England vs France

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Comments

  • Perish the thought, Muttley.

    Sorry, I may have sidetracked the thread a bit.

    Football - Switzerland - win, lose or draw?
    (my running schedule prevents me from watching this one, by the way)
  • England should win that one. 2-0 England I'll say.

    Disappointing for England last night, but you have to give France credit. England's goal came against the run of play from a debatable free kick, and France were on top for most of the first half & completely dominated the game in the second half so 2-1 is a fair result. Doesn't matter anyway, Spain & Portugal are the likely opponents for 1st & 2nd in this group, and there's not much to choose between them. England could beat either so 2nd place will be sufficient.
  • My comments the other day-"2-1 to France. Or 2-1 to England. Maybe 1-1 or a narrow 1-0 to either side. Mmmmm, we could suprise ourselves and keep a clean sheet. 2-0? 3-0?"

    Told you!!!

  • Biggest cheer of the night at Murrayfiled (Red hot chilli peppers concert) was on the encore where they announced the final score was 2-1 France...class!
  • Won by 4 wickets, 3-0 in the series brilliant result
  • In the first half (after the goal) the England fans were singing "Are you Scotland in disguise?". Sort of lost it's impact near the end of the game.
  • France were, despite all the anti-England comments, decidedly average. They certainly did not win the game... England gave it to them.
  • How about all that pressure on England's defence throughout the second half? (and large parts of the first) They defended well, but it was a bit desperate at times. They were struggling to get it out of their own half, and when they did it was coming straight back. I'm not being anti-English - any impartial observer would recognise that France were always looking more likely to score and set-plays or counter attack breaks were England's best hope. I see how disappointed England will feel having come so close but they have to recognise that they were up against a better team.

    But as I said, the result of this game is completely irrelevant. England should win their next two games without any problems, and it doesn't matter if they play 1st or 2nd from the Spain / Portugal group.
  • Walkers to the back, runners to the front...BANG! And they're off.

    All happy and smiling.

    Sorted.
  • Sorry, posted on wrong thread.

    Doh!
  • agree with brunswick.france were better for much of the game.when you have 3 of the best players in the world in zidane,henry and vieria you always have a chance of winning even when you aren't playing that well.england don't.though rooney looks like a player who'll do it for them in the future.
  • BarklesBarkles ✭✭✭
    What in the name to Tony's trousers happened?
  • Did anyone notice the member of the Dangerous Sports Club at the game? In the corner to the right of the goal in which all the scoring took place. A sea of white & red...and one blue shirt. Obviously a man who likes to live life on the edge!
  • I am gonna wake up in a minute and we won 1-0.


    my pub went from, shoulder to shoulder packed to almost empty in 5 mins of the final whistle
  • You could say that in the end the difference between the two sides came down to the best player in the world and another player in the world. The best player in the world scored his penalty. Where was Peter Shilton when you needed him?
  • Brunswick, not quite sure why you seem to be sure it'll be either Spain or Portugal. Greece has a better chance of going through than Portugal for my money.
  • brunswick,
    well the french did invent the dangerous sports!think i'd rather parachute on to mont blanc and snow board down rather than be stood in the opposing fans end wearing the wrong colours.
  • That is very true Wayfarer..Portugal will probably recover from their poor start & get through but even if they don't England are well capable of beating Greece as well.
  • can't accept the "played off the park" assessment. France's approach play was clearly better than England's - but James had remarkably little to do, even so. Come the last 10 minutes, the French were just lumping hopeful balls into the box & Trezeguet had disappeared almost as completely as Owen.
    England do need to learn to retain posession better - when you're playing in temperatures of mid 20s C you really do make life hard for yourself if you can't keep the ball. Something to bear in mind for Thursday's afternoon kick-off.
  • key words"need to learn to keep posession better"
    firstly the premiership doesn't lend itself to posession football.the best players at doing this are the foreign players.
    second;if clubs don't start giving young english players the opportunity to start in the top flight then they will never match the best in the world.
  • Good result 2-1 and Greece won too!!
  • GavoGavo ✭✭✭
    3 mistakes - Beckham, Heskey & Gerrard undid all the good work of the back 5. Is Owen injured? I've never seen him so immobile - he made Heskey look almost like a footballer.


    One good thing from yesterday's matches - the Swiss & the Croats looked awful.
  • France had a lot of the ball, but better approach play? The didn't seriously look like scoring. We defended too deep in the second half - there was a phase before half way throught the second half when we were simply hoofing the ball upfield and letting the French come on to us again. That being said, when a hoof did finally reach an England forward, Rooney got his penalty. But in the first half and a times in the second, there was some sweet movement and passing - a long pass from Gerrard to Neville particularly stuck in my mind.

    At the end of the day that was 3 points giftwrapped with love and kisses. Barthez guessed right and was a hero, James guessed wrong and wasn't. Heskey tackled like a forward in a place where he shouldn't have been - consequence of the whole team playing too deep? Gerrard had a total brainstorm.

    At least we're not out even though the whole tournament is effectively now a knock-out. And we know we can match the favourites
  • I hope Greece haven't used up the one and only shock result in the first round of games. The Eyeties get underway tonight and I'd love to see them get done by the Danes.
    I hate their boring, negative, "score one and defend it" approach. And they're too fond of diving. Last time they played Denmark came from 0-2 down to win it. A re-run of that would be very much appreciated - only without the two Italian goals.
  • gutted, totally gutted. We got complacent and sat too deep, we thought we'd won it and stopped trying. (I thought we'd won!)

    The only positive I think was that I think we did pretty well all in all against the favourites and hopefully we'll learn from our mistakes.

    Saw a few gems out on the field though I think King played fantastically well, did you see that header out when he leant backwards and managed to get it away - flipper stylie! Didn't know a body could bend like that!

    Agnes, please don't come on here and make comments like that, there are a lot of heartbroken fans on here that don't need salt being rubbed in the wound
  • tara,
    surely,the thread is open to all views.if agnes wants to gloat at england's loss, so what.don't take the bait.i assume she's scot.if so...well!where are they?
    ps; don't think we got complacent.just couldn't handle the french when they upped the pace.we're not good enough, simple as that!
  • It's all part of football. People take the piss when you're team gets beaten, you give it back when you win. That's just the way it is. It's quite understandable that Scottish fans are pleased with the result, especially considering some of the singing from the English fans was of a derogatory nature towards Scotland.

    and Travis is right. It wasn't that England weren't trying, they were just getting forced back under the weight of frencj pressure.
  • Apart from the drama at the end, that was actually a boring game. When you think how much ability there was on the pitch (not to mention the obscene amounts those players on show earn in a year), I think we're entitled to expect a little bit more entertainment.

    The good thing is that both teams will get better, I am sure. To do that though, England will need to start playing positive (as in attacking and not be afraid of conceding all the time) football and, yes, keep it a little better. Remember, the other team can't score while you have the ball!!
  • Brunswick wrote about Italy:-

    I hate their boring, negative, "score one and defend it" approach.

    What were England doing last night then?

    I don't think the keepers were a factor in either penalty. Zidane's was so good it hit the inside of the side netting. Beckham's was just the right height and direction if Barthez went the right way.
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