Thetownend.com

Will be a tough game, I think a draw would be a good result.

I would like to see us get at them a bit as I think their back 4 is weak but I can see us playing defensively and trying to use the counter attack.

1-0 France.

2-0 France. England dismal. Will miss the second half thankfully and maybe some of the first depending on the tube!

I'm hoping that we're up for it tonight, I'll be happy with a 1-0 to us.

Take a draw first game up. Think we'll do ok as long as we don't concede early.

1-0 England. Young to score.

A repeat of the last time I saw the Angles against the Gauls live, 2-0 (1991).

I reckon france will win the whole thing. We will lose, and everyone will cry. And stewart downing will start

I simply have no idea whatsoever.

I reckon England should start 6 midfielders.

Imagine the up roar...

I expect England to lose simply on the basis that the French have a stronger XI.

Helplessly Hoping as always.

I think this is true, unfortunately. And I liked Woy so much until now. Putting Downing in the squad was an error, but considering starting him makes me seriously concerned about his ability to judge a player.

just out of interest anyone know how many liverpool players are in the England squad?

I think it's 6. I know this because Joey Barton mentioned it the other day.

No-one should be suprised about picking downing. He'd helpd keep the shape and the discipline a lot better than any other left sided candidate - pure and simple. We aren't going to win any games by over-awing the opposition. We need to be hard to beat, and hard to break down and take our chances as and when they come. The simple fact is there are no other left sided options as disciplined or as experienced in that role as Downing, so he has to start.

Also heard that he had the second highest chance creation record in the premiership last season, so the No-assist malarky

Not confident, will take a draw.

I'll got for 1-1.

Still looking forward to it though and gonna leave work early so I can watch it.

2-1 defeat.

It worked for Swindon last season in almost every thread!

Oh, I'm not being objective about this. I know that he's a natural left mid, and does a basic and disciplined job there. But I dislike him, and him being in the England squad ahead of players I prefer only increases that.

Would much rather go for the 'attack is the best form of defence' thing and pick someone else. It'd probably increase our chances of not getting a result but sod it, I don't like Downing.

In the stats he has the highest % of shots off target in the league, so if our one chance falls to him we're screwed.

I haven't got a clue how we will play tonight - hoping for a 4-3-3 with 2 advanced wingers.

I think Barry and Lampard did us a favour dropping out.

It might not be pretty but I am backing Hodgson to get us playing effective football., All in all this is the first time I have been interested in how the England team do for quite a while.

Barry, agree, but not Super Frank.

Why is the bloke so undervalued as an England player? He's absolutely top draw.

Because, for me, Lampard is one of the "old guard"/"golden generation" who have achieved precisely fuck all on the international stage.

I'd much rather have Lampard playing and wearing the captains armband than Gerrard.

I agree in some ways but you could also say the same about Paul Scholes and there was a campaign to get him to come out of international retirement.

Lampard could still do a job for England but he does need players around him who are better at winning the ball than he is but he does read the game well and can pass and shoot well too.

But, this seems to be a very low key finals for England with almost no anticipation of England doing well so perhaps its a good time to blood younger players in a finals stage of a major competition.

After all, I doubt anyone, even the most optimistic of England fans can honestly think we will win the tournament. We all hope but we don't actually believe.

I would just love it, love it if we gave them a good beating this evening. Being massive underdogs will suit England.

I'm not expecting anything great from England, but you never know they might surprise a few people.  I already have butterflies.

I think it's going to be a tight game, but I can't see where our firepower is coming from. 1-0 France :(

Where's the stunners thread? Can't wait to see jutty's choices shot down by the flash  ;)

Think we will be lucky to get a draw, which wont be to damaging. Just hope we don't get thumped.
Heart says 2-2 head says 2-0 loss.

Think a lot of people are overrating the French, yet to see any evidence this crop of players can play cohesively well together when it counts.

Having said that we're no great shakes and it's tough to see where our goals will come from bar a piece of individual skill from Young or Gerrard.

1-1.

I'm looking forward to this, early finish from work and straight to the pub. Really hoping we can put up a fight and would be very happy with a draw.

1-1

i see (via Tans twitter retweet) that Oxlade-Chamberlain starts tonight. i think he's the closest thing we have to a wildcard player.

Sounding a bit Keegan-esque with that!

Call me old-fashioned, but the frogs are going to get battered tonight.

Downing will tear you apart again!!

I can see this being a tight game though, with one team scoring the only goal. I do think that we do have enough to just edge the french out.

you own a scottish takeaway in france?

I see the Ox is starting instead of Downing

oxlade-chamberlain set to start instead of downing ssn report

Hope the Chamberlain rumours are true. He has to play imo.
I'll go for 1-0 England,young scoring.

Twitter says this is the team:

Hart, Johnson, Terry, Lescott, Cole, Milner, Gerrard, Parker, The Ox, Young, Welbeck.

Well, from what's available

I like it

same here

Yep - that is about the best starting 11 from what he has there. if only he had taken Micah Richards instead of Johnson...

And if does go tits up, the lump that is Andy Carroll is there to come on a miss a few

Can't argue with the selection. Shame I'll miss this 'live', going to be stuck at work (like most I suppose).

My, originally genuine, feeling of not giving a shit is disintegrating rapidly.

The England squad visited an orphanage in Warsaw yesterday:

'It was heartbreaking to see their sad little faces with no hope', said Pavel, aged 6

Haven't read that joke before. Jeeeeeeesus!

I like Oxlade Chamberlain. Looks much better than Walcott did at the same age.

I was the same as you up until last week.  Now the tournament has started I can't wait.

Haha, exactly the same. I'm well up for it now

I'm off for a pre-match dump - got to clear some space for the Heineken.

Then it's donning the shirt, down to Baileys Corner in Tralee and let the fun begin!!

It was a bit of a downer there last night after the Croatia game

1-1 i think young to score

What is everyone's beer of choice this afternoon?

I've got some whiskey for this one.

Singha

can't decide whether i'm gonna have a drink or not, i've just made a red thai curry paste and will probably fill my face with that at half time - i suspect that'll set my taste buds off and i'll make a decision then

Sainsbury's Red Label tea. Or, if I'm feeling a bit fruity, some Orange & Pineapple cordial.

I love being on the wagon.

I'm on Golding champion by badger, lovely!

Bastards. I am on a course this evening and it starts at 5pm. Joy

Only a woman or a gay would pick that day and time to do training? I mean the person who arranged it, not you.

was arranged 3 months ago to be fair. 9 hours in the classroom, can't wait

That stuff is horrid. Had a night on it last week - Never. Again.

I'm rather partial to Singha myself, although I can see it can be an acquired taste

Lloris - Debuchy, Rami, Mexes, Evra - Cabaye, Diarra, Malouda - Nasri, Benzema, Ribéry

The France XI, Keep Benzema quiet and I reckon we'll win.

I'm being reluctantly dragged down the pub to watch this. Truth be told I do want to go, but only to see my mates. Anyway, no doubt we'll do something incredible and I'll start to show that like all football fans I'm fickle.

1-1 : Pen to England after a Gerrard dive & a Cabaye free kick for France

I expect this will be depressingly accurate.

I'm with Barry.  Will no doubt jump on the bandwagon if it starts rolling.  But it won't.  Bored of England already, before we've even kicked a ball.

PERONI and Export in the lovely Captain Jacks pub opposite my North Devon Surfing retreat.

Beck's for a change and its quite nice.  I've had a pre-match dump and am hoping the euro stunners get posted in time to have a swift pre-match wristy.

sounds quality, how long are you there for?

Flasheart, are they showing it on truevisions yet, do you know?

Im slightly twisted on cheap rum and coke.

Dunno, I'm watching a stream.

I'm torn - usually England are over hyped and over rated and I quite enjoy seeing them fail and all the plastic every 2 year 'die hard' football fans crying into their carling.

However, people wanted Rednkapp and not Roy - despite Roy being a better manager, so I'd like to see him actually do well and prove people wrong.

On the flip side I still think the majority of the player are over hyped, over rated shite.

Torn.

So, how are we playing?

It's okay, nothing much to talk about.

Loads of empty seats.

should have burried that

Ahh Milner. Rounded the keeper, missed.

Milner should have scored.

Ashley Young is tosh

Can anyone give me a link to a live stream that actually works?  Everyone that I've tried gives me an error message.

Do you have sopcast? If not, get it downloaded and installed----- channell 116230

http://www.itv.com/sport/football/euro/match/france-england-3472052/

http://tykestv.eu/channel2.php

Lescott picking up Ribery... There's a close up we could do without, normal faces are also available

yeaahhhhhhh

Woot

Ha.  Just managed to find it on one of the US cable channels and then we score!

Lescott looks like he's had a hairspray-fire accident.

good save there

balls

crap keeping

Defence too slow then.

Only one team wanting to play football in this

We're playing too deep.

Come on Half-Time.

need half time badly at the moment

Ah it wasn't that bad.

Would have settled for being level at HT before kick off.

Also nice to see the 2000 England fans taking up so much room ;)

Thought we looked quite good at times, although were giving the ball away needlessly too often.

Giving the frogs too much time on the ball though and we need to push up more.

This ref is fucking me off.

I see Platini has had a quiet word with the Ref before the game ;)

Cabaye should have been booked for the second of his 'cute' but very professional fouls and the ref is basically giving them every decision.  Wanker.

...and another one. This time Ribery.

The ref and linesmen are cunts.

Bet the ref has a nice retirement fund after this

You can already see what is going to happen, the ref (aka Platini's bitch) is going to give them a dodgy penalty at the end of the game.

Its good to know that its not town who get shit refs

Parkers having a great game

@Joey7Barton  Hope Hodgson brings Rooney on now. Needs freshening up a bit.

We could still nick this. Strangely enough I think Carroll would be a good substitution for Wellbeck about now.

Great block from him.

The ref is a cock.

fucking wanker ref

Marvin Martin?  good old French name

Have to say I think this ref would fit in well at L2 level, he's fucking rubbish

Has Henderson touched the ball since coming on?

yes, he won the ball in a chellenge, the ref gave a free kick

I think he gave that free kick for the first tackle, which was a foul. Come on, the ref's made a few mistakes, for both sides, but he's also got a lot right, like calling the Gerrard dive correctly.

Been a very pedestrian performance, especially by France. Looked out of ideas from around the 50th minute.  England did ok though, should be happy with their performance.

You don't mind him being rubbish as long as he's rubbish for both sides.

He's favouring the French...End of.

1-1...Good point against 12 men

Worst game of the tournament by far.  England played for a draw and got it.  If commentators were annoyed with Portugal parking the bus, they should feel more annoyed about England parking the lorry

The ref let far too much go. Ordinarily you'd praise a ref for that, but most of them were blatant fouls.

I was also getting very pissed off at the constant cut-away to crowd/player/replay shots when the ball was still in play.

Gerrard didn't dive, there was a foul

What Gerrard did do was make a meal of it, but that doesn't nullify the foul. The ref did not call that correctly

Encouraging.

Not to upset, France despite their possesion were limited to long shots, the team looked organised and can counter at pace, also a big threat from set plays. Not disheartened at all.

And this is a side without our supposedly best player.

Ref was about as good as the majority I saw ref us this/ last season.

Good defensive display from England.  Shame Rooney was banned, he could have made the difference up front.
 
The ref was much too lenient.

Watching on ESPN - Michael Ballack is being a right cunt ripping into England and some American is sticking up for us.

Dull game.

England will be a better team once they stop selecting Gerrard. He's not a team player.

What he is, is a diving cheat. If he happened to not be english, and played against them the english media would call him exactly what he is, a cheat.

Having said that the rest of the team did well, fair play to them.  Typical Hodgson inspired tight ship.

AOC comes across very well, nice to see he isn't just another cunt who plays for England.

Thought Gerrard was MoM today?  ???

I also thought he did well, not sure about MOM though.

Some great interceptions and some classy balls played

No surprise

Decent point against a decent side, sets us up nicely for the next 2 games. Well done Roy and the boys.

Decent result, plenty of positives as well.

They're not exactly up to Swindon's quality, are they!

Happy with that result, it was always going to be a cagey game though. Agree about the ref though what a cock.

Gerrard, Parker and Milner did ok, the defence played well, the only minus points for me were Johnson at right back who looked lost and not interested most of the game and a very hit and miss performance from Joe Hart, brilliant one minute, dire the next.

The rest played quite well but would have liked to have seen Welbeck get more of the ball played to feet around the box.

Not bad at all overall though a pretty fair result.

Oh and yes the ref was awful.

I know you're after a bite, but you really are a prick.

Well said.

yeppers

I agree that it was the worst game of the tournament, but England needed to park the bus, France are a better side so a point is a decent result. If we'd have been more open I think they'd have beaten us.

It's game one of three, there was no need for England to go out there like a bull in a china shop.

Just giving a netural view.  My team Poland are a lot worse then England and i can admit it.  We were awful on Friday and if we play like that again tomorrow the Russians will win by 5 or 6.

Just amuses me with commentators that when Portugal play negative everyone criticises them.  Yet when England park the lorry and get a point, they are said to have played well, and no one metions how negative England played

That is all

Fair enough, can't argue with that

Pleasing...patient and encouraging.

Lescott was superb for me......two negatives for me.....Ashley Young was wasted stuck up front waiting for that elusive ball,rather his pace and trickery on the wing....the other being why bring Walcott on in the 91st min :hmmm:

Good draw.

Hardly parked the fucking bus.Watch it again,we had no more players behind the ball when defending than they did.I have come to the conclusion that i fucking hate english fans.They sit waiting for shit performances just so they can moan.

Let's hope for loads of red cards and injuries in the Sweden-Ukraine game.

Don't think it was nearly as dull as some are making out, I think some are still expecting too much.

There were some good passages of play from England with some good individual skills on show.

I wasn't bored, it was comfortable viewing more than anything. I'd rather England be methodical than reckless purely for the pleasure of fans of other countries entertainment.

If we'd pulled off a performance like that against Germany at the last World Cup everyone would be raving.

I enjoyed that. Bodes well. Ref was awful.

England are the only side this tournament where the director has not cut to some attractive woman in the stands. Not that I've seen anyway.

IIIINNNGGGEEERLLLUUNNNDDD

Quite encouraged by that.

Main change i'd make for the next game is to leave Welbeck on the bench, if we go with same formation then Carroll would do better job holding the ball up. Defoe also looked quite lively but generally has looked better coming on late in games during his England career.

totally agree with that-he's made a career out of cheating

Good, fairly typical, England tournament performance. Milner was crap and strangely Joe Hart looked a wee bit dodgy at times.

Had a really knowledgeable Irish commentator who said: 'A lot of these players are on view in the Premier League each week - such as Ribery'

I'd tend to agree with what Jan says, but I thought Gerrard was brilliant tonight. A surprisingly disciplined performance from him.

Typical england display, we looked okish at the back but I cannot see where the goals are coming from.

Milner looked clumsy and did Henderson touch the ball?

Not disappointed, we certainly didn't see the tournament winners out there tonight.

The ref reminded me of my favourite Sunday league ref from years back.....he let everything go.

Missing Friday night but not too bothered.......hopefully we will get stronger!...pleaseeeeee.

I'd have taken the draw if offered before kick off, so a good result IMO. We never seem to start tournaments well, but I think this was one of our better opening performances for quite a few years! Encouraging to say the least, onto Friday now! We're missing a goalscorer (Rooney?)

I keep thinking about the 'parking the bus' comments. Partly because I too thought we should have been pushing up further and was surprised to hear the commentators commenting on our 'bravery' for pushing up as much as we did. I didn't quite get it so made note of watching.

England did actually push up quite far, a bit too far for my liking. France failed to take advantage of that and seemed happy instead to pass it about sideways and wait for a breakthrough. They took so fucking long pushing up that we got men behind the ball.

I thought the game was dull. I also thought all of Chelsea latter stage Champions League games were dull and they won the fucking thing.

Decent result, dull performance.

I'd have taken that before the game. I don't think the rest of Europe are going to be shitting themselves at the prospect of playing either of us. Wellbeck MOM for me - he's got a great touch and looks very comfortable. Both Ashley's were shite. Gerrard had a good first half but was shit in the 2nd.

Two poor teams on that showing, Ukraine and Sweden will fancy their chances against both. Ukraine look rather good on this evenings performance.

You must be watching a different game...

Agree about Milner...he seems to have lost that sparkle,a lot of huff and puff but no end product from him.

Sweden look good...

....but that's down to their quality shirts.

More than happy with that first game up. Defended pretty well and looked relatively comfortable. Would obviously nice to add a cutting edge but could have scored more than the 1 we got. Would gave taken a draw before the game and that's what we ended up with. My expectations are alot lower than some admittedly. I believe more realistic. I don't expect us to play like Brasil in 1970 although I wouldn't complain if we did.

Jan - Stevie G is no bigger "cheat" than many other footballers. Oh how Scotland would kill for a player if his ilk.

What's the relevance of this statement?

Oh yeah you're British I forgot! Apologies.

No I'm genuinely trying to work out what Scotland, or any other country, needing a player like Gerrard has to do with it.  I think it's completely irrelevant.

Well your point seemed to be that England played ok despite playing Gerrard who "isn't a team player."

Scotland and "any other country" are teams right?

Basically I'm disagreeing and saying we played pretty well partly because of Stevie G rather than despite him.

Ok I see the relevance in that point, well done.  That's your opinion, fair enough. I still think England will be a better team when Gerrard is no longer selected. Happy to wait and see.

The problem here is with your 'Scotland and any other countries are teams' point, as it's completely irrelevant to the conversation.

Feel like Bill Hicks during the 'Freebird' set at the moment.  Cos I'm such an angsty bastard.  ;-)

i think gerrard should have been made captain years ago and had the team built around him so to speak. 

It was more of a dig as I'm sure you realise mate.

A Scotsman can't really be calling the England captain a cheat and expect not to get any stick back.

Forgive me confusing you though.

Need Johnson and Cole to push up more in the next game.

need someone to be more available when we win the ball.  milner's back pass to hart was a massive example of this.  we need to make sure that there is somebody other than welbeck, or perhaps caroll who is ahead of our third of the pitch so we have a chance of keeping possesion once we win it

Pace on the wings is the answer.

There were times in the game where we did string together a few passes.Not an excuse but this is hodgsons 3rd game and he is basically in a position where he is still blooding in players.Add to that he was without 5 first team players i think it was a good effort.France are decent,anyone else get that result today and people will compliment them.

 
Who does he play for ;D

Solid performance tonight.

We have to remember that this was achieved without our most potent attacking force in Rooney.

Evra said we did "A Chelsea", i think i would be happy for us to win a tournament like this as the chances of it happening in my life time are quite remote otherwise. Although i think our chances of winning it this time are somewhat remote too!

Quietly impressed with Woy so far

Shame Bale is Welsh, we could've had Bale and Pace on the wings :)

Not much to add to what has already been said really.  Crap ref but overall a good result.  Looking forward to Friday now.

Actually feeling quite positive after that performance. If we play like that against the Swedes and Ukraine we can beat both of them. Then it's just luck of the draw for the quarters.

At this point I'd be delighted with a quarter final appearance.

Happy with a draw, wasn't a classic game, neither side wanting to give anything away.
We defended well and held our shape and reduced France to shooting from distance (unfortunately one of them went in).

Was also nice to see every single player singing the national anthem. Can't remember the last time I saw that.

People will say we need to be more attacking, have more flair and invention, keep the ball better.

To them I say poppy cock.

Play to our strength not weaknesses. We won't out Spanish a Spain. Lets win ugly with a load of 1 0 s.

Good start in my book.

I was actually quite surprised with the performance yesterday, personally i thought it was a good team performance considering the players we have.
I though Welbeck did a good job up front, Parker and Lescott our stand out performers.
Yes we did park the bus but we were always going to. My only dissapointment was the fact we chose to sit back straight after we scored and invited the French onto us, and look what happened.
It always looks as if England are nervous compared to premiership football, mainly down to the pressures of the fucking english media.

I dont agree with some people saying they don't see where the goals will come from, personally i think when we break we look very dangerous, and if the ref and the linesman from the 1st half wernt fucking blind it could of been a whole lot better for us.

Plenty of positives, just need to become more confident and play like they do week in week out in the premiership.

To give him an extra cap.

Watching Ukraine score twice against Sweden with a couple of Shevchenko headers, is it time for Andy Carroll to start against them on Friday?

Andy Carroll is easily as good as Shevchenko...

Yeah, Taras Shevchenko (when it comes to football).

[url width=428 height=600]http://winningateverything.com/files/2012/06/LA_sportsmanship.jpg[/url]

Thats ace  :clap:

Just a shame they are fugly.

The pic there is an old one.  The Rugby World Cup logo under the flag is a bit of a giveaway.

Anyone know where there was a decent atmosphere in Swindon Monday night?

Pachas

Apparently TPs was good on Monday. Going there for the Friday game.