Group G: England, Belgium, Tunisia, Panama

yeah, beyond Kane we don't have much. But you never know, think Denmark

I dunno I kind of feel like... And this is so crazy to me... That previous England teams would have fared better. And that's no slight on Southgate. Based on what we've seen in this tournament so far I think teams will go far on organisation and having a star player. England used to have that but now our defense is shaky at best and we don't have a world class proven player at international level.
 
If we finish second in the group (likely) we are looking at Columbia in the second round knock out and Mexico/Switzerland in the quarters! Before we know it we could be in the semis! Not that I’m getting ahead of myself or anything!
 
If we finish second in the group (likely) we are looking at Columbia in the second round knock out and Mexico/Switzerland in the quarters! Before we know it we could be in the semis! Not that I’m getting ahead of myself or anything!

I mean yeah we could be... But I don't have the confidence to say we'd beat Columbia, Mexico or Switzerland. They'd be tight games that we could edge. But first Tunisia and that's much tougher than some think.
 
I don't think anyone expects us to go out in the group stage if that happens then they have massively failed and jobs will be lost this isn't a group of death scenario.

Round of 16 has to be the minimum expectation anything after that is a bonus and in knockout football anything can happen.
 
There's an air of optimism not expectation. People like this squad. I've not seen anything like it before all of the 'SYFEUYA' brigade are cheering England on. People that have always hated the International team are buzzing for the game. The divide and hatred towards certain players isn't there because they seem like a 'good bunch of people'
 
I think it's fair to say they probably aren't a good bunch of people... the stories about them cheating on WAGs will come soon enough Ha!

Big difference is rather than hide away in the hotel they've actually tried to invite the press into the camp and speak to them which I think has kept them onside and because results have been good up to this point there's not really been any reason to get on their back.

Vital they get off to a good start and build on that good feeling though because it can quickly turn toxic.

Worth noting that prior to our 2 best tournament performances in 90 & 96 the team weren't really fancied at all and were expected to fail and both teams ended up getting to the semi finals, not saying that will happen again but the burden of expectation has not been kind to England over the years.
 
I think the 96 were fancied, great players and at home. It was the pre tournament antics that went against them. That was a great side and should have won that tourny. Gazza was so close to getting a toe on that cross against Germany. And we were the better side that match.

With this side we are not trying to play players out of position just because they are good players. And that is mainly because we don't have any good players ;-/

I think if Kane is on form we have a chance, we have some half decent players, Lingard seems to be a big game player, Ali is a good player, Henderson. Sterling can turn it on. They are a fast team and cause problems. Then you have Rashford to come off the bench. They have a chance to get to the semi's i'd say. When they come up against a more experienced team they might struggle. I think they'll top eh group with 3 wins.
 
thought it was the Germans or Brazil in quarters if we get that far not Mexico or Switzerland??
 
Brazil if we win our group.
Germany if we were runners up....That was before they went and lost to Mexico yesterday.
 
If Germany finish 2nd in their group and Brazil top their group they'll face each other in the 2nd round.

I think if we get out of our group there's no one to fear in the second round Columbia, Japan, Senegal or Poland are all sides we should be able to beat if we play well apart from Japan they all have an obvious danger man but then you could say that's the case with England and Kane.

For england to do well we will need Kane to be bang on it from the first game but we will need one of Sterling, Lingard or Alli to hit form as well we can't expect Kane to carry the team that's not how football works and pinning all our hopes on one player is a road we've been down many times and it's never paid off.
 
imagine that, the germans meeting Brazil and we get a not so good team...... jeus dont start me off
LAD'S, IT'S COMING HOME!!!

:eek:
 
But if we were to win our group. We'd get the winners off that game. If us and Belgium win our first two games you'll have us both scoring own goals looking for the easier route!
 
Yeah but they can just start Fellaini to guarantee a loss, we don't have that sort of player in our squad.... I knew we should've takn Joe Hart!
 
But if we were to win our group. We'd get the winners off that game. If us and Belgium win our first two games you'll have us both scoring own goals looking for the easier route!

Hmm... Thing is would we rather Germany or Brazil? Which half of the draw overall is easier? The first knock out game is likely to be Poland or Japan I guess? Beyond that who knows.
 
If Brazil win their group and Germany come second. Finish second on the group is definitely the better option.
 
Lawro is doing my head in. Such a moody guy.
Along with Souness, he is the pundit/co-commentator that I really hate listening too.

Panama doing better than I thought in this game. Thought Belgium would give them a good rollicking but they’ve held their own for the most part and it has taken a crackerjack from Mertens to break them open.
 
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Tunisia v England - 18th June 2018

England: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Lingard, Henderson, Alli, Young; Sterling, Kane.

Tunisia: Hassen; Meriah, Syam Ben Youssef, Bronn, Maaloul; Skhiri, Badri, Sassi; Fakhereedine Ben Youssef, Khazri, Sliti.
 
Good performance in the first half, poor in the second. The win was deserved. Southgate could have been more flexible with the formation when chasing the game; three centre backs was unnecessary. Impressive cameo by Loftus-Cheek.
 
Felt like watching United in the second half. Anyway a win is a win. Onwards and upwards
 
Definitely a deserved win but my god it was hard work. It was encouraging to see them trying to win and be positive but where is plan B? I know in the end they got it done but it was the same approach throughout...

Loftus-Cheek was superb, Rashford added a bit of pace. Both need to start. Goodbye Alli you've done appropriately nothing on the international stage.
 
RLC and Rashford have to start in place of Lingard and Sterling. Alli can’t judge because obviously injured. I thought Maguire and Stones were awful
 
Definitely a deserved win but my god it was hard work. It was encouraging to see them trying to win and be positive but where is plan B? I know in the end they got it done but it was the same approach throughout...

Loftus-Cheek was superb, Rashford added a bit of pace. Both need to start. Goodbye Alli you've done appropriately nothing on the international stage.
Yeah Loftus-Cheek and Rashford were very lively when they came on. Obviously Alli looked to be carrying a knock but Lingard was much better of the two so I would play RLC and Rashford ahead of Sterling and Alli.

Sterling is still very brainless when it’s comes to the final third, sometimes his brain isn’t in sync with his feet and he can be very clumsy in possession. I think Rashford would add that little bit more physicality, even though he can have the same deficiencies as Sterling. Loftus-Cheek also adds a bit extra power also.

Overall first half was good and the second half was poor. In the end though we got the three points and it shows our character that we plugged away and got that goal. Also goes to show you need a goal scorer in there at corners, why Kane was taking corners in the Euro’s two years ago still baffles me to this day.
 
lets not try and over hype them and expect miracles, it was a great performance from that side, ok there is no plan B but their plan A was good and they were patient. Should have had 2 pens.
 
Excellent first half, the penalty knocked the wind out of them and it was like watching Man U for the rest of the game like @Berba_God said.

I'm not sure if I'm encouraged or not. I felt dissapeared even though we win in the end. I have a feeling if we can only scrape a win against Tunisia we will struggle against the bigger boys. But hopefully with another game or 2 under their belts they may kick on
 
Yeah Loftus-Cheek and Rashford were very lively when they came on. Obviously Alli looked to be carrying a knock but Lingard was much better of the two so I would play RLC and Rashford ahead

Alli has not looked good for England at any point or at least not for a run of time or games. For me he's very over hyped and just not that good.

I'd keep Lingard in there because he works hard, he wants to get forward and he wants to make those runs on beyond the forwards so that's great. So I'd bring in RLC for Alli and yeah definitely Rashford for Sterling. Sterling just isn't very good. He looks good for Citeh but then most of us would too. He gets great supply there and so scores goals.

RLC just looked like he belonged. He's strong and he's confident on the ball. He tries things very few players try and I really like that. Definitely want to see more of him.
 
I thought Alli was excellent up until his injury. When he stopped playing England stopped.

Jesse is lucky Alli is injured because he missed some good chances and could be the player at risk.

But again Keown, Jesse misses and gets slagged off, Sterling falls over his feet and misses a pure sitter, although Jesse was offside, nothing from Keown. That man hates united so much.

Rashford and Sterling need swapping. But maybe not against Panama, try and keep Sterlings morale up by not dropping against a team we should easily beat.
 

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