Sweden VAR pen. Nailed on, the ref can't see it, his positioning is directly behind the foul and looks as though there is a nick on the ball that he wins before the player goes over, ref doesn't give it understandably. However its in the left back area, why on earth does the unobstructed assistant not 10 yards away not give it who can see it clearly. Yes great that VAR came to their rescue, but the assistant needs his assessor asking him why, he should have seen it was the striker who nicked the ball then was brought down.

Tunisia v England
Looks like Sterling and Co don't want to score. Sterling and a sitter in the opening few minutes. Hope it's not going to be a joke of a game.

Until that winning goal, was a lot like watching the Millers I thought, nay luck and playing against 12 men, 15 if you include the useless VAR team. How can he give that PEN and NOT give at least 2, maybe 3 against them dragging Kane down ???

But, some great Karma in the end.

My only complaint..... someone needs to tell the Manager/team NOT to pass backwards in the last 20 yards... that will cost us at some point...

UTM. UTE

 

England started off great but got sloppy in possession (Maguire in particular) which gave them some encouragement, as did the fact that they were still in it at 1-0 when really they should have been 2 or 3 down. They would never have scored from open play.  They were given a very. very debatable penalty, but of course then at 1-1 they had something to hang on to. The referee was completely ineffective which also helped them slow the game down and break it up. Credit to England for keeping going. It was a deserved win against awkward opponents.

I just don't get how Young starts ahead of Rose if Rose is fit. Young is steady enough but Rose is a better defender and a real attacking threat as well as giving England better balance on the left side.

Sterling must be running out of chances to impress in an England shirt. He just doesn't seem to have any confidence in an England shirt whereas Rashford looks a better player for England than he does for his club side.

I haven't seen a lot of Trippier before. I thought he had a very good game.

-- Edited by smiler on Monday 18th of June 2018 11:19:12 PM

It surprised me. We weren't as bad as I thought we'd be. I've never been a fan of Ashley Young simply because I like someone playing on the left who can go on the outside but he didn't do anything wrong & there were worst England players out there last night. Rose can't be totally fit, don't think he's been that all season for his club. Been better taking Bertrand.

Lingard & Sterling were ineffective. I'd have Loftus-Cheek & Rashford in from now. Dele Alli can play better, stick with him. But rest of the side can't fault them. Looking alot more forward to the rest of the tourament for England now.

What did we think of Iran's 6-3-1 formation? - a necessity or a total spoiler? - would you do it? - is that Spain's job to try and break down or is totally against the spirit of the game / World Cup?

In fairness when it did go 1-0 and Iran came out it made for a great game and they were pretty sharp in the final 3rd and but for fine margins could have bagged an equaliser.

Refs and VAR need to send a message out of intent for histrionics though, someone or a few players need to start getting booked for diving, even if retrospectively, which they can do. I forget where and which game but back end of last season a penalty was taken at the end of the 1st half wasn't it, way way after the incident itself?

Another manager leading the fitness lifestyle by example, good to see rather than the suited old has beens (or never were been's).

Hopefully he'll give Loftus-Cheek and Rashford a game against Panama, or does he go with Sterling and say last chance pal, if you can't do it against this lot you never will (I don't share the media love in, I've always thought he's average with no end product)

Don't cry for me Argentina,
The truth is....


You are poor losers

wotsisname wrote:

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I'll bet quite a lot of people lost a few bob as a result of Croatia winning and Messi not scoring. Still, there'll always be an England. Royal Ascot is also available this week. Jockeys, Ryan Moore and Frankie Dettori have done well so far. But that's another sport.

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 In a free draw to win a years free subscription to something I'm not really bothered about. They just sent me an e-mail took seconds to enter I selected France as the outright winners. They put all who picked the winner out names in a draw & pick one out. Horseracing: I'm not interested in flat racing. Lv NH hprseracing when it's in full swing Oct' to April. Cheltenham Festival is without doubt the best horserace meeting in the world. I never see anywhere else the cheer that goes up for the first race of that meeting.