Euro 2012: Day 8 Thread

[Duty281]

First topic message reminder :

Ukraine v France (17:00, ITV 1)
Sweden v England (19:45, BBC 1)



Current Group Standings

Ukraine - 3
England - 1
France - 1
Sweden - 0

Group D for Day 8 of the tournament then. At 5, the co-hosts Ukraine will be looking to notch their second win of the competition by causing a shock against the French but in reality, France are strong favourites and will probably win. Then at 7:45, England will look to build on the foundations they've laid on Monday and get 3 points against a team they haven't beaten competitively in years. For Sweden, 3 points is near essential to them staying in the competition after a narrow defeat on Monday. My predictions:

Ukraine 1-2 France
Sweden 0-2 England

En-ger-land, En-ger-land, En-ger-land...

[GG]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

Would he get in their starting XI?

[mystiroakey]

your right crimey it drives me mad. its so hypocritical...

[mystiroakey]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

Would he get in their starting XI?

not sure but he would score bags of goals if he was.. He is one of the best in the prem thats for sure, he also has alot more to his game than just scoring gaols

[Gibson]

I can't believe that John says that Johnson was awful, he was easily England's best defender this game. Made at least two goal-saving tackles, and was extremely unlucky to not make a goal-line clearance.

The biggest disappointment so far for England has been Ashley Young I thought, anonymous versus the French, brought into his favoured left side and he was disappointing then.

I felt England's best players were probably Johnson, Walcott, Carroll in that order. Welbeck grew into the game as well, Gerrard seemed to thrive in the comeback.

+1
Johnson was the best player on the pitch imo. Brilliant defender. Cant blame him for the OG ( The SUN would have if England had lost). Damage was already done by his fellow defenders.

[GG]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

Would he get in their starting XI?

not sure but he would score bags of goals if he was.. He is one of the best in the prem thats for sure, he also has alot more to his game than just scoring gaols

Agree.

[Crimey]

I was hoping that two really good performances from Johnson would have made some people change their minds on him and realise that over the past 18 months he's matured into a really top defender. But apparently not.

[azania]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

He'd be on the bench.

[mystiroakey]

johnsons been good- we obviously got shreaded today for 10 mins- i dont wanna see that again. but overall our defence as a unit has been good

[mystiroakey]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

He'd be on the bench.

maybe - maybe not. maybe barca need players that offer that bit more these days- gotta say that they ultimately failed last season..Rooneys workrate is top draw

[Postie]

Can I just say for the record, I'm Welsh but have always supported England when Wales aren't playing, as with the other home nations also.

Likewise.I've always cheered on any other UK/British team in major competitions, be it club or country.

[azania]

he scors 30 goals at united- for barca he would be getting approx 40 plus mate..

He'd be on the bench.

maybe - maybe not. maybe barca need players that offer that bit more these days- gotta say that they ultimately failed last season..Rooneys workrate is top draw

So is the whole Barca team. When they haven't got the ball, they employ a basket ball, full court press technique to get it cack. You have to have a high work rate to do that.

Rooney would be a bench warmer in that team and the Real team.

[GSC]

Rooney wouldn't start for Barca.

Again, far too happy to stand off once they took the lead, this Sweden team really isn't very good and England made them look very good for half an hour after they took the lead.

Milner on the wing is still a waste of time, far too slow and not a great crosser. No need to play him vs Sweden or Ukraine, too negative from Hodgson there imo.

[mystiroakey]

Barca are a team that has a philosphy. If that doesnt win them much in the next few seasons they may change it- but for know rooney wouldnt be a part of that teami agree. However i am sure rooney could actually do better than higuin at real. it could be a perfect swap- and he does play sweet with ronaldo!!

[GSC]

Rooney gets shoved onto the wing with Ronaldo because Ronaldo is much better.

[mystiroakey]

ronaldo is the best there is GSC- a football team has 11 players in it

[GSC]

And Madrid have more effective wingers than Rooney.

[mystiroakey]

why would rooney play as a winger!!

[GSC]

I dunno, why did Rooney get shoved onto the wing when Ronaldo was at Man Utd

[mystiroakey]

as i said before he would replace higuin(who may go to PSG). obviously he would play around ronaldo due to his freeish role- but i think rooney could possibly do better than him

[mystiroakey]

GSC i think you remember it differently to me

[GSC]

So he can play behind Benzema

[mystiroakey]

yes

[GSC]

When Rooney and Ronaldo played together, Rooney ended up on the left.

[GSC]

Glad we agree he'd be warming the bench then.

[mystiroakey]

Nope we dont lol.

Anyway all of that is immaterial. The fact is he is gonna be available in the next england game- and he has the potential to beat up very good teams!!

it could elevate england as a team

[GSC]

As one of the few players in the squad with good technical ability undoubtedly.

[Liam]

Are we forgetting Ozil who plays in the hole. Been one of Madrid's outstanding players so they would sign him to play striker I would have thought. He could still drop deep. Benzema often drops off short or into the wide channels for Madrid and has still scored nearly 30 goals.

[MtotheC's Wrasslin Biatch]

My man of the match was John Terry. He hardly got a mention on commentary or analysis though.
With good performances from Welbeck, Carroll, Johnson and obviously Walcott changed the game. (I still think he's rubbish though )

[mystiroakey]

Are we forgetting Ozil who plays in the hole. Been one of Madrid's outstanding players so they would sign him to play striker I would have thought. He could still drop deep. Benzema often drops off short or into the wide channels for Madrid and has still scored nearly 30 goals.

it was a theoritical point that rooney(who isnt going anywhere!!) could possibly start for real.. and i think he could be very effective in higuians position

[Liam]

I agree Mys, but like you said he's not going anywhere unless a stupid offer like the Ronaldo offer comes in for him.

Johnson my man of the match, did everything that was asked for him and got forward when possible. I thought Young had a shocker and Cole didn't have a great night.

[MtotheC's Wrasslin Biatch]

Uncharacteristically poor performance from Mr. Reliable, Cole.
Sure he'll be back to his best next week!

Ashley Young, my tip for the Golden Boot, is making me look like a dick. What did I ever do to you Ashley? What did I ever do to you?

[mystiroakey]

actually tell a lie - PSG may be offering 100 mill for him lol.

[mystiroakey]

wellbeck has one so far.. ermm not really enough so far- he needs two next game

[Guest]

Glen Johnson is horrific defensively. His positional play is shocking. Yes he made two defensive challenges to save his own mistakes of poor awareness and positional play. His marking on Mellberg for the second goal was horrific, he didnt even jump. His attempt to clear the first goal off the line was simply fantastic wasnt it? Martin Olsson left him for dead in the second half on numerous occassions but you selectively forget that.

[mystiroakey]

Look pal england won- and i am a happy fan. the manager seems to know what he is doing and in all fairness seems to be the first manager since terry velnables that makes the right calls in a comp. he brought ox and he actually used ox.(not like sven and walcott)- he played carrol and got a goal- we went down and his sub(walcott) got us the win.

as a manager he has made almost perfect calls- that is his job- the players do the rest. there are our limitations. He may make massive mistakes in the future- but i doubt it.

[Postie]

Am just enjoying the highlights

[monty junior]

Is anyone gonna contemplate about rooney coming back!!

forget about our defence.

would anyone be surprised if rooney scored a hatrick v ukraine- i wouldnt!!

We gotta try and top the group

Just like he was supposed to light up the world cup and the one in 2006, oh wait..

Nah seriously good game tonight, in line with the way the whole tournaments went. Great to watch, some finish by Welbeck, i presume he meant it, good subs by Hodgson when the game was slipping a way. For my money France will go through top with England alongside as i suppose was seeded.

[mystiroakey]

yeah well we shall see what he does shortly. but the england team look very different. They are miles away from the team they were in other tournies with expectation (the dutch are the perfect example of us from other years this time) England are just playing the game- wether we think is good or not is immaterial. They all look like they are trying- even if we have got scared and dropped deep after we have scored both first goals(we must stop that!!)

Best game for me- it was a prem thriller- really refreshing after watching some really mundane tappy tappy stuff- so well done to sweden as well .

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Uncharacteristically poor performance from Mr. Reliable, Cole.
Sure he'll be back to his best next week!

Ashley Young, my tip for the Golden Boot, is making me look like a dick. What did I ever do to you Ashley? What did I ever do to you?

Agreed on Cole. Was not himself.

My tip for the tournament was Holland and look how they are doing

[Thomond]

England showed great passion coming back the way the did. They gave two very poor goals away but fair play they came back. Rugby

[Crimey]

Glen Johnson is horrific defensively. His positional play is shocking. Yes he made two defensive challenges to save his own mistakes of poor awareness and positional play. His marking on Mellberg for the second goal was horrific, he didnt even jump. His attempt to clear the first goal off the line was simply fantastic wasnt it? Martin Olsson left him for dead in the second half on numerous occassions but you selectively forget that.

He wasn't marking Mellberg, he was on somebody else. I watched the goal over to see who was supposed to be marking Mellberg, unfortunately it was nobody. Neither of the defensive challenges had anything to do with his mistakes, in fact both of them came when the Swedish had broke through the centre. At no point did he seem out of position to the extent that it put us in danger. His attempt to clear off the line was desperately unlucky.

I think you've taken his reputation and just projected it on to his performance. Unless everybody selectively forgot his performance...

[Crimey]

I know he didn't actually do much in the game but Ibrahimovic looked superhuman on the pitch last night. He just held off two defenders at a time and looked about 8 foot tall.

[mystiroakey]

I thought ibram looked briliant. Have never thought much of him before. Luckily england just about did enough to counter him- but he is the sort of player that takes opponents defenders out of position and creates more space for others.

[Thomond]

Ibra was poor was at fault for the first goal. If he wasn't so lazy he could have won the ball from Gerrard and he would have blocked it minimum. If I was his team mate I would have kicked him myself. Selfish feicer.

[mystiroakey]

nah i dont agree- sweden is ibraham. He is the only thing that will disrupte the opposition- directly or indirectly. Terry although slipped up once was obviously there to mark him and did pretty well at it

[mystiroakey]

If you wanna talk about ifs and buts and moments then you could say the same about any player on any team in any match

[Thomond]

Ibrahimovic had that shot and did feic all besides that. He was at fault for the first goal and is one of the main reasons Seden are now not in the Championships. He is incredibly selfish, the amount of times he should have passed it and didn't wasn unreal! He dropped so deep he was ineffective.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I have to say as good a player as Ibrahimovic is. He ain't half a lazy selfish bugger.

[mystiroakey]

Must have seen a different game. He had to drop deep occasionaly because seweden arnt the same as his club sides. That shows he isnt selfish. Most of the time he was on his own in englands half with no one to pass to!

So you think that if ibraham wasnt playing they would have beaten england,That is simple not true, In fact he is the only reason they got in this championship!!

[MtotheC's Wrasslin Biatch]

He's an amazing player. He's just never brought it to the International tournament stage.
There's only so much you can do in an average team though.
Look at Ronaldo - he can't bring it to the tourney's either

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