Who will win Euro 2020?

  • England

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Germany

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Italy

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Netherlands

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Portugal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Spain

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3
  • Poll closed .
Sadly, it was not to be.
Overall, England have played exceptionally well through the whole tournament. The only time they seemed to slow was the second half tonight against Italy. I know that some of the penalty takers are going to feel terrible tonight, but they need to take into account their performance throughout the whole competition. This is a relatively young team and in my opinion the best we have had for decades. I want the team to remain together and remain confident. I want Southgate to remain as manager. We're proud of you lads! You gave us joy after many months of despair from lockdown. You knocked Germany out. You were unbeaten throughout the competition and only conceded two goals in open play.

At the moment, I have the lyrics of a song going through my head. The song is 'Bravado' by Rush -

When the dust has cleared
And victory denied
A summit too lofty
River a little too wide
If we keep our pride
Though paradise is lost
We will pay the price
But we will not count the cost


Well done England and thank you for the joy that you have brought over the last month.

Kevin
 
On the 120 minutes plus added time Italy were the better side for the most part, especially from halftime onwards, and the penalty shoot-out lottery went to the deserving winner based on the match itself - it doesn't always happen.

Italy were probably the best side in the tournament although the winners of Euros and World Cups aren't always the best team. England did a Germany and improved and improved as the tournament progressed and it has to be said that despite being under the cosh they held out against Italy who could not find a way to score a winner. It's certainly an arguable case that England were the second best side in the tournament on overall performance.

The nation has been lifted by the team's exploits at this so miserable time in history and for that Gareth Southgate, his staff and all the members of the playing squad deserve a huge vote of thanks.

Next up is the 2022 World Cup in that hot, tiny country in the Middle East - the first World Cup Finals to be held in winter. England still have work to do to qualify because only the winners of the European qualifying groups proceed automatically to the Finals.
 
Very disappointed this morning.
The lads played really well,and probably were beaten by a far more experienced team.
That is as much as I would like to say about the game itself.

The backlash from pundits and other media though is becoming interesting.
It is being suggested that certain senior and more ‘’experienced’’,players should have stepped up to take a penalty instead of Bukayo Saka,and Jadon Sancho.
In fact they name dropped Raheem Sterling,who I agree is far more experienced in tournament football than others in the squad.As a Manchester City and Liverpool player,has lots of Champions League matches under his belt,so that made sense.So far I agree.
The other player name dropped was Jack Grealish.A player who I believe has now made 11 appearances for England,and,most of them as a substitute.Does that suddenly make him experienced.
Secondly he does not regularly take penalties for his club,so that could also have been a factor.
Thirdly,he may still have been feeling the effects of the challenge on him that looked very painful,and possibly could or should have resulted in a red card for the Italian player.

The players who did step up should take great credit for their bravery.There could be any number of reasons why others did not step up.Perhaps you should find out the reasons why before criticising and name dropping players,it really isn’t helpful.

When you see the media response to certain sporting events and also at some politicians,it is not hard to understand why we suddenly get the repulsive online abuse aimed at players and others in society.
Who can forget the pictures and horrible abuse Graham Taylor(rip) got all those years ago.That was British media at it’s worst in every sense.But they can treat sports people or anyone else for that matter as they wish,and then turn on society when there is online abuse aimed at players,managers and just about anyone in the public eye.

The media has as much of a responsibility as the rest of us when writing or posting stories about events taking place.
 
The news media in this country always likes to set up people/organisations on a pedestal so that when they knock them down, as they so often do, the media believes the public reaction will be greater.

England actually played the entire tournament all the way to the final without being beaten in an actual match. There are two opposing views as to whether a penalty shoot-out should count as a match win or defeat as the case might be, or whether records should show a draw with the shoot-out merely a means of determining which team progresses to the next stage of the competition in question or wins the championship or cup or trophy in the final round.

Taking the last two major competitions - World Cup 2018 and Euro 2020 - England is the only country to have reached the last four in both competitions. In the 2018 WC Croatia beat England and France beat Belgium in the semis with France the ultimate champions and England beaten into fourth place at the meaningless game against Belgium. In Euro 2020 England beat Denmark and Italy overcame Spain via a penalty shoot-out in the semis with the final seeing success for Italy again via a shoot-out.

So of the European countries England has been the most consistent in terms of its progress in the last two major competitions - I discount the Nations Cup which is a largely irrelevant competition as far as I'm concerned.

That must provide a great deal of optimism for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar although England still has work to do in order to qualify automatically from the pre-tournament group stage. Losing semi-finalist then winning semi-finalist then losing finalist. The natural progression is winning finalist. Were it that simple and assured, but the squad must still gain much confidence from recent performances. All they have to do now is to learn to win penalty shoot-outs.

I agree with Brummiegem that players who volunteer to take the penalties should not be ostracised or criticised, and certainly not in the vile, racist way we've learned about today. Two of the three players who failed to score are extremely young people, let alone inexperienced footballers on the international scene, and Marcus Rashford is no elder statesman himself. It's inevitable that at some point someone will fail to score in a shoot-out, so we supporters should thank those who step forward and empathise and sympathise when things don't go as we might hope.
 
Losing semi-finalist then winning semi-finalist then losing finalist. The natural progression is winning finalist.
At the least they should be contenders to get to the final. If I'm correct this Euro final is the first tournament England have been to since 1966 so there's at least that hoodoo off the teams back at least.
 
At the least they should be contenders to get to the final. If I'm correct this Euro final is the first tournament England have been to since 1966 so there's at least that hoodoo off the teams back at least.
It's not the first tournament that England have been to since 1966.

They've qualified for the final stages of every World Cup since then except 1974, 1978 and 1994. They reached the semi-finals in 1990 and in 2018 and the quarter-finals in a number of other years.

The European Championships began in 1960 when England did not enter and they failed to qualify in 1964, 1984 and 2008. They reached the semi-finals in 1968 and in 1996 and the quarter-finals in a couple of other years.

As for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, England are in the same qualifying group as Hungary, Poland, Albania, Andorra and San Marino. Each country plays the others home and away. So far England have played three matches, beating San Marino 5-0 and Poland 2-1 both at home, and a 2-0 away win against Albania. The main danger to England appears to be Hungary against whom they have yet to play. The next round of matches will be in September when England play three games in six days, then two more games in October and the final two in November. It's quite a busy schedule albeit the likes of San Marino and Andorra provide scope for rotating the squad but they cannot be treated too lightly.

There are ten groups in Europe and only the group winners progress to the finals in Qatar automatically. The ten runners-up are joined by two other countries based on their Nations League performance (don't ask how, it's complicated but in essence the two highest placed Nations League sides that don't qualify through the 'regular' gateway) who will be split into four separate paths of three. Each trio will play each other and four winners will emerge to join the ten group winners in Qatar.

So England still have much work to do to qualify for Qatar automatically.
 
They've qualified for the final stages of every World Cup since then except 1974, 1978 and 1994. They reached the semi-finals in 1990 and in 2018 and the quarter-finals in a number of other years.
But not the actual final of said competitions. They've gotten close but not gotten over that final hurdle to play in the final itself.
 
But not the actual final of said competitions. They've gotten close but not gotten over that final hurdle to play in the final itself.
That's correct.
 

Upload Media

Upgrade Your Account

Subscribe to help support your favourite forum and in return we'll remove all our advertisements. Your contribution will help to pay for things like site maintenance, domain name renewals and annual server charges.



Forums4aiports
Subscribe

NEW - Profile Posts

Jon Dempsey wrote on HPsauce's profile.
Hi, I was born and lived in B36 for a long time - Lindale Avenue, just around the corner from Hodge Hill Comp.
I just noticed your postcode on a post.

Do you still live in the area?
survived a redundancy scenario where I work for the 2nd time
If you’re tired of takeoffs, you’re tired of life.
49 trips undertaken last year. First done this year which was to North Wales where surprisingly the only slippery surfaces were in Conwy with the castle and it's walls closed due to the ice.
Aviador wrote on SNOWMAN's profile.
Thanks for the support @SNOWMAN

Trending Hashtags

Advertisement

Back
Top Bottom
  AdBlock Detected
Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks some useful and important features of our website. For the best possible site experience please take a moment to disable your AdBlocker.