I just think when Poland are winning games, defending brilliantly and drawing with Germany and then Portugal are drawing three matches in their group stage and beating a Croatia team that did not show up at all by a goal like that, I can not resist saying Poland are better than Portugal. However I will give you this one, I would not be surprised if Ronaldo shows up vs Poland for I know how brilliant he can be.
Half time and my prediction is correct as it stands! As well as De Gea is playing, Chiellini has been man of the match so far! Brilliant performance so far from him and he has been all the difference for the Italians for me!
Well De Gea is still having a ridiculous game just as I thought, but I can say the same about Chiellini too
Italy is playing like Italy. Sets up the delicious match I wanted against Germany. If there is any team on the planet the Germans don't want to face it is a confident Italy who seems to always have their number. What a match it will be in Bordeaux.
Yes because of course the Italians still have their little curse on them lol it will be a thrilling match!
That is what I was saying in my predictions, we are rubbish. You are a better team than us and I always knew it
Which is another overreaction. Hodgson may not have done a great job in this tournament, but it's not like another manager would have done any better. The problem is a lack of top-level talent (just like it is becoming for Spain & Holland), not the manager. England has a lot of moderately good players...but it doesn't have any world class players.
the problem is not the squad. decent squad but tactics.. i mean Hodgson thought i will put 4 strikers and we will score, right... but midfielders were terrible. Rooney CM? i mean. NO. Alli need find better place on the pitch. not good enough from game plan perspective.
I am finding it hard to figure out how that was an overreaction. You see, this all happened in a press conference just over 15 minutes the match finished, and also we put up as bad of a performance as we could to get elimination from another national tournament early on so Hodgson did the honourable by announcing his resignation for he knew his contract was up yet you are telling me that I am overreacting??? And come on there are plenty of managers that could do better than Hodgson did, and at the end of the day we have to look for another manager that can do better than Hodgson did tonight. Yeah playing 4 strikers was the icing on the cake. When nobody was performing, Hodgson was just losing it, especially when he took off our only defensive midfielder for Weetabix Wilshere and he put Rashford on too late who actually looked like he had potential in the match to make an assist or score. Everything went wrong tonight, it was just humiliation for a nation like England, but hey, this is why i predicted us to get knocked out. It was just diabolical tonight, comparable to Croatia's performance vs Portugal and we got what we deserved I am sorry to say
Really? Hodgson did what no other England manager has ever done, which is to take the team through qualifying without dropping a single point. England's problem is that its players are not good enough, not that it's manager is not good enough. I'd note that not a single England player has finished in the top 10 of the European Player of the Year voting since Wayne Rooney in 2011-2012, and that last year not a single England player made the 35 player short-list. That's the problem....not Hodgson.
England played four very mediocre teams who, aside from Bale, had no world class players either. So I disagree that the problem is just the level of the players. Additionally, the four teams they played in the finals really were no better than the teams they played in qualifying where, as you point out, they won every game. Consequently, I just don't see how the coach can escape blame here. Really, his team selection and substitutions were all over the shop, and I do wonder if he lost the dressing room after his wholesale changes for the Slovakia game likely tossed away the chance of winning the group and getting into the top half of the draw. The reality is that England totally collapsed mentally after those two Iceland goals, with the second half being the most pitiful I've seen from an England team.
Interesting that Spain and England, who surprisingly finished 2nd in their group, went out yesterday.
Also drew with Hungary and Austria who both proved to be pretty poor based on their other matches. Not to mention, England were flat out terrible from beginning to end in this tournament. So yeah, group F still looks weak even in hindsight.
I understand your point and don't necessarily disagree but only 2 other groups still have 2 teams in the quarter finals. Clearly not the weakest group.