International Football thread

[yuppie]

Under which coach has England played good football on a regular basis?

NI go out on penalty that should never have been. Thats got to hurt a bit. Unlucky.

[budgetmeansbudget]

when did England last win a knockout match in a major tournament? Feels like a long time ago

2006? Ecudor possibly?

I appreciate many England fans do not now expect England to do well. But there are also plenty who expect them to thrash most teams. And i just do not see why those people think that is the case. England record since 1996 is not good. They are just an average international team, so why do some supporters have such high expectations?

Qualafing for a world cup is as good as it gets for England, anything more has to be bonus.

Not sure what your motive is behind this England bashing but it's getting a tad tiresome.

Who are all these so called people that have such high expectations of the England team, have you done a survey?

Try this site I bet you get the majority of us think we'll do jack in Russia next year.

[yuppie]

Its a fair point Budget, i am probably carrying on a bit to much. I read other forums and have many English friends believe it or not. And many seem to expect England to do a lot better. I have no motive, maybe it was just something i wanted to discuss more about and no one wanted to engage with me. Expressing my view repeatedly to those that have similar views is a tad tiresom. Im sorry for that.

Ill do my best not to be repeditive and stop my English bashing. Ill find another outlet for this discussion.

[sussexpob]

Its a bit foolish to say England have performed badly at World Cups. Iceland match aside, we have often not lost game, simply drew them and lost on penalties. In the normal scope of football, were Germany better than us in 1990 because they won a round of Russian Roulette in a close game? Where they better than us in 1996 when in injury time we were inches away from scoring twice in a game we played them off the park? The Argentina game we were the better team until Simeone went down like he was shot and bought a red card, and they still couldnt beat us in normal time. We beat Argentina in the next world cup, and beat Germany in a competitive tournament inbetween. 2006- penalites. 2010, we scored a goal that crossed 2 meters over the line as was adjudged not to have, which would have made it 2-2. Lost to Italy on pens in 2012. Gave one of the best Brazilian teams ever a good run in 2002 but lost. These arent disgraces. We lost them, but mostly on lottery of penalties. And we have had some horrendous ref decisions. Last time out we got drawn in a group with 3 of the top 6 ranked teams in the world didnt we. Not getting much luck.

Not that this means I expect to win the world cup or do well. You seem to confuse the point, Yuppie.

There is clearly a difference between beating Germany in a World Cup, and playing a home leg against an island nation of 50000 people with no talent, and scrapping to a 2-0 win. Yes, we should be hammering teams like Malta. Belgium scored over 20 goals vs Gibraltar without trying.

Arsenal fans may not expect to win the Premier League, but if they turned up with a full team away to Mansfield in the cup and forced a replay after Cech kept them in the tie, they would be right for criticising the performance

[yuppie]

Huge game for Italy tonight. Should have too much for this Swedish team. Italy have lost their last 2 competitive games though, to Sweden and Albania.

Sweden have beaten Protugal, France and Italy already this year.

[yuppie]

Hugely entertain first half but not for the football. ref has missed 3 penalties, the first for Italy, and then the next 2 for sweden. Sweden hanging on by the their fingernails. Italy getting frustrated. Stays like this i can not see it finishing 11 vs 11. Ref has been very poor. Hugely entertaining to watch though.

[Aidan11]

Italy are not going to the World Cup.

[yuppie]

They threw everything at Sweden. But judging from these 2 games, Italian football is not in a good place at present.

Fair play to Sweden, came out of a group with France and the Dutch. Now whats the chance Zlatan will come out of international retirement. Lets hope not.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Italy are not going to the World Cup.

60 years since the last time.

[Durhamfootman]

Just spotted this. At least they can console themselves with the knowledge that they won't be humiliated in Russia, unlike us... we have 8 months to enjoy looking forward to being humiliated.

[GarlicJam]

Whereas Aus plays tonight in the do or die match against Honduras in Sydney. A 0-0 draw in the first leg leaves it well open for both sides.

[mikesiva]

Whereas Aus plays tonight in the do or die match against Honduras in Sydney. A 0-0 draw in the first leg leaves it well open for both sides.

Did they kick lumps out of the Aussie players?

[GarlicJam]

I don't know, but I didn't hear anything suggesting anything overly untoward.

I did read that the Honduran players have had their yellow cards from previous qualifiers annulled, but the Australian players didn't. Not sure why.


It is not something that I follow too closely.

[yuppie]

After taking the lead, ireland are now looking down the barrel.

Not sure a Martin O'Neil team can be set up to score 2 more goals in 60 minutes.

[yuppie]

Eriksen with a hat-trick.

Iceland, Sweden and Denmark all going to the world cup. Of the home nations and Ireland, Only England have made it.