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Come on boys n girls the lads did great considering that Columbia only wanted to wind our boys up. They were lucky to have 11 players on the pitch and a stronger ref would have sent 3 of there players off. The guy that fouled Henderson and got yellow instead of red committed 22 fouls and some of those were bookings but he got away with loads of em and so did the other players.
You are being very harsh saying we were crap at going forward etc we just couldn't get the ref to blow for obvious foul and dirty play after the pen.
I think we were fantastic all night to be honest and the injury time came from Columbia remonstrating with the ref who had stopped the watch rather than leave it running when they were playing up.
Well done the lads for making the dirty Bas**** pay.
Last edited by BigLadonOS; 04-07-2018 at 11:32 AM.
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Yes you’re right, they did very well under the circumstancesOriginally Posted by BigLadonOS
So much for clamping down on arguing with the ref and surrounding him.
So much for “respect” in general
Head butting is now just a yellow card
Gave a penalty correctly but then ignored 6 repeats that were worse fouls.
Ref was out of his depth
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Well said. It was a good performance in very difficult circumstances and the referee was so poor he nearly lost control of the game altogether
It was 3.1/2 minutes from the awarding of the penalty to Kane putting the ball in the net and the Colombians tried every dirty trick in the book during that time. What the hell was the referee and his assistants doing to allow that to happen?
Well done to the players for not getting intimidated and now let's sort out the Swedes!
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Back down to earth now after the penalties shock! Never thought I'd live to see another England win on pens!
Agree with posts highlighting that we were clearly dominant in possession and over the 90 mins were much the better team. But also agree that for all our general superiority, we offered very little goal threat ourselves from open play. Up to the last 5 mins Colombia didn’t look remotely like scoring (yes we did invite this on, sitting deeper instead of keeping the fluidity in going forward) and how sick must Pickford have been to have pulled off a true worldie injury time save to then see it go in from the resulting corner. So chuffed for him on this alone that it turned out good for him.
Positives, defense looked solid although not really challenged by any decent player, we played some good probing football coming out of defence and going through the midfield and coming after the last 30 years of being unable to pass to one another, we actually look quite confident on the ball in most cases. This for me is a huge step forward under Southgate and most of us that have followed all the way through the qualifiers have been pleased with this development. Kane led us brilliantly, Trippier coming on very well on the big stage and most players were unspectacular but solid, kept together as a unit and looked cohesive.
Negatives: biggest for me is the form of Alli. Spurs are my adopted ‘2nd team’ in London and I know how hugely talented this lad is; when on form he would get into any world team. But we’ve rarely seen this form over the last season and frankly he looks unfit and well off the pace. Sterling continues to disappoint. Like Sissoko at Spurs, keeps getting into good positions but NEVER any result, either falling over or misplacing his pass. True that his busyness and pace will always be difficult for anyone to defend but he just doesn’t actually produce anything!
Sweden game 50/50 for me, maybe we have slight edge with some extra individual quality players but will find it very hard to break them down as a unit. I also find it hard to believe that with our evolving, quite inexperienced defence, we will not concede at least once, so going to be a very tough game. But I’ll take a 50/50 in the World Cup quarters rather than the game we would have had against Brazil if we’d have topped the group! All a bonus from this point for me!
Come on you Lions!
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Yes agree on that.
Still not getting the Sterling selection, and as you say Dele Alli. Maybe there is some truth in the rumours that Kane is leaning on Southgate to pick his team mate.
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Alli is one of those players that holds the ball well in midfield and also has great vision but for me he is better playing out wide where he can cut in like he did in his first hand full of caps.
There is no doubt that the lad has quality and can turn a game with a bit of brilliance but not from where he is being asked to play at the moment. Right now he is offering something other than his attacking skills and he is doing a fine job. The problem is that we are so used to seeing the lad and his attacking ability most are missing what he is doing in the deeper role.
Right now Southgate prefers Sterling (although for the life of me I can't see why) in the 10 role.
I'm sure at some point we will see Alli playing his usual more advanced game.
Although Dyer is a good footballer I don't think Southgate fancies him for 90 minutes and would rather have Alli playing there with Rashford, Sterling and loftus cheek playing the higher up role.
Anyway, so far the lad has done well.
Come on England.
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I agree with most of the last few posts which give a positive picture. True we did not create a load of chances, but to win the way we did was a huge shot of adrenaline to the team. Some of their touches near the box did not come off and that in part was due to good defending from Columbia when they weren't being dirty.
If the Swiss game is anything to go by Sweden will defend from the front with their two forwards pressing and then have two banks of 4 waiting to break out when we attack. I would like to see England have more shots from outside the box because they tried to pass through the Columbian defence too much. Time for Sterling to come good and Lingard to get his shooting boots on again.
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Yep, if Alli was in form and fully fit, him behind Kane (as he does for Spurs) is a no brainer in place of Sterling. But he has been poor for Spurs for too long, even in this position to make me wonder if he deserves selection anywhere. Strange to see such a talented player look so subdued for club and country. Maybe his mojo has gone??
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Both Sterling and Alli are being played on the basis of what they might do which works in league football but dodgy on knockouts.
It's not as though we don't have suitable replacements, we do have them.
As for Alli playing out of position, well where's the sense in that? Sometimes you have to do it when other players are injured but that's not the case here.
Dele Alli seems to be a manager's favourite playing in a mates team.
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I think it is more down to the amount of responsibility placed on to his shoulders for both England and Spurs and he is putting to much pressure on himself to perform week in week out.
Once the World Cup is over he will soon learn to let that feeling go and be back to his best. He knows his own ability and when he trusts himself again he will be back to his best.
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