FIFA World Cup 2018 chat thread

[Durhamfootman]

Also true that if the ball doesn't end up at the feet of Kane, then it doesn't go anywhere near the direction of the goal

[Gingerfinch]

Get the f..k in there

[Durhamfootman]

Thank the bloody Lord!

now don't *modded* it up

[Gingerfinch]

Well that was close.

[GGAS]

Well deserved. Given the comments on social media (which obviously emphasises the worst/extreme) part of me thinks 50% of England fans would rather draw 1-1 and then moan about the ref all day tomorrow. Be happy about getting 3 points which Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil and Germany have failed to do!

[budgetmeansbudget]

That's as well as we will play in this tournament, so going away with a draw would have been a disaster.

[Gingerfinch]

The pundits are right, that was a great header.

[budgetmeansbudget]

The pundits are right, that was a great header.

Technically wise, a hell of a good header.

[sussexpob]

I've made some Belgian friends. It's party time haha

[Durhamfootman]

The ramifications of drawing that game are too terrible to even think about.

It could so easily have meant that we'd have to beat Belgium in an effective KO game, or lose and hope that Tunisia don't beat Panama by more then we did.... and you just know how that would have turned out

and that is assuming that we beat Panama

Thank goodness for HK

[Durhamfootman]

The pundits are applauding England for the performance.... and for 20/25 mins they were right, but jeez.... that was a dreadful second half. so slow it was practically pedestrian

if the first 20 mins would have scared a fair few of these teams, then the second half would have scared almost no-one.

Lineker commented on what a good game Henderson had, but in that turgid second half he sucked the life out of any England attacking tempo. Against the good teams he'll help slow things down, but against the poor ones I don't think that does us any favours

[bigfluffylemon]

Never in any doubt?

Still, 3 points are 3 points, job done, and England are almost certain to make the next round now - barring an unlikely combination of stuff-ups by both Belgium and England. Stats website 538 currently has England on 96% chance to progress (up from about 83% before the game): https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... edictions/

Nonetheless, there's a bit of 'same old England' about the story of this result. Scrape past a team we should comfortably beat on paper. Profligate in front of goal when the game was open. Soft equaliser raising concerns about England's ability to keep out better teams. Unable to break down the opposition for a long period when they park the bus and play for the draw due to a lack of pace and creativity up front. And of course the refereeing controversy - what England campaign would be complete without that?

Still, at least we've won an opener for the first time in bloody ages. Roll on Panama.

[Durhamfootman]

ITV pundits are also praising Henderson, so perhaps it's just me

although all the examples of his passing that they used to justify this came from the first few mins of the match... none from the second half.... which was rather my point

[budgetmeansbudget]

And don't forget we also had the rough side of refereeing decisions and VAR.

We played superbly for the first 20 to 25 minutes, should have had four or five, then we got a very debatable penalty awarded against us, which must have been a killer for the players when they went in at half time.

Predictably Tunisia parked the bus in the second half, and their FIFA ranking and defensively solid recent history suggests any team in the world would have struggled to break them down. But we did.

As I said earlier I don't think we'll play any better than last night, definitely exceeded my pre game expectations. I particularly enjoyed the choice of McGuire over Cahill, now just need to swap Sterling for Rashford!!

[sussexpob]

The best team at this tournament with the ball so far, Spain, took 85 minutes last week in a friendly to break down Tunisia in a similar style of game. They were ranked 14 in the World before the Russia game started and people have jigged about, this wasnt a mickey mouse operation, it was the African continents apparent best team and one who Portugal also couldnt beat recently.

It seems so English to watch a match like this and question why we didnt steam roller them; what did Argentina do against the country with 300,000 people? Germany couldnt hit a barn door. France whimpered past Australia, as did Uruguay whimper past Australia. Brazil couldnt win.

Fact is, unless you play mouthwatering close quarters football through the middle of 4 man markers, which even Lionel Messi couldnt do, then you have to be patient with games like this and carve out chances where you can. We had chances, we won the game. Job done. A job done that over better teams couldnt manage against similar ranked teams playing the same way.

As Budget highlights, we won despite some questionable penalty calls both ends. Not sure we need to dwell much on how late the win was achieved, the key is we broke them down, we dominated possession, we reduced them to one worthwhile chance (a dubious one at that) and should have scored a bucket load in the first half.

Well played for me.