England Vs Croatia /France vs Swiss

KdjaCL

2-1 to Croatia
3ish 0 to france.

kdjac

therecklessone

I've been burned the last few days, but I do think that the Craots and France will win...

Croatia 1-0 England

France 2-0 Switzerland

eirebhoy

3-1 Croatia.

2-1 France.

mayordenis

2-0 england
3-0 france
im too lazy to think outside the box

mike65

1-1 England Croatia

3-1 France - Switzerland

Mike.

Pepe LeFrits

France 2-0 Switzerland
0-0 in the other game

France to try diamond formation

Santini has had lengthy talks with his senior players, notably Marcel Desailly and Zinedine Zidane, and is prepared to alter his side's shape in a bid to get the best out of the likes of Robert Pires and Thierry Henry.

A 4-3-1-2 formation is being planned with Chelsea's Claude Makelele playing just in front of the defence.

Patrick Vieira will operate on the right with Pires on the left and the majestic Zidane performing centrally just behind the two strikers.

EKRIUQ

Eng 1-1 Cro
France 3 Switz 1

EKRIUQ

Its just kicked off england in there red shirt

TwoShedsJackson

Croatia 1-0 up, crap England defending from a free kick, no surprises there.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Good start from the Croats. Think this will be a high scoring game, hopefully Croats edge it

CivilServant

Paul Scholes breaks his 3 year england drought. And just as I was about to slag off Micheal Owen for doing nothing. Decent run by him. Go on engerland.

CivilServant

Rooney makes it 2-1!!

mike65

At 39 mins I was writing up my half-time report which said -

"Get Scholes off!"

Famous last words....:D Thank God for Rooney too, he just shoots and scores.

Mike.

Shred

Cracker of a goal from Rooney:eek:

mike65

Just better mention

France 1 Switzerland 1.

Mike.

pogcica

Bugger:mad:

therecklessone

That was some turnaround at the end of the half. Keeper should have done better for Rooney's goal, but I'd say the Croats are sick...

Is it just me, or does the Croat keeper look like Damon Hill?

thejollyrodger

2-1 to England brilliant news lets hope England go on to win the match. They are obviously the best side out there.

super_furry

Originally posted by mike65
At 39 mins I was writing up my half-time report which said -

"Get Scholes off!"

Famous last words....:D Thank God for Rooney too, he just shoots and scores.

Mike.

Scholes has still been dreadful - in fact the entire England midfield has. Owen and Rooney are being given no help at all and forced to fight for stupid long balls against defenders nearly a foot taller than them. What's wrong with playing it on the ground?

mike65

Originally posted by therecklessone


Is it just me, or does the Croat keeper look like Damon Hill?

My mum said that in the France Croatia game!

Mike.

Guy:Incognito

Scholes found his confidence after the goal, hes had a couple of decent shots since.

Guy:Incognito

everyone left the defending to gerrard on ythat last croatian attack, the player got free down the right and gerrard had to chase him 50 yards then go across to the player taking the shot in the middle, the rest of the lads stood off the attackers.

therecklessone

Another goal conceeded from a set-piece?

3-2 to England.

Shred

3-2

James is absolutely Sh*t:)

Guy:Incognito

Gwan the Fankie Lampard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




And that, as they say, is that.

Raskolnikov

Rooney has now got 4 goals for the tournament, Zidane is on 3, Nistlerooy, Baros, Ibramovic and Larrson on 2, oops, Lampard on 2 as well now!

Guess who's got €5 on Rooney to get top scorer at 33-1?

Guy:Incognito

Henry on two aswell now

thejollyrodger

4-2 to England Brilliant news. Great performance by England, looks like its portugal next thursday. James has made some mistakes but hopefully we can all see England going all the way to the final.

Guy:Incognito

bit concerned bout the leaking of goals, James is a bit of a weak link. Ahh well at least itll clear the way for Kirkland to become Englands no1 as soon as he stops breaking bloody bones.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by thejollyrodger
4-2 to England Brilliant news. Great performance by England, looks like its portugal next thursday. James has made some mistakes but hopefully we can all see England going all the way to the final.

Hey now, I don't think great was the way to describe the performace, afterall, they did concede two goals. Defensively England need to tighten up, Portugal will certainly think they've got a chance at taking England in the next game.

mike65

David James was not the real problem its the general defence...no-one is willing to get hurt repelling an approaching Croat player. Frank Lampard is a worry too, he was trying to be clever too often he muct learn to hold the ball and kep it simple - ditto Gerrard who was trying to thread 40 yard passes too often.

The good news is that Portugal are no great shakes this weather with a poor attack. I suspect they'll defend heavily and look for a goal on the break.

Mike.

Ps what were France like?

eirebhoy

I'm delighted for Rooney, he got unfair critisism for his lack of goals this season and now he has 4 in 2 matches. At last Scholes got a goal too. What is up with the England defence? Individually they are top class but they have only kept 5 clean sheets since the world cup 2 years ago (Ireland got 12 in the same period). People said Michael Owen needs to start scoring otherwise England have no chance but he hasn't scored and they are the top scorers in the championships.
Full credit to Croatia for keeping it up for the 90 minutes.

Henry's confidence should be high after his brace in the other match, I don't think Greece have much of a chance.

jesus_thats_gre

I think Wayne deserves a big pat on the back after that..

Shame Owne didnt score one, would have done his confidence the world of good. Mind you, he was heavily involved in 3 of the goals tonight.

thejollyrodger

Rooney was magnificant, portugal havent a chance:)

Harry2001

What a star Rooney is!!!!

Great performance all-round apart from the problems caused by set pieces. Shame Mickey Owen didn’t get one, good to see Scholes break his three year duck too.

Portugal will be worried by Rooney

Big Ears

lets not get ahead of ourselves , although a good performance (especially from Rooney ) , but that is the Croats second choice goalkeeper and it showed for Lampards goal and Rooney's second , and a little bit for Scholes's aswell . Owen still looks poor , but thank god for England Rooney is in form .

AdMMM

Personally, my favourite moment of the england match wasnt anything to do with football!

Vassell had just kicked the ball away from a late Croatian free kick, and the Croatian fans started boooing, then the camera cut to Victoria Beckham booing as well. Classic

eirebhoy

Originally posted by thejollyrodger
portugal havent a chance:)

It's England's first good performance of the tournament, how many times have they performed well against good teams twice in a row? Also, Portugal have the home advantage, are more used to the heat and had an extra day to prepare.

If England are to go far they will need to drop Lampard (no matter how good he is) and put someone on the left who would be more suited to that position.

BTW, who do you think the Chelski trio were looking at? Gerrard and Rooney would be the obvious ones but the whole team has been linked at some point.

naitkris

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
Rooney has now got 4 goals for the tournament, Zidane is on 3, Nistlerooy, Baros, Ibramovic and Larrson on 2, oops, Lampard on 2 as well now!

Guess who's got €5 on Rooney to get top scorer at 33-1?

while Rooney is top scorer and has shown some excellent teamplay and agility against Switzerland and Croatia, i think once he comes up against some of the world's best defences i think the most one will see is 1 goal per match by Rooney, at the very most. Switzerland were shocking and Croatia looked even worse after they lost their lead...

i am sure Rooney will only get better in the years to come, but now that England are out of the group and ready to play the better half of the sixteen teams in Euro 2004 i think Rooney won't have half as many goalscoring opportunities, all though for all i know i could be completely wrong as Portugal don't look too great a side either watching all three of their group matches...

mayordenis

Originally posted by Big Ears
. Owen still looks poor , .

i thought he was quite good tonight tried hard looked a bit like an attacking midfielder in my opinion.

Big Ears

I ment in front of goal . He is their most out and out striker after all , and Rooney is more the Attacking midfeilder / Forward .

Dewey

Oh god, England win 4-2. i can see the headlines tomorrow ENGLAND WILL WIN IT!! ROONEY IS GOD.

I thought Rooney was brilliant and England should thank there lucky stars he is English, Beckham was crap. he must be disappointed rooney is on the front pages instead of him.lol. But lets not forget, this wasnt Brazil they played. It was Croatia whos defending was really really poor at times and Lampard goal and Rooney were saveable. England need to sort out there defence from set pieces cause they let in 2 goals and it could of been more and against better teams they will be punished.

and who ever had €5 on Rooney as top scorer, you are a lucky b@stard for getting him at 33/1.lol I have Ruudy and On Ray.:(

And from what of heard of the French game France were poor and the Swiss were great. I know they won 3-1 but it was 1-1 for most of the match. The Swiss are not going to be any push overs come the World Cup Quilifers.
Great to see Henry scoring. He should of scored 5 goals.

I expect him to get a few more against Greece and Portugal to knock out England.

Jivin Turkey

Despite the criticism surrounding Owen and Scholes they showed tonight why they are worth their place in the side. Creating and scoring goals. Owen put one of Rooneys on a plate against the Swiss too. The fact the Owen plays up front with Rooney has allowed Rooney to shine because the opposing defence is worrying about Owen so much Rooney is given loads of room. His play for the 3rd goal showed what a striker he is, Rooney had overrun the ball and played it behind Owen, but Owen still managed to put it back to him (something that I think if the roles were reversed Rooney would not have been able to pull it off).

Sorry to talk in cliches but form is temporary class is permanent.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Jivin Turkey
Sorry to talk in cliches but form is temporary class is permanent.

The thing is, that was Scholes's first goal in 3 years and hasn't been setting the world alight. 3 years is too long for a player like Scholes. Ian Harte used to be one of Ireland's best players but he played badly for so long he's now 3rd choice at left back and rightly so. Scholes may now start to play well but he shouldn't have been in the team IMO, he's bound to get one good performance though and tonight was the night.

Jivin Turkey

While Im not excusing his lack of goals for England what Im trying to highlight is that he offers so much more than goals. His presence is phenominal and his passing is perfect. He is hard as nails too. Him playing has taken the focus of the opposing team members off other England players. There has been no one playing good enough at club level to replace him. His goals record for England is almost as good as Robbie Keane for Ireland.

eirebhoy

Scholes, Lampard and Gerrard should not play in the same team unless they play 1 up front. Gerrard is a certain starter in the middle and either Scholes or Lampard would play on the left, they are both useless on the left. I would probably now drop Lamps and stick Joe Cole or Bridge on the left.

redspider

England definitely deserved to win that game, alas. In terms of the Rooney second goal, I had a frame-by-frame look at it again as I thought it might have been offside. It wasnt, but what it did show is that Rooney held the ball up until Owen had come back from an off-side position and then timed his one-two to perfection. He still hyad a lot of work to score it from there which he did with aplomb. It was not a case of Owen laying it on a plate for him by any stretch of the imagination.

In terms of the problems with Owen, he is still having them (he had them for Liverpool all season too so its not a surprise). For the first English goal, although he made the run he was then static in the box as the ball bobbed about. When he was setup for a run one-on-one against the keeper, he showed a lack of pace and was forced to try a chip which didnt come off. In the post match interviews, you can just see it in his eyes that he is really off form and its affecting him.

I think with Rooney he is just a natural young lad who is not under any pressure and is enjoying himself and things are going his way, but he is deserving what he is getting because he is playing better. He looks much fitter and sharper than Own and is winning a lot more of the ball. Michael looks jaded.

As for he midfield, Scholes is being played out of position, as is Gerard at times.

Portugal hopefully will give England a better match. Who would bet against Rooney scoring in that?

AngelofFire

Rooney was fantastic he is really starting to repay Sven`s faith in him. The first 3 goals involved rooney. He showed great maturity and patience out on the pitch tonight his goals were a great testiment to his potential.His ability to read the game is second to none, i was hugely impressed when he headed to paul scholes instead of taking the impulse option of heading it in himself.

Some of Englands established big guns like Owen,Beckham and Scholes seem to be at see for the most part of this competition.

TwoShedsJackson

I have Ruudy and On Ray.

Well you can forget about Van Nistelrooy but On Ray did score twice last night, he's by no means out of it

thejollyrodger

England defintely deserved to win that match last night. I can see them going on and beating the Portugese, who, it must be said have looked nothing spectacular. There is a lot of individual talent there but not exactly a team playing at its best. Technically they are great, have lots of pace but lack that final quality ball or will to go on and win matches.

Rooney looks like he is far better than the likes of Robbie Keane. England has to sort out its defence, Clamity James is a poor goal keeper and will leak a considerable amount of goals between now and the end of the tournament. Rooney & Co will just have to score more Great to see Beckham isnt all over the papers but someone who can actually play football:P

On a side note, the qualification for World Cup 2006 looks a little more difficult seeing those performances by the swiss:(

eirebhoy

Originally posted by thejollyrodger
On a side note, the qualification for World Cup 2006 looks a little more difficult seeing those performances by the swiss:(

Lets hope Frei gets banned for 3 matches so he'll miss the Ireland match.

BTW, Portugal have been performing just as well as England (to put it another way, England have been performing just as poorly as Portugal).