Happy with World Cup result because of ...

PhilK66 said:
Adrian Charles.

England could not have lived with either side today.
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Says who? Of course we will never know, but we “lived” comfortably with Croatia for pretty much the first half the other day. Croatia arguably played better than France today. If we’d adapted to Croatia’s change in tactics (or perhaps man-markedly Modric) then we’d have another story. They didn’t blow us away and think we’d have gone on to comfortably win had we taken one of our chances at 1-0.

France would’ve been strong favourites if we played them - rightly so - but over one game of 90 minutes then anything can happen. So to say England wouldn’t have lived with either side is inaccurate as far as I’m concerned.
 
NathanH_GFC said:
Says who? Of course we will never know, but we “lived” comfortably with Croatia for pretty much the first half the other day. Croatia arguably played better than France today. If we’d adapted to Croatia’s change in tactics (or perhaps man-markedly Modric) then we’d have another story. They didn’t blow us away and think we’d have gone on to comfortably win had we taken one of our chances at 1-0.

France would’ve been strong favourites if we played them - rightly so - but over one game of 90 minutes then anything can happen. So to say England wouldn’t have lived with either side is inaccurate as far as I’m concerned.
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I agree. Other than the two Argentina games (and that’s probably got more to do with them that anything), I haven’t seen either France or Croatia play in an outstandingly brilliant or frightening way. Their strength has been defence (ironic given today’s match) and game management. The only team who has looked frightening for more than one game was Belgium - and they didn’t perform when it mattered and were beaten by a very dull defensive Deschamps like performance. France would have been favourites against England, but on today’s performance, England would have lived with France and had a chance, as Croatia would have done were it not for the ref and VAR - England lived with Croatia and should have beaten them.
 
Not being anti England but there were about 8 teams better than us. Even Senegal possibly, who didn't make it out of their group. Big strides forward fo England but still way off the pace.
 
Croatia huffed and puffed but the French defence coped with them really well. Adsorbing a lot of pressure in the first 20 mins of the first half.
Apart from that and an aberation by the French goalkeeper. I thought the French were in control for most of the match. Croatian movement off the ball was outstanding but the French coped with it not sure England did.
 
Gills 58 said:
Not being anti England but there were about 8 teams better than us. Even Senegal possibly, who didn't make it out of their group. Big strides forward fo England but still way off the pace.
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Is that fact or opinion as it’s stated as fact? I think that’s rubbish. In my opinion, England are a long way ahead of Senegal in pretty much every aspect of their game. I’d say the only teams I saw better than England were France, Belgium and Brazil (the latter despite falling earlier in the tournament than England). I’d class Croatia on a par with England - on one hand they beat us, on the other we should have put them to bed in the semi, but overall both did well to progress but helped by an easy draw, but still did unlike others.
 
Of course it's opinion, as is yours. I'm no expert and nor are you. Is it fact that my opinion is rubbish? :-)

I'm pleased with England's progress but we've ben so abject in the past we risk going OTT in our assessment of how well we played. We lost 3 of the games.

Not complaining at all, just trying to keep feet on the ground.
 
Entertaining game, thoroughly enjoyed it. But Chiles is a nob head, no-one knows how an W/C Final involving England would have gone. One off game, anything can happen, just ask the French goalie !
 
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