Spain 1-0 England
I feel like every round I have written the same regarding England, they have to play better than they have in the tournament so far.
If I wasn’t English, I would be comfortable tell you that Spain deserves to win Euro 2024.
They have been the best team and played the most attractive football in what has been a poor competition overall.
Player against player, the Three Lions probably have the better talent but too many haven’t performed in Germany. So, Gareth Southgate is again relying on a moment of magic from an individual.
This isn’t the Spanish class of 2008-2012 but they play like a club side, everyone tactically knowing their role and understanding their job. That’s been hard for a lot of teams to demonstrate in the last month, with most of the organised systems coming from the less glamorous names.
That’s easy to master with your club because you see your teammates every day in training, while with your country you don’t have as long to work on patterns of play.
That’s why I give Spain the advantage on Sunday. In their second half on Tuesday, they were giving the ball to Rodri who would slow down the tempo, pass the ball backwards and teach his younger peers game management.
The irony being that Luis De La Fuente was seen as a weak link in his homeland.
He’s actually given his nation a plan B that other managers in the last decades have been unwilling or unable to find. That’s width, with their two young wingers mostly likely to win the match. Would a Shaw send Yamal the other way?
Or without possession is it better to trust Trippier?
If I was born elsewhere and based my judgement without emotion maybe I would think England’s name was on the trophy because of coming from behind in all knockout matches, the late goals, etc No one can question our team spirit.
Yet ,there almost couldn’t be a bigger contrast in how the two sides have played in the last few weeks.
One keeps the ball, the other doesn’t.
One has fast direct players, the other has been accused of being too slow.
One has individuals playing at their best, the other you feel have another gear.
This is why I was cheering for France in the semifinal. Their approach would have meant we would have always been in the game whereas Spain could hurt us.
THE JA EURO 24 FINAL
MTG Vs Okobino
Please send…..
Predicted score.
First goal scorer
And time of first goal in the game
If you predict the same result, we will separate you on first goal scorer? If identical still, we will separate you on who is closer to time of first goal?
If you want to be tactical and don’t want each other to know score you can email me or admin.
Dan
Yes I agree with the outcome. I think Spain will win. Spain have played much better in the tournament. I’m going to say 2-1 to SPAIN
But anything can happen. England can still win if they play better than they havr been and I will still be cheering for England
As someone old enough to have watched England’s last trophy win (albeit only on TV and in glorious black and white) I really hope that they can beat Spain tomorrow.
Although England has played well in games it’s usually only in patches and they’ve looked very vulnerable at times – as they did against the Dutch. It may come down to how well they can cope with the likes of the Spanish “wonderkid” Yamal (and he is pretty amazing for 17 – birthday today, I think).
It could go either way, but I’ll go for England, adding to my previous TV viewing of their last trophy success.
Ok, I have said it before. If Saka is the Talisman then on the flip side, Foden is the jinx.
The last 3 knock out games. Every time Foden gets taken off we then go on to win the game, usually within 10 minutes of the no goal contributer Foden being subbed.
Against Slovakia Foden gets subbed on the 90th minute then Bellingham gets the winner in the 96th minute.
Against Iceland Foden gets subbed in extra time on the 115th minute, then England go on to win on penalties.
Against Holland Foden gets subbed on the 80th minute then Watkins gets the winner on the 90th minute.
As I said, Foden has no goal contributions for England since the competition started. He has the worst record of given the ball back to the opposition. He makes terrible pass decisions, when Saka makes his run into space, Foden will quite often miss Saka’s run and opt to make the wrong pass to the conjested left side of the pitch.
Foden plays well for united, but his passing and decision making in an England shirt is holding England back from greatness. He is England’s Jinx, and the sooner Southgate realises this and subs him early in the game, the sooner we will score the winning goal.
But unfortunately love is blind and Southgate will stick with no goal contributer Foden. So yes, Spain wins if Foden stays.
Check the last 3 knock out games if you don’t believe the facts.
I have been saying it all along, other players on the bench are better England players, and should be playing ahead of Foden, who contributes given the ball away, bad decisions and no goal contributions since the competition has started!
I am not sure that I could pin anything on Foden who I thought plays for City. The manager and the team were pretty poor and the fact that England are now in the final is a result of tweaks by Southgate eventually. I thought that Foden had a good game against the Dutch.
As a general point, going into a game with an air of doom and gloom won’t win England the game. I am going for an England win, even though that Spain are favourites. Some of the newbies are fresh and fearless, and there are also squad members who are used to winning trophies.
Saka is the talisman because he contributed one goal ?
So by that logic Bellingham and Kane have been our best players and Toney and Watkins and Palmer have all had same level tournament
Your juts picking on Foden because he played better then any Arsenal player last season
That’s not what this is about
Put tribalism to one side and support the payers
Also your jinx theory doesn’t work as he’s on the pitch when we beat Serbia
Has he ever come off the bench with us loseing? Hardly a jinx
The truth is England team is not playing an attractive football mainly because Foden and Bellingham are not meant to be on the field of play at the same time. They are both getting there role mixed up and that seriously affected other players on the field. For example Foden often shifted to Saka’s position when England are with the ball and that get Saka confused so many times and just stood functionless. It’s appears as if Foden was busy and playing well but in truth he was just everywhere with little or no impact…. That is not Foden’s fault but lack of better tactics by the manager.
Dan, your argument in using an easy team like Serbia is strange.
We should have thrashed Serbia, Dan, you just proved my point.
Also Saka has contributed more than just a goal, he had two goals disallowed through jinx players like Foden ruling his goal offside.
Also he had a deflected cross lead to Kane’s goal and a deflected ball in the area leading to Kane’s penalty and he holds the joint record of the highest ever successful dribbles completed in a single Euro knockout game and he is usual the only England attacker carrying the ball beyond the last defender and playing the ball into goal scoring areas, only to be let down by other attackers failing to make the correct runs into the box.
So, let’s compare all that positive play contributed by Saka to Fodens contribution. Hmm oh yeh, Fodens contribution remains at ZERO.
In fact if Folden had never played against Serbia, we wouldn’t have had a hard time scrapping a one nil win instead of what was expected by and thrashing them 4 or 5 nil. Point proven. Foden is England’s Jinx.
So a hypothetical question regardless of their position, if you had no choice but to choose either Saka or Foden to start England’s 11, who would you choose?
Saka deflected cross against Serbia does not count as an assist
Offside does not count either as it’s offside
So going by facts , Saka has contributed to one goal this tournament
I’m not saying Foden has had a good tournament , none of our attack have played at their best
But to purely pick on one player is wrong
It’s purely because Foden had a better season then Saka and your sadly making out the fact that Saka scored one goal as some victory
It’s not about what club they play play for , it’s about England , one team
The fact remain the same no matter how you try to defend Foden. Foden played well for city last summer compared to saka as you claimed but that doesn’t reflect in the European competition. Saka on the other hand replicate the performance of last summer to the Euros, internationally, Saka is better than Foden no matter how you want to put it.This shows that Foden is paying in a better team with better players but coming to play with different players from different teams makes him look faded. The fact is that In this Euro tournament, Saka is better than Foden. Thanks for reading.
No one said Foden was better then Saka at this tournament
I simply pointed out that by the criteria set out of how many goals you contributed means you had a good tournament, Saka has only factually had one goal contributions
I’m not going to make stats up
I personally don’t think either have replicated their club form last season into this tournament but am not going to pick on one player
Junking, you are absolutely right, Foden and Bellingham cannot play the same free role position and it is the managers fault for a lack of tactical instruction, but as you admitted, Foden is making wrong decision. Not only his passing and not just his positional awareness but also his runs as you have correctly mentioned badly timing his channel runs into Saka and Bellingham’s attacking space.
Spain 1 – 2 England
First goal scorer – Harry Kane
Time of First goal – 18′
More fate than anything else. We need an England win!!!!
Goodluck MTG
Spain 1 – 1 England
First goal scorer: Yamal
Time of first goal: 30 mins
Goodluck Okobino