First of all congrats to Wales for doing Britain proud today.
As for England vs Russia, so proud of the Three Lions - their best performance for many a long year. Lallana was spectacular, especially in the first half. Shame about the Russian goal in injury time, but I cannot help thinking that this goal was partly a result of dirty Russian tactics - time wasting and fans letting off flares and firecrackers. Disgraceful. After the match they jumped into the England stands and started attacking people... guess the Russians were going crazy at the idea of being beaten, so I really hope little old Wales slaps them silly come their match
After today I'm feeling good about our group, fingers crossed for England + Wales qualifying! Have to say though looking forward to England vs Wales on Thursday
Well, the Russian goal had nothing to do with dirty tactics. I've not heard a single person say that. Sounds like pure propaganda on your part to make excuses. It was a great header, although England did defend poorly. That is their greatest weakness and one more likely to be exposed by Wales and possibly Slovakia with Hamsik and Weiss. And as for time wasting, why would they do that? They were behind. There was no reason to time waste and I didn't see any instance of it.
I don't really agree with you about Wales doing Britain proud...the dynamic doesn't really exist in football. It's every nation for themselves.I saw so many England fans on twitter and forums hoping for Wales to get beaten, and they are welcome to that view. Strangely though, I found myself more attached to them than I expected. It's probably the underdog thing. And that they seem to have so much passion. I know Gareth Bale said Wales have more passion than England. I don't know if he's right, but he's making a good case for it. I want Wales to do well because I like their spirit, and I love an underdog. I feel no desire to support them because they are in the UK, and I certainly don't feel that their success = my success. That victory yesterday belonged to Wales, and Wales alone. Congrats to them. It's been a long wait.
And please don't think anything I say as sour grapes. You do like mocking and taunting me over Scotland not qualifying, but I'm over it. I haven't seen us in a major tournament since I was 11, so watching tournaments without Scotland is what I'm used to. That is our fault, and no one else's. The reason I like watching England get bad results is because of the in-built arrogance that because they won the World Cup 50 years ago, that they have some kind of right to be considered potential winners in every tournament they enter, despite there being no evidence to suggest that. It's the sheer arrogance of pundits, fans and players that rubs me up the wrong way. England CAN win it, but with at least 5 or 6 teams better than them, it's hard to see how they can. Quarter-Final and out is my prediction at the moment.
So today is Germany, the team I've supported since I was 5. Not the best team they've ever had, and were very unconvincing in qualifying. Scraped by us home and away, but lost to Ireland and Poland. I put France ahead of them, but they can still win it. And once again they have a tough group. Which will be an advantage if they get through.
Hoping for something special from Northern Ireland today, but I fear they might have the same ending to their fairytale that Ireland did in Euro 2012. Poland are so tough to beat and with Lewandowski have one of the best strikers on the planet. I hope I'm wrong, but I see 0 points from 3 games in their future.
Turkey VS Croatia should be a cracker. Croatia are a great team to watch and Turkey beat the Dutch to qualification, so should be competitive.
On another note, I hope this tournament isn't marred by the off-field antics. With England and Russia fans beating each other up on the streets, and then the Russian stampede in the stadium, not to mention incidents across the country from other supporters, this is not what the tournament needs, and also it ties up police forces, when they should be focusing on more important things, like stopping terrorism. Football hooligans just piss me off, and they are putting people's lives in danger this time, with the threat of bomb attacks looming large.
Here's to a (hopefully) great tournament!
Matuidi's frustrated demeanor spoke volumes for this) nice things can be achieved. The weak point is really having no striker as reference...Andone is that kind of physical player that wears down defenders a lot but no much more than that. Alibec doesn't seem like a viable alternative. The team is really orphan of a goal scoring reference. Considering the options I don't know why Rusescu hasn't been called up. He is more exciting than any of the former. Also once big nation's hope for the future, Marica, seems to have thrown his career down the drain unfortunately.
