WC 2018 | Semi-Finals | England vs Croatia

breva wrote:

Unique wrote:

Doc wrote:To try to translate what he wrote, I think he meant England did way better than Italy, Spain and USA this World Cup, hence, they "trashed" those teams. My best guess really.

your best guess would be spot on.

Hmmm. If that is what he meant, the word "trashed" is, if not inappropriate, confusing as there were no direct engagements between England and said teams that I recall where England "trashed" or "thrashed" said teams.  But I agree that England did better than Italy. Spain and USA.  However, I still don't understand how that assertion has anything to do with the fact that the Croatian team has 9 Serie A players and that 6 Serie A players were on the pitch for Croatia yesterday.

what does having 6 serie zzzz players in the team have to do with the game.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

CBarca wrote:Football coming home is ironic in a self deprecating fashion

If anyone ever took it seriously, they can't have ever heard an Englishman talk about the national team before

It's depressing how many people think we are actually being serious.

It's another sign that a lot of countries simply don't get sarcasm or dry self-deprecating humour.

Come on there was nothing self-deprecating about the gammons singing that song:

Literally makes no sense. And I watch serie a every week for 27 years.

If Croatia lost, this wouldn't even be a talking point. If England won, no one would say well 6 serie a players lost to 11 epl players... Adds nothing of note to the conversation

Why does there need to be self deprecation when they are celebrating their nation reaching the semi's?

Clearly so anti English it's absurd. And btw im Italian and American.

Unique wrote:

breva wrote:

Unique wrote:
your best guess would be spot on.

Hmmm. If that is what he meant, the word "trashed" is, if not inappropriate, confusing as there were no direct engagements between England and said teams that I recall where England "trashed" or "thrashed" said teams.  But I agree that England did better than Italy. Spain and USA.  However, I still don't understand how that assertion has anything to do with the fact that the Croatian team has 9 Serie A players and that 6 Serie A players were on the pitch for Croatia yesterday.

what does having 6 serie zzzz players in the team have to do with the game.

There are 9 Serie A players on the Croatian team. 6 were on the pitch yesterday.  And, they beat 11 burro league players.

80s_Stallone wrote:Why does there need to be self deprecation when they are celebrating their nation reaching the semi's?

Clearly so anti English it's absurd. And btw im Italian and American.

What is anti-English about disagreeing that the "bring it home" meme was not self-deprecating?

breva wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

CBarca wrote:Football coming home is ironic in a self deprecating fashion

If anyone ever took it seriously, they can't have ever heard an Englishman talk about the national team before

It's depressing how many people think we are actually being serious.

It's another sign that a lot of countries simply don't get sarcasm or dry self-deprecating humour.

Come on there was nothing self-deprecating about the gammons singing that song:

what do you mean gammons. Wtf is that

breva wrote:

Unique wrote:

breva wrote:


Hmmm. If that is what he meant, the word "trashed" is, if not inappropriate, confusing as there were no direct engagements between England and said teams that I recall where England "trashed" or "thrashed" said teams.  But I agree that England did better than Italy. Spain and USA.  However, I still don't understand how that assertion has anything to do with the fact that the Croatian team has 9 Serie A players and that 6 Serie A players were on the pitch for Croatia yesterday.

what does having 6 serie zzzz players in the team have to do with the game.

There are 9 Serie A players on the Croatian team. 6 were on the pitch yesterday.  And, they beat 11 burro  league players.

the things that give some people a hard on

@breva bc your making irrelevant claims about serie a vs EPL. But that's cool bro... You do you.

But we must read narrative Serie Zzzz - Premier League even after a WC semifinal? Stop it Breva.
There are other 6 months for these ( useless ) things

Take this to the General section Breva, No place for this in NT. Even us Premfaces only talk about Brexit at max, never leagues imo.

What breva is saying is Italy failed to qualify and 6 Croatian players who play in serie A are playing in the final. So that means serie A only has 6 good players and they are all Croatian. Tbh the guy has a point.

And it is false because they are only 3 , Brozovic Perisic Mandzukic
Badelj and Pjaca are last reserves and Kalinic was exiled because of his indegnity

Hypes up Serie A, ignores the fact the large majority of Serie A players are at home because Italy didn't make it....

Seems legit, btw most of us only take about PL being best etc etc is because we know it pisses people off. Most of us know a lot of it sucks.

Funny thing is going by Breva's posts it clearly works.

Unique wrote:got to give southgate some credit done a great job tbh. young team that had one star player. only thing i think he did wrong was stick with sterling game after game and subbed the rash on far to late. the rash should have started more games. but he is not long in the job and will learn from this. super super proud on england and its been many years since i can say that tbh.

super super proud on a team that purposely lose a match in group stage just so they could be on the easier path?

how could u ever proud with such loser display.

We didn't purposefully lose.

We rested players because we were already through and gave chances to others in the squad to prove themselves for the 2nd round.

Belgium did the same thing btw, we didn't care who we faced really it was just an opportunity to use our squad and rest players.

Most managers unless they were absolutely desperate for 1st place would do the same thing.

Honestly the attitude towards England winning or losing is quite frankly pathetic, you guys would find a way to shit on the team even if we won.

Grow up.

England lost to the better team on the night but also made it to the semi final when people prior to the world cup were preparing for another group stage embarrassment or a quick R16 exit at best.

They exceeded expectations, the manager was a great advert for professionalism in a world cup where plenty of countries players and coaching staff *cough Colombia* embarrassed themselves and there was no team drama.


Really nothing to laugh at whatsoever. Good tournament, deep run, no controversy other than that attempted kick off goal last night. Which was a bit pathetic

to be fair Mole, you rest 3-4 players typically. Not the whole team. That showed intent when you bring on your entire bench.

It's a managerial choice. Some managers don't want to break the winning momentum while others think matchups are more important. I can understand both sides.

sportsczy wrote:to be fair Mole, you rest 3-4 players typically. Not the whole team. That showed intent when you bring on your entire bench.

It's a managerial choice. Some managers don't want to break the winning momentum while others think matchups are more important. I can understand both sides.

Yeah it's fine, i just don't think we purposefully went into the Belgium game with the intent to lose.

We just saw it as an opportunity to rest players and give players a chance to prove themselves knowing we were already through, unfortunately none of them did

I for once am defending Mole! I remember one of Spain’s winning teams (not sure if was Euros or WC) that VDB played entire bench in game 3. Why because they were already through and by playing them, everyone got to play, and they all had a chance to show what they might offer, if needed in knockout rounds. It made sense to me then and therefore I see nothing wrong what both England and Belgium did"

Highly doubt England genuinely threw the game. Did they really want to win? Probably not. But it was the perfect opportunity to give your bench minutes and see if they can be relied upon going forward. You usually don't get such an opportunity where you can use all of your reserves and not sweat the result. Turns out, the reserves were pretty shit.

From the benches perspective, you're damn right if they were capable they'd have done their best to impress the manager so they can actually start in the knockout games, improve their career and have a chance to make history.

Rashford came very close to making it 1-0, now considering the amount of times he wastes opportunities for united i'm going to assume that he actually did bottle it and doesn't have the godly accuracy to purposefully almost score. After that and Belgium scoring, sure they settled for what was realistically the best result.

I just find it crazy that alot of people can't accept the fact that England exceeded expectations.

I dont think a single member of the fanbase on this forum would even say that they have a single world class player.

They had belief and played as a unit. It was ugly as hell but it worked to an extent.

When you get to the quarters/semi's... You start dreaming. There's nothing wrong w that.

He didn't play like it but Kane is IMO.

Robespierre wrote:And it is false because they are only 3 , Brozovic Perisic Mandzukic
Badelj and Pjaca are last reserves and Kalinic was exiled because of his indegnity

Strinic Samp
Brozovic Inter
Perisic Inter
Mandzukic Juve
Badelj Fiorentina
Rebic (owned by Fiorentina thru 2018)

All played yesterday.

Pjaca Juve did not play

Kalinic was sent home for being a dick.

Kane is one of the best strikers in the world. England does have some pretty good players. Raheem is fantastic too.

And Breva you need to stop being a little bish

It's clearly self deprecating. Even for those of whom it wasn't, they were singing it and going along because it has been one of the dominant memes of the last month.

English fans were just having fun, just like any country. It just appeared, prima facie, to be arrogant. But upon any amount of scrutiny whatsoever, one would find that that wasn't the case.

I have no problem with enthusiastic fans singing, nor do I feel it was arrogant. I merely stated that it was not self deprecating. I suspect that some may not know what self-deprecating means. For everyone's information, it means:

"belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest."

I cannot see how the English media and fans were exhibiting self-deprecation.