Group G: England, Belgium, Tunisia, Panama

SuperRash

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  • MONDAY 18TH JUNE
    Belgium 16:00 Panama
    Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi
  • MONDAY 18TH JUNE
    Tunisia 19:00 England
    Volgograd Arena, Volgograd
  • SATURDAY 23RD JUNE
    Belgium 13:00 Tunisia
    Otkrytie Arena, Moscow
  • SUNDAY 24TH JUNE
    England 13:00 Panama
    Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod
  • THURSDAY 28TH JUNE
    England 19:00 Belgium
    Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad
  • THURSDAY 28TH JUNE
    Panama19:00 Tunisia
    Mordovia Arena, Saransk
England are going to
 
I mean you'd expect its all going to come down to that final game where we play Belgium as to who goes and wins the group.

We shouldn't have any issues dispatching of Tunisia and Panama. Mind you I always fear these group games for England because we aren't the most creative team and chances could be few and far between. One lacklustre performance and you're right up against it. So it's probably a good thing the final game is the toughest.
 
I actually back us to be better against better sides than weaker sides as I think where England traditionally struggle is breaking down defensively organised sides which I assume Tunisia & Panama will be.

England have often had problems opening up teams who are packed in because we never really got the ball moving quickly enough to open up the gaps so we'd just chuck in hopeful crosses and hope something fell for us.
 
I mean you'd expect its all going to come down to that final game where we play Belgium as to who goes and wins the group.

We shouldn't have any issues dispatching of Tunisia and Panama. Mind you I always fear these group games for England because we aren't the most creative team and chances could be few and far between. One lacklustre performance and you're right up against it. So it's probably a good thing the final game is the toughest.
We shouldn’t have any issues dispatching Tunisia and Panama but this is England! We’ll probably scrape a 1-0 and then draw the other 0-0. We do lack creative players and I look with envy at the likes of France who have so much attacking talent and also many left at home that can’t even make their squad.

But I’m hopeful, if players like Kane, Alli etc can have stormers then we can ease through the group. Although this is me not knowing a clue about how good Tunisia and Panama are.
 
Anything but 6 points from the first 2 games would be not good enough.

Belgium obviously superior individuals but having seen Wales play against them under the previous regime, they didn’t impress me as a team in any game and if Southgate can get England playing as a team, get the defence well organised and play well on the counter then I think they can beat them. But there’s a lot of ifs there for Southgate to get right. It can be done though.
 
After Iceland, in fact even before Iceland, nothing surprises me with the England squad. They should get out the group. Depending on the draw, maybe one more game? But they have a really weak squad.

Vive La France :)

Saying that, most of the French I know don't like football, it's all rugby.
 
I said in a previous post we'll struggle to break down Tunisia and Panama and scrape wins and prob lose to Belgium. No expectations. I'm not going to lose my sh!t this time around when we get knocked out.
 
Think I’ve got more faith in England than the English. That’s 52 years of hurt for you mind. Think there’s a lot to be positive about with the current squad, they’re not going to win it, won’t get close but it’s a young group that have potential to do better in the future with good talent coming behind them too. Southgate will give opportunities both in games and in training. I like the way he talks too, there seems a long term plan for a change and that’s been long overdue with England, they’ve been working in 2 or 4 year cycles for years when they’ve needed to rebuild and look to 6-8 years time. It should have been done after missing out on Euro 2008, that’s 10 years ago, instead they brought in Capello who was simply given the task of qualifying for the World Cup, at his age he was never going to rebuild the team. Same with Hodgson and Allardyce, a young manager is exactly what England needed, there’s still doubts if Southgate is the right man but it’s a step in the right direction and he’s at least brought in some progressive tactics.
 
Defo, I like what Southgate is saying and doing. He could have some mileage in the job.
 
We shouldn’t have any issues dispatching Tunisia and Panama but this is England! We’ll probably scrape a 1-0 and then draw the other 0-0. We do lack creative players and I look with envy at the likes of France who have so much attacking talent and also many left at home that can’t even make their squad.

You're absolutely right bud! It shouldn't be an issue but I can see us drawing with Tunisia, beating Panama narrowly and needing a positive result against Belgium. It just seems to be the way this country does things in international football.
 
Belgium 4-1 up against Costa Rica. Lukaku with 2 and an assist. 13 in 9 & 36 in 69 for Belgium. We got to get him better service next season.
 
It's worth noting Belgium had their strongest team out against Costa Rica and England had a probable 2nd string out. I thought England did very well against them though and even though it was Elland Road I thought atmosphere was 10x better than the soulless Wembley, be great to have the games going round the country again.
 
Yeah I think they should do 1 friendly and 1 qualifier away from Wembley every year to let fans all over the country see the national team there's enough big grounds out there now to make it worthwhile.

Belgium seem to be a bit of a forgotten team this tournament very few people talking them up despite them having all these big name players in their prime it's almost like people have given up on them especially with Martinez in charge. I mean on paper that squad is probably 5th best at the tournament got quality all the way through it all it comes down to is can they be shaped into a team to get the most out of them. They remind me so much of England in the 00's spoilt for choice in terms of players but just never found the right blend to actually win something.
 
If Wembly gets sold they should rotate all the matches.

If Belgium get it together they could win for sure, I thought I read Hazard went off injured.
 
My guess is part of the sale will involve all England games being played at Wembley for a certain number of years as it guarantees the stadium owner revenues.

Haven’t heard anything about Hazard being injured but still can’t believe they haven’t taken Niangollan but I guess his bad blood with Martinez was a distraction he didn’t want around the squad.
 
Sounds like no big deal:

Roberto Martínez has played down injury fears over Eden Hazard after he limped out of Monday’s 4-1 friendly win over Costa Rica.
Hazard, Belgium’s captain, hobbled off in the 70th minute with a dead leg but the Belgium manager said the injury was not serious. “Eden is okay, he had a little trouble, but it’s nothing to worry about,” Martinez said.
 
So according to sources the line up vs Tunisia will be:

Pickford

Walker - Stones - Maguire

Trippier - Henderson - Alli - Young

Lingard

Sterling - Kane​
 
I can't believe Southgate is playing Young. Am in disbelief. I thought he had more about him than that.

GARETH LISTEN UP - HE HASN'T GOT A LEFT FOOT MATE AND HE CANT CROSS
 
Belgium 4-1 up against Costa Rica. Lukaku with 2 and an assist. 13 in 9 & 36 in 69 for Belgium. We got to get him better service next season.

The Costa Rica manager on Eden Hazard - "Their number 10 did us a lot of damage, I do not know his name" :confused:
 
The only change I'd have to that team is I'd probably put Walker on the right wing and play Jones as the right centre back.

Nothing against Trippier just don't see the point in playing Walker as a defensive player when his strength is what he can do going forward. Jones experience playing at right back would make him quite suited to a back 3 as well I think.

Still happy enough with the line up should be able to win our first 2 games comfortably and hopefully they can score a few goals and get a bit of a buzz going.

After years of negativity it's quite nice that the public generally seem to be falling in love with the national team a bit again despite some of the nonsense that's written about them in tabloids they all seem fairly decent lads but I guess after they draw 1-1 with Tunisia everyone will hate them again. Ha
 
Unfortunately I can see just that happening lol

Let's be positive, we have to get 2 strong wins before going into the Begium game. If we beat Belgium and have 3 wins under our belts confidce will be high.
 
I think we’ll win our first two. Lose to Belgium. Bottle it against Columbia.
 
If anyone fancies a bit of a bet... And I never ever bet on actual scores... But tonight, book it in now as 1-1! Honestly Tunisia aren't as bad as some seem to think. This is a tough game and England never really get off to a great start.
 
I am absolutely buzzing for this game to kick off. I’m in to full on hype mode.
 
It's not going to be easy every team now is organised the only team who seem to get spanked at every world cup is Saudi Arabia. We'll need to work to break them down but hopefully we don't make any stupid mistakes at the back to give anything away and eventually we can grind them down into making a mistake.

That's my worry with this England team the defence really doesn't fill me with confidence the teams with the best defences normally go further in the tournaments and it really feels like England will always need to score at least 2 goals to win a game.
 
We were saying the exact same thing last night. Every team seems so well organised at this world cup. Teams are going for it but the games are still quite low scoring. But in Kane we have a genuine world class talent who we need to step up and take it to them.

This weekends games have made me get giddy. We've seen Spain Brazil Germany Argentina drop points. We've seen France and Uruguay look really poor. No one has really laid down a marker yet and said we're here to win it. The best performance was probably that of Spains followed by Mexico's first half performance.
 
Kane could definitely put down a marker tonight. He must be thinking that, looking at the games so far, apart from Ronaldo the forwards are misfiring a little.
 
went into the tournament not really bothered about England, was thinking I would be more France, but it's the same every time, come tournament and an England match, the butterflies of excitement kick in. Just don't get that with the French side.
 
I'm seeing and reading a lot of optimism around the net and I'm not sure where it comes from. Do I think we are good enough to get out of the group? Of course. Should we beat whoever welcomes us in the next stage? Yeah you'd fancy our chances. But I really feel like this team is devoid of world class talent.

The back three is a big question mark. The GK is inexperienced at the top level. The midfield is OK but not great and yeah OK we've got attacking options.

If we keep things solid then who knows. We have players who can win us games. But when I look at the overall quality I feel we are short. I mean I've just read on sky sports that Merson thinks if we avoid Brazil we can get to the final. He thinks we can beat Germany. Sorry I know they lost yesterday but that's a German team with a hell of a lot more talent than us. That's reality.
 
yeah, beyond Kane we don't have much. But you never know, think Denmark
 
The nice thing this time around is that there is no expectation. If we get knocked out the group stage or next stage after that its expected. If we progress it's just a bonus. BUT I still get those feelings, we could just go far this time haha
 

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