As an England fan I was glad to see Russia totally dismantle Holland and Sweden barely breaking a sweat, and Croatia doing the same to Germany who were also favourites with Holland. I was sick of people saying Russia's defeat to Spain proved how bad England were being pipped to Euro 2008. Yes England as a TEAM are mediocre at best right now, but they were not pub teams that qualified above us. Germany and Holland both favourites, both totally outplayed. Every bitter England fan can now say "I told you so" *Sorry If this should be in the Euro2008 forum, add an [R] if needed too
Lol 'pub teams'? The only pub team at the moment gets far too much exposure and has an Italiano at the helm.
I must admit that gets up my nose people in the media jumping on that bandwagon, nobody knows how well England could have done. England were much better then Russia head to head and look were Russia have got. Yes, the Pub team with an Italiano at the helm are Italy, who somehow manage to win, and noone can understand how
Croatia did not at all beat Germany in the same way that Russia beat holland though. Russia did it in style and more comprehensively and at a bigger stage of the tournament. Why is it that england fans are making these comparisons? Are scots also? Serbs? Danes? It is irrelevant how the teams that qualified above you are doing at the euros. They qualified above you in the qualification group and that's all that matters. After that I don't understand why you have to try to say how you'd have done instead.
Wow, the Spaniard is all of the sudden brave after it took 80 some odd years to surpass Italy...on penalty kicks. When you win your FIRST WORLD CUP, then you can start calling other NTs pub teams, but right now, Spain is still the BIGGEST underachiever in the world of football considering the league and quality of players. So, the real question is, why hasn't Spain won ANYTHING since 64? If Italy are a pub team, Spain must be halfway house team.
Yes it takes great heart to have 11 men behind the ball and still loose What an example Italy were in this competition! Mutu should have put them to the sword long ago.
If you didn't know, it is considered a draw. When you have no true center backs playing, your best and only play maker missing, and a really bad manager who doesn't know good tactics and formations, all you have left is heart. On the other hand, you have England trying to qualify for the damn thing, against a Croatia that has nothing to play for, at Wembley. You want to talk about heart with this in your face? No point in arguing with someone who already lost the argument before it even began. Don't talk when you don't have anything to back it with. You should learn something from the REAL English support. And this thread is a ridiculous excuse for England's shortcomings. Bottom line, they didn't care=no heart.
England won 3-0 at wembley easily, and dominated the first half in Moscow leading 1-0 at half time. It was 10 minutes of madness that they lost 2 quick goals in the second half. Russia were better for 45 mins over 2 legs.
Italy hardly had a sterling qualifying campaign themselves. France lost to scotland twice and still qualified, that sums up that group. Italy are lucky France are mediocre, worse then Croatia and Russia.
You do realise that against Croatia, England had nearly the entire team out injured? You had a couple of centre-backs missing, we had an entire backline and goalkeeper that had never played together before. Even then it took a blunder and a fluke to beat us. Plus we had Steve McClaren, who makes Donadoni look like Clough. And your manager knows plenty of tactics. His favourite seems to be to have a player throw himself on the ground when the opposition are attacking so play is stopped. Maybe we should have done that against Croatia. Would that have been classed as 'heart'? What about the reigning world champions, the self-proclaimed 'bestest team eva' playing like frightened rabbits for 120 minutes against a team that always chokes anyway, because they're missing a couple of players. Is that 'heart'?
croatia totally dominated basically a full english squad in zagreb..croatia is better then england and they will show it again in worldcup qualifiers..
I think Germany - Russia is much, much better than England - Croatia. England = I don't know Croatia = they think they're great Russia = could be great Germany = ************, but in the the final Ok, maybe I don't know
And the Venables/McClaren master stroke of 5-3-2/3-5-2. I hope the Croatian players are as arrogant as their fans, we'll end up walking the group.