Beren

Shevchenko. 8/10 wb.

Nice segments from the Beeb here.

Czechs look gassed

Deserved. Denmark really stepped off and Czech Republic have been good.

That explains it tbh.

Italy were class. (In a very non-classy way obviously).

There was a kid in the year above me at school. Easily the best player in that year group. His name was Peppe. One day in around Year 9, he starts practicing diving. For a whole lunch time. He could easily glide through every player he goes down against. He's pretty shit at diving, and he receives a mixture of laughter and dog's abuse. People just want to play football properly, not have someone who's pissing about. He doesn't care, all he cares about is honing his craft

De Bruyne looks knackered. Lots of sloppy balls.

Lukaku absolutely in their pocket so far. Not getting a sniff with his back to goal.

Way too good for them. Magic.

Italy aren't half scared of Doku

Haha petrified of the diving, so they let him through.

Cracking game. Lukaku been quiet so far. Lots of hands on him, mind you.

'Iron knackers iron' in tournament football apparently, contrary to the popular adage.

I'm not offended by it, but I don't think it's coming from a place of pantomime with lots of bonhomie belying it. So I think it's a bit of a dick thing to do, basically.

I blame the name. Cheers.

Bet365 don't seem to have a X and Y meeting in the Euro 2020 final, and X wins market. Anyone know who does have one?

I (very respectfully! ) disagree because they could say the same. Re: the bit in bold, Havertz and Werner (I think?) had chances. Pickford tipped one from distance over and avoided getting 'megged on the other at close range. Sterling had one curling effort saved from distance, and Kane took a heavy touch on another good chance. That's about it from memory in terms of chances from either side before 1-0? Two apiece, pretty similar. Maybe I'm forgetting something - I did doze off for a bit in the second half Anyway, hopefully England kick on against Ukraine.

My point is that the preceding 74 minutes and their characterisation should be no different, irrespective of who scored first. And I don't think my earlier descriptions of the performance would be grossly unfair from an objective point of view. Just IMO.

As I said, if you care about the results there is nothing to knock. My view, in sports, is that I'm not supporting a share price or a piece of code - I want to enjoy watching it. Seven 0-0s, with four penalty shootout wins would leave me feeling cold. England are dross to watch so far IMO. Someone posted the results from Spain's win in 2010 but that doesn't really show how much control Spain had in those games. You would be hard pressed to say England control games. (Incidentally, I do find some of Spain's extended overplaying build up play tedious, although it is effective). If Müller's big chance happens a few minutes before Sterling's opener and he takes it, people would have an entirely different thesaurus of expletives for the identical performance people are now praising. It would be about how conservative England were, how there were square pegs in round holes (attacking players in a defensive system) and how the team didn't really create enough clear cut chances or look incisive etc. England can't play "keep away" like Spain, so I strongly suspect they will need to find another gear IMO. They haven't shown one to be immediately within reach. Spawning a tournament like Greece or Portugal is a possibility, but then you'd become a pejorative verb for the next decade to a generation, in the same way people say England are now Greece'ing it.

If you feel that way about football fair enough.

Germany were horrific! Yikes.

Huzzah, at least 90 more minutes of England to watch!

Soporific football put 'em to sleep, and then BANG!

Great shout.