If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t think this was a match between two powerhouses. Italy is dominating every aspect of the game.
So, Spain are out. So are Germany.
Not so fast, we have a score to settle with Italy just as they had with Spain ;). But I’m absolutely impressed how Italy played Spain, as well as Belgium. It’ll be interesting to see how Jogi Löw can learn from those matches and develop a strategy for the quarter final. Italy is always hard to play, NOBODY knows this better than Germany.
You need a proper striker. That has been lacking. You actually have a potentially great one in Mario Gotze (I hear he scored a goal in some big match a few years ago), hoever he needs to stop pretending to be a False 9 and start hanging of the shoulder of the last defender like Klose used to. He certainly is up to that (see said big match).
Failing that, this ruthless Italian defence will cause attacks to peter out before they reach the box. Did you see just how much beautiful passing the Spaniards did in this game and the sweet fuck all it got them.
I think after Draxler’s excellent match yesterday, Mario Götze is kinda burned for this tournament, at least I don’t expect him to play against Italy. Remember that he wasn’t a regular player in the 2014 World Cup also, though in the end he had his great moment. But he never kept that promise afterwards, again not in this Euro. And I don’t think he is of much use still closer to the goal, he just hasn’t the physical requirements for a center forward. But Mario Gomez seems to be back, and I see him as a good match for the Italian central defense. Italy will play similar to today, but maybe Löw surprises us and adapts his system to the way Italy played so far. Anyway, this has the potential for an even better match than today’s.
Well there goes my bracket.
Wow, what a start for the England-Iceland match :eek:.
English goalies, tst tst…
WTf?
England.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Genuinely spent the first 20 mins laughing at us. Was it ever in doubt that we’d shit the bed? This is why no sane England fan thinks we have any chance at any tournament.
England could not have drawn an easier opponent… and then this?
England is the Dallas Cowboys of European football.
I already see the headlines for tomorrow: “BREXIT. AGAIN.”.
We should be fair. Wales are hanging in there still.
Inevitable references to Brexit tomorrow though in the press. Already Twitter is afire with people taking the piss out of us and using the referendum vote to do so.
Although there are still 65 minutes left, Roys selection priorities leave a lot to be desired. Why is Raheem-a-waste-of-Sterling starting? Why is Vardy on the bench? Why is Kane still taking set pieces?
Come on Iceland - finish us off and put us out of our fucking misery over here.
That bicycle kick nearly did the job. Why Hart wasn’t off his line for the huge looping cross that came in, that would have given him ample time to call and clear his defenders out of the way, is anyone’s guess.
No matter how devastatingly bad England are, you must admire Iceland’s heart and spirit.
Rooney has been terrible all game and it’s taken until the 85th minute - the 85th minute! - in a game we’re losing 2-1 to take him off.
We deserve everything we’re getting here. We’ve been utterly abject.
ETA: And yes, to EinsteinsHund’s point, Iceland have done what they needed to, been compact and played well.
Un-be-fucking-lievable!
Island!
But I feel for you guys, in the 2000 and 2004 Euros, we had similar teams. We even coined a phrase for that kind of football: Rumpelfußball.