Euro 2012 - Group Stages

[LUX]

PHEW

Watched that through my fingers. France v England is unbearable family stress for me (all sports, Rugby, the relays...........). Luckily my son supports us, although that makes it worse somehow. I don't want him to be let down (like at Wembley v Swansea).

I was, like everyone, very happy with the draw. Blanc's error was delaying his subs until far too late. I did not want 25 minutes of Ben Arfa.

Best England player on the night was Parker, but agreed Hart and Cole are our two world class players.

Parker being subbed by Henderson is just ridiculous.


ps Blanc said draw was a fair result.

[LUX]

double post soz

[ZacNaloen]

So good you said it twice

[Hoop Blah]

Fact is Sweden have 1 world class player and then a team full of low to average type Premiership quality. If we don't win then we deserve to go out in the groups.

You could have just described England tbf.

Who's our world class player?

Goes back to defining what World Class really means and how many of the other nations have an abundance of these world class players?

We've got plenty of international class players who can easily handly football of this level. We don't have great match winning flair players though unfortunately, but we do have enough in the likes of Rooney and Young to cause any back four in the world problems at times.

Hart IS world class, in that he'd have a good shout at getting in a Worlds best squad, but ironically he was probably our poorest performer last night.

[pea]

they tried to play like the Royals but didn't close down higher up around the pitch, lacked an experienced frontman who could hold onto the ball and bring others in and didn't have Jimmy Kebe.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Not usually a Gerrard fan, but talk of him being at fault for the goal is pretty retarded. Why the hell was the back four stood around in the penalty box together, 10 yards away from any French player? Complete tools the lot of 'em. F/cking goal side camera crew were in a more advanced position than John Terry. May as well have replaced the c/nt with a Subuteo figurine.

Still, good result and I actually thought that was one of England's best performances in a tournament for a long time (not a great accolade, I know). Think back to Germany, USA, Alegeria and Slovenia (shudder) - this performance should be framed and hung on the face of Big Ben.

[Handsome Man]

I thought the goal was Hart's fault.

[ZacNaloen]

He was unsighted, I find it difficult to blame him.

[TBM]

I thought the goal was Hart's fault.

It was a very well hit goal, he couldn't see it until it passed Gerrard. Fact is Nasri shouldn't have had the space and time to make the shot in the first place - so the blame can't go to Hart. Its not as if he did a Rob Green and let it slip through his hands

[Hoop Blah]

I thought it was one of those Graham Stack moments. It wasn't really a mistake, and you wouldn't really blame him as such, but at the same time you could see that shot saved (with a good save admittedly) as often as not.

I'm sure Hart will be thinking he could've done better. The bigger mistakes were a couple of crosses he didn't deal with early on, including the one he dropped.

[TBM]

I thought it was one of those Graham Stack moments. It wasn't really a mistake, and you wouldn't really blame him as such, but at the same time you could see that shot saved (with a good save admittedly) as often as not.

I'm sure Hart will be thinking he could've done better. The bigger mistakes were a couple of crosses he didn't deal with early on, including the one he dropped.

He admitted himself after the game "i would like to think if i see a shot i will save it - i didn't see his until very late"

[Archie's penalty]

Build up to the Poland-Russia game:

http://rightbankwawaeuro2012.wordpress. ... ig-one-10/

[Archie's penalty]

Build up to the Poland-Russia game:

http://rightbankwawaeuro2012.wordpress. ... ig-one-10/

Keep reading that as rightwankbank

Each to their own.

[TBM]

Samir Nasri's outburst after scoring Monday at the European Championship was aimed at a French journalist who questioned his form the day before.

When Nasri scored late in the first half in the 1-1 draw against England, he ran away in celebration and shouted "Shut your mouth" in French. He then brought his finger to his lips as if to tell someone to hush.

The target was a journalist working for sports daily L'Equipe, who on Sunday wrote an article questioning whether the midfielder would show his best form after some below-par performances recently.

Nasri said the journalist asked for an explanation after the game.

"He asked me who it was aimed at, and I said it was for him," Nasri said.

After Nasri had been held up by a doping test, he walked past waiting reporters without answering any more questions. One journalist told him they had been waiting for two hours, and a clearly irritated Nasri replied "I didn't ask to you wait."

[Vision]

I thought it was one of those Graham Stack moments. It wasn't really a mistake, and you wouldn't really blame him as such, but at the same time you could see that shot saved (with a good save admittedly) as often as not.

I'm sure Hart will be thinking he could've done better. The bigger mistakes were a couple of crosses he didn't deal with early on, including the one he dropped.

He admitted himself after the game "i would like to think if i see a shot i will save it - i didn't see his until very late"

'greed. I think people are underestimating what clever, as well as powerful shot it was. Nasri shaped as if to bend it in the far corner so Gerrard tries to block where he thinks it will go and at the last minute he wraps his foot around it and buries it the other side. With hindsight you could apportion blame for pretty much every goal but sometimes you just have to accept the quality of the shot. Its the sort of thing players do when taking penalties but it takes some ability to do it 20 yards out and beat the keeper for power as well.

[Ian Royal]

Nasri said himself he deliberately sent the shot a different way to how he would normally, because he knew what Hart would be expecting. So I completely agree with Vision.

If there's any fault, it's a collective one for the whole back 4 and midfield 4 for getting sucked too deep. They cleared at least twice, in that build up, but straight back to a French player. If you're going to have no outlet, make bloody sure you clear it into touch away from a player so you have a chance to reorganise and push up.

[Maguire]

I thought it was one of those Graham Stack moments. It wasn't really a mistake, and you wouldn't really blame him as such, but at the same time you could see that shot saved (with a good save admittedly) as often as not.

I'm sure Hart will be thinking he could've done better. The bigger mistakes were a couple of crosses he didn't deal with early on, including the one he dropped.

He admitted himself after the game "i would like to think if i see a shot i will save it - i didn't see his until very late"

'greed. I think people are underestimating what clever, as well as powerful shot it was. Nasri shaped as if to bend it in the far corner so Gerrard tries to block where he thinks it will go and at the last minute he wraps his foot around it and buries it the other side. With hindsight you could apportion blame for pretty much every goal but sometimes you just have to accept the quality of the shot. Its the sort of thing players do when taking penalties but it takes some ability to do it 20 yards out and beat the keeper for power as well.

yup, agreed

[PieEater]

We'll never win anything until we master the basic skill of ball retention.

Every other team are capable, why can't we? It really is quite simple.....

It drives me mad.

I have to agree with this, although we did have a bit of possession there were a lot of times were we made a tackle and passed it straight back to them. The French defence looked pretty poor and if we could have tested them more we could have won.

We also seem to be incapable, or under instructions not to, close down and tackle players on the edge of our box. We just stand off them, so it was no surprise that's where their goal came from. When we have the same position at the other end you get two defenders closing us down and generally winning the ball.

[Stuka]

I see the England band was banned yesterday. The thought of those guys not being able to play Theme from the Great Escape, Rule Britania, and the Come on England jingle made me phsysically ill. How dare they silence the England band? This disgraceful act should not go unpunished. I will boycott the rest of the Euros unless the bandsmen are allowed to play once more, by turning my back to the screen for each from now on.

Yet another shameful act of anti-English bigotry. Shame on them! I'd be crying if I wasn't vomiting.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Why wasn't the England band allowed in btw?

Shameful decision.

They better be back for the Sweden game.