Exactly what I (and even Madame who knows bugger all about footie) thought. You're cruising home comfortably so hey let's give them acres of spaoe so they can make a game of it.
I think however that he did realise it was a huge mistake and repaired it as best he could. I doubt he'll make it again. Or should I say, he'd better fooking not.

The ex Darlo goalie did good.

I reckon going through like that was better than winning 1-0 going forward.

Pickford hadn't been tested until injury time when he made a brilliant save then ridiculously really seen as they had been no threat whatsoever they score from the corner but he ends up saving a penalty and being a hero, great for him and the team after question marks against him. I thought we lost our our way for 25 minutes after he bought Dier on who was way off the pace, the centre backs didn't have a spare pass and an easy out ball they couldn't even go long and ask Kane to hold it up (which he did superbly all game) because he'd been moved deeper to accommodate Vardy who never comes short to show for the ball. It had shades of Euro 2016 seeing Kane playing in some of the areas he was. The first half of extra time was a worry really but we seemed to get a second wind during the last 15 and finished the game stronger. I think the better changes would have been Loftus-Cheek for Alii and Rashford for Sterling, Loftus-Cheek is a big lad I'm sure he could have managed a deeper role for 10 minutes, then if the do equalise we could have re-adopted the same system as had managed to boss the game and not give them a sniff for 80 minutes. We also have been set up better to hit them on the counter at 1-0.


Now onto the game ruiner again, fucking VAR. I'm sorry but the reason it was brought in was eradicate clear and obvious errors, if nutting someone and making contact with his chin is a yellow card offence without the referee even being given an opportunity to view the incident again then just what is point in this whole charade? Also as the stakes get higher the players behaviour will only get worse, it's so unsavoury to see players making TV gestures like Maguire did after the incident and Henderson making more of it because they both knew it was a clear red, understandable though and as for Columbian players They were an embarrassment to themselves and the tournament justice was done with them going out. How then managed to finish the game with more than 9 players never mind 11 is beyond me. In the words of Alf Ramsey 'Animals', three minutes of clear and obvious (those words again) dissent after was the penalty was given (it was a stonewaller as well). I was shouting "just send one of them off" how can you get away with that. Every opportunity to cheat and manipulate was attempted, it was awful. At the end of the day this is meant to 'assist' the referee in a game like last night it does the opposite, especially when the full kit wankers sat in a room can't identify such an obvious red card but it just created a nightmare for the officials. I have never been more delighted to see England come through the right side of a game as Columbia were a disgrace. They were tough though and good defensively about from the corner wrestling, Sweden will be similar without the nonsense hopefully it's at least a more honest game even though I can see it being equally tight.


Tournaments are all about progression though and I see no need to massively pick the bones out of a victory, we progressed, Sweden then Russia/Croatia away from a World Cup Final...wow.

Colombia....an even bigger shame when a team who do have talent have to resort to theatrical thuggery from the outset.
Do World Cup tournaments have a unique set of rules when it comes to refereeing matches, as they appear to take a very benign view of blatant thuggery and piss poor simulation.

Sterling bares a resemblance to Oates, pacy but quality of ball control questionable, how he gets in ahead of Rashford is puzzling.

Can't blame Pickford for their goal. He had his part of the goal well covered but couldn't get to the ball because his own defender was in the way. Unless he was supposed to run 6 metres out and kep the corner.

It’s not puzzling for me and I thought he played well last night especially first half. His movement is very good he drags defenders into areas they don’t want to be in and one of main reasons the defenders have so many options when they come out with the ball. He needs something to go in for him in the final third but he’s integral to the system England are playing and put in a real shift for the team last night. Rashford is a different type of player and suited to his current role as an impact sub.

End product?

The end product is that we are through to the Quarter Finals of the World Cup.

The referee was a joke. He was far too willing to argue with players, instead of controlling the situation. The fiasco after he awarded the penalty was nothing short of ridiculous.
There are problems with VAR, with the biggest one being the people administering it.
At the point where the Columbian blatantly tried to rough up the penalty spot there should have been at least a sending off or even the abandoning of the game, Columbian disqualification, with England automatically going through. If FIFA have any guts whatsoever, which I doubt, Columbia should be given a minimum ten year ban. The video evidence is there for everyone to see and FIFA should be ruthless.
After the competition is over FIFA should make a video of all the thuggery, cheating and general undesirable behaviour, send it to every country with a warning that it stops immediately.
There is no place in football for all these shenanigans and there is certainly no need for any of it.
if Columbia had won last night, all that is wrong with football would have won and that cannot be allowed to happen.
Football will be the loser, which means we've all lost.

Here's the international (Spanish) view of the players:

Crazy ratings! Everybody knows that Pickford is a shitty dwarf who uses the wrong hand. Also Sterling has to be denounced at all times so that should be a -1. Don't they know that he has a tattoo on his leg?

I get the impression England's mission in this tournament is to revisit all the endemic failings of the past (failure to dominate minor teams, playing wary of the bigger teams instead of imposing their style, not turning up at the knockout stages, bottling penalty shoot-outs) and lay them to rest. Once they've done that, anything else can only be a bonus. Having too big expectations of them would be unfair.

If at any point they disappoint, just close your eyes and think of Sam Allardyce.

Anyone else willing to share their tips on how to fend off premature ejaculation?

Gaffer tape.

Not like you to be completely wrong:

Assists are a weird stat aren't they? France got a great fourth goal against Argentina and the whole thing stemmed from a short pass out of defence by Kante. I'd give him the assist because he set the fast break in motion but there were three more passes before Mbappe's shot so official records will give it to Giroud.

Mr Butt is still wrong though. I think his Manchester United loving past might have left him with a slight red bias.

Sterling has started 3 times as many games. It's harsh to single anyone out but Sterling and Alli are far from their best. I'd change them but I'm not England manager and the current one is doing a job far better than many of his much better paid and experienced predecessors. I'm happy to go along with his ideas and enjoy the ride, we've already surpassed my expectations.

It could take at least 2 more penalty shoot outs for us to go all the way.
We never gunna get a better chance than now.
Its now or never for me.

even scotland would have got out of the group england were in. if they cannot get through to the final in the weakest side of the draw they do not deserve to be finalists. think some of the england teams of the past would have done as well but this one has a bit of luck on its side.

Scotland might have beaten Panama but they would have lost to Tunisia and then got thrashed by Belgium. I'm not saying it was a hard group but the way people lump Tunisia in with Panama is daft - they're exactly the sort of side that you should beat but don't necessarily manage to.

Look at who is left and you have to agree with Mr Poole's gloves and give England an outside chance of winning the tournament. Everybody has flaws and the two best sides on paper are on the other side of the draw.

France - one great match when Argentina's defence played into their hands. Otherwise uninspiring and could get beaten this afternoon because Uruguay will aim to starve them of space. England would be underdogs but a lot would depend on how well France performed. If Kante gets injured or suspended they'd be a much weaker side.

Uruguay - well drilled grafters with a couple of excellent players but one is injured and the other hasn't hit form. England would be as likely to win as lose.

Russia - battlers with a home crowd. England would be favourites but not by much.

Croatia - comfortably better than Russia, and England if Modric is right on song. If he isn't they could lose to either.

Belgium - Clear favourites if they beat Brazil but hardly impossible to beat in a final. Bit scared of their midfield but who knows in a one off.

Brazil - Should probably win it but they seem to be close to a hissy fit specially when Neymar starts rolling about. If that happens they could lose it like they did in their last semi-final.

France v Uruguay - And another World Cup ref loses control of a game. Tell you what, English refs on the Premier League list are pretty average at the moment but the worst of them is better than some of the clowns officiating in Russia.

We would have had a ref there but he chose Saudi Arabia instead, but err...

VAR??

I have sympathy for the referees, one thing the technology has shown is that they get most decisions right but now every decision is open to question and every indiscretion is open to exaggeration. Any authority they had is undermined.

I didn’t know Karius was Uraguan by the way!?

Find it strange to have a ref from Argentina doing this one, bit like having a Scottish ref at an England game.

The Ref doing England v Sweden tomorrow is called fucking Bjorn!!

Clattenburg buggered off to Saudi 16 months ago. VAR has naff all to do with the lack of authority some refs have shown - players in their face pushing and shoving and refusing to move away warrant a yellow card, end of. The likes of Mark Dean may be egotistical prats but they wouldn't hesitate to get a card out in those circumstances.

The shortlist was named in 2016 and Clattenburg was our ref on it, he forfeited his place when he moved to Saudi.

VAR has got everything to do with the players behavior though, some of these games have been a nightmare to Ref. The brass neck on the Colombians moaning about that ref from other night is comical they got away with murder but as I say I have degree of sympathy, dissent needs clamping down on but I don’t think any ref wants to be dishing out multiple red cards in a World Cup knock out game.

They might be 2-0 down but some of the stuff Brazil are doing is unbelievable. They might still win this 5-2.

Yes next goal is the game, brilliant second by Belgium, certainly a way to go in this one great open game.

So that foul in the box by Kompany is NOT a clear and obvious error?

It’s like they make it up as they go along.

Or for knockouts their has been instruction to not use it for less blatant subjective decisions. What a farce. Kompanys body language told the story.

Hats off to the Belgian defence for holding out under that onslaught and to Brazil for 90 minutes of non-stop attacking football in a Brazilian tradition many believed dead.

They didn’t deserve to lose I haven’t looked at any stats but I reckon Brazil must have had close to 30 shots at goal but at the same time tactically they were a bit poor, Belgium’s front three for me are better players than Brazil’s so to be that gung ho and 1-0 was a bit daft. Hazard and De Bruyne are two of the best players in the World and Lukaku was unbelievable tonight, I reckon if Brazil had those three they’d have scored 6. Neymar has made a tit of himself at this World Cup it’s like pinning your hopes on a twelve year old so I’m glad Belgium won.

I reckon he spends his days playing FIFA on a PlayStation, always Brazil v Paris St Germain and he gets his kicks rolling about and screaming every time his character is challenged. It is remarkable to see a 12 year old boy play at a World Cup though.

Oh bog off you miserable get. How did the England teams of the past get on against Algeria, Iceland, Costa Rica etc. Could you get anymore churlish, they’re not where they are because they’re lucky, they’re doing well because they’ve worked hard as a team. They’ve worked better as a team than any England team in about 20 years.
By the way Panama drew with Wales before the tournament started, and Wales are miles better than Scotland.

All I can think is that the ball was already dead when Kompany fouled him. Because it was obviously a foul?

It would only be a penalty if the ball was in play when there was contact. The skill to go past the first man was sublime but the touch after took it out for a goal kick and my initial thought was it was over the line before the foul.

Brazil had the chances to win the game without a penalty but Coutinho missed chance after chance in a rare bad game for him, he's outshone Neymar all tournament in my eyes.

[quote="Yossarian"][quote="accrington fan"]

Oh bog off you miserable get. How did the England teams of the past get on against Algeria, Iceland, Costa Rica etc. Could you get anymore churlish, they’re not where they are because they’re lucky, they’re doing well because they’ve worked hard as a team. They’ve worked better as a team than any England team in about 20 years.

not being a miserable old git but plenty have called me that. just because my house and car are not decked out with england flags i will hold my opinion. england teams of the past have been robbed in tornaments usually by referees who make the current russian lot look like the best referees there have ever been. dodgy decisions plus the hand of knob. think all the sides work as a team its just a few have a so called world class player in their ranks who seems to want to run the game himself. do not say the england team has been lucky in the games they have played but the most ardent england fan must agree that the qualifying group they were in to get to the finals, the final group plus the part of the draw they are now in is a route most would have picked if they could have.

So how many would you have been satisfied with against Panama? 10? Countries don't choose their groups.

We thru to the last 6 on merit not luck.
Come on England.
Predicting anutha penalty shoot out win today.

I have 2-0 in my head.

That won’t happen though as it would be too straightforward it won’t be like that as it never is. 90 or 120 minutes of torture awaits whatever the outcom.”e.

Accrongton fan to dismiss Sweden as a pub team and declare the semi final place as merely paper talk.

2-0 both penalties.

So 0-0 then?

It was still in play when the foul was committed it was another baffling non use of VAR and a clear and obvious error.

A picture in this article shows the ball still in play as Kompany takes him out;

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dreamt ... y-var/amp/

No Sweden will score them its only ours that dont count

Simple victory, but don't forget, IT WAS ONLY SWEDEN and it ONLY GETS US INTO THE SEMI-FINALS OF THE WORLD CUP. It's not like that's important or owt.

I have a feeling when Stirling gets his goal this tournament it will be a massive one, people who don’t know what they are watching will still call for him to be dropped for the Semi and not realise how integral he is to the system England are playing and how they are bossing games.

England were brilliant today, they are performing exactly how we always wanted an England team to at a tournament and the scary thing is they seem pretty level headed about it all. What a job Southgate has done and what a classy decent bloke he is.

Now it’s time to tell everyone that I always knew we’d be playing in the Semi Final because of Sod’s law , from the point in April I booked a flight home for the summer to get the kids out of this heat, a one that lands in Manchester at 7.15pm on Wednesday. It’s my Dad I feel worse for who’s picking us up!

Massively encouraged by this game, we know Russia are bang average but I thought Croatia were better than this?

This is all getting a bit scary

The Croats and Russians will probably consider this the game of the century. As for me, there looks like there's going to be extra time but I've had enough. I'm out.

Neither side has any pace, England have shit loads. Croatia have two World class centre midfielders one especially but they look no great shakes and the keeper looks dodgy. Even if Russia equalise and it goes to pens bring either on.

Two of the worst penalties ever taken in this shoot out by Russia.