European Championship 2016

[pharvey]

A deserved win for England

No it wasn't - the diving, cheating, offside ..... good God...... dreadful. Fair enough though, Beelzebub and his XI didn't deserve to lose either, 1-1 would have been fair and would also have sorted me on SuperBru!!

Love to support Wales, but at the end of the day - Wendyball is still shite........

Rugby lives on...... despite the fact that Wales are shite

[redzonerocker]

England's first goal was offside. Roll on the 'video ref'.

Obviously not a football fan?

Not offside, Ashley Williams (Welsh centre half ) headed the ball to Vardy, therefore making him onside.
Good spot by the officials.
Nice assist, though obviously not intended )

[arcadianagain]

[quote="HHTel"]England's first goal was offside. Roll on the 'video ref'.

Please explain the offside rule to us.

[Big Boy]

England's first goal was offside. Roll on the 'video ref'.

That was my initial reaction, even after the first replay. I don't often have a good word for linesmen/referees, but they were spot on. Incredible vision by Vardy moving into that position hoping that a Welsh player would head the ball his way. The video ref, unless Thai, would have awarded the goal. He'd have also awarded a penalty for handball against Wales in the 1st half.

Well done Hodgeson for replacing Harry Jane. I've never rated the guy, and in 135 minutes of football I don't remember him getting a shot on target. Jane seems to want the ball serving to him on a plate, where as Vardy is a lot more active and will fight for the ball. I think Jane might do better against the better teams who play football rather than park the bus.

The Welsh tactic of parking the bus seemed to be working, but we must remember that is the tactic used in almost every qualifying game, and England won them all.

[HHTel]

No I'm not a football fan as such. Only get interested in internationals. However, I wasn't the only one who thought it offside::

"The initial assessment was that Vardy was a good five yards offside following a knock down from a Daniel Sturridge cross, but the replay proved that the linesman, Stefan Lupp, had made the correct decision."

[Zidane]

Man of the match for England must surely have been right back,Kyle Walker.He was fantastic going forward in the second half as well as defending well.
Some decent performances,too,from Lallana,Smalling,Sturridge and Rooney.
Bales free kick was good but Hart should have saved it comfortably.It would have been no problem for young Dave from the other side of Manchester !
Fair play to Woy for bringing on Vardy and Sturridge at half time and Rashford later.

Also congratulations to Northern Ireland who beat Ukraine 2-0 and gained their first victory in a major tournament for 34 years.If they avoid a heavy defeat against Germany they should make it to the last 16 along with England and Wales barring major disasters .

[Pagey]

Surprised at 6 changes. I expected Kane, Ali and Sterling to miss out for Sturridge , Wilshere and A N Other but not to see Henderson play nor both full backs and Rooney to miss out.

[PeteC]

Surprised at 6 changes. I expected Kane, Ali and Sterling to miss out for Sturridge , Wilshere and A N Other but not to see Henderson play nor both full backs and Rooney to miss out.

Whatever changes they made didn't work. Pete

[dtaai-maai]

All a bit reminiscent of the Russia game so far...

[JD]

Man of the match Martin Škrtel.

Why do England think they should direct all attacks from the center field. 11 players in front of you and you will not score, when you dominate ball time, get the ball out wide and cross it in, at least you then get a player on player chance. Trying to flick the ball through an entire team on defence is a waste of time.

[pharvey]

Oh dear oh dear- God's Own take top place..... Can I refer to you others as Lillywhites? Apparently anything on the religious side (as in Beelzebub) is not good.....

Seriously though, not knowing Wendyball - was it a stuff up on team selection? Was it 6 changes made... Arrogance? That said though, England are still through.

[PeteC]

^ Just remembered that I don't like "The Blackness" either. I think the "Divine Ones" is more appropriate.

[caller]

What bothered me in the last 20 minutes or so was how static they all were, there seemed little regular movement off the ball and agree about not getting it wide enough, which we did in the first half. Playing Wilshire was a mistake as was playing Sturridge out of position. I can't understand the point of wholesale changes and it turned out to be disruption for disruptions sake. Certainly hasn't taken the team forward.

[Big Boy]

And I still haven't seen anything to convince me that Harry Jane should be involved while we're still playing crap teams who basically park the bus. He is the wrong type of player for that sort of match. Against one of the decent teams, Germany, France, etc he would come into his own, but too lazy for this type of match.

[Dannie Boy]

And I still haven't seen anything to convince me that Harry Jane should be involved while we're still playing crap teams who basically park the bus. He is the wrong type of player for that sort of match. Against one of the decent teams, Germany, France, etc he would come into his own, but too lazy for this type of match.

To be fair to Kane, he only came on for the last 15 minutes, so not a great deal of time to make a huge contribution, bearing in mind the tactics adopted by Slovakia, plus the England first half performance of using the wide play more, had fizzled out. I guess the only positive is that there were no injuries and we're through to the knockout round where hopefully uncle Woy will pick his strongest starting 11.