Euro 2012: Group D (Eng, Fra, Ukr, Swe)

[Jon]

Gerrard England's MOTM for me.

Parker looked a little weak/tired/not up to it.

.

Really Jon? thats interesting...

i thought Parker was superb, full of energy up to the 80minute mark and broke play up superbly....

and apart from the superb cross for lescott i was a little disappointed in Gerrards influence on the game...

funny how people can see things differently

Perhaps I was a little harsh, and some of my judgement was indeed based on that final 15 minutes when he just ran out of petroleum.

[NormandyVillan]

Who was that little shit Nasri doing the finger on lips gesture to when he scored?

the england fans.

Ah...I thought it might have been Lescott.

No, the gesture was directed at French journalists (particularly at L'Equipe) who have criticised his performances for France . He said so himself after the match.

He was lip-read as saying "Ferme ta gueule! Vous tous, ferme ta gueule!" ('Shut your gob. All of you, shut your gob!")

The L'Equipe journalist in Ukraine didn't seem too bothered about it after the match. He commented that if Nasri had scored the winning goal in the final he would have more reason to claim revenge, but scoring an equaliser in a slightly disappointing draw in a group game was no big deal as far as revenges go. So there...

If he DOES score the winning goal in the final, then I suppose he might have another go at them. Then the journalists will claim they did a good job in spurring him on, and everyone will be happy...

[PieFacE]

Trying to get flights to Kiev for the game on Friday, can't believe how much the flights are! Ridiculous!

[villa_shere]

I also echo Valhallas points, quite a dull performance, very Eck-esq.

second half we struggled to get the ball in the half.

Lets hope we kick on against Sweden and Ukraine.

[mjmooney]

I also echo Valhallas points, quite a dull performance, very Eck-esq.

second half we struggled to get the ball in the half.

Lets hope we kick on against Sweden and Ukraine.

On the basis of yesterday's games I'd say both Shevchenko and Ibrahimovic will have a field day against England.

[The_Rev]

Trying to get flights to Kiev for the game on Friday, can't believe how much the flights are! Ridiculous!

I think that is one of the reasons why not too many people have gone out. There arent that many ways into Ukraine, so the airlines are going to milk the limited number of seats they have going to Kiev for every penny they can. If the games were in Poland then you would have loads more options on how to travel and wouldnt get gouged as much.

[Jon]

I also echo Valhallas points, quite a dull performance, very Eck-esq.

second half we struggled to get the ball in the half.

Lets hope we kick on against Sweden and Ukraine.

On the basis of yesterday's games I'd say both Shevchenko and Ibrahimovic will have a field day against England.

On the basis of yesterday's games, I'd say England will have a field day against both Sweden and the Unkraine, who were both dismal.

England played decently, without their star player, under a manager who has had 5 weeks in the job, against a top side who haven't lost for something like 20 games.

We have a long way to go, but there are signs that Hodgson has at least got the team quite well organised.

I'd written this tourno off before we started, so even just getting out of the group would IMO be a good start to Woy's tenure.

[djamfisher]

Considering it was Hodgson's first game in charge of a competitive game for England, and the fact we were missing 3 (maybe 4) certain starters I thought we did okay.

The centre mid, for me, was a worry, they just seem to naturally want to drop off into the defence, no surprises there though, I think that's been the problem for a decade now.

Don't think you can blame Hodgson for that; hopefully he will work on this in the next few days.

I thought the ref was poor, but he had no bearing on the result. How did Cabaye get away with all those fouls. I find it strange that UEFA/FIFA haven't clamped down yet on the cynical trips that are constently going on in games.

Valhalla what’s your problem with the national team, yesterday you said you'd hoped they'd get slaughtered I find this attitude very strange.

[EastEndVillan]

I don't rate Wellbeck but I thought he did well yesterday - always seemed to make the ball stick when it was played to him, didn't waste many passes and put himself about well.

Thought we did well defensively, although this meant Gerrard played far far too deep to be effective going forward.

Am I the only one who worries about Johnson defensively? Still can't understand Richards being overlooked for this role.

This^

The problem with playing Johnson is that you need to play Milner ahead of him to give the extra protection. If you'd taken Richards, for instance, the midfielder ahead of him wouldn't need to be so defensive minded, so you could play Walcott or Oxlade-C (for instance) who provide more of an attacking threat.

Additionally, you could play Milner next to Parker in the centre, and play Gerrard as the support striker, meaning he can influence the game higher up the pitch.

[Stevo985]

I'm really surprised by the negativity surrounding the game last night (not on here specifically, I'm talking about the wider public)

I was really encouraged. No we weren't excellent but we were solid.

We soaked up pressure with ease. We clearly set out to do that, soak it up and hit on the counter and, for the large part, we did. And we looked comfortable doing it. There wasn't much panicking and just as we got tired and seemed to be hoofing it more, Roy made some changes and it calmed down a bit more again.

Yes we sat deep but we did well from that position.

A few people stood out.

Terry was very good. Lescott got his goal but Terry was the more composed of the centre halves and was a rock defensively.

Johnson looked a real threat going forward. Wasn't tested too much defensively but was still impressive.

Gerrard was absolutely excellent. Really disciplined and ran our midfield. MOTM by a long shot

Wellbeck was excellent as well. Justified his selection and I imagine he'll start the next game as well as a result.

Overall, it wasn't a world beating performance. But it was a point against a very good team and, whilst France looked the more likely to score at the end, we weren't exactly under a bombardment of pressure.

It was a disciplined, sounter attacking performance and I was encouraged by it. We just need to make sure we build on that and put Ukraine and Sweden to the sword to ensure qualification. A loss to Ukraine will probably put us out assuming France will get at least 4 points from their last 2 games (which isn't a given, but I'd say it's fairly likely)

[BOF]

nagtivity. Is that female negativity?

[Tayls]

I think we played brilliantly. We were defensive but that was the whole point. France were resorting to shooting out side the box and never really looked like scoring to be fair. If it wasn't for Hart being blind sighted and really Nasri should have been closed down sooner we would have won!

It was 30 degrees so why did we feel the need to go all out. We can save some energy now for the later, cooler kick offs and try to push on more with our counter attacking style which I'm pretty certain is the way we will play under Roy.

Come on England!

[Stevo985]

nagtivity. Is that female negativity?

I don't even know how I made that typo!

[hogso]

Must say seeing Shevchenko score those two goals (well, the highlights anyway) put a huge smile on my face. Wonderful scenes.

[coda]

It's a shame we weren't able to Klingon to the lead we got from Lescott's opener.

[BOF]

nagtivity. Is that female negativity?

I don't even know how I made that typo!

Regardless, I think you've invented a very important word.

[sharkyvilla]

I also echo Valhallas points, quite a dull performance, very Eck-esq.

second half we struggled to get the ball in the half.

Lets hope we kick on against Sweden and Ukraine.

On the basis of yesterday's games I'd say both Shevchenko and Ibrahimovic will have a field day against England.

Really? Surely the French front 3 are bigger threats and we negated them quite impressively. I thought we were excellent at what we did, the question is whether we have other gears to see us go deep into the tournament. Rooney will slot quite nicely into this team so I have a feeling we may do so. No chance of winning it mind.

[PieFacE]

Trying to get flights to Kiev for the game on Friday, can't believe how much the flights are! Ridiculous!

I think that is one of the reasons why not too many people have gone out. There arent that many ways into Ukraine, so the airlines are going to milk the limited number of seats they have going to Kiev for every penny they can. If the games were in Poland then you would have loads more options on how to travel and wouldnt get gouged as much.

Yeah I think you're right. Can get to parts of Poland which are close to Ukraine for £200 return. To get a one way to Kiev is about £400, and and some being 11hour flights too. Ridiculous. Would have gone to this next game had it been played in Poland.

[Stevo985]

nagtivity. Is that female negativity?

I don't even know how I made that typo!

Regardless, I think you've invented a very important word.

It's a play about the birth of Jesus that's really annoying and never ends.

[LondonLax]

Trying to get flights to Kiev for the game on Friday, can't believe how much the flights are! Ridiculous!

I think that is one of the reasons why not too many people have gone out. There arent that many ways into Ukraine, so the airlines are going to milk the limited number of seats they have going to Kiev for every penny they can. If the games were in Poland then you would have loads more options on how to travel and wouldnt get gouged as much.

Yeah I think you're right. Can get to parts of Poland which are close to Ukraine for £200 return. To get a one way to Kiev is about £400, and and some being 11hour flights too. Ridiculous. Would have gone to this next game had it been played in Poland.

There was a package deal return flight going which had not sold out as far as I know. You fly out early doors and head back after the game though so it might just be better to go down the pub and save the cash.