Yeah, we got to the quarter finals, but.....

[leedsutdman]

1966:
Real Madrid win the European Cup
Burnley qualify for Europe
Man City win their league
Chelsea finish 5th
England win the World Cup

2018:
Real Madrid win the European Cup
Burnley qualify for Europe
Man City win their league
Chelsea finish 5th

England win the World Cup?????

What are the chances of that happening,

Burnley qualifying for Europe twice in 50 years.

[WTF11]

One reason England did not score from open play was due to Columbia's constant fouling, sitting deep, disruptive play whenever we got into their 1/2 of the pitch, plus a very weak and substandard refereeing performance imo. Columbia where playing for the penalty shoot out until we went in front.

Set pieces didn't work for us as Columbia out muscled & fouled us at any given opportunity until the referee finally gave a penalty. e.g. How can a Columbian defender be allowed to deliberately headbutt a player in their own 18 yard box and be allowed to remain on the pitch?

A win is win - this is tournament football.

Agree on all the points in the first paragraph (from the limited amount of play I watched tbh). But that's just the point, if we come up against a team doing the same thing, will we end up getting the same result, or will we have learned to adapt to nullify (as far as possible) such behaviour? Not saying we can completely overcome teams playing like that, but neither can we (should we) rely on being lucky in a shoot out.

[WTF11]

1966:
Real Madrid win the European Cup
Burnley qualify for Europe
Man City win their league
Chelsea finish 5th
England win the World Cup

2018:
Real Madrid win the European Cup
Burnley qualify for Europe
Man City win their league
Chelsea finish 5th

England win the World Cup?????

One more coincidence

Holders Germany were knocked out of the 2018 World Cup during the group stages, just as Brazil were in 1966 after they won the competition in 1962.

[Orgoner]

So we’ve won it then!

Yay!

[Jezleeds]

So, we.scrape past Tunisia, put 6 past Panama, then lose.to Belgium. The only goals we have scored since Panama have been via penalties. Why?

lol just seen this - I didn't see who posted it when I clicked on the link, then had a chuckle when I saw WTF's name there.

He's as predictable as a cheating, dirty, low-life South American footballer, just without the snarling and the crying.

Hope our team chanted and laughed in their faces as we got on the bus last night like the Argentinians did in 98.... oh, but we didn't, cos we're not like that .....

[Jezleeds]

And the biggest irony of their disgraceful display is that when they finally started to play, because they were losing, they were a decent team that put us under a lot of pressure and finally scored. Sad they thought they were wearing blue and white stripes for the first hour. Could've been a really good game instead of a war.

One reason England did not score from open play was due to Columbia's constant fouling, sitting deep, disruptive play whenever we got into their 1/2 of the pitch, plus a very weak and substandard refereeing performance imo. Columbia where playing for the penalty shoot out until we went in front.

Set pieces didn't work for us as Columbia out muscled & fouled us at any given opportunity until the referee finally gave a penalty. e.g. How can a Columbian defender be allowed to deliberately headbutt a player in their own 18 yard box and be allowed to remain on the pitch?

A win is win - this is tournament football.

[WTF11]

lol just seen this - I didn't see who posted it when I clicked on the link, then had a chuckle when I saw WTF's name there.

He's as predictable as a cheating, dirty, low-life South American footballer, just without the snarling and the crying.

Hope our team chanted and laughed in their faces as we got on the bus last night like the Argentinians did in 98.... oh, but we didn't, cos we're not like that .....

Happy for you to suggest I'm predictable, and that I don't snarl or cry!

[Jezleeds]

Happy for you to suggest I'm predictable, and that I don't snarl or cry!

They were shocking. It was like they had been told that was the way to beat us - and given that we've lost so many times in the past to teams like that doing that sort of thing, I guess they thought they had us sussed.

Which makes yesterday all the more satisfying.

[WTF11]

They were shocking. It was like they had been told that was the way to beat us - and given that we've lost so many times in the past to teams like that doing that sort of thing, I guess they thought they had us sussed.

Which makes yesterday all the more satisfying.

Agree about the end result, but the (genuinely) serious point I was making with the original question was about what you say above. They WERE told that was what they should do, that was obvious, and the point being that apart from the penalty, in open play they succeeded.

They wanted the shoot-out knowing that our record isn't that good and (I guess) banked on the chances being on their side when penalties beckoned. they got it wrong (or lady luck shone on us for once!), but we surely must be able to overcome that kind of behaviour, and score in open play, if we're to progress. Thing is, that apart from Panama, that ability hasn't been much on show.

BTW, Rev makes the same point (unwittingly) in post #22

"Oh and we just won a penalty shoot out which we rarely do"

[LeedsFTW]

Agree about the end result, but the (genuinely) serious point I was making with the original question was about what you say above. They WERE told that was what they should do, that was obvious, and the point being that apart from the penalty, in open play they succeeded.

They wanted the shoot-out knowing that our record isn't that good and (I guess) banked on the chances being on their side when penalties beckoned. they got it wrong (or lady luck shone on us for once!), but we surely must be able to overcome that kind of behaviour, and score in open play, if we're to progress. Thing is, that apart from Panama, that ability hasn't been much on show.

BTW, Rev makes the same point (unwittingly) in post #22

"Oh and we just won a penalty shoot out which we rarely do"

Back to the point that a stronger/better referee would have stopped the behavior from Columbia and that we had enough about us to win a fair game within the 90 mins. I still feel that Ali and Sterling performed well below par and hampered our efforts.

England did well to stand up to it and mainly not get involved in the fouling.