even though he scored the goal, I agree. And he sold the ball to Germany which led to Mueller missing the unmissable chance.
Euro 2020, round of 16, day 4: ENGvGER, SWEvUKR
- Thread starter dirtynine
- Start date
Wow you just don't see top players miss that kind of chance that often. Basically had half the goal wide open.
Gotta get that chant soon, no? Long time before there's an opportunity to sing it at Wembley under these circumstances.
I don't know why England suddenly look so more dangerous since Grealish came on, Saka is just as good as he is.
credit where it’s due. I don’t think either of his passes were what we were thinking in terms of him unlocking the D, but he played a big part in both goals.
Some chemistry with Kane for sure. Or maybe just luck. But the game really did change.
Can we get a moratorium on announcers declaring "Surely that seals the victory" after going into a two-goal lead, at least for 24 hours after yesterday?
That Grealish-Kane-Sterling combo is going to be tearing it up for Man City next season.
looks like this to me. The English (fans and media, hope not players and staff for their sake) will walk away from this thinking how great they are, when they really didn’t play that well and pretty easily could have lost this one. Credit for pulling this one out, some nice combinations led to goals, but I don’t think either team impressed today.
I'm not sure if England are good enough to win the tournament but there is one thing I sure as fuck do know.
David Beckham sure is handsome.
David Beckham sure is handsome.
They don't play well upfront, but their defense is a tough nut to crack. I still think they are mediocre, but they have an easy bracket and home field advantage if they go into the semis.
Yeah, they beat a German team that is clearly not up to past standards, but this is going to create too much expectation. Everyone in England is going to see a clear road to the final, just like the Dutch were doing a few days ago.
I've loved Grealish's play this season, and I think there was something about how he distributed the ball from the wing after he came on that nicely counterbalanced the tendency of Sterling this game to over-dribble
I think Southgate got it right. The defense did its job and prevented Germany from getting too many great chances to score, and controlled the ball well on offense. They were not particularly efficient on offense, but they were able to create two good chances to score and converted on both of them thanks to solid play on the wing for Shaw. His subs were well-timed and made a big difference in the game.
Yeah, I buy that analysis. And credit to Pickford for paying it off and doing what he needed to do to make it work.
England Pickford is much better than Everton Pickford. Guy comes up in international games.
Disagree. I think Southgate did not anticipate how conservative the Germans would be. He wanted two pacey wide forwards to get in behind Kane on counters because he expected Germany to attack aggressively like they did in the group stage, hence playing Saka. His plan was to soak up pressure and then hit Germany with pacey counters. When Germany didn't play that way, Saka was useless (he never got on the ball in space) and England had no Plan B for how to attack because they had no creative midfield players to link things together and play combinations. He waited too long to make any changes.
Through about 70 minutes I thought Germany were slightly the better side. England created NOTHING before the Sterling goal, they had only like 3 shots up to that point. And for a team playing extremely negatively they still gave up a good chance to Werner on a break and Havertz' half-chance that Pickford saved, plus that Muller chance at the end.
Bringing on Grealish was the right move and it changed the game immediately, but even there Southgate waited 15 minutes too long to do it.
The xG ended up basically even. The difference in the game was that England created two good chances and converted both, while Germany created two good chances and converted neither.
FWIW, I listened to the first 70 minutes on BBC Five Live radio, and they seemed to think Saka was England's best player in the first half, or at least in the first half hour - that he seemed the least afraid of the situation.
Was France / Portugal / Germany / Hungary the Group of Death because death came for all of them?
I think the disagreement we might have is that I didn't see England's weak first half as a coaching problem, more like that some of England's players, particularly Sterling, did not make the correct play at certain times which limited their chances for real scoring opportunities. When Grealish came on and Sterling moved moved over, there was better, more incisive play which created the two goals.
I also think it's not particularly fair to say that each team had two good chances created for them, and assess that to the tactics of the manager(s). Germany's first scoring chance with Werner imo was not an amazing opportunity; the pass took Werner wide and Stones really closed down the angle and Pickford did a great job rushing him so it was actually a pretty difficult finish. The second chance was a great chance to score, but was also created by just a terrible give-away which is basically luck. England's two chances were straight tap-ins.
I think Southgate wanted first and foremost to preserve a clean sheet, if something materialized, great, if not, he had the options to apply pressure on the late game.
I keep thinking that the 5 substitute change the way a game can be managed and that 5 sets of fresh legs can make a far bigger difference vs a tired team.
I keep thinking that the 5 substitute change the way a game can be managed and that 5 sets of fresh legs can make a far bigger difference vs a tired team.
Definitely agree on the first German chance. If anybody but Werner did that, the commentary would be "Oooh, that was a good chance, might have scored there, but Pickford did well to react as he did." As it was, the ball almost squirted through Pickford's legs - he kind of saved it with his ass. But because it was Timo "I've missed 836 chances this season" Werner, it's a flub.
It was a chance that would take a really good finish; I think that its substantially different than Kane/Sterling with ended up with squared balls in front of empty nets from inside the six yard box.
I'm half Swedish (paternal grandparents immigrated to Minnesota about a hundred years ago), so LET'S GO BOYS!!!
Curious as to why this seems to be much more the case in this tournament than over the last year+ of league play?
