FIFA World Cup 2018 - Semi-finals [10/11 July] **spoilers**

I hope this team can lock on, gain a few more along the way and do something in Euro 2020 and WC 2022

Do goals in 3rd place play off count towards golden boot@
 
mmj_uk said:
I'd rather us win it by beating some quality teams anyway, it would feel a little hollow scraping through with a lot of luck involved like Greece/Portugal etc.
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Oh absolutely, but we've seen tonight what happens when we come up against some decent opposition
 
It was good while it lasted but lets not fool ourselves, we have not played like world beaters the entire tournament!

It's a young team and hopefully they will get better as they play more together - I think the biggest problem is a lack of creativity in midfield - Harry Kane has been pretty poor the entire tournament but it's mainly because he hasn't had the service!
 
Am I the only one that feels like the refs had it out for England? I counted at least six or seven fouls in key moments and nothing for England, and if a free kick was given, no card. Croatian players were crashing into English players all over, knocking them to the ground. Yet the smallest thing happened to Croatia and the ref was all over it carding England.

I’m not saying it’s the reason for the loss, but the Croatians seemed to get away with quite a lot.
 
Still it's a know fact England can't win the world cup without West Ham Players. :D

Andy Carroll may have even headed a shot on target, at least he would have drawn attention away from harry. :P
 
I'd love for the governing body to put together a compilation of all the play acting, diving and feigning injury from this world cup and instruct all of the offenders to be in attendance as it's played for the world!
 
CHokKA said:
Am I the only one that feels like the refs had it out for England? I counted at least six or seven fouls in key moments and nothing for England, and if a free kick was given, no card. Croatian players were crashing into English players all over, knocking them to the ground. Yet the smallest thing happened to Croatia and the ref was all over it carding England.

I’m not saying it’s the reason for the loss, but the Croatians seemed to get away with quite a lot.
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No, I am with you. The Turkish referee knocked England out of the final.
But at least the French must be happy because the more predictable and generally easier side they will play with on Sunday.
Go France!

4K8KW10 said:
Because of the poor referees.
In this occasion - clear foul in attack in the equaliser - the leg of the attacking player was at the level of the head of the defender.
There was a clear corner for England which wasn't awarded.
There wasn't any foul for Croatia 5 minutes before final whistle because their player was looking for a contact.

For me, both the Croation players and the Turkish referee are clowns.
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Psycho Ned said:
I've been massively gutted when England have gone out in the past (1996 and 2002 spring to mind) as it felt like we could have won those ones. Tonight I feel down but not devastated if nothing else after about 10 years of misery I actually enjoyed watching England again :)

Few tweaks (time to blood Sessignon next season) and we might be contenders in the Euros.
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That is a good point Euro 96 was the moment where you are super gutted as we were easily one of the best teams. 2018 it seems more of an over achievement than feeling sore for the loss. 1990 was the same.
 
CHokKA said:
Am I the only one that feels like the refs had it out for England? I counted at least six or seven fouls in key moments and nothing for England, and if a free kick was given, no card. Croatian players were crashing into English players all over, knocking them to the ground. Yet the smallest thing happened to Croatia and the ref was all over it carding England.

I’m not saying it’s the reason for the loss, but the Croatians seemed to get away with quite a lot.
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One thing is for sure, you'd have to search long and hard to find a worse performance than that today. How Lovren is walking off that pitch without getting booked is a mystery to me.

Constantly allowing foul throws, making bad calls, every 50/50 going to Croatia, not booking players for clear yellow cards, giving goal kicks instead of corners... the list goes on. He was atrocious.
 
Kenai said:
What we missed was England's greatest modern striker. Peter Crouch.
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Couldn't agree more - well maybe not Crouch but we need a "plan b" - if we are going into the last 10 minutes and its not working, bring on an Andy Carroll or a Peter Crouch would probably cause some some mayhem!
 
Steedie said:
Yep, now we're back to where we were pre this tournament. Media and fans building too much hype and putting too much pressure on the team :(
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The chance has gone for this generation. The Euros are not the World Cup, and World Cup 2022 is going to be a farce. So we need a fresh squad for 2026.
 
I'm not even mad at Sterling for once, whole team lacked proper spirit and fluffed the easiest way to the final they could hope for.

Belgium will walk all over them.
 
4K8KW10 said:
No, I am with you. The Turkish referee knocked England out of the final.
But at least the French must be happy because the less predictable and generally easier side they will play with on Sunday.
Go France!
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People are discounting Croatia. They were a little nervous at the beginning but controlled from the second half on. Modric and Rakatic will boss the midfield of France. If they can nullify Mbappe you never know.
 
StevieP said:
I'd love for the governing body to put together a compilation of all the play acting, diving and feigning injury from this world cup and instruct all of the offenders to be in attendance as it's played for the world!
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Would be an ideal time to post the mime of Neymar rolling across the whole world :)

adam cool dude said:
People are discounting Croatia. They were a little nervous at the beginning but controlled from the first half on. Nordic and Rakatic will boss the midfield of France. If they can nullify Mbappe you never know.
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The point is England should have been at least 3 up before half time - so whatever Croatia did after that would have been irrelevant

Mbappe will rip that defence to bits even without Pogba, Griezmann, Matuidi etc
 
This is the first English team I have enjoyed watching as a N.Ireland fan since Euro 96.

Bravo.

You should enjoy what your team has achieved instead of micro analysing who was at fault and were it went wrong.
 
Psycho Ned said:
I've been massively gutted when England have gone out in the past (1996 and 2002 spring to mind) as it felt like we could have won those ones. Tonight I feel down but not devastated if nothing else after about 10 years of misery I actually enjoyed watching England again :)
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Italia 90 and Euro 96, losing both semi's to Germany on penalties were gutting ways to go out as we truly were on par with them and could have won

Getting battered by a better side in extra time, a much easier pill to take and if we hadn't gone to sleep for the 2nd goal and somehow scraped through on pens, then France would have beaten us if we played like that anyway, the reality is we simply weren't good enough this time, Italia 90 & Euro 96 we actually were good enough
 
neoboy said:
I'm not even mad at Sterling for once, whole team lacked proper spirit and fluffed the easiest way to the final they could hope for.

Belgium will walk all over them.
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Yeah its proper souring for me how many of the hyped players out of those on the side seemed to lack any kind of spirit and just kind of drifted through the game. Props to those that did turn up though - I thought it telling how quickly it went downhill for England after Trippier first started to show signs his legs weren't all there :( it was Pickford keeping us in the game all the way on out from there.
 
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