Surprised it is only 6 pens and don't think he has ever missed one, forgot beckham used to to them when he first started, considering he is not a 100 % striker then it is an achievment but don't think he is anywhere as good as lineker or a fit Owen or a fit shearer who all did it at the big tournaments, but that is just my opinion and you can only score against what is in front of you.
As an out and out goalscorer he's not as good imo (yet he now tops the charts) but he plays in a different role and is far more creative than any of them.
There was 'technically contact' according to the 'worst ****ing sports analyst team ever' on ITV. Didn't care it was a dive, just that bang average Wayne got his 50th goal against another team of pretty low quality who made us look stupid most of the night.
In what World are Swizerland low quality opposition? ... not long ago they were above us in the rankings.
This is getting worrying I have to agree with another statement you have made! The other thing you have to give him credit for is no matter how he puts himself about he rarely gets injured, some of this is luck and some of this is working hard off the pitch and playing with his mind.
I thought Swiss played well especially in first half movement was very good especially when they didnt have the ball ! I did notice that Englands shape was much better when they had a second striker on was a good strike from Kane too.
Shame he hasn't really performed on the major stage since 2004. Great record but even Rooney would probably swap some goals for more success a World Cup or Euros.
Played 8 won 8. Thought we did well last night and something to build on. Looking forward to the Euro's.
England were probably given the easiest group to qualify from. I think it was a mistake to increase the finals tournament from 16 to 24 as it has made the qualifying process a little meaningless in some groups. Having said that, there is a possibility that the Netherlands won't qualify. Scotland losing to Georgia mean their hunt for a play-off spot is much tougher but at least we could have 3 of the 4 home nations in the finals.
Going to 24 teams is mad, i loved it when it was 8, every game meant something and nearly always came down to the last day of qualification, its now seen as failure if you don't qualify and not success if you do. Would be nice if England get a 100% perfect record, not sure if that has been achieved before
Getting to the last 16 of the World Cup before losing in extra time to eventual finalists Argentina, or the quality of teams that the players play for (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_national_football_team#Current_squad) suggests otherwise.
Switzerland's movement was far better than England's. Behrami played some half-back come right-back role - Shaqiri played in a 'ALL OVER THE BLOODY PITCH' role.
It's not mad if you run UEFA and need to curry favour with as many national associations as possible to keep rising up the football admin ladder. A model pioneered by dear Sepp. I agree that it does nothing for the quality of the tournament, but that's a secondary consideration.
As supporters of a regular qualifier it is more than likely that your opinion would be something along those lines, that its stupid to increase numbers. However, as a supporter of a nation that has never qualified, I am over the moon at the change. As long as its not the same for the WC. I see no issue in letting some of the smaller nations qualify as qualifying for these major tournaments are like winning the tournaments for the big teams, a celebration of its own. Ironically however, it is possible that Iceland, Northern Ireland and Wales could have qualified without the increased number of teams!
Isn't the first round of the main event going to be pedestrian as well? 24 teams so 6 groups of 4 which means only 8 teams get booted out before round 2? Assume it will be structured like Mexico86.
I was thinking about that, I assume it goes down to 16 and not straight to 8 and they want to fit it all in in 3 weeks in 2020
Yes though the counter argument is that countries who might ordinarily have been top 2 in the group have (stupidly) relaxed too much this time around with 3 chances now available to either qualify or get a play-off. That has enabled the Iceland and Wales of this world to capitalise. Yeah there's a Round of 16 this time around and it's like WC86.
Looks like it's a safe bet that Luke Shaw will miss Euro 2016. Just had his right leg broken big style against PSV.
That is really bad news for both club and country, I wouldn't wish it on anybody I've actually seen worse ... A lower leg break doesn't necessarily mean an extremely lengthy spell out, he could well be ok for the latter stages depending on the severity.
Hope you are correct but can't see Roy taking anyone who has just come back from a lengthy injury and not Upto fitness, really feel sorry for the bloke for such a nothing tackle, Get well and fit soon, how nice it was to the the whole stadium get to their feet clapping went he got stretchered off
Awful injury, hope he gets back to fitness soon. Also feel for Moreno as it was a fantastic tackle, just one with an awful outcome
Unfortunately it's a double break which I presume is both lower leg bones rather than the same on twice but it's not clear from the article I read. Six months out sounds about right but he has youth on his side and I'd say less rather than more. A single break would have allowed him to start strengthening a little earlier. An ex teammate had a simple break that only kept him off work for 6-8 weeks although he still limped around site for quite a while after that. From memory that was in January and he started the next season as normal but I'm not certain about either event. Treatment has changed a lot since, especially sport injuries but I doubt bones can knit much faster than they did back then.
I think what narks me is Behrami gets sent off and publicly castigated for causing basically no injury to Ayew. Yet Moreno snaps a bloke's leg in half and gets nothing. For me there should be scope for the 'harm caused' as well as potential harm to be a consideration of the referee too. If you've tackled someone and broken their leg like that you've gone over the top and should be sent off.
That would be hard to do though because there are a lot of leg breaks that are a result of clean tackles, i.e the ones caused by awkward landings etc. And how bad does the injury have to be? On first glimpse some injuries look a lot worse than they are too, Aguero couldn't run on saturday after he got injured by Palace but was able to return tonight.
There's no hard and fast rules, maybe I should have simply said "I hope it's less rather than more". 'Similar' actually is rarely the case, there are often major differences but I hope it's encouraging when I say the force of the tackle appears less brutal than most leg breakers I've seen be it on TV or on the field. I've witnessed several.
Manuel pablo (Depor player) had same thing happen in 2001, took him 1 year to come back, I'm sure that 14 years on medical practices would have advanced for recovery time? He is now 39 and still playing Good luck to Shaw.
Last night was the single greatest night of my life, cannot wait for France now! Stadium was rocking and we outplayed the Greeks, think we could surprise a few in France
