The winner of Group D faces the runner-up of Group F in the first knockout round. The runner-up of Group D faces the runner-up of Group E.

>England have such an abundance of riches that Southgate has had to delay naming his provisional squad.
Folk keep saying this as though no other European side is in the same boat.

Nice to see Macedon there too, didn't know they'd qualified.

>>9150
>Folk keep saying this as though no other European side is in the same boat.

Apart from France, Germany and Belgium there's nobody I'm overly concerned by. The Spanish squad is surprisingly weak and doesn't include a single Real player.

>Nice to see Macedon there too, didn't know they'd qualified.

Pandev banged in the winner for them in the play-offs. He'll be 38 in July.

The atmosphere when we're doing alright is fantastic, you see a lot of camaraderie and people seem a lot happier/drunker. I just want to see what it's like when we actually win.

>>9152
Also, wife beating goes up by 28% if they win, and 35% if they lose.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022427813494843

So we could reduce domestic violence by around a third by banning football?

>>9154
But then it would go up even more.

There's a pleasing lack of Eric Dier here.

Not sure which seven will be cut, but I'm surprised Bamford didn't make the provisional squad. I also expected Konsa to make it, particularly as he's been playing alongside Mings on defence all season, and Tomori has done well for Milan since joining in January.

>>9156
>Trashford
>Benderson
>Mongs
>Bakayaro Saka

A lot of chaff really but at least Madison isn't on there. I'd be interested to see how Grealish handles international footy.

>>9157
Maddison hasn't really regained fitness after getting injured earlier in the year, plus I think Southgate doesn't like him.

Southgate also seems reluctant to use Grealish. I expect he'll be used as understudy to Foden.

Four right-backs, no JLingz.

>>9159
Only five of those are people I have never heard of, and two of those are the goalies. It's coming home, lads.

I got a great big smile on my face seeing a crowd in the stadium in the Turkey v Italy game just now.

If there's one thing you can be certain of whatever is happening in the world, it's that England will do shit in the football. Not properly shit like we're really bad at it, where it's endearing to see us try and cheer us on to an unlikely quarter final; just shit shit, a team who are capable of winning but simply can't be arsed.

Are you lot seriously deluding yourselves that England won't be completely, predictably, true to form, shit?

>>9183
It's coming home.

>>9184

Bet you a tenner it int.

>>9184
... on its way across the border. Scotland will give you an upset and Wales will pull a shock victory over Italy on their way to the trophy.

>>9185
I'm no thief, you keep your money.

>>9183
I was expecting England to reach the semi-finals and then get spanked by a much better team. After filling in likely outcomes for the matches, I think quarter-finals are more likely. How depressingly predictable if we return to our traditional quarter-final losses every tournament.

Another prediction I made is that England need to lose an early group game, to remind them that they do need to fight to win matches. England are always cursed with complacency, like the match is a victory lap before they are handed the trophy they've already won. They never seem to be aware that they actually need to try to win. This is a terrible curse for the English national team, of course, but it does raise a new Best Possible Scenario: what if Scotland beat England in the group stages, for the official funniest result ever, and then that spurs England on to win the whole tournament? Just imagine that.

>>9188

... No, no I don't think it's worth it. You know what the Scots are like. They'll be saying we stole their trophy for the next twenty years.

>>9189
Scotland beat the world cup winning England side in '67 and still cast it up for banter. It was a pretty good game, that Scotland side was arguably better than ours at the time regardless of us being reigning World Champions.

That's not the case this time. If they beat us, it'll be because they upped their game and we underestimated them and it'll be acknowledged as that, outside of a bit of bragging rights of "we beat the Euro Champs".

Wales were shite.

Severe emotional rollercoaster: Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch during Denmark-Finland, and the only question since then has been whether it will be another Marc-Vivien Foe (who died on the pitch) or another Fabrice Muamba (who survived).

Latest news is that it's looking like more of a Muamba situation (this picture shows him awake after his collapse), and that's still horrific but it's really the best anyone could have hoped for.

There's not many people flying England flags this year.

Haha, yes, man!

Football status:

[ ] Not coming home.
[x] Coming home.

The best thing about yesterday was the complete lack of the England band.

I wouldn't have expected an Austrian to get up to racist shenanigans.

>>9196
Do they even do a song? It seems like they do the same few notes over and over for ninety minutes. I'll be honest I don't hate them all that much, but they could earn themselves a lot of goodwill by learning how to play music, like a lot of bands really.

>>9198
They play about three notes from September by Earth, Wind & Fire.

The Scottish anthem is so much better than the English one.

>>9200
Hearing my own death rattle would be better than England's national anthem.

It's not even about the nation, it's just about the Queen. Does it change when there's a King to be about him instead? I just looked up the Italian, German, French and Spanish national anthems and they all have better lyrics than ours.

>>9202
>Does it change when there's a King to be about him instead?
Apparently so. It even gets personalised with their name. That's pathetic.

>>9193
Politicians bought them all. Ironically, they did so to resemble the rest of us.

Grealish would have an absolute field day against that Scottish defence. I'm surprised they didn't work out that repeatedly crossing the ball into a box with seven Czech defenders who are all about half a foot taller than your attackers wasn't going to work.

>>9202

>Spanish national anthem

The Spanish national anthem doesn't have any official lyrics. They got rid of the old fascist lyrics when Franco was deposed, but they didn't get around to writing any new lyrics.

You can make your own joke about the Spanish work ethic.

>>9206
>The Spanish national anthem doesn't have any official lyrics

I know.

>>9206
According to the BBC's "How to Invent a Country" it's got no lyrics because all the various regions of Spain couldn't agree to any, on account of all the inter-regional rivalry. Well, that's what Misha Glenny said anyway.

I just saw the video of Ronaldo moving the Coke Cola bottles and I like him again now.

Has a footballer ever gone to ground and cupped their face with both hands and actually been wounded?

>>9210

Christian Eriken, Marc-Vivien Foe and Fabrice Muamba.

TSUUU!

France are scary as fuck. It's going to take something special to get the beating of them.

>>9213
Well, they are the tournament favourites. But if they're anything like my Euro 2021 fantasy football team, and they very much are, you can really screw them up by disallowing two of their goals for offside even though the rest of my team has done absolutely bugger all so far.

>>9214
Not to mention being denied a clear penalty. What a burst of pace from Mbappé.

>>9213
They seemed to be going at about 75% too, which is probably just how Deschamps wants them to play this early on. Germany are a bit rough around the edges and France only won with an OG, but that Mbappe fella' is someone I don't wan to see in a foot race with a not-quite-fit Harry Maguire towards the England goal any time soon.

Fucking Keown, Jesus Christ. I'd rather have that photo of a shite OtherLad posted on co-commentary.

>>9217
I like Keown.

>>9218
Shut up, Keown.

Between this TV show and the recent purchase of Wrexham FC, why are American celebrities taking this interest in football? What's going on?

>>9220

Taking an interest in football is a liberal status symbol over there. When COVID stops you from filling your Insta with holiday snaps and exotic restaurant meals, getting into a foreign sport is a useful way of showing that you're cosmopolitan.

I unironically like this shirt, even though it's fucking Ladbaby.

https://www.inthestyle.com/ladbaby-euros-white-three-lions-unisex-t-shirt


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPs706EQEN0

>>9222
Never heard of him. Now it turns out he's been Christmas number one for 3 years in a row? Fucking hell, what's become of us?

>>9222
Why? It looks like they took fifteen minutes to design the lot. I'm almost a bit offended by how lazy the designs are and I'm not even buying one.

>>9223
I think that's a bit like being a "New York Times bestseller" since they started counting streams, if that makes you feel any better.

>>9222

I'm going to start calling the Greek one South Macedonia.

>>9226
It seems like a funny thing for the Greeks to get their knickers in a twist about.

Whenever someone says Macedonia, I hear them, but my mind can't help but think of Montenegro instead. I cannot wrap my head around the notion that they are two separate places. Please don't let the maniacs in the dolphin rape thread find out about me.

>>9226
Agreed, the whole world needs to start doing this. Fair's fair.

Lukaku, man, what the Hell. It's like having two players for the price of one with him on the pitch.

>>9230
I maintain that Belgium will make a deep run in the Euros purely on the back of Lukaku being on an absolute mission. He's been in the press a few times the last season or two frustrated that he's one of the best strikers in the world, and doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

>>9231
They'd face Italy in the quarter-finals if they both top their groups. I'd expect Italy to edge it as the Belgian defence is a little shaky.

Just fucking start Grealish.

I am ambivalent about Grealish.

Alright, maybe we should have started Grealish instead of Mount.

>>9236
I'd have him on for Sterling. Him and Kane have offered pretty much fuck all so far in the tournament, but it'll get overlooked because of Sterling managing to bundle the ball in against Croatia.

It's half-time in England vs Scotland, and it's 0-0, which I thought might happen. I am therefore confident in my other predictions, that if Scotland score first in the second half, this will be an all-time great match, but if England score first, it will just be a rout and end 3-0 or 4-0. I've been right so far, so feel free to trust me completely.

The first goal will be around the 50th minute too, by the way.

I'm currently feeling justified in not watching it, having been thoroughly bored and/or disappointed by the vast majority of previous England games I've watched. Now I've said that I'll no doubt miss a great ending.

Why are England also so... turgid? Bloody Hell. Whatever, that's a point.

>>9238
Got this week's lottery numbers? Don't bother.

Well, that was shit. Scotland were the more dangerous team so it's a good job they don't have anyone who can actually finish.

>>9240
>Why are England also so... turgid?

Southgate.

>>9239
The first half was thrilling. At half-time, England realised that they don't want to win the group and Scotland decided a point was worth it, and they just gave up. Even the allegedly godlike Jack Grealish couldn't kickstart any excitement, and in the end we all just witnessed the 4D chess of Gareth Southgate putting a stop to traditional English complacency.

>>9241
Perhaps you're right about Southgate. Sterling has been doing the same mediocre runs for England since the days of Edward the Confessor and I don't understand why he wasn't taken off in and Foden was, so weird.

SCOTLAND WIN 0-0

Congrats to Scotland on the 0-0 victory against evil England!

>>9243
Sterling has played the full 90 minutes in both matches despite the fact he's had a relatively poor season and today he specialised in slowing down attacks or dribbling into traffic. It's not like we don't have alternatives in this area; Jadon Sancho hasn't even played a single minute.

He keeps starting Kane and then replacing him with Rashford and they've offered pretty much fuck all because they're quite clearly jaded after a long season. Calvert-Lewin deserves a chance. He could at the very least hold the ball up and be a focal point for attacks.

He started two defensive midfielders against Scotland, fucking Scotland, when they're more than happy to sit back. Someone like Bellingham should have been on the field.

It's fucking anti-football.

https://twitter.com/stewartloveNFL/status/1406208446865850371

Did anyone see that ludicrous display last night?

Is football always this boring? I feel like everyone was being way too conservative and defensive. Even in bonus time, they should have just gone for it instead of passing backwards and forwards, fortune favours the bold and all that.

>>9249
Seen the Portugal v Germany match yet then?

What is it with all these national teams that have experienced Marxist utopia not taking the knee? You'd think they would encourage it.

>>9251
Identity politics is a bourgeois diversion from the class struggle. Having abolished the bourgeoisie, there is nobody to talk about kneeling. Whether or not there is police brutality, I cannot say, because I am [strikethrough]white[/strikethrough] bourgeois.

>>9252
Fuck. Also, not knowing the BBCode for doing a line through a word is not a crime, otherwise I'd have been gunned down long ago.

>>9253

Shame on you. You should have consulted the funky gibbon. It knows all.

>>9251
Not every country out there wants to ape America. If we look at domestic football then Wilfried Zaha has said he finds taking the knee and wearing BLM branded t-shirts degrading; he would rather stand tall. Similarly, Bournemouth stopped taking the knee because they felt the gesture had run its course and feel it's more symbolic to stand together. QPR stopped doing it because they felt the purpose of doing so had been diluted, with it being as hollow as jumping on the latest feel-good trend whilst UEFA/FIFA aren't doing enough to tackle incidents of dolphin rape so they'd rather focus on their own local community initiatives.

Could you FUCK OFF out of the football thread before I stab you through the fucking eyes, you massive fucking cunts. Is the rest of the site not enough room, you gibbering shit-for-brains? Fucking hell.

>>9256
If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.

>>9257
The solution is killing these fuckwits, cutting them open and posting their organs one by one in little sandwich bags to their grieving mothers.

>>9257
What if he is part of the solution overall, he's just a bit fucked off with being told otherwise?

I'm reasonably certain the England team are as committed to The Cause of BLM or whatever it even is now, every bit as much as their believe Nike are the best trainers and need their brand highlighted on the world stage.

I really don't think it's worth getting pissy over, because football is the most commercial sport going. Supporting the latest trendy thing is good marketing. Same for any number of the companies who put their rainbow picture on Twitter for pride month and all that, it's all hollow branding.

Incidentally that's what tells you the socially-lefty worldview is actually the majority in the West, nowadays. If companies are branding to market towards it, that means it's the biggest market. We won. The revolution already succeeded, and it's time we moved on to the pressing issue: Wealth.

How much does a player like Marcus Rashford make in a year these days anyway? I'll answer that for you, it's ten million pounds a year. Ten million, a million tens. £10,000,000.

>>9260
>Incidentally that's what tells you the socially-lefty worldview is actually the majority in the West, nowadays.

That's an odd way of saying it appeals to middle class white people.

>>9261

The demographic that makes up the make up the majority westerners, yes.

>>9255
I sympathise, but I'm pretty sure that's not why people are booing it and complaining about it.

>>9260
Or they naivly think that twitter is reflective of the majority.

>>9263
Has anyone actually asked?

If only we had a UK wide national team, we could have Kane and Bale up top and not score for a hundred years.

Not a bad result for Wales. The runner-up of Group B (Finland, Russia or Denmark) in the round of 16 followed by most likely the Netherlands in the quarters.

As I have been saying since the build-up to the tournament, Jack Grealish has to start. One thing we have seen, watching him and Raheem Sterling in the two opening games, is how differently England and Manchester City play, and how difficult that makes it for Phil Foden especially to adapt.

City play in the final third. They keep possession there. And Foden is not a dribbler but a player who plays nice little passes and moves into good positions. At City, the movement of players around him enables it. You will see Kevin De Bruyne making a run into the inside channel, Kyle Walker running on Foden’s outside and Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez making movements infield, and it all happening at speed.

City will play quick five-yard passes before a little movement — not a big one — will free Foden up and he has licence to go into the spaces and play as a No 9, at times, or No 10 at others. Whereas with England he is a bit isolated out wide and when he receives the ball, the possession is slow and there is little happening around him. That means he then has to dribble — and if you are playing in such a way that, from your wide players, dribbling is what is required then why not play Grealish and Jadon Sancho, two of the best at doing it.

Against Scotland, I watched Foden getting the ball, playing it to Reece James, not getting it back and nothing really happening. The ball would then go to the centre backs and out to the other side and the tempo was slow. I thought this might happen. I was saying before the tournament that we have to calm down on Foden hype because even though he is an unbelievable talent, you cannot expect young players to come and tear tournaments up. I love Foden as a footballer but you have to realise that, for four years and more, he has been moulded into a City player. Pep Guardiola did not let him go on loan, or experience a different style of football — his whole adult career has been spent playing the Guardiola/City way. It is hard for him to turn up and just change how he has been playing since the age of 16.

Grealish commits defenders. You saw it in glimpses yesterday. What that game showed is that when you are against a side who are playing well defensively, in a good shape and hard to break down, you need players to commit the full backs. It makes a massive difference, opening up gaps where other players can come in and play.

The Czechs are similar in style to Scotland, even if they have a different formation, and I would use Sancho against them too. I would also play Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front with Harry Kane. Why? Well, in both games Harry has been isolated — especially against Scotland where he had to play against three centre halves, which is always very difficult for a single striker. Calvert-Lewin could make a difference. He can run channels, occupy the centre backs, win headers and bring the crossing ability of someone like James into play. He could do for England what Olivier Giroud does for France, offering that different option. Kane could play more in the No 10 role he has started occupying for Spurs.

I have spoken about the need for him, for England, to stay high up, play within the width of the goal and be a No 9 but instead he has dropped deep — especially against Croatia. If that is the way Harry is going to play, you might as well play with a No 9 and free Harry to be in the role he now seems to prefer. Adapt the team to him. You certainly do not drop him — he has to play. It will be obvious to everyone that he has not had the best two games but he is England’s most natural goalscorer by far, so he has to be on the pitch. He just needs better service and to be more connected to the rest of the team. Another change we need is for Jordan Pickford to speed his distribution up. He is taking far too long at goal kicks, keeping England’s tempo slow and giving the opposition time to get back in shape.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/phil-foden-is-moulded-as-a-manchester-city-player-that-doesnt-help-england-ds00kh83d

Rooney's Euros column in The Times. Can't really argue with that.

>>9268
Articles like this get in the player's heads. It happened at the 2010 World Cup, where the players completely turned on the manager, because they agreed with pundits that X should be starting over Y.

John Terry did a fucking press conference about it. It was mental. Ultimately, Rooney isn't there and isn't watching them train.