EURO 2012

nasri against england (though it might have been the edge of the box) xp

None of those were exactly top-corner screamers, were they? I suspect Theo's got a slight deflection. Lahm's was very neatly taken, as was the Polish dude's. Seeing Balotelli at al balloon it over from 20-30 yards out has been depressing, same as at last WC.

van der vaart was outside the box, but not a screamer no.

it was a cracker tho

Best strike of the tournament hit hart's post last night

Don't worry Ronaldo will keep trying

Xabi might get bored and smack one too

He used to play in England iirc

zlatan v. france is the best, f a screamer

Martial arts volley

rooney's header up there too

Don't worry Ronaldo will keep trying

And he's a lot better at it than Balotelli

zlatan v. france is the best, f a screamer

otm

darragh otm re: rooney's header

fuck off re: rooney's header, darragh otm in general.

the audacity of rooney attempting a header from there was something else.

He should've licked it in with his tongue.

Do Swansea have better more technically sound players than England?

http://i45.tinypic.com/30vyyah.jpg

exactly!

(Let's get real here, Swansea wouldn't be able to control a game against Italy either).

tho i'd amend, chris, less that be interpreted as a go at hodgson, that his wba and fulham teams played better than england too. It is an international malaise, this.

I like that some of the Italians' boots are in the colour of their flag.

xp. i wasn't having a go at hodgson! just asking a genuine question fella ;)

In case you were wondering: http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=which_pop_riffs_would_make_great_footbal&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

i was wondering how we cd stop people making terrible football songs tbh

having been subjected to some horrendous rework of "Come On Eileen" before the match last night that made me quite stabby

A bit bemused by how many reports this morning seem to think Rooney was lacking match fitness/sharpness. He started the tourney a whole one week later than everyone else in the squad FFS. Reus didn't play until Germany's 4th game and he looked fine.

The fact that he coul;dn't run after the 60th minute, coupled with the fact that his first touch (and second touch, and passing, and shooting, and general control) was way off in both his matches, suggests he wasn't quite up to the pace. Why this is the case, fuck knows.

Also laughed at Alan Shearer thinking he was telling it like it is when he said England have to accept that they are 5th, 6th or 7th best in the world. They really aren't Alan.

1 Spain 1456 0 Equal
2 Uruguay 1292 1 Up
3 Germany 1288 -1 Down
4 Netherlands 1234 0 Equal
5 Brazil 1155 1 Up
6 England 1145 1 Up
7 Argentina 1137 2 Up
8 Croatia 1053 0 Equal
9 Denmark 1019 1 Up
10 Portugal 996 -5 Down
11 Chile 994 2 Up
12 Italy 977 0 Equal
13 Russia 975 -2 Down
14 France 964 2 Up
15 Greece 953 -1 Down
16 Côte d'Ivoire 943 -1 Down
17 Sweden 910 0 Equal
18 Republic of Ireland 907 0

Look! We're 6th!

Better than Argentina.

duh, who do they have that would make the england team

better than Italy

i think letting the fucking england band back into the stadium has been the downfall.

gerrard was visibly affected by the bad music

"No-one expected us to get out the group stage"

Also Jack Wilshere and Tom Cleverly will win the next World Cup for England

they will?

So I've heard

Oh well, now that England's campaign is out of the way we can look forward to the main event. Is it still July 9th the trial starts?

when are the semis? i presume the 3rd place playoff - if they do such a thing - is sat and final is sunday?

I don't believe there is a 3rd place playoff. Final on Sunday.

Getting your retaliation in first (xp)

there isn't a playoff is there?

No playoff. Semis Wednesday & Thursday, final Sunday. Trial eight days after that.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/willy-england-fan-spotted-showing-penis-diamanti-scored-italys-winning-penalty/

101gg has tons of pirlo panenka penalties too

'what was on joe hart's ipad'

Were Greece any less entertaining and ambitious than England - remember they were playing Germany!

I'd say yes. Not that England set the tournament on fire or anything, but they didn't set out to be ultra defensive last night and we had about half an hour of lively end-to-end attacking to start off with. England just faded badly and looked completely knackered (and clueless and outplayed) as the game wore on.

Italy looked a bit nervous to start off with, from about 30 mins on they'd got it together and England barely got a kick of the ball thereafter... whereas with Greece, Big Sami scored!

Yeah, but only when he *had to* (because they were losing). Greece didn't actually have any ambition beyond defending with ten men and hoping for penalties or a miracle. England ended up in that situation after an hour or so, but didn't set out to play that way.

winter break!