Euro: Round of 16 - England v. Slovakia - Jun. 30

[bluesfan94]

Can England score a goal?

Click to read more...

 

[Basement Cat]

This is going to extra time for sure

 

[Rob]

England have been so lucky with this schedule

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Slovakia have a chance to do the funniest thing possible.

 

[McGarnagle]

I wouldn't say this is the worst possible matchup for England but there's about an 80% chance the Slovaks shut it down for 120 minutes and bring them to penalties, which is England's worst nightmare

 

[hatterson]

I wouldn't say this is the worst possible matchup for England but there's about an 80% chance the Slovaks shut it down for 120 minutes and bring them to penalties, which is England's worst nightmare

Are we sure that the Slovaks even have to shut it down to keep England from scoring?

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Foden might not even be in albeit I suspect he'll make it back.

 

[cgf]

England have been so lucky with this schedule

Does it? I’d imagine it makes the inevitable defeat hurt that much more knowing their only “success” came in the JV bracket

 

[AlanHUK]

Honestly we’ve been stupidly lucky with the schedules for the last 4 tournaments and then as soon as we play someone half decent we lose.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if England lose this game

 

[Corto]

Honestly we’ve been stupidly lucky with the schedules for the last 4 tournaments and then as soon as we play someone half decent we lose.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if England lose this game

Spain, Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal are all in the other half of the draw lol.
Southgate magic.

 

[David Suzuki]

England have been so lucky with this schedule

Since 2018 they've had the easiest draws I can remember. I doubt Slovakia pull this off, but would be beautiful to see the entitled eleven go down.

 

[cgf]

So what are Southgate's best tournament wins? Colombia 2018, Denmark 2021, & Senegal 2022?

 

[Rob]

So what are Southgate's best tournament wins? Colombia 2018, Denmark 2021, & Senegal 2022?

Beating Germany in 2021 on home soil was historically significant. Although they were definitely the better team on paper.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Senegal + Germany for me, they dominated those games

Denmark was a game they won on a BS penalty kick in ET, Colombia was a game they dominated but as usual they put the handbreak on in the 2nd half and allowed Colombia to get back in the game. Even that semi against Croatia they dominated the first half but then Croatia took control afterwards

 

[cgf]

Beating Germany in 2021 on home soil was historically significant. Although they were definitely the better team on paper.

We were really weak at that tourney because Jogi was too lazy to integrate new players & the WM-winners had started tuning him out 4-5 years before.

Yet the xG was basically even...1.38-1.33 or 1.15-1.21...we had more of the ball (53%-47%) and shots attempted (9-5), while committing fewer fouls (11-9) and getting fewer yellows (3-2).

That that's even mentioned tells me that Southgate has yet to have an impressive tournament win.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Weaker squad or not, doesn't really matter that much. Any time you beat a big country in a tournament is going to be seen as a major win. You can always pick holes in it, but it's a significant scalp.

The only thing is that from an England perspective, the 2021 win over Germany is tarnished by the failure to win the tournament in the end. The final outcome tends to be the thing that dominates your memories. Those penalties against Italy to this day dominate the England narrative.

I actually the other day saw a video where Gary Neville talked about losing to Germany at Euro 2000. England of course in reality won that game and he played 90 minutes in it. So he - who played in it - couldn't even really remember it and how it went even though England beat their biggest rivals. Why? Because England also didn't make it out of that group. The memory that stuck with England from Euro 2000 is failure to qualify for the QF, not beating Germany. No matter how big the rivalry is in international football, context matters more.

 

[willy702]

In knockout rounds of any competition superior talent who can do something special at the right moment is most important. England has that all over the roster, I think it shows up just often enough to silence the doubters. Frankly, I'd be more worried if England put on an absolute show and dominated in group play just to get to exactly the same spot they are now.

 

[Moncherry]

England will probably ease past this with another pedestrian performance, who are we kidding. Italy or Switzerland is when we can start talking about them getting knocked out.

 

[cgf]

Weaker squad or not, doesn't really matter that much. Any time you beat a big country in a tournament is going to be seen as a major win. You can always pick holes in it, but it's a significant scalp.

The only thing is that from an England perspective, the 2021 win over Germany is tarnished by the failure to win the tournament in the end. The final outcome tends to be the thing that dominates your memories. Those penalties against Italy to this day dominate the England narrative.

I actually the other day saw a video where Gary Neville talked about losing to Germany at Euro 2000. England of course in reality won that game and he played 90 minutes in it. So he - who played in it - couldn't even really remember it and how it went even though England beat their biggest rivals. Why? Because England also didn't make it out of that group. The memory that stuck with England from Euro 2000 is failure to qualify for the QF, not beating Germany. No matter how big the rivalry is in international football, context matters more.

That's kind of my point. Yes beating germany in a knockout game sounds impressive, but in context that is anything but a massively impressive win. They didn't go on to win anything, we weren't one of the top teams, and the win itself wasn't very impressive either.

If that's one of Southgate's best tournament wins, then he has no impressive tournament wins.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

England will probably ease past this with another pedestrian performance, who are we kidding. Italy or Switzerland is when we can start talking about them getting knocked out.

I agree. England under Southgate has pretty reliably won this type of game without too much difficulty when they had to.

 

[PanniniClaus]

I feel this time is different though. Southgate and the team have never faced this type of criticism. They are reeling.. they don't know who is doing what, both with and without the ball. I think Slovakia have a real chance to punt them straight out and I have to believe they feel that.

 

[Jussi]

 

[Karterthadon]

I'd say England's best performance under Southgate was their 1/4 final against France at the last WC. They didn't pull it off but that's the best I saw that team play with that knob in charge.

 

[bluesfan94]

That's kind of my point. Yes beating germany in a knockout game sounds impressive, but in context that is anything but a massively impressive win. They didn't go on to win anything, we weren't one of the top teams, and the win itself wasn't very impressive either.

If that's one of Southgate's best tournament wins, then he has no impressive tournament wins.

I'm a huge proponent of xG and think it is very useful in a league setting. I think it's less useful in a tournament setting and particularly in a knockout setting., where game state matters so much more than in a double round robin.

 

[cgf]

I'm a huge proponent of xG and think it is very useful in a league setting. I think it's less useful in a tournament setting and particularly in a knockout setting., where game state matters so much more than in a double round robin.

I don’t remember that game too closely anymore so if all of our possession & chances came in the final 20-30min that could skew the numbers…but I don’t think that was the case. As I remember it we had some poorly played out openings of our own before finally conceding after an hour+, in London.

Either way if that’s your biggest scalp, you have yet to collect a major scalp