URZZZZ Another good tournament from Southgate - the defeat is disappointing of course but not unexpected to France. The question remains whether being “good” can suffice to win major tournaments however and whether he has it in him to make the next step. The game plan worked well but the lack of subs (and then the choice of subs) were really poor. We saw the impact the Dutch had the night before by throwing on a taller striker and playing off him yet Wilson didn’t even get a sniff. Poor decision IMO
Don’t particularly agree with blaming the ref, he wasn’t great and got things wrong (like the foul on Saka before their first) but it’s a bit far fetched to blame him for an infringement 90 yards away
Agree with this poster as I quite often do.
We lost because we didn't take a golden chance to equalise, didn't create enough clear cut other opportunities and our 3 defenders allowed themselves to be outjumped by a geriatric following an orthodox cross.
Pundits last night, the same pundits who earlier praised the more relaxed approach of refereeing minor challenges in this tournament, suddenly didn't like the refereeing style because it affected England.
Both Saka and Kane regularly "go down too easily" as the saying goes and we see evidence each week in the Premier League.
Referees, wherever they come from, know which players are like this but fortunately Saka going down in the box was clear cut.
The other penalty would have been dubious from a distance as it looked as though the defender was doing what so many do in shepherding the ball to the keeper.
VAR came up trumps after the clear push was seen, or rather, the ref came up trumps after looking at the screen.
In football it is often hard enough to get 1 penalty ,and getting 2 is almost unheard of, so we had 2 opportunities to score and Kane missed one of them-it happens to better players than him ,including Messi in this tournament, but I feel that we rely far too much on set pieces rather than otherwise created chances.
I agree with those posters that suggest a second penalty taker should have been used but, with his record, it is hard to question Kane taking it and don't forget it wasn't Kane's miss that lost us the game as it would only have meant a draw and no doubt we would have cocked up if it came to penalties later.
Our midfield 3 last night was made up of 3 typical hard-running workhorses , or "water carriers" as that idiot Cantona once said of world cup winner Deschamps.
It is essential to have a couple of those but ours don't have the flair pass in them to split defenders in tight areas and create good chances for strikers.
We don't have a Griezmann or a Modric ,even if we do have Maddison and an underperforming Foden last night, and until we find a way of including such a player we may well end up falling short when it comes to the final stages of tournaments.
So, nobody to blame, not even the manager because he obviously felt that Grealish or Sterling or Rashford might have done something and Maddison hadn't played a single minute of the tournament.
We are a good team without any real stars who are not far off the best but in sports like rugby and football we just don't tend to have that little bit extra to make us winners.
Oh well, all quiet again for a couple of years, as we look enviously upon the teams that make the final and who would have thought that the ageing lot from little old Croatia would do better than us again?
