Looking back on it we should've buried them in that first half. I really feel that if we'd gone 2 up that would've been game over. Still don't see why Kane didn't just square it for Sterling to have a tap in.
After a night's sleep I woke up not feeling too bad - much better than how I felt in 1990.
Positives:
The nation came together, even if only for a brief few weeks. We've restored some pride after the debacle in the Euros. This young team will get better for the experience. We have some very promising youngsters coming through.
Perspective:
We won one more game (Sweden) than most people expected before the tournament started. We desperately need to find our Modric or Pirlo - creativity sadly lacking.
Onwards and upwards to the Euros with Southgate in charge for the foreseeable future.
Alarm goes off at quarter past six and the current feeling is I feel ten times worse now than I did last night.
We could have been looking forward to the World Cup Final and there is a very good chance I will never see this chance again in my lifetime
If anything this has proved to me that there's a real possibility we could. If we take self belief with pressure and expectation there's no reason why England can't one day.
Who would have thought we'd have got to semis or Croatia would be in the final.
Croatia have proven themselves as the Extra Time warriors. They've won every game that has gone there.
We were unlucky on the night to not be 3/4-0 up at half time. Think that intensity in the first half was our undoing. We didn't have the subs to keep that going.
Chances like that to get to a World Cup Final come along once in a lifetime . It’s been a great World Cup due to the fact the big guns were shit and it became a lot easier for us in the half we were in . I’m not in the exceeded expectations camp because I believed before it started there wasn’t much opposition out there and once Spain left our half the final is where we should have got to . That was weak last night, after a great first half , we just weren’t at it . France have been the best team and will win it but it should have been us in the final Sooooooooo gutted .
Croatia have proven themselves as the Extra Time warriors. They've won every game that has gone there.
We were unlucky on the night to not be 3/4-0 up at half time. Think that intensity in the first half was our undoing. We didn't have the subs to keep that going.
I thought the intensity in the first half was spot on. We created 3 or 4 decent chances the problem was that we failed to take them. Had we scored a 2nd I'm convinced we would have won.
Haven't caught up with this thread yet. I can't help feeling that Southgate was outdone tactically last night.
All the talk before the game was about them pushing their fullbacks and wingers up on our wingbacks and causing an overload. Southgate had to find a way to deal with this before the game.
They didn't do this first half and we looked comfortable. Second half from the very first move it was clear they had made the decision to do this. Fair enough you don't need to change things straight away give it time and see how the system deals with it. After about 10 mins it was clear we were losing the battle. They were all over our wingbacks and were 2 on 1 with them regularly. This prevented them from getting up and down the pitch as they have done so well all tournament. So that meant in attack we had no width and in defence we had the midfield 3 trying to cover the whole width of the pitch and help pick up one of the side men as well as deal with their world class 2. We were losing the midfield battle. It needed a tactical switch. Either a temporary move like swapping sterling to the left to pick up one of the side men until we had weathered the storm. Or switching to a back 4 to match them. At the very least we could have used RLC as some fresh legs in midfield as it was clear Ali and Lingard were struggling to get wide quick enough. Something had to change and it didn't. We allowed them to overrun us in midfield for too long and they made us pay for that.
Pickford Trippier Maguire Stones Rose Lingard Henderson Shelvey Sterling Kane Rashford
Only one problem with that side...
Well even if Shelvey had been there, i'm pretty sure that after a comfortable first half with us winning 1-0, Southgate wouldn't have made 3 changes at half time!
Chances like that to get to a World Cup Final come along once in a lifetime.
I think they happen more often than people think - 1990, Belgium and Cameroon before a difficult semi final, 2002 teams going out left, right and centre. Euro 2016 is another example, Portugal's side of the draw.
In the last 20-25 years teams like Sweden, Romania and Turkey have reached semis without playing anyone great.
Lopsided draws will happen more often in 24 team Euros and 48 team World Cups too.
Pickford Trippier Maguire Stones Rose Lingard Henderson Shelvey Sterling Kane Rashford
Only one problem with that side...
Or on the hour mark, 99% agree with that Daz, sub Delph for the fella who never got the call up and we could have shut down the threat from their constant overlapping full backs
As many have said, gutted but there's more hope for the future than for a long time with the current set up plus some of the under 21 world champions will be breaking through.
Loads of positives to take from the tournament. We came up short in the end, but getting to the semi final is a great achievement - full credit to Southgate and the players. This is massive progress.
Haven't caught up with this thread yet. I can't help feeling that Southgate was outdone tactically last night.
All the talk before the game was about them pushing their fullbacks and wingers up on our wingbacks and causing an overload. Southgate had to find a way to deal with this before the game.
They didn't do this first half and we looked comfortable. Second half from the very first move it was clear they had made the decision to do this. Fair enough you don't need to change things straight away give it time and see how the system deals with it. After about 10 mins it was clear we were losing the battle. They were all over our wingbacks and were 2 on 1 with them regularly. This prevented them from getting up and down the pitch as they have done so well all tournament. So that meant in attack we had no width and in defence we had the midfield 3 trying to cover the whole width of the pitch and help pick up one of the side men as well as deal with their world class 2. We were losing the midfield battle. It needed a tactical switch. Either a temporary move like swapping sterling to the left to pick up one of the side men until we had weathered the storm. Or switching to a back r to match them. At the very least we could have used RLC as some fresh legs in midfield as it was clear Ali and Lingard were struggling to get wide quick enough. Something had to change and it didn't. We allowed them to overrun us in midfield for too long and they made us pay for that.
Kane sat too deep all match
Fair summary (imo) but would say the warning signs were there after half an hour, we were sitting back or forced back and started to hit it long. The longer the game went on the worst that tactic became and Lovern & Vida gobbled everything up. At that point I was sure we were going to lose unless we changed tactics.
Most disappointed with Ali as I am a big fan but where were all the little moves and link ups that you see him do for Tottenham.
Vital experience for the players. We also have players coming through to fully develop the system that Southgate wants.
Who's coming through? Honest question
Arnt we current holders for every youth level?
under 17s and under 20s champions, if the premier league can introduce a cap on over seas players we have a great future ahead.... not so much though if they stay with the Chelsea reserves until they are 25
Spare a thought for my poor lad who is half Russian and half English and has now experienced the pain of elimination twice in short order, although 15 years watching Charlton will have equipped himself for football pain. I shall resist the temptation to buy him a poster of Luka Modric and to book a holiday in Croatia.
For me, England this tournament was the best ive seen. We may have had the easiest route, but this squad played with honour and as a unit, and with true pride in the badge which I havent seen in my lifetime and im very proud of our team for that. Well done lads.
I'm 30 so don't remember 1990 but agree with this.
Im 25 mate
Blimey. What was your England highlight before this tournament?
Probably Beckham scoring that free kick against Greece haha. That's about all I've got. I was pretty happy with the 02 tournament but even that wasn't brilliant
Well played England, so close yet so far. The big positives coming out of the tournament were the defence (bar Young who was so so) and Harry Kane who lead the line well. Less convincing was central midfield (Dele Ali didn't seem fit enough to play his crucial box to box role). Lingard, Sterling and Rashford played like squad players and we'll need better options in future tournaments if we're going to challenge for trophies.
Feel great optimism about the future of the England team. Decent youth level players an excellent showing at this tournament from a young team who will be confident and hungry to avenge the disappointment in future tournaments.
In relative terms whilst world class players like Ronaldo, Suarez, Pepe and uber sausage Neymar spent the tournament writhing around feigning injuries trying to cheat their way to success by comparison our lads in the main played with hearth, spirit and backbone and exited with dignity and heads held high.
Proudest I've been of an England team since 96 and a couple of months ago not being an avid follower of the premier league probably wouldn't have recognised in the street some of the young ladrivers who have lifted the mood and spirit of our wonderful country so brilliantly the past few weeks and given us a sense of optimism for future success.
Comments
Positives:
The nation came together, even if only for a brief few weeks.
We've restored some pride after the debacle in the Euros.
This young team will get better for the experience.
We have some very promising youngsters coming through.
Perspective:
We won one more game (Sweden) than most people expected before the tournament started.
We desperately need to find our Modric or Pirlo - creativity sadly lacking.
Onwards and upwards to the Euros with Southgate in charge for the foreseeable future.
Who would have thought we'd have got to semis or Croatia would be in the final.
We were unlucky on the night to not be 3/4-0 up at half time. Think that intensity in the first half was our undoing. We didn't have the subs to keep that going.
It’s been a great World Cup due to the fact the big guns were shit and it became a lot easier for us in the half we were in .
I’m not in the exceeded expectations camp because I believed before it started there wasn’t much opposition out there and once Spain left our half the final is where we should have got to .
That was weak last night, after a great first half , we just weren’t at it .
France have been the best team and will win it but it should have been us in the final
Sooooooooo gutted .
We created 3 or 4 decent chances the problem was that we failed to take them.
Had we scored a 2nd I'm convinced we would have won.
All the talk before the game was about them pushing their fullbacks and wingers up on our wingbacks and causing an overload. Southgate had to find a way to deal with this before the game.
They didn't do this first half and we looked comfortable. Second half from the very first move it was clear they had made the decision to do this. Fair enough you don't need to change things straight away give it time and see how the system deals with it. After about 10 mins it was clear we were losing the battle. They were all over our wingbacks and were 2 on 1 with them regularly. This prevented them from getting up and down the pitch as they have done so well all tournament. So that meant in attack we had no width and in defence we had the midfield 3 trying to cover the whole width of the pitch and help pick up one of the side men as well as deal with their world class 2. We were losing the midfield battle. It needed a tactical switch. Either a temporary move like swapping sterling to the left to pick up one of the side men until we had weathered the storm. Or switching to a back 4 to match them. At the very least we could have used RLC as some fresh legs in midfield as it was clear Ali and Lingard were struggling to get wide quick enough. Something had to change and it didn't. We allowed them to overrun us in midfield for too long and they made us pay for that.
Kane sat too deep all match
Pickford
Trippier Maguire Stones Rose
Lingard Henderson Shelvey Sterling
Kane Rashford
Only one problem with that side...
In the last 20-25 years teams like Sweden, Romania and Turkey have reached semis without playing anyone great.
Lopsided draws will happen more often in 24 team Euros and 48 team World Cups too.
As many have said, gutted but there's more hope for the future than for a long time with the current set up plus some of the under 21 world champions will be breaking through.
Loads of positives to take from the tournament. We came up short in the end, but getting to the semi final is a great achievement - full credit to Southgate and the players. This is massive progress.
Most disappointed with Ali as I am a big fan but where were all the little moves and link ups that you see him do for Tottenham.
Pickford
Trippier
New LB
Gomez
Stones
Maguire
Henderson
New CM (Winks?)
Lingard
New Attacking Mid / Or the Man City version of Sterling
Kane
Just looked at the U20 team, the winning goal in the final was scored by Calvert-Lewin...
Player of the tournament was Solanke. Former winners: Messi, Pogba, etc.
Lewis Cook captained the side.
Lookman also there, doing well in the Bundesliga.
Article about where the squad are now.
The only question is whether he will get enough game time at City.
In relative terms whilst world class players like Ronaldo, Suarez, Pepe and uber sausage Neymar spent the tournament writhing around feigning injuries trying to cheat their way to success by comparison our lads in the main played with hearth, spirit and backbone and exited with dignity and heads held high.
Proudest I've been of an England team since 96 and a couple of months ago not being an avid follower of the premier league probably wouldn't have recognised in the street some of the young ladrivers who have lifted the mood and spirit of our wonderful country so brilliantly the past few weeks and given us a sense of optimism for future success.
Been bloody brilliant.