They uploaded the entire first game in case anyone wants to watch. Their game with Italy will be streamed here:
The Italians are playing defensive football with a lot of long balls and have a lot of luck. It's not that surprising, is it ? They've started to waste time by faking injuries. 5 min left. Italy leading 1-0. EDIT : Czech Rep. just equalized. Awful defensive mistake. EDIT 2: Czech score the winner in added time. Italy pressed forward for once and got caught on the break.
If we lose to Italy then that's 3 of us on 6 points, assuming Czech Republic beat Albania. Italy would then have the head to head on us, but so would we on Czech Republic, who themselves have it on Italy. How does it work!
Just got done watching the replay. Italy completely collapsed. They made the same type of mistakes England teams have made in the past. 1) On the first goal #5, who is their captain, foolishly wanted the keeper to come and fall on the ball, but was too far away and with #11 from the CR coming in fast. I think #5 clear it off of #11 and that is how it went in. 2) The 2nd goal was pretty much luck for the Czechs. A player blindly bicycle-kicked the ball right where their furthest and most wide open striker was and he did the rest with a cool finish. Having seen Italy play like that for most of the game I believe we can get a draw with not all of our effort because the defense has been solid. Plus can very possibly beat them. Things are looking good.
It seems we are overdue a bit of class up front - which would hopefully result in a couple of goals - or even headed goals like we used to be known for (rather than heading over or wide). Anyway, we should have our tails up now, knowing a draw will do it, and not having the anxiety of needing to score (unless they do). In practice though that might not be the case. A concern for me would be being too passive and lethargic hoping to muddle our way through. Obviously we can still play with a bit of bite and vibrancy while keeping solid at the back, and let's hope that's what we do.
Yeah it looked that way in a couple of Chelsea games I watched this season. Brown played as a 9 a while a go for England and seemed to thrive on working the back line and dropping off. I'm not convinced that starting out to the left gets the best of him or is his long term future.
It's not being streamed, Armstrong just gave England the lead though. Malta, Scotland, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Germany and Switzerland the seven teams through already, one more from England's group to be decided.
This Italy team is not the ones that most people expected them to be I suppose. 30 more minutes to go. It is huge that we scored and thus far haven't allowed in a goal yet in as many matches.