of impressive calibre.
 
sepulturite said:
The people on here who aren't English obviously, and there's plenty of them.
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That is understandable.
But my point was more that the penalty was awarded, wrongly in my view, and it was scored and the game had moved on.
You made a very fair point though.
 
Demyanenko_square_jaw said:
Not every collision or bit of contact is worthy of being awarded a penalty. He was trying to block the shot in a reasonable manner (no obvious excess lunging and attempts to go through him with lots of weight behind it, de Jong style) , but Kane gets there marginally quicker and follows through. Timing was awkward and they've collided, but a defender has to be entitled to that sort of 50/50 attempt at a clean block.
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Is that a foul anywhere else on the pitch?
 
Koeman said they need to play their best game but they were far from the best. Sloppy, lot of errors and wrong passes and England went through the middle at will in the 1st half. England had them on their ropes so it was strange to see England being so reserved in the 2nd half. Netherlands had kind of an initiative but didnt do much with it and their forward players were totally ineffective. All in all deserved win by England. They have a hell of a team and when they decide to play to their strenghts they look pretty good.
 
I thought the decision to bring Weghorst on was a reasonable one because in the first half, Stones and Guehi were playing more like midfielders.
Netherlands needed someone to hold the ball up and occupy England defence.

But England seem to have a great habit of scoring late goals.
And that strike by Watkins from such a tight angle was incredible.
Have to say I initially thought it hit the side netting.

Great credit must be given to Southgate for his clever subscriptions and tactics which worked so well.
 
At the end of the day, both team that went to the final played better football than their opponents in the semifinals.
The Dutch was atrocious in the first half, and England was just a bit better than them on the overall performance. If England can bring their first half performance against Spain, it would be a very good final IMO
 
Wait the premier league isn't English? This changes everything! Cheatings feckers!
 
djembatheking said:
Ok so you are saying that maybe in the future it might not be the English Premier League.
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Based off their justification none of the top euro leagues are actually Spanish, Italian

matsdf said:
I can understand why the Dutch were angry at the end, I felt every 50/50 went Englands way. Looking at the penalty again though, I still think that was the correct call.
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Except the Dumfries sending off and a few calls after the penalty where the referee was evening things up

Kopral Jono said:
Finally! Some of his calls were real head-scratchers but as for the penalty incident he was correct in awarding that.
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At first look it was no penalty but as soon as you see Dumfries with his studs up on the VAR screen then it was going to be given. He “evened” it up almost immediately after by not giving Dumfries a second yellow when he pulled Foden back, who was in a strong attacking position, almost last man.

Terranova said:
https://x.com/TimKosterNL/status/1811155987463807418

Look at this. Saka handballed, so it never should come to the Kane/Dumfries clash.
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You’re rivalling Chumps for biggest meltdown of the night, impressive work
 
Loved how Kane rolled around after the block that lead to penalty as if he got snipered and gets up the minute the pen is given. No mention on commentary though.
 
Its amazing how lightening can strike twice.

This has all the hallmarks of the last Euros.

England get favourable group and the far easier side of the draw and limp to the final.

We all know what happens when they face their first decent side in the final.

Southgate truly walks on water it seems.

Saying that, I hope England win the final, I will have to switch off all footie channels for a few weeks as the media will be unbearable for a while.

Then Southgate gets a knighthood and a bumper new contract.
 
Congratulations Ingurlunders. Before the match I said I'd rather lose the semis than another final but a last minute goal is something you can never get accustomed to. Oh well, carry on!
 
Posh Red said:
Can’t argue, to be honest. But having watched Spain this tournament, England could need that if they want a chance in the final.
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Pogue sneaking up on the rails with some late trolling.

To be fair England would have to go some to beat the Spaniards in the shithousing stakes
 
Rapsel said:
Congratulations Ingurlunders. Before the match I said I'd rather lose the semis than another final but a last minute goal is something you can never get accustomed to. Oh well, carry on!
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England and the Netherlands were much of a much to be honest. Two poor managers, Dutch maybe more a sum of their parts vs England relying on moments. Think they’d both struggle for different reasons against Spain, but similarly lose a tight ish score line despite being outplayed
 
whitbyviking said:
England and the Netherlands were much of a much to be honest. Two poor managers, Dutch maybe more a sum of their parts vs England relying on moments. Think they’d both struggle for different reasons against Spain, but similarly lose a tight ish score line despite being outplayed
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Much of a much?

Edit: Ah similar. Well yes.
 
whitbyviking said:
England and the Netherlands were much of a much to be honest. Two poor managers, Dutch maybe more a sum of their parts vs England relying on moments. Think they’d both struggle for different reasons against Spain, but similarly lose a tight ish score line despite being outplayed
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In the manager battle Koeman won last night if you ask me. Southgate managed to somehow completely deflate you during his half time talk.
 
England had more upfront, that sums up the result for me. Quality finish from Watkins, the ref needs to be banned for life.

Will be rooting for England in final, I think.
 
KirkDuyt said:
In the manager battle Koeman won last night if you ask me. Southgate managed to somehow completely deflate you during his half time talk.
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Good point, but when you consider Southgate normally deflates them both halves then I don’t think it’s quite so clear cut.
 
It felt strangely good to watch Wout Weghorst running around, working hard and achieving nothing. For somebody other than us.
 
Really pleased for Watkins, probably worked harder than anyone in that squad to get himself to this point. Think you could see that in his celebration as well, just pure emotion and joy on his face.
 
I'll take a smash and grab against Spain in the final. I will applaud us defending our box for 89mins and scoring on our first shot on target. I don't care, it's a final.

That doesn't change the fact that we've been doing this from game 1 against the likes of teams I couldn't confidently point to on a map. It's embarrassing and destroys the spirit of international football (it should be a festival of the beautiful game).

Persisting with a underperforming Kane for 80+mins, despite having two very good alternatives on the bench is shocking. So is taking 4 games to reach a midfield pair (Rice/Mainoo) that was obvious to all fans prior to the tournament.

Win or not, he's a shocking coach and I hope he gets the Chelsea job in January so he's exposed for the fraud he is.
 
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