England v Germany - Tuesday 29/06 - 17:00

[JTG]

Mr. QofG's view

"Be fair, look at it this way: Team A, ranked No 4 in the world, comfortably topped its group and is on a run of nine games without defeat, with a defence that has conceded just five goals in its last 17 matches. Team B, ranked No 12, scraped through its group with four points and wildly inconsistent performances, hasn’t kept a clean sheet in six games and lost 6-0 as recently as November and can also include a defeat by North Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier this year. Team A is playing at home. Who do you think should start as favourites?"

He's not saying England will win but he gets quite angry about naysayers

Defeat by North Macedonia AT HOME mind

Obviously Germany are well capable of great football, as the Portugal result showed. But on balance, England start as favourites for all the above reasons

 

[Kanda]

Mr. QofG's view

"Be fair, look at it this way: Team A, ranked No 4 in the world, comfortably topped its group and is on a run of nine games without defeat, with a defence that has conceded just five goals in its last 17 matches. Team B, ranked No 12, scraped through its group with four points and wildly inconsistent performances, hasn’t kept a clean sheet in six games and lost 6-0 as recently as November and can also include a defeat by North Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier this year. Team A is playing at home. Who do you think should start as favourites?"

He's not saying England will win but he gets quite angry about naysayers

His point of view is a cut and paste of the Guardian: Germany’s reputation precedes them – but this team are the ersatz version | Jonathan Liew

 

[QueenOfGoths]

His point of view is a cut and paste of the Guardian: Germany’s reputation precedes them – but this team are the ersatz version | Jonathan Liew

Oh very probably, he's an avid sports page reader. He was responding to an "England always lose" Facebook post.

 

[Badgers]

 

[Kanda]

Anyway....

... out on pens because we can't score for shit.

 

[Flavour]

England 2-1 Germany

Grealish to score the winner

 

[Dogsauce]

1-0 Germany with the goal scored in the first 15 on a break against the run of play, followed by defensive play and frustratingly botched attacks for the remainder of the match. In entertainment terms, the exact opposite of yesterday.

 

[xenon]

I've got this for the draw again.

Germany definitely vunrible but they never give up. England probably to be outplayed in several areas but a bit of magic when needed. England to win in extra time....

 

[Steel Icarus]

View attachment 275897

Hope so. Germany defence is slow and if we have Raheem AND Bukayo running at them they will shit bricks.

 

[rekil]

I just founded a breakaway ABE group. Anything But The German Franchise's Product Yes Maybe Even England

I like England to get as far as the semis before going out - a controversial stance in the ABE movement.

 

[Numbers]

Really looking forward to England stinking up the tournament after yesterday's sensational matches, and boiling the piss of as many football purists and ABEers as possible before winning flukily.

Probably a stupid question but what does ABE stand for?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's a remarkable study in the ability of complete loons to avoid the more obviously correct "England kind of lurk around the top dozen teams in the world but are consistently fatally flawed when it comes to the crunch". Which is what most English people think ime

And a bit unlucky on occasion. You need to be good to win knockout tournaments, but you invariably also need some luck along the way. I don't think it's sour grapes to say that England could have won the 1990 WC with a little more luck, for instance. They were good enough.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Probably a stupid question but what does ABE stand for?

Anyone But England

 

[Ted Striker]

Hope so. Germany defence is slow and if we have Raheem AND Bukayo running at them they will shit bricks.

Lol. We'll go 1-0 down and endlessly pass it amongst ourselves in the back 2/3rds [/brain]

otoh... SOUTHGATES REVENGE [/heart]

 

[Johnny Doe]

DJ Pendantic and MC neat

Corrected for you. He's hoping for 'a little bit of luck'

 

[Lord Camomile]

Mr. QofG's view

"Be fair, look at it this way: Team A, ranked No 4 in the world, comfortably topped its group and is on a run of nine games without defeat, with a defence that has conceded just five goals in its last 17 matches. Team B, ranked No 12, scraped through its group with four points and wildly inconsistent performances, hasn’t kept a clean sheet in six games and lost 6-0 as recently as November and can also include a defeat by North Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier this year. Team A is playing at home. Who do you think should start as favourites?"

He's not saying England will win but he gets quite angry about naysayers

Defeat by North Macedonia AT HOME mind

Obviously Germany are well capable of great football, as the Portugal result showed. But on balance, England start as favourites for all the above reasons

Sure, England should start as favourites, but.... "lads, it's England".

Also, I would suggest it's ein bisschen disingenuous to compare England's group record with Germany's, considering they played the defending world champions and defending European champions.

Who, yes, admittedly both got knocked out in the next round, but at least one of those was to the #1 side in the world!

 

[souljacker]

I'm desperately trying not to get too excited or confident but I genuinely believe England have what it takes to win this one 2-0 with a goal in each half. I think our pace up front will roll over the German defence and our defence won't give them any chances at the other end.

 

[The39thStep]

Hope so. Germany defence is slow and if we have Raheem AND Bukayo running at them they will shit bricks.

Wouldn't call Rudiger slow tbh .

 

[JTG]

Oh very probably, he's an avid sports page reader. He was responding to an "England always lose" Facebook post.

I mean, everybody loses. England do it less often than most

 

[JTG]

Sure, England should start as favourites, but.... "lads, it's England".

Also, I would suggest it's ein bisschen disingenuous to compare England's group record with Germany's, considering they played the defending world champions and defending European champions.

Who, yes, admittedly both got knocked out in the next round, but at least one of those was to the #1 side in the world!

They were minutes away from losing to Hungary

 

[Lord Camomile]

They were minutes away from losing to Hungary

We weren't exactly commanding over Scotland.

 

[Lord Camomile]

I'm not saying Germany are any great force either, just personally feel we're not quite as strong favourites as others seem to be suggesting.

Maybe it's an odd 'reverse-bias' thing, but I am not always confident in England's confidence, and little in the group stages convinced me otherwise.

We can be good, and have some very talented players in our squad, but we can also be shite and play in a way that doesn't make the most of those talented players.

 

[The39thStep]

And Maguire’s going up for this corner

 

[editor]

With so many big guns wobbling or being eliminated - and the luxury of playing at home - this has to be the best chance England have of winning something since, err, 1966, no?

 

[Teaboy]

With so many big guns wobbling or being eliminated - and the luxury of playing at home - this has to be the best chance England have of winning something since, err, 1966, no?

Probably but there are still better teams in the tournament.

As for tonight's game I'm predicting a typical England performance. England to start brightly, get a goal and be 1-0 up at half time. Germany to dominate much of teh second half as England get deeper and deeper. Germany to win in extra time or possibly penalties.

 

[Diamond]

All the extra-times will be a massive help to anyone who can make it to the next round within the 90 too...

 

[Lord Camomile]

With so many big guns wobbling or being eliminated - and the luxury of playing at home - this has to be the best chance England have of winning something since, err, 1966, no?

Things are certainly set up favourably for England, and more so than a lot of other teams (e.g. Portugal's run of Germany, France, Belgium, [Italy]), so in terms of 'they've got a better chance than usual', absolutely.

Does that make me confident? Not especially.

Again, I absolutely believe we could win some games, arguably beat any team on our side of the draw, on our day, but I could just as easily see us losing to any of 'em as well. We're that sort of a team

 

[Lord Camomile]

Oh, also, while absolutely not dismissing it as an advantage, the fact an unfortunately audible portion of our 'home' crowd still boo our players when they take the knee, alongside the usual unreasonable pressure put on the England team by some of its fans, and I'm not sure our home advantage will be quite as advantageous as it should be

Still, if nothing else, the lack of travelling and being able to train in our regular facilities will have helped.

 

[JTG]

We weren't exactly commanding over Scotland.

Clean sheet and never in danger of going out of the tournament. Unlike Germany

 

[blairsh]

England win on penalties, Southgate comes on and scores the winning pen, red arrows do a fly pass dropping cans of Carling with little parachutes and the Germans spontaneously combust.

Much rejoicing.