Euro 2020 - Live Match Discussion And General Chat

Gammon joints should be glazed. A common/simple one is 50% mustard and 50% jam/marmalade put on for the last half hour of roasting (any longer and the sugar catches).

 

Wembley has the 2024 Champions League final.

There’s an argument to be made that what happened on Sunday was a product of lots of factors combining in a way they wouldn’t normally. I also think a lot can be fixed pretty quickly and learned from.

There was a lack of fan parks and other venues (both in London and elsewhere) for people to go because of Covid restrictions. I guess in normal times they’d have had screens in Hyde Park and the like. Plus a lot would have stayed at home and gone with mates to the pub or their local park with a big screen set up. It was hopelessly idealistic of the authorities to simply ask people, lots of them young, who have been cooped up for 18 months to not travel to London if they didn’t have a ticket on the biggest footballing occasion in half a century when there was no where else for them to go.

Second, Wembley has become a destination in a way it never was as the old stadium or in the early days of the new one. You wouldn’t get a hundred thousand plus people congregating outside Wembley without tickets when there was nothing for them to do. It was just car parks. Now though there’s bars, pubs, shops, hotels good transport links… it’s an open invite to the ticketless to come along anyway and get involved. Part of the answer has to be shutting all that down (except transport obviously) on the very biggest matchdays.

Then there’s the hopeless security setup at Wembley. A load of disinterested minimum wage unfortunates in day-glo jackets being expected to hold the line at the perimeter with low numbers and little training or physical infrastructure to help them. The biggest lesson learned needs to be that these events need a ring of fencing half a miles out from the stadium. No one should be able to get within the confines of the stadium without a ticket. And the football authorities need to pay for proper policing. It happens on the continent - you can’t even get to the part of the city where the game’s taking place without a ticket.

And that’s before we get to the late kick off time, the 30,000 empty seats which encouraged the mentally deficient drunks outside that there was room for them if they got in, the fact the authorities really have (had) no experience in over a generation of what happens when England get to a final…

 

I'm gonna do a handstand and have my mates shove a vuvuzela up my arse!

 

My eyebrows raised when I read this (I'm normally pretty clued up on anything relating to Geordies) - have you got any references for this? I asked the Geordie masif and regarding Waddle:

Regarding the Beardsley 'stuff':

 

Seeing some of the images - does Wembley not have mechanic turnstiles anywhere?!

Such an incident shouldn't really be possible with turnstiles similar to those at Watford which only fit one person at a time and don't move unless a ticket is inserted.

Those flimsy security fences were clearly unsuitable.

 

World Cup in Germany in 2006, we went to a few games, (only 1 England game), and every stadium had security checking you had tickets, then ticket machines after that, all a decent way away from the entrances, with Police everywhere to back it up. 15 years ago!

I've also spoken to someone I know who was there, (long standing travelling England fan), and she said there were thousands upon thousands that got in, not just a few like Wembley are saying. Almost every part of the stadium was compromised.

 

Yeah I've seen estimates of 2,500. Although I presume most must have been on the lower level.

I went to the Eng v Germany game a couple of weeks ago and while the atmosphere was far more festival-like than yesterday, and so there was no aggro, the checks for Covid passes and tickets on the way in were far more casual than advertised.

 

Presumably with English mustard and none of your foreign muck?

 

Or maybe they will ?
Reverse psychology.
Do you want that scum rampaging around destroying pretty Euro cities ? At least this way, English fans destroy and deface English cities and leaving English taxpayers and UK Govt to pay for and clean up the mess, leaving pretty Europe untainted ?

 

Well that and the fact that it had happened in previous games but on a smaller scale. I think someone on here or on social media said that it was all planned in advance, as usual. Doubt that's down to being in a lockdown for 18 months, especially as it's essentially been ended for months.

Typical English opportunism, take what you can't have, ruin it for others. Happened 30 odd years ago, still happening now. I'm sure if we won, all those who forced their way in would revelling in what they achieved on 'Snap'.

 

My memory is a bit hazy but pretty sure for semi final and final that there was an outer ring well in Wembley Way where tickets were checked prior to getting closer to the stadium.

We sadly do have a scummy underclass in England who show no respect for anything or anybody which doesn't seem to exist in the same numbers elsewhere.

 

They have essentially the same turnstiles as Watford have. And it's easy enough for 2 to get through on one spin. The biggest incursions though came when people breached side gates. They're the ones the stewards use to let wheelchair users in.

 

I guarantee we'll see the same scenes at Vicarage Road every week this year - after people get stuck behind some old duffer who spends half an hour trying to get in with the new app, the doors will be off their hinges

 

Fortunately most of those that broke through aren't the brightest and did very little to try and hide their faces, plenty of high quality footage out there.

 

Not in the football world it hasn't. Loads of people haven't been to games (or any other mass events) in over a year. And as I say, there was no where else to go. The Trafalgar Square thing was the only fan park in the whole city and that was ticket-only. You'd have to be dumb as a rock to think standing outside Wembley is the place to while away a day, but then I say that as someone who's been there enough with Watford in recent years to know that for a fact.

Call them idiots, naive, stupid or whatever...but the reality is on Sunday morning I saw younger guys piling down to London on the beers at 9.30am clearly having no tickets and no plan. These chumps probably started out thinking they'd find a fan park, but there wasn't one, then that they'd get into a pub, but every one was long since booked up and then what? Oh, someone on the socials says there's a few last-minute tickets on sale at Wembley or let's all go to Leicester Square and have a sing song... it's easy to see where it all starts from. And by 6pm it's far too late for the authorities to stop it.

 

There is a reason why big Derby games are often on at midday, an 8 o’clock kick off given the circumstances was asking for trouble.

I appreciate there are a number of factors involved with that kick off that probably relate to global audiences (I don’t know but I’m guessing that was a factor). If it was a 5pm kickoff and people were made to get to the stadium as a minimum an hour early to make sure they could get through security etc, then it would have dramatically cut down people’s drinking time.

I also agree that it was a perfect storm what with what has gone before with covid. A lot of people are taking more of a ‘live for the moment’ attitude, which essentially involves getting pissed and going mad. Obviously the Euros would’ve still been a big event Covid or otherwise, but I don’t think so many people would’ve been in the pubs at 11 for an 8pm kick off.

 

I agree mostly. I think you may have a slightly better view on England fans than I do. I think this would have happened, lockdown or no lockdown. They generally smash up whatever city they happen to be in during a tournament, this time it happened to be London. I don't think every celebrity seemingly ever lording the fact they were at the semi final helped either.

Thinking about it, these English fans must have a brain storm all the time. Love the country so much you've got it tattooed everywhere/smash it up at any opportunity. Love the English hero players/hate them for taking a stand on racism.

It boggles the mind how they get through the day.

 

I'm not sure why people are getting so uptight about a few high-spirited youngsters gate crashing Wembley - the place was half empty anyway

 

Southgate's biggest weakness is making in game changes to counteract changes made during the game by superior opposition. With days of planning and being able to analyse and deconstruct the 6 recent Italy games, Southgate and his back room staff along with the players created a game plan that neutralized Italy for 45 minutes, gave us a 1-0 lead, had Bonucci resorting to a long range hoof and Mancini looking worried and agitated. I dont think as a nation in only its 2nd ever final we can have too many complaints about that. The problem was when Italy adapted their gameplan in real time we were lost. Between them Southgate and the players had no answers to Italy's superior 2nd half tactics and in game intelligence. It's the reason Italy have won 6 major trophies and we've never made a final on foreign soil. Overall Southgate is the 2nd best England manager of all time but he would benefit from an assistant skilled in reading the game and making in game changes. But then you need the players to implement the changes. Southgate made the most obvious switch to a 4 man defence after Italy scored. With hindsight u could say he shouldve done that at half time but would it really have made much difference? At the end of the day Italy's players were technically and tactically better than ours and much more intelligent. I just dont see how we couldve won that game without a big slice of luck. England is a top tier nation in club football and at best a 2nd tier nation internationally. The reasons we havent been able to compete with the top international teams have finally been identified by the FA (albeit it 50 years too late). Both France and Spain have turned round their failed national teams in the last 2 decades winning 6 trophies between them. Let's hope the England DNA programme can do the same for us. In my view in the absence of there being any world class British managers I'd say Southgate is by far the best man for the job. Let's face it the only other remotely qualified Brit is Brendon Rodgers...

 

Not to mention, as HB1 pointed out earlier on in the thread… for all of their supposed penalty prep and his overthinking of it, the Italy keeper makes most of his saves diving to his left, and he dived to his left for the two that were saved as well as Rashford’s. He’s a renowned penalty saver and ended up player of the tournament. Instead he got hung up on ability in training, clearly did no research on the keeper and then put three of the five under immense pressure.

 

Let it go, mate

 

Rashford's penalty was hilarious though. Bloke thinks he's Neymar, he isn't, he doesn't look at the ball once and scuffs it completely. He'd just seen Maguire murder one into the top corner, but he had to try the flashy ********.

 

Yeah, fully agree, it’s just seems that the Italy keeper favours a right footer putting the ball into the right of the goal as it’s slightly easier for them, so makes a lot of saves that way. It doesn’t seem like our kickers were at all aware of that, which makes Southgate a approach to picking the takers even more laughable.

 

The penalty plan was a car crash but Southgate has presided over 2 of our 3 competitive penalty shootout victories. Everyone knows England are sh1te at penalties and any top team would fancy their chances against us. Donnarumma saves 2 in 3 and has never lost a shoot out. I assumed we'd lost as soon as extra time ended. Southgate attempted the impossible and failed.

 

What an insightful and intelligent response.....a true England fan LOL

 

Which is why it makes even mor more absurd to have tinkered with it. I’m working from memory here, but Eric Dier scored our winning penalty against Columbia and he was subbed on while we were still winning so not with a view to just taking a penalty at all.

 

Jeez, no need to insult @Lloyd

 

Southgate was trying to be clever maybe cos he knew how steep the odds were against us. He was also probably trying to protect Sterling from the racists who would have been all over him if he missed. Southgate got it wrong but even if he'd got it right we'd probably still have lost. I don't see how losing a penalty shootout like Robson Venables Hoddle and Sven detracts from what he's achieved as England manager. He's clearly the best option to take us to Qatar. After that I'd imagine everyone will take a breather and reasess. Recent England managers who never lost a shootout: Allardyce, Hodgson, Capello, McLaren, Keegan and GT, all managers who never won a tournament knockout game with England. The main reason England lose to top teams is because our players are not good enough technically or tactically and not strong enough mentally or intellectually.

 

But it's ok for him to insult me right?

 

We're all pals on here but I honestly think calling him an England fan is beyond the pale.

 

haha

 

"Hey FIFA, we'd really like to host the 2030 world cup. Oh and by the way could you change your timing at short notice for the game on Sunday please as we fear English fans will tear up the city and break into the stadium after they've had a few beers. You've seen before what drunken English "fans" can do to a city....Lol . Would a 7am K.O be possible ? Thanks in anticipation. "