#62 England 1-2 Croatia - Semi-Final 2

[Patito]

What has that got to do with you claiming the English were being arrogant in the lead up to this game?

[nickkarkie]

What has that got to do with you claiming the English were being arrogant in the lead up to this game?

I didn't, I said Keane was right about the "it's coming home stuff" and then everyone else added their opinion.
People just can't handle others' opinions, the same happened when I said Noble would be nothing more than an average premier league player and this was 10 years ago.
Ok time for me to go, let's all have a good season watching west ham.

[Patito]

You are so far off there nick

[Hammer1972]

You are so far off there nick

What do you know about anything? You probably still have to go to work every day...

[nickkarkie]

What do you know about anything? You probably still have to go to work everyday...

As I did since I was 10 until all the way through university until I went full time and did 70-80 hours a week from the age of 21 learning a trade and then growing my own.
With no holidays for 10 years I might add and 1 holiday in 18 years.

[Hammer1972]

You can't help yourself can you!! :lol:

If I wanted your CV, I'd be on LinkedIn. Here I like to talk football.

[nickkarkie]

You can't help yourself can you!! :lol:

If I wanted your CV, I'd be on LinkedIn. Here I like to talk football.

And when people have opinions others get too angry in response, something I don't understand.

[Hammer1972]

I'm done. I'm sure you're a good bloke but you might want to look at what it is in your posting style that winds people up...

[nickkarkie]

I'm done. I'm sure you're a good bloke but you might want to look at what it is in your posting style that winds people up...

Probably a fair assessment and hence why I will leave permanently this time (no sympathy wanted, best for the forum)

[Hammer1972]

Don't be a drama queen, nothing wrong with a bit of healthy debate.

[nickkarkie]

Don't be a drama queen, nothing wrong with a bit of healthy debate.

It's not that, I've enjoyed it more looking from afar and not getting involved in the back and forth, will stick to being a watcher.

[Hammer1972]

Fair enough

[BondsoBob]

As we older Hammers have been saying for 52 years. History has proven that for England to win the world cup they MUST have West Ham players in the side ! When will the f@@@@@s at the FA make the connection ?
On a serious note I think overall we did OK. No more, no less. I always thought the semi's would be our zenith.

[BondsoBob]

I think Croatia's 1st goal was a high boot. You can bet it would have been disallowed if the roles were reversed.

Sour grapes? Too right - I hope Croatia get stuffed in the final
(even though I dislike accordions,Henri,Jacques Tati,Platini - you get the picture)

Yes complete sour grapes. Walker should have been braver and got his head in.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I hope Southgate [ or the next Manager ] learns something from this campaign , the players will be all the better for the experience but as others have already said they beat Tunisia , Panama and Colombia , they lost to both Belgium [ who Wales beat 3-1 in Euro1016 ] and Croatia who had the toughest of games against Russia .

With Spain , Germany , Uruguay , Portugal , Brazil and Argentina all out this was England's best chance at winning another World Cup but it wasn't to be , you did well though and now you move forward .

[BondsoBob]

I hope Southgate [ or the next Manager ] learns something from this campaign , the players will be all the better for the experience but as others have already said they beat Tunisia , Panama and Colombia , they lost to both Belgium [ who Wales beat 3-1 in Euro1016 ] and Croatia who had the toughest of games against Russia .

With Spain , Germany , Uruguay , Portugal , Brazil and Argentina all out this was England's best chance at winning another World Cup but it wasn't to be , you did well though and now you move forward .

Is a very good summary. Spot on TOMOS.

[HammerMan2004]

Yes complete sour grapes. Walker should have been braver and got his head in.

I don't think Walker had any idea the striker was behind him.

[DDHammer]

Yep, think this was the best chance we were going to have.

First team we come up against with genuine world class ability in midfield and it showed our weakness. Got a feeling had we won the group we'd have been lucky to make the QF.

Southgate done decent enough overall but think Souness had it right on Alli and Lingard "“They don’t want to get involved in keeping the ball and dominating possession.

“They want to be involved in scoring the goals and getting on the end of things."

[bobcar]

Bit OT but I've just noticed we play Croatia (and Spain) in September - November in the EUFA Nations League.

[steps]

A definite game of two halves this one. We were far superior in the first half and should of been 2 or 3-0 up going into the break. Sterling was our outball and was just running at Croatia defenders and they couldn’t deal with him. Kane missed a glorious chance to put Sterling in on an open goal, Lingard also missed a good chance.

The second half Croatia switched it up, Rashford came on who was largely ineffective i thought (deployed down the right?), the Croats grew into the game and their experience had us on the ropes. I’m pretty sure that Perisic and the other fella kept switching flanks (?) which really confused our back line, and the fella with the tache (right back who plays for Atletico) absolutely rinsed us.

Such a shame we didn’t take our chances in the first half, we didn’t have a sniff in the second (did we have a shot in goal?)

Mandzukic scores them sort of goals for breakfast, never mind his age, a winner at Bayern and Juventus. That’s the difference between him and Kane. Kane will never further his career staying at Spurs.

Gutted to be going out in the semis but France would of been different gravy in the final and we did have a bit of an easy route. A fantastic chance to win it squandered, but they exceeded my expectations so fair play to them. Southgate has done a fantastic job, better than anything that dinosaur Allardyce would of done.