Well, I got that prediction right so that's one thing :D I REALLY didn't see that late equaliser coming though, and it is a shame as we played very well and outplayed Russia for the whole game. Still, we shouldn't take this as a defeat as we DID play well and if we just don't lose that, then we should do better. Gonna be very interesting against Wales, they also played really well today and was met with a win... (I may also miss the first half though </3)

Same I'm at school :(

 

Our school have given us the afternoon off as Mr Mill the RE teacher told his students he would fake being sick on Thursday as well as a lot of students said so they decided to let us leave at 12 :o

 

Mr Mill is now my favourite teacher

Oh, and so much for 4-0 :lol:

 

I'm still certain we'll win the Euro's. Completely certain.

 

EDIT - and today was really good for the most part! Really optimistic for the next few games obviously, don't want to set my hopes and expectations to high because we all know what happens then :rolleyes:

Edited June 11, 20169 yr by Mdh

FACT: England have never won the first game of any European Championship - best were draws against Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, France and now Russia in 80, 92, 96, 2012 and 2016 respectively.

 

Let's not bring up this fact, it blinds people with false hope that we will go on to win!

We played well and should have won but that's football for you. I just hope that late goal doesn't deflate the players too much, as it was a positive performance overall. Just have to move on and beat the Welsh now.

I put money on -

A) England winning the match

B) Wayne Rooney scoring a goal.

C) A card being given between 6-11 minutes.

 

The moral of the story - never gamble, especially when you know next to nothing about the sport post 2004.

You should have put money on England squandering the win in the dying seconds. Always guaranteed!

 

Either that, missing a crucial penalty or having a crucial goal disallowed (hello Sol Campbell).

I put money on -

A) England winning the match

B) Wayne Rooney scoring a goal.

C) A card being given between 6-11 minutes.

 

The moral of the story - never gamble, especially when you know next to nothing about the sport post 2004.

 

I went with a straight England win, seemed too good with a lot of Russian players out injured. Ah well, I'd won 3 bets in a row previously, so my luck was bound to run out!

For me though after all the chances we had in the first half, we could have scored more goals, and Russia looked poor as anything, but hey ho that's football. We just have to play better, having 3 points is better than a point. :mellow: never mind.

For me though after all the chances we had in the first half, we could have scored more goals, and Russia looked poor as anything, but hey ho that's football. We just have to play better, having 3 points is better than a point. :mellow: never mind.

 

We played well, but we didn't really have that many chances. The only big one was the Rooney, apart from that they were either off target or comfortable saves. Hodgson messed up with his tactics, he reverted back to his defensive self. Not that it's a bad thing, but we don't really have the players to do that. Milner is disciplined, but not defensively that great. And Wilshere is not really known for being a playmaker.

 

Sterling's getting all the stick on social media, but he's the only player we have who can give us width. Kane was just terrible. Stood 5 yards offside for most of the game.

I really feel Wales vs England will be a draw & Russia will beat Slovakia so YET again we'll have it all to do in the last match (World Cup 2010 anyone?)

 

Very lucky the tournament is expanded to allow some 3rd placers though, means not quite as much pressure as there would otherwise be.

Why didn't Roy Hodgson play Vardy? why was Harry Kane taking corners? these are the types of things that let you know immediately that England are not going to win this tournament.

 

England are like the Arsenal of international football, they build your hopes up and ultimately they leave you feeling disappointed. I think Wales will qualify from the group after today's results.

Awkward.

FACT: England have never won the first game of any European Championship - best were draws against Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, France and now Russia in 80, 92, 96, 2012 and 2016 respectively.

Another FACT: England have never won the UEFA European Championship

 

And by mid June 2020 we will say the exact same thing again!

If we'd have held on at the end then Hodgson's tactics would have been vindicated. Everyone bar Kane played pretty well, I'd be tempted to put Sturridge in for the Wales game. We're still favourites for that, although might have to rethink our midfield as Dier will presumably track Bale and I don't want it to be Rooney and Alli tasked with picking up Ramsey's runs.

Result or no result, there's no denying that yesterday we played some of the best football we have played in recent times. Our ball retention skills (especially after losing it) were superb bar a few mistakes and our attacking play was honed to perfection, especially in the mid second half. If we can tighten up our defence and not dedicate too many men forward on an attack where it isn't necessary (this is one of our only major frailties), we will be able to beat Wales but I'm up in arms as to whether we'll play at the same quality on Thursday. I really don't want the players to feel dejected and demotivated after yesterday - it's not overly important as I'm still relatively confident we'll qualify for the round of 16 and I hope they are too - we just need to keep the confidence we had yesterday and take our chances more.

Well they had to draw at some point in their group stage, hopefully they can still qualify just have to win against Wales and Slovakia, saying that Slovakia are a good team, Wales beating them was a surprise when Slovakia beat the World Champions (Germany) 3-1 recently. Russia are the weakest country in this group and we just drew against them. England need to score goals and on target, and play Vardy from the start, instead of Rooney. My main worry Slovakia could give us a good game, if we are not careful.

Really? I'd say Russia are the strongest team in our group. at least that's what the rankings state (which I admit aren't always the most accurate indicator). If anything Wales are the weakest on paper but they'll want the win more than England IMO.

 

Plus there's no way he'll drop Rooney who was man of the match last night. He does need to give Vardy some playing time though, I'd say give Kane a run around & if nothing sub Vardy on.

Edited June 12, 20169 yr by Dobbo

Result or no result, there's no denying that yesterday we played some of the best football we have played in recent times. Our ball retention skills (especially after losing it) were superb bar a few mistakes and our attacking play was honed to perfection, especially in the mid second half. If we can tighten up our defence and not dedicate too many men forward on an attack where it isn't necessary (this is one of our only major frailties), we will be able to beat Wales but I'm up in arms as to whether we'll play at the same quality on Thursday. I really don't want the players to feel dejected and demotivated after yesterday - it's not overly important as I'm still relatively confident we'll qualify for the round of 16 and I hope they are too - we just need to keep the confidence we had yesterday and take our chances more.

 

But that is partly our weakness. We had really good attacking transitional play, but at this level its naive to think at some point of the game your defence won't be under heavy pressure. We don't have the squad to cope with this unless we score 2/3 goals. England are much better than Wales and Slovakia and Wales will raise their game against us massively, but we're better than them. Plus England really have to get a result against Wales now. They have a better player than us, but that's it. My worry is, I expect Hodgson will play largely the same team again. You would expect Dier to track Bale, but that would mean Ali/Rooney tracks Ramsey's runs from midfield. We have a risk of being picked up on the counter attack.

I'd bring Wilshere in for Lallana and switch to a 4-2-3-1 with Rooney higher up (as good as he was last night, Russia's midfield was awful) and Alli cutting in from the left. Give Kane 45 minutes and if he's not cutting it, bring Sturridge on. The whole point of this squad is that we've got attacking options if someone isn't cutting it, we may as well use them.