France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal in top half. Some great football to come. Lose and go home.

Puts the talk of playing to finish second into perspective.

If nothing else, Southgate seems to be very lucky with draws. Pity there is nothing else - I fear we’re coming home on Tuesday...

scouseclaret wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:21 pm

Puts the talk of playing to finish second into perspective.

If nothing else, Southgate seems to be very lucky with draws. Pity there is nothing else - I fear we’re coming home on Tuesday...

Agreed there was plenty of gutless talk leading up to this stage about how we had to finish 2nd that way it was an easy path

Spain then France then 1 of Italy/Belgium/Portugal

Instead we have left ourselves with the prospect of Germany then Sweden/Ukraine then 1 of Holland/Czech/Wales/Denmark

Part of me thinks had we come 2nd some urging us not to win that last game would now be hammering them for coming 2nd

claretonthecoast1882 wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:01 am

Agreed there was plenty of gutless talk leading up to this stage about how we had to finish 2nd that way it was an easy path

Spain then France then 1 of Italy/Belgium/Portugal

Instead we have left ourselves with the prospect of Germany then Sweden/Ukraine then 1 of Holland/Czech/Wales/Denmark

Part of me thinks had we come 2nd some urging us not to win that last game would now be hammering them for coming 2nd

If we came second we would still have been drawn in this half of the draw.

cricketfieldclarets wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 24, 2021 9:45 am

If we came second we would still have been drawn in this half of the draw.

Would have had to finish 3rd. Croatia finished above the Czechs on goal difference I believe

Denno97 wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:24 am

Would have had to finish 3rd. Croatia finished above the Czechs on goal difference I believe

Sorry you are correct I thought Czechs came second.

2 of Wales/Denmark and Sweden/Ukraine will make it too the last 8 minimum, so it's possible we could see an unlikely winner again.

I'd punt for France, Italy & The Netherlands to advance, but the other 5 ties are too close to call in my view, and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw 2/3 penalty shoot-outs to decide those games.

Whatever the eventual outcomes hopefully the KO format will lead to attacking football and lots of goals.

Quarter-Finals.

Really glad we aren't in the top section of that chart.

And three of the third placed sides made it into the last eight along with Denmark who had already lost two games.

They certainly got group F right calling it the group of death.

They have all gone home

Congratulations to England for their deserved victory yesterday.

There will never be a better chance for 'football to come home' if you ask me: the route to the final is now completely open, and besides the next easy game in Rome you are playing all your matches on Wembley...

I still hope that Belgium will meet England in the final, but I fear that the difficult half of the table and an increasing injury list to our star players will be our downfall.

Anyway, let's hope we can still bring football back home...to Belgium

England should certainly reach the final now, and if we do the big question is who do want to avoid, Spain are the ones i fear having watched their last couple of games, but the big advantage England may enjoy is Belgium, Italy & Spain all face tough fixtures prior to the final. and there's every chance that at least one of their games will go to ET, whereas if things go to plan, and that's not certain, then England may have a relatively easy passage to the final, and GS will hopefully have the luxury of resting some of our star names, looking at all the remaining teams I'd argue England now have the best squad left in the tournament, that and home advantage could be decisive in the next couple of weeks.

tiger76 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 30, 2021 3:31 pm

England should certainly reach the final now, and if we do the big question is who do want to avoid, Spain are the ones i fear having watched their last couple of games, but the big advantage England may enjoy is Belgium, Italy & Spain all face tough fixtures prior to the final. and there's every chance that at least one of their games will go to ET, whereas if things go to plan, and that's not certain, then England may have a relatively easy passage to the final, and GS will hopefully have the luxury of resting some of our star names, looking at all the remaining teams I'd argue England now have the best squad left in the tournament, that and home advantage could be decisive in the next couple of weeks.

The winner of Belgium/Italy will beat Spain. They might have scored 5 in their last two games but they are a long way from the Spain of 10 years ago.

minnieclaret wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 30, 2021 6:24 pm

The winner of Belgium/Italy will beat Spain. They might have scored 5 in their last two games but they are a long way from the Spain of 10 years ago.

You could well be right, and despite scoring all those goals Spain don't exactly look watertight at the back, which you'd expect either Belgium or Italy to punish should they meet, of course Switzerland may well have something to say about that happening.

England & Italy look the most compact teams in the tournament, perhaps Belgium also, but their defence hasn't really been properly tested yet.

But in a combined 8 goals England/Italy have conceded one solitary goal, and that was during ET, so that solidity should bear fruit for both going into the heart of the tournament, if you're keeping clean sheets, and making yourselves hard to beat that's half the battle, and that means that your creative players aren't under severe pressure to conjure up lots of chances as usually one will suffice, it might not be exciting for the neutrals, but it's mighty effective from both those nations, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they met in the final.

From England's perspective let's just take care of our side of the draw, and whoever emerges from the other side then we'll take them on in the final hopefully.