***Official World Cup 2018 Thread***

[gsa 3,906]

1 minute ago, keithgersbear said:

1-0 up and what ultimately cost England was Harry Kane unfortunately. You have to be a killer with that chance, get lift on the ball and it's a 2 nil lead and a ticket to the final in all honestly, I think Croatia probably would have struggled to come back from that. That's the difference between very good and elite strikers in those situations. Plus his header miss, another very good chance for someone like him.

 

Nonsense. Alli and Lingard in centre midfield has hampered them all tournament and the two of them were criminal tonight. 

[BrotherTJ 172]

Definitely were lucky with the draw.

Overachieved? Not sure, but it was a young, inexperienced team and never ashamed anyone - on or off the field

[callumbo87 209]

Southgate is getting far too much praise.

Stuck rigidly to the same system and played the same team with bang average performers- Alli, Henderson, Sterling 

Kane should have been taken off along with Alli before ET...spursd it

 

[Clemdog 39,389]

Southgate should have gone 4-2-3-1 at about 60-70 minutes.

Brought Dier on in beside Henderson and put pure pace out wide to double up when defending out wide. 

Far too rigid. 

[ForeverAndEver 71,374]

Tarrier players trying to laugh, wee mongos will never play at a world cup

[keithgersbear 3,225]

1 minute ago, ForeverAndEver said:

That first miss doesn't count, got gave offside

Think it went up because it went out of play. It wouldn't have been given offside with VAR. Looked onside. 

 

1 minute ago, gsa said:

Nonsense. Alli and Lingard in centre midfield has hampered them all tournament and the two of them were criminal tonight. 

Doesn't matter. In those situations, World cup semi final you need to score in that situation. He did choke. 

[Bristol loyal 6,248]

Devastated, but we got further than I ever thought before the tournament. It’s a young team who will learn a lot of lessons and will improve. I’ve questioned Southgate for playing young and sterling ahead of rose and rashford all tournament and still think he was wrong, but it doesn’t really matter now. I think over the 90 mins we were the better team but we just didn’t have the quality to push on and win it. Gutted we’re going home (not interested in the 3rd place game) but hopefully we can learn and improve from this and this young squad can go on to better things at the euros. 

[TheGovanIniesta 1,000]

Did well to get so far but Southgate has shown absolutely zero tactical nous and will inevitably get his jotters when he's actually tested

[bluedylan 11,555]

Kanes performance for a captain was criminal

[the brown brogue 1,909]

They got a round further than I expected them to before the tournament began, mainly due to the Sweden game being as good as a bye to the next round. The English media lost the plot after beating a pub team 6-1 and they've been found wanting tonight. If Belgium can be arsed in the 3rd/4th place playoff I can see them sticking a few past England. 

France will be rubbing their hands together for the final, I reckon they'll put on a bit of a show against an exhausted Croatian side. 

[Paulie Walnuts 1,061]

England probably would’ve taken going out in the semi final at the start of the tournament, nobody seemed to back them further than the quarters. Usually the media have them won any tournament before it even starts. Players and manager were always pretty humble but get it up all the wallopers that had already booked the Monday off work and got their ‘England world champions 2018’ tattoos. 

[simplythebest 11,453]

In recent tournaments they've suffered against the likes of Iceland, Slovakia, Algeria, clearly it's a big improvement regardless of how the draw worked out 

Missed opportunity tonight mind you 

[pcbear 10,913]

That was the first decent team encountered Belgium apart and they came up short, there will never be a better chance to sort of blunder your way to a WC final, next time around Italy and Holland shall be back in the mix to make it harder.

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

Kane is over-rated, scores against the likes of Tunisia and some think he is the new Maradonna or Pele, he's bang average by WORLD standards

[keithgersbear 3,225]

Kane was terrible vs Sweden and terrible tonight. He was not moving about anywhere near enough, it actually looked like he was carrying an injury but not telling anyone. 

[Clemdog 39,389]

1 minute ago, Rangers_no1 said:

Played too many long balls for my liking, Lovren was bulling Kane in the air.

Hmmm. 

I think that they struggled to keep the ball so long balls were inevitable over the 120 minutes.

But within the 90 minutes, they just didn't take their chances. That's a fact. 

[ForeverAndEver 71,374]

1 minute ago, siddiqi_drinker said:

Kane is over-rated, scores against the likes of Tunisia and some think he is the new Maradonna or Pele, he's bang average by WORLD standards

Up there with the stupidest things I have ever read

[Paulie Walnuts 1,061]

Thought Wright would be going mental, wish this was on bbc usually shearer cant hide his rage. 

[the brown brogue 1,909]

4 minutes ago, callumbo87 said:

Southgate is getting far too much praise.

Stuck rigidly to the same system and played the same team with bang average performers- Alli, Henderson, Sterling 

Kane should have been taken off along with Alli before ET...spursd it

 

Yeah all good points. Pretty one dimensional and reliant on opponents being unable to defend set pieces. 

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

2 minutes ago, Bristol loyal said:

Devastated, but we got further than I ever thought before the tournament. It’s a young team who will learn a lot of lessons and will improve. I’ve questioned Southgate for playing young and sterling ahead of rose and rashford all tournament and still think he was wrong, but it doesn’t really matter now. I think over the 90 mins we were the better team but we just didn’t have the quality to push on and win it. Gutted we’re going home (not interested in the 3rd place game) but hopefully we can learn and improve from this and this young squad can go on to better things at the euros. 

Think the inexperience showed, Croatia when they got tired passed the ball a lot more letting the ball do the work England needed to play it a bit smarter, that said while understanding the disappointment I think the better team prevailed. 

[bluedylan 11,555]

2 minutes ago, ForeverAndEver said:

Up there with the stupidest things I have ever read

agreed...

[keithgersbear 3,225]

Pundits now saying Kane looked injured. He was so anonymous for two games running it can only be the explanation. Should still score that. 

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

2 minutes ago, ForeverAndEver said:

Up there with the stupidest things I have ever read

But not on a par with many of the stupid things you've written but thanks. 

[the goal machine 7,796]

12 minutes ago, ben51 said:

They've done well to come from a position of getting beaten by Iceland, to here. 

There's so much potential in that side, but it's all about fine margins and they failed tonight. 

Kane has been absolutely unreal this WC, but tonight he choked. The game should have been out of sight by the 2nd half. 

I'm still not sure about Southgate, I think he's taken a lot of credit for a side who has built their mentality off of set pieces. His substitutions have been questionable and ill timed.  

They should have won that game. 

Thought Kane was poor aside from Tunisia and Panama. Didn't turn up in the knockout stages.

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

2 minutes ago, bluedylan said:

agreed...

Serious question, you are picking a world eleven from this WC would Kane be in your team, certainly would not be in mines, but hey its all about opinions.