Tag Archives: world cup

UAFA Nations League and England get ‘outplayed’ against a top side (Spain), followed by being ‘dismal’ in a friendly (Switzerland) – all preceded AGAIN with a ‘head-in-the sand’ view of the team’s abilities?

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          Well, only the football focused will have known, seemingly out of the blue but actually four years ago, that a ‘third’ men’s national-team full international tournament for the 55 members of UEFA (the sport’s European governing body) had been put in place [the other two being the existing World Cup and the […]

England soon finally ‘coming home’ defeated by Croatia in the World Cup 2018 ‘Semi Final’ – did they make the nation proud?

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      A post here at the time of the first game against Tunisia set the criteria for this tournament of ‘most importantly of all though England need to play for a change in a manner that makes the nation proud – win or lose’. Well, in the battle against Croatia in this first England […]

World Cup 2018 ‘Semi Final’ England will encounter Croatia – time for sensible reflection?

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      Without doubt England reached this semi-final, after 28 years of failures to do so (1990 – Paul Gascoigne’s ‘tears’ game), with nothing less than a full quota of luck [that included a crazy tournament when most the main contenders inexplicably fell by the wayside – Germany [Rank 1] bottom of their Group when […]

England faced Sweden in World Cup 2018– what a surprisingly WONDERFUL ending to a ‘Quarter Final’?

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    Today, in the two Quarter-Finals  Sweden [Rank 17] are OUT as are Russia [Rank 66] (yesterday, in the first two Quarter-Finals  Ukraine [Rank 17] and Brazil [Rank 2]) were OUT) The feelings of English football fans ‘before’ this afternoon’s tussle with Sweden can best be summed-up by the quote “I don’t think us as a nation will get […]

Russia World Cup 2018 ‘Quarter Final’ England will face Sweden – how are the odds looking?

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    (Today, in the first two Quarter-Finals:  Ukraine [Rank 17] are OUT, as are  Brazil [Rank 2]) There is much elation that England has at long last reached the Quarter finals of the World Cup, not least as a result of winning in a penalty shoot-out for the very first time ever, eh? People are getting […]

Russia World Cup 2018 ‘Round of Sixteen’ (knockout) England faced Columbia tonight – a shoddy game, a shoddy result?

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      As we have seen in the knockout phase already, rank and group stage form counts for very little here in Russia  – Argentina OUT, Portugal OUT, Spain OUT, Denmark OUT, Switzerland OUT, so 5 out of the 7 expected to progress so far are going home instead, eh? There was much speculation and banter abound […]

Russia World Cup 2018 ‘Round of Sixteen’ (knockout) England face ‘Columbia’ – will it burst the bubble?

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      Many England fans still think that playing Columbia in 3 days’ time as their first opponent in the ‘knockouts’ should be a breeze – they forget that there are ‘no easy games’ at the World Cup, don’t they? [Just ask the Germany manager about it, eh?]. Its quite true that Columbia haven’t been […]

England’s ‘third’ game at Russia World Cup 2018 verses ‘Belgium’ – glacial, so what has it told us?

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    History: Belgium can’t seem to beat England before  – well not in our twenty meetings over the past 80 years, eh? In the post two days ago about this (unimportant?) match, it was suggested that England’s best bet was to play the ‘preferred’ team, wasn’t it? Yep, but Gareth Southgate knew better, so nevertheless […]

England’s ‘third’ game at Russia World Cup 2018 verses ‘Belgium’ –“pre game comments”

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    GROUP G – England [rank 13 opponents are: Tunisia [rank 14] Monday 18 June in Volgograd] Panama [[rank 55] Sunday 24 June in Nizhny Novgorod, Belgium [[rank 3] Thursday 28 June in Kaliningrad [pre-June rankings]   England’s final Group game in two-days time in the cool of Kaliningrad against higher ranked and rich-in-talent Belgium, is […]

England’s ‘second’ game at Russia World Cup 2018 verses ‘Panama’ – a victorious rout?

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    GROUP G – England [rank 13] opponents are: Tunisia [rank 14] Monday 18 June in Volgograd] Panama [[rank 55] Sunday 24 June in Nizhny Novgorod, Belgium [[rank 3] Thursday 28 June in Kaliningrad [pre-June rankings]   PRE-GAME COMMENTS Well, well, well, Monday gone England overcame the millstone around their necks of not having won […]