France v England (Group D) - Match Thread

[Smudge]

Ribery is a dirty cheating escargot slug.

[ADK]

Well at least we avoided defeat to the eternal enemy.

But in truth the French were by far the better side and deserved victory today. It was probably the most one sided game of the tournament so far, it was like a training match at times, albeit the period in the game before we scored.

But i don't think we can be too down hearted, we know this squad is up against it so what else were we to expect? Just as long as Hodgson doesn't plan on setting us up the same way in every match he manages. I hope he eventually plans on getting us out of our shells in the coming months/years.

Must have watched a different game i thought it was quite 50/50 maybe France edged it.

[Webbo]

France didn't deserve to win, they only created half chances, we probably had the better of the chances despite not having much of the ball at times...

I agree,a draw was a fair result.

[BlueSi13]

Oxlade-Chamberlain is a future star, he was one of our best players, he seemed to be disappointed when he came off but he was very good in my view.

Hmm i have no doubt his potential his massive but i thought he had a poor game today apart from a couple of neat touches. Really struggled to get the ball out of his feet and surge forward, possibly due to nerves, he seemed to struggle last week at Wembley as well.

I hope he starts against Sweden though, we need to get behind him and support him

[ScouseFox]

Yeahhhh.

[BlueSi13]

Must have watched a different game i thought it was quite 50/50 maybe France edged it.

Really? I don't remember us putting the French under any sort of pressure at any point during the game apart from a couple of breaks, other than that it was all France for me, but we agree to disagree

[Guest MattP]

Thought France were better tbh.

12-1 on shots in target says a lot.

Good result for us though.

[Tielemans63]

But in truth the French were by far the better side and deserved victory today. It was probably the most one sided game of the tournament so far, it was like a training match at times, albeit the period in the game before we scored.

I agree the French were better but not by that much. As for being the most one-sided game, I take it you didn't watch Russia v Czech Rep or Croatia v Ireland!

I think if England had believed in themselves and taken the game to France we could have beaten them.

[Webbo]

Thought France were better tbh.

12-1 on shots in target says a lot.

Good result for us though.

Most if not all of them were outside the box though. Never thought they looked like scoring, even their goal was a bit lucky, Hart should have saved it.

[Father Ted]

I think England will be very bland but very effective in this tournament and can see the team going far. It feels a lot more like a team now and a VERY solid defence. Can see a few penalty shootouts on the way!

[Guest ttfn]

The referee was ****ing awful. For both the Gerrard free kick and the Johnson non-corner/free kick i have no idea what he could possibly have seen to give the decision France's way.

Add to that his unbelievable decision not to book Cabaye for 3 or 4 cynical late trips and you start to think that 1-1 was a very positive result given the circumstances.

[BlueSi13]

I thought the French were better but not by that much. As for being the most one-sided game, I take it you didn't watch Russia v Czech Rep or Croatia v Ireland!

I think if England had believed in themselves and taken the game to France we could have beaten them.

Whoops forgot about that one, my bad!

I thought the Republic had some pretty dangerous periods against Croatia but collapsed in the second half sadly.

I said at half time it was so frustrating to see England withdraw to their shell after we'd scored.

[Guest shearfox]

Thought France were better tbh.

12-1 on shots in target says a lot.

Good result for us though.

Most of their shots were 25-30 yards out, I didn't feel like France would get beyond our back line at all.

[Tielemans63]

Whoops forgot about that one, my bad!

I thought the Republic had some pretty dangerous periods against Croatia but collapsed in the second half sadly.

I said at half time it was so frustrated to see England withdraw to their shell after we'd scored, so frustrating.

Spot on - classic English deficiency. Score and then drop so deep you put yourself under massive pressure. Maybe one day we'll take the lead against a top side and build on it!

[Jaspa]

The referee was ****ing awful. For both the Gerrard free kick and the Johnson non-corner/free kick i have no idea what he could possibly have seen to give the decision France's way.

Add to that his unbelievable decision not to book Cabaye for 3 or 4 cynical late trips and you start to think that 1-1 was a very positive result given the circumstances.

Cabaye definitely

4 or 5 tackles that could've merited a card, and Ox got one very cheap in comparison

Fingers crossed, all our Refs wont turn out like that :fc:

And Ribery can f**k off, such a dirty little bi**h

[Danno]

Ribery is a dirty cheating escargot kiddyfiddler

[ScouseFox]

As for my views on the game, I thought we were superb defensively. A real "unit" and I'm pretty sure they didn't get past us once. One lapse in concentration when everyone looked at everyone else to close Nasri down and that type of quality will punish you, which he did.

Fantastic delivery from Captain Gerrard for our goal. Milner had the only other clear-cut chance of the game and should've scored. Teams can keep having more possession than us, keep having more territory than us and then shooting from 25+ yards as far as I'm concerned. They won't score many like that. I'll take 1-1s and 1-0s all the way.

:englandsmile4wf:

[Simmo86]

As for my views on the game, I thought we were superb defensively. A real "unit" and I'm pretty sure they didn't get past us once. One lapse in concentration when everyone looked at everyone else to close Nasri down and that type of quality will punish you, which he did.

Fantastic delivery from Captain Gerrard for our goal. Milner had the only other clear-cut chance of the game and should've scored. Teams can keep having more possession than us, keep having more territory than us and then shooting from 25+ yards as far as I'm concerned. They won't score many like that. I'll take 1-1s and 1-0s all the way.

:englandsmile4wf:

Preach

[Guest shearfox]

As for my views on the game, I thought we were superb defensively. A real "unit" and I'm pretty sure they didn't get past us once. One lapse in concentration when everyone looked at everyone else to close Nasri down and that type of quality will punish you, which he did.

Fantastic delivery from Captain Gerrard for our goal. Milner had the only other clear-cut chance of the game and should've scored. Teams can keep having more possession than us, keep having more territory than us and then shooting from 25+ yards as far as I'm concerned. They won't score many like that. I'll take 1-1s and 1-0s all the way.

:englandsmile4wf:

If we win by being solid and organised I don't care, it's what Hodgson is about, Rooney will add more quality going forward and creativity to the side. Greece won it by just being difficult to beat, and playing in this heat it's what you need to do against the sides full of flair players.

[Tielemans63]

Weirdly, I'm in agreement with all of the ITV pundits. They're actually talking sense.

[MooseBreath]

Thought we looked quite lively going forward until we scored, at which point it was pretty much self inflicted backs to the wall all the way. Can't help but wonder what might have been had we been more ambitious, but pleased with the draw in the end as I was certain our negativity would cost us.

[RowlattsFox]

Think France settled for the draw as well in the second half as well, for all their possession they didn't really threaten. Someone needs to tell Benzema he is a striker, spent most the game in midfield.

As for us, thought Welbeck did better than I thought he would and to be fair Johnson wasn't too bad either against a difficult opponent.

Considering how shit everyone thinks we are, its got to be a decent result but only becomes decent if we beat Sweden.,

[NiftyFox]

Nice to see a Leicester England flag behind Joe Hart's goal in the first half.

[ScouseFox]

If we win by being solid and organised I don't care, it's what Hodgson is about, Rooney will add more quality going forward and creativity to the side. Greece won it by just being difficult to beat, and playing in this heat it's what you need to do against the sides full of flair players.

Exactly. So far, the most skillful teams are probably France, Spain and Holland. Between them they've managed two points and just two goals. Give their centre backs all the possession they want, we've got two banks of four that they're not going to get through.

And with Young, Welbeck, Ox and like you say, Rooney soon, we've got enough going forward to look sort of dangerous. Yes today's goal was from a set piece but like I said Milner really should have scored and that was the only time either defence was opened up.

Defensively we looked very good. Benzema, who's most people's pick for the golden boot, didn't have anything in the box, a few 25 yard snap shots easily dealt with by Hart. Ribery looked a bit of a threat but he either went on the outside and crossed it which we can deal with comfortably, or cut inside and was faced with 3 or 4 English defenders.

We could do alright in this, y'know.

[Guest shearfox]

Think France settled for the draw as well in the second half as well, for all their possession they didn't really threaten. Someone needs to tell Benzema he is a striker, spent most the game in midfield.

As for us, thought Welbeck did better than I thought he would and to be fair Johnson wasn't too bad either against a difficult opponent.

Considering how shit everyone thinks we are, its got to be a decent result but only becomes decent if we beat Sweden.,

I was worried about Johnson but he surprised me, looked comfortable on the ball and never really got beaten.