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WC Semi Final #2 - Croatia vs England


drd23

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1 minute ago, UKTexans said:

Yes indeed. Mistakenly overlooked him.

Yesterday there was a chasm between Henderson and Lingard/Alli which Croatia were just strolling about in.

That's what has irritated me. Southgate doesn't seem able to make in game changes.

Yeah, the midfield was basically non existent. It was Henderson getting the ball and pumping it forwards to Sterling and Kane. Not that he had a whole lot.of other options tbh.

I'm hoping this was a personnel thing, because Englands CMs are very poor, and not a direct tactical decision.

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2 minutes ago, kempus said:

Yeah, the midfield was basically non existent. It was Henderson getting the ball and pumping it forwards to Sterling and Kane. Not that he had a whole lot.of other options tbh.

I'm hoping this was a personnel thing, because Englands CMs are very poor, and not a direct tactical decision.

I just don't know why Southgate didn't put Dier in alongside Henderson to at least stem that route for Croatia.

I personally would have gone to 4 at the back and potentially 4 across the middle after 55 minutes, it was blatently obvious things weren't working.

How Alli saw the end to another game I'll never know.

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2 minutes ago, sunnygsm said:

Don't think it was confirmed the Kane was injured, that was just speculation. Southgate said he was fine post-game. 

Yeah I was just repeating Gary Neville's opinion.

Alli clearly wasn't fully fit either and played out the full 120 minutes.

The thought of England without Kane probably caused Southgate sleepless nights.

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1 hour ago, UKTexans said:

But that's the British media and most countries media.

Hype, hype, hype.

To be fair other than the tongue in cheek "it's coming home" memes, I have found the media this time to have actually been mildly reserved.

The headline in the Sun before the 2010 world cup was EASY. (England, Algeria, Slovakia and Yanks)

This time the tables were turned, almost zero expectations then getting carried away by the feel good factor.

I speak and understand French, they aren’t like that. Yes they’re very critical of the team and players but you don’t get this overconfidence, entitlement you get here. 

The analysts were a joke. During the game the commentary was annoying. The analysts at half time were dismissive of Croatia and overly praised England in the first half. Before the game, once they beat Sweden they assumed they’d get to the Final which I would understand if England were blowing teams away. They underestimated Croatia big time. Gary Neville literally said at half time “we’re the better team”, “they’re there for the taking m”. And that there is nothing to fear from Croatia going forward. 

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Kane hasn't been right since he rushed back from the ankle injury, to be honest. Shadow of the player he was before. I want him to take a long rest, even though the start of the season is only a month away.

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9 minutes ago, Kip Smithers said:

They underestimated Croatia big time. Gary Neville literally said at half time “we’re the better team”, “they’re there for the taking m”.

I mean based on the first 45 minutes was that entirely false?

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That was a fun match to watch. Definitely been the best World Cup as a whole that I've really watched a lot of.

I didn't get to catch the whole match, caught part of the second half and then when I got back from work, watched all of extra time. Seemed like a well played match and one that was pretty evenly played.

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Just now, The Gnat said:

That was a fun match to watch. Definitely been the best World Cup as a whole that I've really watched a lot of.

I didn't get to catch the whole match, caught part of the second half and then when I got back from work, watched all of extra time. Seemed like a well played match and one that was pretty evenly played.

Based on the second half and ET alone this was comfortably Croatia's game.

We had the odd moment but after the first half we really took a step back.

Does this WC beat 2014? I mean that was a hell of an exciting tournament.

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I feel like so many people just don't understand the British fans and media. It wasn't arrogance (although I'm sure there were a few), but more a blind optimism and hope. There was a different demeanor about this team. They did things that old English teams haven't done. It's not being entitled. People just had hope after being ridiculed for years. A lot of the pundits are ex English players that failed in those situations in the past. I did dislike people looking ahead to the final before other games had been played though. 

Did people get carried away? Sure, but they're allowed to. At the same time, English fans were aware of the weaknesses and luck with the draw. Both got exposed after 45 mins yesterday. 

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1 hour ago, UKTexans said:

We were better in the first half and could have been 2 or 3 up.

You had the two chances. Sure but you guys couldn’t keep the ball for most part. Constantly hoofing the ball up the field. Croatia pushed you guys back in first half problem was that they were poor in the final third. 

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