Football's coming home.

I think it’s quite rare for a team to lose the final of an international tournament, then win the next final four years later. I guess Brazil did three World Cup finals in a row from 1994-2002, but they won the first one, and also, England are not Brazil. I don’t know who’s going to win this tournament but I don’t expect it to be us. France are probably favourites, and yes, they lost the World Cup final in 2022, but again they had a recent win when that happened so they knew what to expect. England, I’m afraid, have the worst of both worlds: they don’t know how to win but they do know how to lose.

>>10182
England, France and Germany are the favourites. I can see home advantage being the decisive factor here.

>>10183
What about Spain? I can't say I follow football whatsoever but I've always associated them with being good at it.

>>10184
Before Euro 2008 Spain were seen as big underachievers. They've still got quality players like Rodri but they're not at the level they once were. A group with Italy and Croatia could be tricky, but them and Portugal are the next favourites.

>>10183
I’m surprised Germany are one of the favourites; I thought they were terrible now. Anyway, I shall be cheering for Georgia and Portugal, because I want to get rid of “Czechia” and “Türkiye” as soon as bloody possible.

>>10186
They were dogshit 2018 to 2022 but they've got a decent manager in Nagelsmann and home advantage.

Someone please send England home early so the government can't use them to rally support for the election.

Are there any online streams of Germany v Scotland tonight?

>>10189
ITV Player will have it.

We had our work's Euro 2024 sweepstake yesterday. The guy who set it up got France and Spain. I got Romania and Switzerland. England and Germany were drawn by the bosses, so honestly I'd rather the guy with the same job as me gets my £5 than someone who's already massively richer than me.

>>10191
There was one spot remaining in our sweepstake today and I decided against joining. Turned out to be Germany. Oh well.

>>10189
Hope you didn't stress too much over that stream.

Scotland were shit tonight.

Beyond the fact that they lost 1:5.

Only caught the second half, England were completely outplayed by Serbia. I'm assuming it was another premature ejaculation performance.

>>10195

Probably doesn't bode well.

Oh well.

>>10195
We were a lot better in the first half. My own observation was that we looked like a team with enough quality that we could completely change our tactics, confounding our opponents, and still be just as good. Saka and Bellingham were brilliant, and yet Foden and Kane were completely invisible. If they can play a better match next time, it would completely expose any opponent. However, England looked very fragile defensively; a better team would annihilate us on tonight's form. So hopefully England's form improves; Serbia aren't awful but they're worse than Denmark, who are also in our group.

>>10193

Nah I found one, thanks. Where there's a will...

Denmark v Slovenia was an entertaining one. Well done to Slovenia for pulling in back the way they did, they genuinely outplayed Denmark for a moment there.

Bit worried Georgia are about to get obliterated.

Can England hurry up and come home? If they make the final again we'll never hear the fucking end of it and ARE NIGE will probably win 600 seats in the election or something.

>>10200
As Harold Wilson's 1966 GE victory inspired the subsequent WC win, Southgate's brave boys will return the favour for Labour this year.

However, in all seriousness, I don't see how England doing well at the Euros will effect the GE. It's also pretty hard fail out of the tournament after one match.

>>10201
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are all after the election anyway. If England go out in the second round/round of 16 after being one of the favourites for the tournament, I will vote to destroy Britain myself.

>>10201

>However, in all seriousness, I don't see how England doing well at the Euros will effect the GE. It's also pretty hard fail out of the tournament after one match.

It'll lift people's moods for a week or two, maybe give them some optimism about the country at large, but they're not just going to forget how fucking fed up they are with the Tory government. How is ARE Boys winning the title going to ease the cost of living crisis and inflation and whatever else. Your mortgage or the price of pasties isn't just going to go down because our team suddenly manage to kick a ball across a pitch for 90 minutes at a time without losing.

>>10203
Inflation actually has gone down. The most recent numbers say 2%, which is precisely the Bank of England’s target. I don’t think we had inflation that low even before it went up. The fact is, nobody even cares because people hate the Conservatives just so much. This election truly is unwinnable for them. Kind of like how Euro 2024 will be unwinnable for England.

>>10204
>The fact is, nobody even cares because people hate the Conservatives just so much.

That's because everything has gone up about 25% since the start of 2022. You've got to look at the cumulative effect of inflation.

The fucking noggin on the linesman. Incredible.

>>10205

Exactly, they can get inflation as low as they like, but unless they manage to actually reverse it (which they won't because that's absolute economic heresy nowadays) people are still going to be pissed off. The damage is done, eveything has got a fuckload more expensive, and people know that prices only ever go up, never down.

Everyone feels like they're skint, even people who would have considered themselves reasonably well off just a few years ago, and they are right to be angry at the Conservatives for that.

>>10207

>Everyone feels like they're skint, even people who would have considered themselves reasonably well off just a few years ago, and they are right to be angry at the Conservatives for that.

Not all of it was the Conservatives' fault, some of it was just global and geopolitical upheaval in the last few years in many developed economies that has come to bear down on Brits as well. But yeah. People are going to hold Sunak responsible. It isn't helping that he is very generally not well liked. And that the Conservative government has been a shit show ever since Cameron overplayed his hand on the Brexit vote. Many would say even before that.

England are shit.

>>10209

I would have expected more from the Danes than 1:1.

We're not out yet. But we'll need to do well against Slovenia.

>>10210
We have four points from two games, and in most groups, three out of four teams will advance from the group stage. We could lose 10-0 to Slovenia and probably still get out. The question is, do we deserve to?

I actually said after England's first match that we looked like we could swap out our best players and let different players run riot instead, and not be any worse. I consider that to be a promising thing. And Harry Kane, invisible in the previous match, scored today, so it looks like I'm right. We just park the bus after 1-0, which is shit, and if we concede an equaliser, we seemingly can't become good again. It's certainly shaping up to be a disappointing tournament for England fans. It could even end with us losing on penalties in the quarter-finals for the infinity-billionth time.

That was weird. Earlier I was watching Poland vs Austria and despite being a goal up, Austria didn't completely stop attacking and switch to passing the ball about with all the confidence of police officer recently imprisoned for possession of CSAM. What could England possibly learn from this?

I'm blushing. On 4chan's /sp/, I will often make arguments that I consider to be very effective and correct, and nobody agrees with them at the time, but there is some American poster (no idea if it's the same one every time) who keeps repeating my points a day or two later, having clearly been convinced. This time, it's my belief that the CGI VAR is worse because it's too easy to fake, and that it's better to stick to photos and video replays for VAR. He even called it "Toy Story VAR" just like I did. It's such a wonderful feeling.

Anyway, Scotland can get out of their group for the first time ever if they beat Hungary tonight. I'm not optimistic, but it would be nice to see. I like Hungary and want them to do well too, but their political situation nowadays is arguably more important than their shock loss in the 1954 World Cup final, so it has to be Scotland for me. Plus, imagine them facing England in a knockout match. That would be beautiful.

Switzerland are doing well tonight so far.

>>10214
In the other game Hungary look more likely to win. Scotland have no idea what to do when they have the ball, other than pass backwards. The commentators are acting like Szoboszlai is prime Ronaldo.

>>10215

Well, that didn't turn out well for Scotland.

Looks like both British teams are going home.

>>10216
What are you talking about? England have four points and face the, on paper, weaknest side in our group. Calm down.

>>10217
Based on the results last night and the fact that some third-place teams go through, England have actually already qualified for the next round with a game to spare.

Slovenia seem about England's level.

Austria topping their group means they've got a great chance of making at least the semis.

Did we really only have a crippled Luke Shaw to take at LB? Was Ben Chillwell that shite for Chelsea this year that he was kept home by a man who can't walk?

I know we don't need to win this one, but I've seen enough Southgate teams at this point to know they aren't going to turn it on in the round of 16.

I have a controversial opinion: England's best player so far this tournament is Marc Guehi. I had him in my fantasy football team a couple of years ago, because ha ha his name is Marc GAYYYY, and he was a liability. I came bottom of my work's league, and Marc Guehi was responsible for more than 1/11 of my misfortunes. But clearly I saw something worthwhile, and now he's slightly better than Bukayo Saka and miles better than everyone else we have. Perhaps I should be the next England manager.

Italy might actually be worse than we are.

>>10222
What a shame we won't get to play them then. I do think England will beat Slov??ia, after our other match against Slov??ia in the group stages, but Switzerland will be next and I've always rated them. They normally play as well as England in most tournaments, but there's no pressure on them and they perpetually fly under the radar. I will often point to Switzerland when people say England deserve to win a tournament, because if they do, then surely so do Switzerland. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not optimistic.

What's this shite? A bit of rain and everyone has to go inside? Is this the under-12s tournament?

>>10224
They seemed to imply they were afraid of players getting struck by lightning. I don't know what the odds are of that actually happening, but the commentators mentioned lightning more than the rain and I guess running around a giant open field in a lightning storm isn't the wisest thing to do.

Big respect to Denmark for continuing to try even when they were 2-0 down against Germany. And while I really hate female commentators, the American woman that ITV have as their refereeing expert is fantastic, and she would also definitely get it. So my wokeness pedigree remains unblemished.

>>10225

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Richter

>>10226

I liked Germany tonight. They were the better team, but the Danes were not making it that easy for them, especially towards the end. All things considered, Germany's win was deserved.

Good game.

The same weather is currently ruining the Spa 24 Hours.

>>10228
It's a shame they have to meet Spain in the next round, potentially the two best teams in it.

The ITVX app on my TV has to be the biggest pile of wank that's ever existed.

>>10231
The online catch-up services are always massively throttled when you want to watch something live that everyone is going to be watching. If your problems are with a big delay or a terrible picture, they're probably deliberate.

This is Hell.

>>10232
The TV app doesn't have the option to watch it live, but the phone app does. I went to another room to watch it, but wish I hadn't bothered.

VAI TOMAR NO CU ME WIFE

............./´¯/´¯`/´¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\...
AQUI É ENGLAND PORRA

IT'S (still in with a chance of) COMING HOME!

Never in doubt.

That was one of the oddest England wins I have ever experienced. The entire country had given up. We were all calling for Gareth Southgate to be tarred, feathered, and expelled from the country forever like that ISIS girl, but then we equalised, completely against the run of play, and somehow won in extra time. We didn't deserve to win at all. As far as I'm concerned, we might as well already be out. But we aren't out. So do I hate Gareth Southgate, or don't I?

I shall reserve judgement until I know whether he'll be using the same tactics again in our next match, or if he's learnt his lesson now.

France have been absolute shit, but there's somehow an inevitability about them progressing. I'm not really sure what the difference between them and England is.

Twenty damned years I've hated that CR7 prick.

Maybe some Poles will show up in the second half and bail them out?

Lazy fucking joke, absolute shite.

Austria v. Turkey was definitely the game of the round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0_dV3nfWE

Only fifteen minutes of gameplay and 0:0 so far, but Spain look like the better team tonight against Germany. The Spaniards are noticeably more agile and aggressive. Germany need to up their game or they'll be going home tonight.

>>10244
They scored second, which is usually good news for extra time, and it's currently in extra time and still 1-1. So we're looking at a penalty shootout between ze Germans, and Spain, who lost a penalty shootout to England once.

I thought Spain had fucked it then, going full Southgateball after going 1 - 0 and inviting Germany back into the game. Especially when they took off some of their more threatening players.

>>10245
>>10246

Bit of a nail biter tonight, that.

I like a game where the lagging team comes back right at the end and turns it around. The Germans blew their chances wide open when they equalised at 89 minutes. But, to no avail. They weren't really the less capable team tonight. Some of it was just down to improbably bad luck. But Spain showed real promise as a contender for the title. I wouldn't be surprised if they win.

>>10247
>I wouldn't be surprised if they win.

France will win without playing well once.

Interesting change up of systems tonight. Shame it appears to be another one with no midfield.

>>10249
That's probably the best half of football England have played all tournament. Admittedly it's not exactly a high bar.

>>10250
Yeah, I probably should have waited more than ten minutes before deciding we were in another death loop.

>>10250
>>10251
We haven't scored in the first five minutes of the second half, so I'm calling it now: it will go to penalties. And England will actually win.

>>10252
Good shout.

And now we've got Holland-Turkey (0-0 after 20 minutes; I haven't watched the start but I expect it to be a passionate affair), and then there are no Euro matches at all tomorrow. That feels like an odd decision. Tomorrow is Sunday; nobody is at work and there's nothing else on TV. Although I guess the same is true of right now.

Well... this could've gone far worse for England.

Calling it now, another poor game that we somehow win, and again we win the final.
The only way to win is to not bother trying to.

It's... Coming home?

>>10256
France vs. England is shaping up to be the worst final in recent memory.

>>10258

If the Dutch don't send us home.

We've been doing well despite a bare minimum of effort. Our luck could run out.

>>10259
Most posts I've seen online by Dutch people say that they haven't been playing well and have been very flukey, e.g. Turkey were without Demiral, France were without Mbappe.

Spain are the only team objectively playing well.

>>10260
Something I observed about Holland yesterday is that they had a few very choreographed moves that were brilliant and came out of nowhere. They'd be passing the ball around midfield, completely aimlessly, then at some point all their players would be in the perfect positions for one of their moves, and with three passes in two seconds, they were one-on-one with the goalie. It didn't result in a goal, but I predict it would against England.

>>10260

>Spain are the only team objectively playing well.

Right. They've been playing well, whereas we have for the most part only been doing well. There's a difference. We've managed to walk off the pitch without being sent home so far. That isn't necessarily the same as being a good team.

I wanted France to beat Spain, and they really, comprehensively didn't. At least this makes tomorrow's other semi-final a win-win: either England reach the final, yeah, whoo, or they'll play France in an outstanding third-place playoff match and I can just skip the final.

>>10263

I've got my money on Spain winning the title. They play a pretty tight game, with few weaknesses, if any. I haven't seen England play even half as good.

England have to win. It will complete my personal summer hattrick of: best mate married, Conservatism dead (forever) and, certainly, the England football team winning a major tournament. These things come in threes, you see. Plus, it would just be dead funny to actually win it after what has, at least given what we see on the pitch, been Southgate's worst tournament in charge. However, that's still miles better than what basically any other England coach has achieved during my brief fling with consciousness, if we're being fair.

>>10265

>England have to win. It will complete my personal summer hattrick

Seems a bit selfish.

I don't not understand why we were given a penalty. Oh well.

IT'S FUCKING COMING HOME LADS!

☑ England playing well.
☑ Southgate's substitutions paying off.

Football is definitely coming home.

>>10266
Maybe, but I'm owed this.

>>10268
>>10269
National renaissance confirmed.

Just for the sake of being contrarian, I still think Spain will win. England were actually playing well tonight, granted. But it takes more than one good game to beat a team like Spain, who have consistently shown prowess from day one of the group stage.

>>10267
I wouldn't have given it either, but from what I have been able to research, apparently it's a penalty if you foul an opposing striker in the box even if he doesn't have the ball, which Harry Kane definitely didn't after kicking it away.

>>10269
I hope I remembered to joke out loud that Gareth Southgate was holding England back under the Conservatives to then unlock them under Keir Starmer. As a theory, it's obviously gibberish, and yet you can't deny that that is precisely what has happened.

>>10272

Labour winning a sweeping majority and England in the Euro final. If you'd told anybody in 2019, they would have thought you were mad.

I mean, eventually a handover of power from one party to the other is almost inevitable on a long enough time scale. But we've truly gone down a fascinating parallel universe now. Where that time scale is actually long enough to give England a chance at a title.

>>10271
England are starting to peak at just the right time. Believe in the process.

>>10272
I'm sure I heard that Starmer has told journalists England haven't missed a single penalty since Labour came to power.

>Keir Starmer has backed calls for a bank holiday if England wins the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. The Labour leader, an Arsenal fan, season ticket holder and five-a-side player, has told The Mirror: “If we win on Sunday, the country should get the chance to celebrate it properly with an extra bank holiday, granted in the name of the England team. I’ve got a strong feeling, it’s coming home.” There are stories across the papers today about how government

https://labourlist.org/2021/07/labour-calls-for-bank-holiday-if-england-win-and-for-sulky-tory-not-to-watch-final/

Don't forget, there's a bank holiday at stake if we win.

>>10275
You living in a time warp lad?

>>10276
If Keir backed a bank holiday for Euro 2020 it means he has to back a bank holiday for Euro 2024. The precedent is set.

https://sports.ladbrokes.com/news/euro-2024-betting-odds/

>EURO 2024 Betting Odds: England no longer the favourites

>England are no longer the favourites to win Euro 2024 this weekend, according to the bookies.

>Heading into the quarter-finals, England were seen by the bookies as the front-runners to win the competition, but have now been overtaken by Spain, despite being Switzerland on penalties and the Netherlands in normal time to make it to the final.

>Spain are now the favourites, as noted, after beating Germany in extra-time to secure their spot in the semi-finals and then France to reach the final. As the in-form team so far at Euro 2024, the bookies feel they've got the best chance at going all the way and winning the final on Sunday evening.


We'll see. But they've got a point.

Apparently I've just been cockblocked by a 'famous' football player. I don't recognise him from PL but might have missed him.

About 5'9, mixed race lad, curly short hair, nothing special to look at. Any ideas? If it doesn't leap out at you then he's probably some fifth tier wanker. Either way, he got lairy at me.