*** England v Slovakia & Espana v Georgia - 2nd Rd - June 30th - Euro 2024 ***

as me ol mate kurt cobain once sang .....here we are now entertain us !

A bit of magic from Bellingham for the equaliser. Anyone betting against Switzerland, the conqueror of Italy? England are unlikely to be fav, I think.It's also the 1/4-final.

England will be fav against the swiss by a gap, england are 4.8 to win the thing

Yep team spirit lacking, tripper petulant to Foden after 30 mins.


Gallagher taking on slovakia alone as the rest retreated
on top of pickford.

Market for Swiss not up yet but England are 1.6x and Swiss 2.6x to reach the semis.

looks like its gonna be a long night for georgia

It is such a contrast with the 1st game,refreshing.

G O L     G E O R G I A

oh my days

OG but a cracking ball in.

looks like its gonna be a long night for georgia ....it remains the greatest systern known to man beast or alien lifeform.

340-1 to win cup
GEORIA

bugga me sideways

Georgia got some big name players

Georgia will still prob get beat here.

But if only the England players put in the same effort as the Georgian players.

looking for that

open game

Best game of the tournament so far
2 teams just going for it

lovely super

At last
Unless Williams offside?

Or Morata blocking?

Check over... Good
Another before half time please Spain

hopefully reg

I don't think they checked Williams as the ball was cleared, and recycled..

Looked tight to me

Great game indeed, i would have called that offside but Spanish relentless and deserved.

Semi auto would have spotted it though, I think, had he been off.

Ref got it in for Morata
Gotta be careful

https://x.com/TJFrancisLive/status/1807475583183421636?s=19

..

England fans leaving early...

southgate with a smug grin on his face omfg

read the room ffs

the love in for jude bellingham ! if cloughie was his boss woulda said yes great goal but where was he for the other 89 mins needs to buck his ideas up or hes on next plane home !

different times now foyles they'd all down tools against clough if still around today, that's the modern footballer way

agreed
gone to his head all this adulation

yeah wonders player power

2-1

Spain are a joy to watch. Georgia also, to be fair.

spain are the best what I've seen through the groups

from trickiest group as well

at the spain free kick just outside the area  the georgia wall missus just said that ones laying about when he should be playing

lazy barsteward

Would like to see Spain vs France at some point. MBappe would relish the space Spain leave at the back when their attacks break down.

v tight offside call

3-1

3-1

beautiful football

great goal

Spain vs Germany should be a cracker and the moral final.

Fantastic stuff
Need 1 or 2 more
Trying to walk it in now

Looks like England are still in the weaker side of the draw

Fair play to Georgia they've added to an enjoyable game. Spain are my idea of the Tournament winner

yeah I concur wp

They will beat Germany(Nap)

Germany were exceptional 1st 20 minutes vs Denmark, bring that and who knows, Spain brilliant tonight though in context it is Georgia.

Young lad can't finish

He can though

a sunday carvery

I think Spain are definitely better than Germany, it will take a big slice of luck, or some VAR black magic to beat them.

Get in

Another one for the cream on top please

I think Yamal was much better when he was in Kajagoogoo

they'd be 5/2 in the other side des

a joy to watch hope they go on to win it

townsend thinks you play open against them lol

no that's how you get carved

Yamal has magic feet, it's just the final ball or the finish that's missing. So far, anyway.

What a fantastic 90 minutes

Compare that to the krapp we were served up earlier

Thank god England will never face Spain in this competition

Outright now...
England 5
Spain 5.5

If Spain get past the krouts, into 3/3.5 imo

See the mentality of the Spanish team compared to England once they take a lead. Just relentless attacking

How the hell can England still be favourites for this .The bookies want England fans betting with their hearts not their heads ,got to be the worst bet ever .

Stattman... Simply because of the route to the final

It's not the mentality of the players, it's management stopping England.

Completely agree YHTL. It's such a shame because we have the players who could play in the same style as Spain

Reg
The draw is a factor yes . But the performances against vastly inferior teams up to now should tell you all you need to know .

Agree stattman, I've been on Spain since the start

I would slightly favour Germany against Spain with home advantage. Possibly the two best teams in the tournament facing off in the quarter finals.

Six days off until the Swiss game is massive, putting aside Foden playing out of position, strange substituions with Gordon and Toney coming up with minutes to go, the players in general look absolutely knackered, nearly a full week will give them ample time to recover and reassess. Bellingham and Kane practically did nothing other than score and look dead on their feet - the subs like Palmer and Eze are the game changers in terms of energy and attacking intent, start them ffs, if he is hellbent on having Rice playing alongside A.Another, then drop Foden and get some width in the team by starting Gordon or Eze. The whole country is saying the same thing, what is he actually thinking, what are the conversations he's having with Steve Holland where they're both coming to the conclusion that we must do with Foden what Sven did with Scholes and put Foden on the left where he offers absolutely f all, square peg, round hole.

If he picks exactly the same team, bar Guehi's replacement, the Swiss will beat England. They are better than all 4 sides we've played so far, he can't push his luck any further any more, Kind Regards.

Oh well,
the good thing about Ingerlund making the quarters is that we should be spared the horror show of Michael Oliver & Anthony Taylor officiating any more games. UEFA usually send home any ref crews still represented by nations involved in the latter stages of the knock outs.
Got to take the good out of every situation!

You mugs have been knocked out the groups 12 times out 12 in international tournaments yet you can't even get a ref into the Knockouts

I got more where that come from Mes...

Another reason to celebrate this hapless team making the quarters is that all those ingerlund mug fanboys (at least a quarter of a million of them) will be staying over in the Vaterland unable to vote for Farage in the election.
Go on Sir Keir my son....

The England players look tired but they aren't, it's just the pedestrian pace they play at. The Slovaks were a lot more tired than England, dead on their feet from about 75/80 mins. They had a day's less rest coming into the game and the Swiss will have a day more after a much easier game and no ET. 

Foden should be dropped for that offside goal alone. Didn't think Palmer was great yesterday but he was lively. He has only played against tired defences tho.

England had serious problems playing thru Slovakia's press and the Swiss will be aware of that. The Swiss have a good midfield with Xhaka and 3 Bologna players and look well organised and dangerous up the left. He should prob stick with Saka RW to help Walker but with Guehi and possibly Trippier out he may have to start Saka LB. The Swiss should be a step up from Slovakia but the Italians made them look good too. Both their goals came from shocking defending giving Swiss players all day in the box to score.

Don't see a basis for England to be favs against the Swiss the way both have performed so far. Yesterday raised more questions than answers. At this stage I'd say it's odds on that England will be poor again rather than play well.

As expected nobody having the honesty to admit other than the goals Bellingham and Kane were both useless. They would have been crucified had they lost, but instead they are getting out the Bellingham is the second coming card out again. That happened after the first match, and he's spent the next three games for the most part strolling around. As for Kane, I can only assume Southgate has something against Watkins. He seems to favour every sub ahead of him. That despite looking lively in the few minutes he actually played. It's almost like he is worried that if he comes on and makes an impact, and it might trigger a campaign to ditch his beloved Kane, and also prompt England to get the ball forward much quicker.

Kobbie Mainoo is currently averaging the best pass success rate (96.2%) of any midfielder at #EURO2024   so far (100+ passes).

of course they're knackered, Bellingham has ever said he was dead on his feet in the last game, Kane and Bellingham in particular were not themselves going into this tournament for their clubs, even Saka hasn't seemed right, no where near his best for Arsenal last season, European football seems to have caught them up along with the injuries, Palmer looks like he could run all day and not because he comes on as a sub, it's his body language. They are all definitely playing at a slow pace but that's more than likely to affect their mental state then phsyical.

England have always tranditionally struggled against low blocks, bus parkers, defensives sides, and that's usually because of poor coaching, even Capello who had the best CV was the wrong fit and stuck players behind the ball.

The whole going up 1-0 and sitting back thing is not a Southgate issue, I saw some post match analysis on the England v Croatia game in 2007 recently and Gary Linekar even pointed out we do that even when we've got back into the game with a draw, then Croatia got the winner.

He's refusing point blank to play Foden in the 10 role, he must see he offers f all on the left, has to be dropped for the next game, but I don't think he has the balls. Walker looked shot, maybe it's his age, would play him in a back 3 to match the Swiss's back 3, needs legs out wide, this is this mugs last chance to get it right.

Kind Regards.

I wish Slovakia had played a low block, but they pressed us all over pitch.

We scored against their low block!

Was looking at Bellingham goal, if he misses it, it's going straight to Kane.

Watch it again, what would Kane do if Bellingham misses it...

Every player is tired after a long season. Relative to the Slovak players, England players were not tired. That's why they got back into it. Going missing in the first half of games is not something you can blame tiredness on. What's Bellingham and Kane's excuse for that?

Slovakia did not play a low block. They played a mid-block with a higher line and pressed England's players on the ball. England couldn't cope with it and other teams will have noted that. When they were knackered second half and England were throwing men forward they played a low-block because they couldn't hold onto the ball and were happy to clear it for throw ins in the last 10, dead on their feet.

Walker is a liability (look at him for the Slovak goal, he was 5 yards behind Stones and they got in behind him twice before that as well). Pace is no substitute for positional sense and a sense of danger and the Swiss look very dangerous on that side.

spain showed how its done last night went 1-0 down kept their heads and after dominating got in front 2-1 did they drop off  like england would have in that situ ? no they kept the momentum going and pressed forward and ended up comfortable winners ,this drop deep bollax  and hacking the ball upfield  straihgt to the oppos defenders and to waste time and defend when in front just gives the opposition more of the ball and confidence to run at us and create chances .

was the first 3 games in particular I was referring to but it seems Southgate was expecting them to play with a low block and set up his usual way

Did anyone watch Bellingham for the last month for Madrid, he looked liked he need a 4 month holiday, Southgate even said he thought about taking him off after an hour, but didn't quite have the bottle. The intensity levels the likes of Kane, Saka and Bellingham have played at not to mention the number of games is higher in general than the opposition.

That was Walker's worst game for England.

I think it's tough to blame walker.

Trippier struggled too, indeed he was awful at start.

We've got some great players, who are a bit fatigued.

But playing them and letting them congregate into
left side half spaces seems like simple bad management.

Foden and Bellingham becoming new Gerrard and Lampard.

If they are that tired give them 45 mins each...

Bellingham is not at his best and hasn't been for some time. But he has to start because he is the only one who can bail England out when they are playing poorly. He wasn't more tired than the Slovak defenders at the end tho.

Walker has looked more dodgy than usual for a while. Watch Mainoo's goal in the cup final, he switched off then too and sensed the danger when it was too late. I think all of England's defence looked shaky once Slovakia got in behind the midfield and ran at it.

England should get some more pace up top and out left (Foden has none) for balls over the top and into the channels if the Swiss play high like the Slovaks. Kane and Foden offer no threat in behind and he's not going to drop Kane. It would be a great out ball for the defenders and midfielders who really struggled to play thru the Slovaks.

I wouldn't blame Walker for the goal as the player would have been onside anyway. Guehi was at fault.

And he could do nowt because Trippier got him booked...

Whole defence, midfield was rocked by early bookings, which
set us back, and didn't recover... Attitude, over adjustment, ref
demonstrated later he wasn't issuing 2nd yellows...

Bar the goal Guehi did well for me, and maybe did well not to lunge in anyway, but the defence never looked like a unit,

Amazingly, I heard someone describe the defence as good. At times it was desperate, and if Slovakia had rolled the ball into the empty net after that **** up on the halfway line then it was very likely game over.

He could do nowt? He could have spotted the danger and got back in line. He had a 5 yard start on the scorer and only reacted when he was in front of him and moving at pace. The booking is irrelevant as he had no chance of challenging for the ball after that and would have got a straight red and penalty if he'd tripped him (which he almost did anyway).
He may have been struck in the aerial challenge beforehand but he still had time to react and get goal side.

He's challenged for the ball in the air, then it's dropped and others standing around as he chases back.

Yeah in a perfect world, but it's up to others to fill the gap when
he's out there for a challenge.

What if he gets knocked over in challenge...

Got to be ready, alert.

Bellingham was average in the 2nd half the season in a very weak La Liga season. He contributed little to the knock out stages of the CL

Was it Mainoo that didn't go for header, forcing Guehi to
go for it?

Dunno, but international teams not being tight,
cause problem, walker plays them onside as he comes
across to cover but runs wrong line, again its
got to be a drill, and a unit plays better than
scratch defence.

I don’t buy the fatigue line. Watch Austria!

We are playing rubbish because we are not a team. 3 years wasted.

I like Bellingham and Foden but really think Foden should be sacrificed for the hood if the team. And yes Bellingham has been sheite but he is a winner and somebody needs to drag or carry this team towards the prize. Stranger things have happened

Give me a lucky General!