Sheaf Saint

Williams completely unmarked again - nearly a second.

Oh dear. That will have screwed the HT team talk.

Once again, our lack of a mobile CF means we're really struggling to get out when we regain possession in our defensive third.

Thought it was harsh at first cos he got the ball, but it was warranted for the follow through.

England growing into it now after being under the cosh for a while.

Oh would you just give it a fucking rest Turkish. Please. Your relentless vendetta against the guy is so fucking boring now. If you're so convinced that SOG is a wind up merchant then why must you respond to literally every fucking post he makes?

I really don't know how to call this. Of course my heart says England win, but it will be far from easy. Spain have looked good, but I wouldn't include their current team in the Euro hall of greats. They have some decent players, but they also lack experience in certain areas and are not invulnerable against a decent attacking team. They had to come from behind to beat France in the SF who, let's face it, were pretty poor (although exactly the same could be said about our semi against the Netherlands). I keep thinking back to the final 3 years ago against Italy, when a mostly young and inexperienced England side didn't have the wherewithal to overcome a wily Italian team who were very adept in the dark arts of football. This team has grown since then, and has shown some character to dig deep when necessary in the knockout stages. But I can't bring myself to make a prediction. I wasn't even born in 1966, so all I've ever known with England is disappointment, and that lifetime of experience has taught me to know better than to allow myself to be hopeful we might actually win.

One Republican senator has already claimed that Joe Biden "gave the order". Sounds pretty libellous to me.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. In the 2022/23 season he was subbed off with injury a total of THREE times. On each occasion, he was out for a number of games afterwards. Two of those were due to his ongoing shoulder problem. The other was a knee injury that kept him out for 10 games. This narrative that he was a coward who wanted to come off when he didn't fancy it is just utter bollocks.

Where has this narrative come from? He suffered a few injury problems with us, and some people seem to have extrapolated from that that he is a cowardly player who bails out when things aren't going his way. It's nothing but a bonkers theory that someone came up with on here and seems to have somehow crept into some kind of consensus. He's still young, and he looked excellent at times with us before that whole season turned to shit. His injury record is a concern, but if he's currently fit then I see no reason why he can't play a big part for us this season.

First euro final in 55 years? Does the one against Italy 3 years ago not count then?

Watkins MOTM? Great winning goal, but really?

England's first ever on foreign land!

That's a peach. What's Simons whining to the ref about?

Dutch counter attack brought about by Rice charging forward and pressing the keeper and leaving a huge gap in midfield.

Gonna be offside isn't it.

No idea. Dutch have got us pegged back a bit, and with only Kane up front we've got no out ball cos he's far too immobile. Need to make changes.

Koeman has identified the problem area from the first half and remedied it, and Southgate doesn't seem to know how to respond to that change.

I agree - he's like an undroppable millstone around our neck.

Saka did so well there, but our lack of a mobile striker meant noone in the box to get on the end of his cutback.

Shaw on for Trippier is a positive change.

Best half of football I've seen from England so far. But a lot of that is down to naivety from the Dutch giving us too much space in the final third. And as poor as they have been, they've scored a good goal and hit the bar, so we can't get complacent.

Wasn't an attempt to trip. They both went for the ball, Kane got there first and got a shot away, but then had his foot caught on the follow through.

Great effort from Foden. Unlucky.