I'm alive...I think. Screamed myself hoarse. Delle and Sterling don't need to start vs Sweden but I fear they will. Needed to pull both for attacking options by minute 75 but Southgate is stubborn (like his predecessors). Colombia were a miserable bunch and the MLS ref was horrid. I was sick when they got the equalizer because they barely got in our box all match. Lot's to tweak and dissect but f uck it, WE WON A SHOOTOUT!!!!! Damn, that felt good. Let's do it again Saturday (with less drama)!
What a game, what an ending. Well done @England #ENGvCOL #EnglandvsColombia #threelions pic.twitter.com/l5qTfmfN2O— Ross Kemp (@RossKemp) July 3, 2018
southgate handled the game badly when we were 1-0 up and down the stretch.. made the wrong subs and let them back in , just as Woy did in the Euro's .
I've never heard my gf scream so loud it doesnt bode well for the relationship I guess but I'll take it.
Penalty shootouts are too interesting not to watch. I think I understand why others can't bare to watch, but not entirely. To each his own.
My family is hosting our annual 4th of July BBQ tonight. Like always I wear a patriotic shirt, but I'll be wearing my Union Jack tank-top under my American Eagle t-shirt... So damn happy right now.
They were piling men forward as they got more and more desperate as the game went on but, yeah... the real problem was that we didn't score more than the one goal because Lingard, Alli and Sterling did very little. At least one of them needed dragging off after, say, an hour. Not sure I'd change much else, tbh. Let's not forget we were probably a minute from winning it in extra time. After they scored we looked pretty bloody ugly for the next 15 mins, though. Reminiscent of the way we used to play in tournies gone past.
Can Loftus Cheek come in and provide a bit of guile? I don't think Alli and Sterling can play in the same team in this set up, they kept getting in each other's way.
Apparently there was a confrontation between Sterling and an assistant coach from Colombia. Credit to Sterling for keeping his nerve. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...d-cup-2018-watch-itv-highlights-a8429781.html
Lmao have a read on the KO round board it’s hilarious, Columbians are complaining about the red!!! Lmao we could have had another penalty, they should’ve had a red and plenty more yellows for their dirty tactics. It was disgusting play from them, the incident with Sterling above shows even more. What a classless thuggish side, it’s no wonder fans from Argentina and Brazil were cheering them on in this forum. Can’t wait for Belgium to KO Brazil now.
That was a relief. So many times we have been knocked out of tournaments on penalty shoot outs. A lot of emotion came out finally winning one. The Colombian coach barging into Sterling at half time epitomised their cheating. Especially the smirk after the fourth official had spoken to him. As did the attempt to wreck the penalty spot. Glad they're out. They would have been better off trying to play football throughout the match. Colombia did defend very well. Sweden will do the same minus the cheating but I doubt they will be stupid enough to give away a penalty. We need to score from open play. Watching on TV you cannot see the full pitch and don't get a full understanding of why we failed to break Colombia down more often. Was it a lack of movement? Was it being outnumbered in the attacking third of the pitch? Was it the constant fouls possibly including some that were out of shot? Was it a simple lack of ability to pick a final ball? A combination of all? What we could clearly see was that Sterling kept dribbling into the first man rather than around him or passing. Dele is not fully fit and is ineffective. Just play Loftus-Cheek. When we started diving a lot the ref sensed this and stopped giving any fouls except for the most obvious. It was a very tough game for him to ref. Should have booked more Colombians for screaming in his face though. Even if they were second yellows. Has anyone scored as many penalties as Kane in one tournament? Edit to add: Southgate said all the right things about Sweden in the post match interviews. Does he already have a plan to do something different against them or is it a case of the same again and stay focused?
We struggled to break them down as they had three defensive midfielders sat in front of the back four.
I thought Uribe's shot was on target. Turns out it was always going wide. Instead of a save Pickford needlessly conceded the corner from which Colombia scored the equalizer and forced the game into extra time.
In the next game I would bring in Rashford for Sterling , RLC for Alli.. we cant carry Sterling if we want to go further. I think he would be better as a sub anyway . Going against tired players .
Phew. That was tense. Everything I wanted to say been said before, I was very angry with Southgate yesterday, hopefully Alli will not start next time, really can't understand which match Southgate saw yesterday, because Alli should have brought off after 50 minutes. Colombia were absolutely disgusting, and I felt they would progress in the end. Thankfully I was wrong.