WC 2018 | Semi-Finals | England vs Croatia

Doc wrote:Yeah, England progressively got worse as the match continued and Kane shat the bed, the floor and even on the dog. Tough loss UK lads but Croatia played better, way better.

the UK didnt play tonight lad england did.

Unique wrote:

Doc wrote:Yeah, England progressively got worse as the match continued and Kane shat the bed, the floor and even on the dog. Tough loss UK lads but Croatia played better, way better.

the UK didnt play tonight lad england did.

A nation's pride the dirty water on the rivers
No one can take away our memory

By UK, I mean you guys as in gents on the forum but sure, let me rectify the statement:
Tough loss English lads but Croatia played better, way better. Still a tough loss and was honestly hoping you guys get to see your country in a final in your lifetime. Oh well, hope they keep with Southgate and not give him too much criticisms.

EPL >> Serie ZZZ . Mandzukic is mediocre blah blah blah. How does reality taste now?

Mario is big game master of all times.

Kudos to Perisic as well. After underperforming past games he looked like he became a beast.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Unique wrote:

Doc wrote:Yeah, England progressively got worse as the match continued and Kane shat the bed, the floor and even on the dog. Tough loss UK lads but Croatia played better, way better.

the UK didnt play tonight lad england did.

A nation's pride the dirty water on the rivers
No one can take away our memory

no turks and poles in our team buddy. maybe a few players from the  empire though

Pissed off tbh.

We allowed them to get back into the game by sitting back at the start of the second half despite the fact we can't defend on the back foot at all.

Don't particularly agree with the subs but we lost that with our passive play to begin with the second half and we never really recovered.

Unique wrote:no turks and poles in our team buddy. maybe a few players from the  empire though

The empire of the United Kingdom because that particular empire's sun has long been set.

Doc wrote:By UK, I mean you guys as in gents on the forum but sure, let me rectify the statement:
Tough loss English lads but Croatia played better, way better. Still a tough loss and was honestly hoping you guys get to see your country in a final in your lifetime. Oh well, hope they keep with Southgate and not give him too much criticisms.

maybe one day you will see another team from the empire play in a world cup. it could be you

Doc wrote:

Unique wrote:no turks and poles in our team buddy. maybe a few players from the  empire though

The empire of the United Kingdom because that particular empire's sun has long been set.

but it still shines on you little buddy

At the start of this world cup I was enraged at the mention of England among big teams. My point was that having failed in so many successive tournaments they had lost the right to be called that. What irritated me a lot was the domination of the English media in this and past tournaments. Every third news item coming out had to be about England when I was so much more interested in reading about several other teams.

If I look at England in this tournament what have they really done. First just beaten the perennially hapless Tunisia. Then thrashed the new kid on the block Panama. Then lost in a meaningless game to Belgium. After that they edged out a Colombia team on penalties that was missing its best player in James Rodriguez. Then they convincingly beat the overachieving Sweden. At last they took Croatia to extra time.

What can we conclude from this performance? It was definitely not the stuff of champions. Looking at this team and all the #itscominghome slogans everywhere I was seriously wondering what I am missing. Can a team that I find really below standard be world champions? What is it that others are seeing and I am missing? My conclusion now is that they made the most of a very easy draw. On the other side of the draw they would surely not have lasted very long. However they did do two things for which credit where its due - won their first ever penalty shootout at a world cup and reached the world cup semi final after 28 years. For that I am now fine with them being called a big team but not too much more than that. They probably still remain the most underachieving big team of this century so far.

Thimmy wrote:RIP, English, working-class wives.

/r/jesuschristGL

its a miracle we almost made a WC final with the midfield we had tbh

Luca wrote:

Mr Nick09 wrote:Making me lose money u fckn melts, can't never really count on Brexit

Based on your predictions these days, you probably would've lost the money regardless

I think France are gonna win so Imma put money on Croatia yheb

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Pissed off tbh.

We allowed them to get back into the game by sitting back at the start of the second half despite the fact we can't defend on the back foot at all.

Don't particularly agree with the subs but we lost that with our passive play to begin with the second half and we never really recovered.

mole the team did us proud buddy. the fans of the super star teams took to hating on england as soon as they went out in the group stage. football came home in this world cup.

It's good to remember that Southgate is a new coach at this level. He has plenty of youth tournament experience but this is a whole different thing.

So maybe it's not surprising that a few of his subs weren't the correct ones. He always wanted to stick to his original game plan no matter what, which meant never changing the shape of the team or plugging a gap that's appeared.

It was frustrating tonight because the problem was staring everyone in the face. We couldn't just leave two strikers up top doing nothing when the rest of the team was being over-run. Both had to drop back in or one had to be sacrificed for another midfielder.

Just things he has to learn from if we're to progress.

Considering the lack of quality in midfield, England did really well in this tournament. I hope to see fewer Tottenham players in the England squad so I can go back to supporting it when Germany inevitably fails again.

messixaviesta wrote:

If I look at England in this tournament what have they really done.

Went further than Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Argentina etc with a team that was written off as being the worst England side in decades



look at the state of our team, this is actually a big achievement, nobody really expected us to get this far

Let's hope that this generation doesn't go missing like the 1990 one.

Having England this far in a major tournament has really been enjoyable.

JD you need to ignore the footballs coming home stuff tbh, it's only meant to be something we do for a laugh.

Literally nobody is serious about it and nobody thinks we are an amazing team, my advice to anyone is not to take us too seriously.

You'll enjoy everything to do with us a lot more that way, it will be infuriating if you don't.


We know we have flaws as a result of not many midfield talents being developed but for us we see a team for the first time since 1996 and something to build towards.

Today was more frustrating than anything else because it felt like we defeated ourselves more than anything else but it's fine.

urbaNRoots wrote:

Thimmy wrote:RIP English, working-class wives.

/r/jesuschristGL

One of those gems that gets lost in the comments. Beautiful

messixaviesta wrote:At the start of this world cup I was enraged at the mention of England among big teams. My point was that having failed in so many successive tournaments they had lost the right to be called that. What irritated me a lot was the domination of the English media in this and past tournaments. Every third news item coming out had to be about England when I was so much more interested in reading about several other teams.

If I look at England in this tournament what have they really done. First just beaten the perennially hapless Tunisia. Then thrashed the new kid on the block Panama. Then lost in a meaningless game to Belgium. After that they edged out a Colombia team on penalties that was missing its best player in James Rodriguez. Then they convincingly beat the overachieving Sweden. At last they took Croatia to extra time.

What can we conclude from this performance? It was definitely not the stuff of champions. Looking at this team and all the #itscominghome slogans everywhere I was seriously wondering what I am missing. Can a team that I find really below standard be world champions? What is it that others are seeing and I am missing? My conclusion now is that they made the most of a very easy draw. On the other side of the draw they would surely not have lasted very long. However they did do two things for which credit where its due - won their first ever penalty shootout at a world cup and reached the world cup semi final after 28 years. For that I am now fine with them being called a big team but not too much more than that. They probably still remain the most underachieving big team of this century so far.

A few things:

1) You were enraged that the English press were talking about England? What were you expecting.

2) If you wanted coverage of other nations, there was plenty in the Guardian and excellent podcasts like The Totally Football Show. You just weren't looking hard enough.

3) You can only beat what's put in front you. Some perspective: England were knocked out by Iceland in the last tournament and didn't get out of the group stages of the last World Cup. They had no right to think Colombia or Sweden were anything but difficult opposition. Here's what England really did: they reached a semi-final beyond all expectation, further than Germany, Spain, Argentina, Portgual and Brazil. Please don't try to demean that achievement.

4) It's Coming Home was a joke. It's called irony. We claim it is fully in the knowledge that we're not going to win a thing. It's not something to take seriously. As the tournament progressed, people started to believe and it became a bit more serious. And what's wrong with that? Enthusiasm should be welcomed, not misinterpreted as arrogance.

Firenze wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

If I look at England in this tournament what have they really done.

Went further than Brazil, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Netherlands, Argentina etc with a team that was written off as being the worst England side in decades



look at the state of our team, this is actually a big achievement, nobody really expected us to get this far

farfan wrote:Let's hope that this generation doesn't go missing like the 1990 one.

Having England this far in a major tournament has really been enjoyable.

I think this sort of thinking flies over the likes of Unique's head (though a lot of things fly over his head usually). I enjoyed seeing England reach far, I enjoyed watching the typical English fan who are exactly like Mole in that they are constantly cynical and pessimistic of his team's chances, have that optimism. It was fun, it actually was.

I mean, they became only the 2nd team to blow a lead in a semis but still, a great effort from a side that has a tendency to disappoint.

Jay29 wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:At the start of this world cup I was enraged at the mention of England among big teams. My point was that having failed in so many successive tournaments they had lost the right to be called that. What irritated me a lot was the domination of the English media in this and past tournaments. Every third news item coming out had to be about England when I was so much more interested in reading about several other teams.

If I look at England in this tournament what have they really done. First just beaten the perennially hapless Tunisia. Then thrashed the new kid on the block Panama. Then lost in a meaningless game to Belgium. After that they edged out a Colombia team on penalties that was missing its best player in James Rodriguez. Then they convincingly beat the overachieving Sweden. At last they took Croatia to extra time.

What can we conclude from this performance? It was definitely not the stuff of champions. Looking at this team and all the #itscominghome slogans everywhere I was seriously wondering what I am missing. Can a team that I find really below standard be world champions? What is it that others are seeing and I am missing? My conclusion now is that they made the most of a very easy draw. On the other side of the draw they would surely not have lasted very long. However they did do two things for which credit where its due - won their first ever penalty shootout at a world cup and reached the world cup semi final after 28 years. For that I am now fine with them being called a big team but not too much more than that. They probably still remain the most underachieving big team of this century so far.

A few things:

1) You were enraged that the English press were talking about England? What were you expecting.

2) If you wanted coverage of other nations, there was plenty in the Guardian and excellent podcasts like The Totally Football Show. You just weren't looking hard enough.

3) You can only beat what's put in front you. Some perspective: England were knocked out by Iceland in the last tournament and didn't get out of the group stages of the last World Cup. They had no right to think Colombia or Sweden were anything but difficult opposition. Here's what England really did: they reached a semi-final beyond all expectation, further than Germany, Spain, Argentina, Portgual and Brazil. Please don't try to demean that achievement.

4) It's Coming Home was a joke. It's called irony. We claim it is fully in the knowledge that we're not going to win a thing. It's not something to take seriously. As the tournament progressed, people started to believe and it became a bit more serious. And what's wrong with that? Enthusiasm should be welcomed, not misinterpreted as arrogance.

why did you bother to explain to anyone why the england fans were supporting england.

Will be interesting to see who is still around in 4 years. Of the starting 11, there aren't really any players who would be aged out apart from Ashley Young.

Overall I thought England were good and should have finished a few chances in the first half to kill off the game, but Croatia had that experience, determination and resilience to come back.

Doc wrote:

farfan wrote:Let's hope that this generation doesn't go missing like the 1990 one.

Having England this far in a major tournament has really been enjoyable.

I think this sort of thinking flies over the likes of Unique's head (though a lot of things fly over his head usually). I enjoyed seeing England reach far, I enjoyed watching the typical English fan who are exactly like Mole in that they are constantly cynical and pessimistic of his team's chances, have that optimism. It was fun, it actually was.

I mean, they became only the 2nd team to blow a lead in a semis but still, a great effort from a side that has a tendency to disappoint.

well us english lads do like to support a country or a club thats not from the other side of the world.