Today's Games

[Boo Radley]

You saw Southgate making the list with his lacky then go into the huddle to tell them the order ...

Actually I didn’t see it. Then he can own the loss - his call, his fault.

[Norm]

All down to (mis)management.

Southgate is not the answer - he was lucky until the final but his tactics weren't suitable. Having said that, I don't know who would be the answer.

Maybe Alf Ramsay's grandson, assuming he has one.

[John in Louisiana]

Because they're just looking for excuses and someone to blame. The blame stops with the manager for his negative tactics.

I was telling all and sundry in the bar where I was watching the game that, when Southgate decided to park the bus with over half an hour to go, it wouldn't end well and the he (Southgate) was setting himself up for some very well deserved criticism.

I agree that sending a 19-year-old on to take one of the mist important penalties in English history was madness.

On the up side, I think there is much cause for optimism. A lot of talent on this team.

[SG90]

England are just a poor man's Greece, but at least Greece actually won it.

[SG90]

All down to (mis)management.

Southgate is not the answer - he was lucky until the final but his tactics weren't suitable. Having said that, I don't know who would be the answer.

Maybe Alf Ramsay's grandson, assuming he has one.

Unfortunately it will be Fwank next

[weasel]

Southgate wrote the names down on paper and gave it to Maguire. No one put their hand up.

If it is the piece of paper that was given to Maguire while the match was still being played I would have thought it was more a list of who was playing where as he had brought two attackers on and took off a defender and def mid. Would have made no sense to have given Maguire a list at that point as it isn't like Maguire has to give a list to the ref at the end of the match and I wouldn't have thought Southgate would have wanted Maguire to be distracted by a penalty list order while the match was still being played. That said I thought that was very risky to take 2 defensive players off prior to defending a corner - could easily have saw us concede a goal due to disorganisation.

[Norm]

John in Louisiana wrote:

...
...
On the up side, I think there is much cause for optimism. A lot of talent on this team.

I've been seeing and hearing this since 1970 when Bobby Charlton was substituted!

...and that was done by the guy who won the 1966 World Cup.

[weasel]

England are just a poor man's Greece, but at least Greece actually won it.

No Greece had a group of limited players that had a team plan and were stronger than the sum of their parts. England are the opposite.

[danhirons]

Wow some of the messages here are absolutely appalling and didn't think I'd read them on this forum.

Most exciting and thrilling journey we've had in international football in decades and people are still whinging. Get a grip ffs

[weasel]

Wow some of the messages here are absolutely appalling and didn't think I'd read them on this forum.

Most exciting and thrilling journey we've had in international football in decades and people are still whinging. Get a grip ffs

Only exciting and thrilling given the easy run we had. I never got caught up in the media hype because I always felt we'd come a cropper when we came up against a good team. We had a 'punchers' chance tonight because of the quality of individuals we had.

[Allrounder]

England is a much better side than Italy, only Chiesa was threatning. But England should have killed the game after the early goal. I know Southgate prefers stafety and that has taken his side to final, but you could clearly see Italy wasn’t in the game the first 15-20 minutes. England have so many attacking players that they could have easily scored 2-3 goals in first half and finish this off.

And in the second half England got more defensive and Italy started creating chances and in fact could have won even before the penalties.

I have praised Southgate but today he wasn’t good enough. Sterling was completely off, Mount was extremely poor so why not send in Grealish and Foden early in the the second half? Even Rashford wound have been better option than Saka.

And not a wise decision to sub the subbed Henderson. As a senior player he should have stayed and taken the penalty instead of a 19 years old Saka playing few matches before this. England lost the game on their own in real match time. Not getting out the full potential.

Bielsa is busy managing the best club in World, otherwise he could have taken this England side to an easy win with positive football.

[danhirons]

Only exciting and thrilling given the easy run we had. I never got caught up in the media hype because I always felt we'd come a cropper when we came up against a good team. We had a 'punchers' chance tonight because of the quality of individuals we had.

We lost by one penalty...is that coming a cropper? No it isn't. It basically came down to pot luck and we lost.

Man you're so fickle. Just waiting for an excuse to complain, it's depressing. Sorry to say but your life must really suck for you to look that way at things.

Yes we went too defensive too early tonight, but we also more than matched Italy throughout the game. Last two tournament has brought so much belief back into engl8sh football it's fantastic. It's glass half empty comments like yours that make me feel sorry for you.

Not commenting on this again as it's just depressing to see people feeling this way.

Over and out - be careful what you wish for!

[Gandalf]

Grealish is the same age as Phillips yet he didn't put his hand up either?

I can't ever remember Grealish taking a penalty for Villa.

[Gandalf]

Disappointing as that was, we still ended the tournament without losing a game, and without conceding a goal from open play. We have a really good crop coming through, as well. I thought Kalvin was superb throughout.

[whiteswan]

You saw Southgate making the list with his lacky then go into the huddle to tell them the order ...

For goodness sake yes.....faaip you are correct. Awful decisions by Southgate. Our boys didnt choose to take or not to take

[Cjay]

The level of abuse the players are getting on twitter is disgusting.

Racist abuse.

Jesus Christ it was a game of football, say a player took a s**t penalty, thats fine, but why the racism and stuff.

Sad thing is we knew this was coming and the violence shown on social media to, some right twats follow our national team.

[Cjay]

It was nice while it lasted but shouldn't hide the facts.

We played 7 of 8 games at home.

We were lucky to beat Denmark.

We played no top teams until the final, Germany, Croatia arent the teams they were.

We were to negative imo most of the tournament and that comes from the manager.


The last World Cup was similar to Euros, a really easy run of fixtures and fell against the only decent team we played.

Enjoyed the Euros but never felt like we would win tbh, we never looked like the 4th best team in the World which the FIFA Rankings say we are.

Some senior players bottled the shootout, where was Sterling, Grealish, Shaw.

Ultimately Southgate got it wrong imo and still believe he is our biggest issue. Credit to Saka for stepping up but Southgate putting him in that position was madness, aswas sending on Sancho and Rashford so late.

Look who we played.
A traumatised Denmark.
A punching above their weightUkraine
A shadow if its former glory Germany
An over the hill Croatia.
Czech Republic and Scotland.

Results and records dont tell the story.

The Euros had everything in our favour, favorable fixtures, locations and results (better teams being eliminated by others).

This will go down as a massive missed opportunity imo not a triumph

[Norm]

Rose-tinted spectacles aside, Italy were the better team in the end - we can have no complaints.
We were the team with the inferior plan and, yes, I was watching it live in a bar not a mile from where we live.

Shame, but c'est la vie!

[1964white]

For all the hype, what did he do other than dive?

They all seem to talk about him as if he is god, if Grealish is that special why is he not one of the first names on the team sheet, sorry I just don't get the hype.

Look at their winger Chiesa, now he caused all sorts of problems when he ran at England's defence.

[1964white]

Who did? Didnt hear that

Two Liverpool pals I communicate with on our WhatsApp group were calling for Henderson to replace Phillips as he can't take Rice off.

Told them not to be daft & watch England fall apart as Leeds do if he hauls Kalvin off.