Austria v France was brilliant and Ralf Rangnick deserves a lot of credit. Has Euro 2024 come alive? And will England fans ever stop moaning?
Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
How good was Austria v France?
Caramba! That match would have made a terrific final!
Rarely, if ever, have I seen such intensity, over a 100 minutes in an international. And the slickness of passing and movement, from both sides. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that both teams are a cut above.
I believe I’m right in saying that one from their group could play England, if England were to top their group.
If that is the case, I’d rather take Holland, goodness me! It was a bit like Austria had some top-drawer performance-enhancing stuff yet France’s was even better!
Remember Portugal played Greece in the first match back on ‘O4 , then it turned out to be the final too, I would not at all mind a repeat. Tremendous Monday night entertainment.
I never saw Joules Kounde play like that in La Liga, blimey.
If the top brass simply let the coach get on with it, unlike Bayern or United – that’s what Ralf can evidently give you.
Peter, Andalucia
…Ralf Rangnick. For someone that isn’t meant to know he is doing, he doesn’t half do a good impression of someone that knows what he is doing.
What next? Does he know his way around open heart surgery?
Parmjeet, Gravesend
…Ralf has got that Austria team absolutely singing. What a performance. They were unlucky not to get a result against a somewhat tame France side which apart from Mbappe looked a bit lost in attack. Thuram saw plenty of the ball but was always a bit slow to release his shots while Dembele was pretty pointless on the right. Kante and the centre backs shone which is credit to Austria who were a constant threat and carried the sort of pressing industry we expect from a Rangnick team.
I thought the ref was too quick to call fouls though and France got away with some ridiculous play acting. This was in contrast to the England v Serbia game where I think the ref allowed the Serbians too much leeway which resulted a lot of aggressive challenges even with the 19 fouls they racked up. I did really like the yellow card for Mbappe though when he purposely stopped the game to allow Deschamps to make subs, should have given one to the manager as well for his protests.
I think it’s notable also that in France they see this team and its manager as too conservative, and that a better coach could allow these players to flourish. Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it. Seemingly most countries where the team is considered among the favourites have this kind of discourse. Players and performances are criticised even after good results, nothing but tournament dominance is considered good enough. Its not just England that treats is national team this way.
So Johnny Bruff, its not quite accurate to say this is why people don’t like us, perhaps that’s why you don’t like us and that’s fine, but as a football culture we’re not so different to France, Germany, Spain, Brazil etc. I think its also worth mentioning on your other point on why the English are hated. The Scots were heavily involved in all the enslavement and colonising your spoke of and benefitted from that period massively. So whilst you’re correct that history does not look kindly on the English, and rightly so, maybe ask yourself if knowledge of Scotland’s involvement in said atrocities would effect your view of the Tartan Army.
Dave, Manchester
Deschamps out
1-0, Deschamps should be sacked with the talent he has in that squad!
Mbappe
Brian (tongue firmly in cheek) BRFC
Stop playing out from the back!
This modern obsession with playing out from the back is approaching madness. On Monday alone, both Ukraine and Belgium got punished for it early in their matches. Ukraine never recovered – it changed the whole course of the match. Romania were lifted unbelievably by it and never let go.
Then Belgium goes and does the exact same thing, early on as well. Needless to hand an inferior opponent such belief.
Modern managers are obsessed by it, yet they rarely have the players – even at international level – to make it less than risky. They all think they’re c. 2010 Barca.
Players should be given the latitude to use their judgment. Sometimes launching it is ok. Play out when it makes sense, smash it into touch when it doesn’t.
Scott, LFC Toronto
MORE ON EURO 2024 FROM F365:
👉 Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs but no England players named in Euro 2024 team of the tournament so far
👉 Kante embarrasses Henderson again with phenomenal performance for stuttering France
👉 Lukaku descends further into Belgium madness as Thierry Henry prepares to pick up the phone again
Oh England fans…FFS
Good lord, is there any other international fanbase full of so many moaning whingers than the English national team? You’d think England had been knocked out of the tournament. Every single mail full of negativity after they WON.
Some of it doesn’t even make sense. Take Mark. England are at the same time ‘over-hyped’ and were ‘underwhelming’. Well, which is it Mark? Either they’re a really good team who underperformed (in which case, not over-hyped) or they’re a a decent team who got a solid result (not underwhelming then). But they can’t be both.
Foden and Kane, off the back of outstanding seasons, face calls to be dropped. After one game. Which England won. Someone doesn’t fancy them to beat Slovenia, ranked 57th in the world (sandwiched between Paraguay and Iraq). This despite England not once failing to beat a team that lowly ranked in competitive games under Southgate.
As a Scot, I naturally don’t support England. But I don’t hate England either. My wife is English, as is my sister in law. My kids were born in England and will probably grow up supporting England. There are times I even think “Maybe I should just accept it, cheer along with the wife and kids”. But god damn, you make it so difficult. Even if I were to ignore the sizable section of the fanbase which is deeply unpleasant (which I don’t), you are just all always whining.
The only time I’ve ever enjoyed England in a tournament was 2018.Why? Because England fans were just having fun. Three lions, waistcoats, inflatable unicorns. It was all, you know, fun? Before and after, it’s all been either moaning, rioting, or flames up the bum.
As a Scot, I would give absolutely anything to see my team play in major tournaments on a regular basis (and not get spanked). You are all so incredibly lucky and privileged to follow a team where you get that. Most of us don’t. And yet instead of enjoying that fact and embracing just being a part of it, it’s always just utter doom and gloom. So come on England fans, just enjoy it. Who knows, it might even help your team.
Oh, and as I write this, Belgium are about to LOSE to Slovakia. But yeah, keep moaning about how badly you won.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
…Crikey, there’s a lot of glass half full mail boxers out there aren’t there, I mistakenly thought that we’d won only or second opening match at the Euros; the only previous one being by (checks notes) Southgate in ‘21!
Prior to the Southgate era my two favourite tournaments were the WC ‘90 and Euro ‘96 tournaments which I’m sure everyone knows we fell at the Semi Final stage. We drew both opening matches.
International football is the purest form of the game these days: no financial doping, no asterisks, no tribal dick swinging. Surely everyone should be enjoying a quadrennial event rather than questioning why we didn’t smash the first team we play 4-0?
I’ll be flying out to Germany on Wednesday to enjoy the atmosphere and vibes of the first plague and politically free tournament we’ve had for 8 years. I’m not lucky enough to have an England v Denmark match ticket but will be watching some live football in the form of Ukraine v Slovakia.
Just try to enjoy the football; the odds are that England won’t win the tournament. That isn’t down to the manager, it’s down to the fact there are a lot of good international teams who can beat each other on any given day due to the lack of financial influence (relative I know as prominent FA’s can invest in academies but it’s the closest you’ll get to a level playing field)
Brian BRFC
MORE ON ENGLAND AT EURO 2024 FROM F365:
👉 Top 10 England scapegoats for their now sadly inevitable Euro 2024 failure
👉 Ranking England’s 15 benchwarmers on their chances of gatecrashing Gareth Southgate’s first XI
👉 Jude Bellingham and his ‘hero balls’ not even England’s best player
England are a reflection on their manager
Southgate manages like he played. The players can be proactive, but unfortunately, they have to play as the manager directs.
England stunned the Italians 4 years ago, who were on the ropes once we scored, but, instead of substituting then (to include Grealish) and continue the attacking approach, the manager bottled it, leaving the opposition to go into the dressing room at half time only one goal down.
The same thing happened against Serbia and they, and the 2020 Italians returned after the break a totally different team.
I had a horrible feeling that England were going to be humiliated in this tournament’s group stages. We were lucky on Sunday night. Let’s hope lessons will have been learned, but with this manager, I doubt it.
Come on Jude, Trent etc, prove all us doom merchants wrong!! I’m 80 this year and would so love to go to my grave with more than just the memory of the boys of ‘66 to accompany me
Malky
England’s belief and some perspective
I’ll try to stay as rational as usual but my two month old son died last night and I’m using this as a way to distract my mind for 20 minutes so please forgive anything stupid I say.
(All our love to you – Ed)
I’ve said at every major tournament that England will never win. They have the talented players and for once they play as a team but they have always lacked the belief and mentality they can win it. Getting drawn against France or Italy etc makes England and it’s players and fans nervous. That’s the part that’s wrong.
At the 2002 World Cup Scolari said upon Brasils chances against the other big nations: “It doesn’t matter who we face. We can win. We play a game of beauty and enjoyment and when you play this way you cannot lose.”
England don’t believe they can win. They say it in a fake it til you make it kind of way. But they feel scared and nervous at drawing certain teams. That mentality is what has never been changed. You’re lucky in a sense because Bellingham doesn’t have that thanks to his time at Madrid he plays the game he enjoys playing and doesn’t think about that opposition.
When this is fixed with every player, you’ll see England win a major tournament. Until then you’ll see disappointment
Thanks for reading and I hope everyone and their family are well
Lee (yes that one)
You worked on this, Trent?
I see Trent has hit back on his performance. I’ll just quote this bit: “This is something that may seem brand new, but it’s not, we’ve been working very hard on this role for the past year. A lot of prep’s gone into it, a lot of information, a lot of learning and a lot of analysing has gone into it.”
Christ. If that’s true, that’s even worse. A year’s worth of planning and working… did the combined mental acuity of player, manager and Ben White-baiting assistant not realise that it wasn’t working at any stage? I like the lad, but long range passing isn’t all there is to being a midfielder.
Anyway, at least I’m *sure* they’ll stop parting themselves on the back now and actually pick a midfielder for midfielder now, along with a winger for the wing.
Badwolf (Oh no they won’t)
Ten German Bombers is….fine?
Ughh it’s 5.06am here in New Zealand and the latest piece of drivel from Johnny Nic has hooked and reeled me in. I’ve taken the bait and here I am. So what’s in good ‘ol John’s crosshairs this week – football chanting. Oh yay! Let’s have a look at what Johnny is so up in arms about.
Let’s get it straight – if the chanting is racist, homophobic etc then I fully condemn it but Johnny has decided he wants to have a pop at England fans singing the classic ditty “10 German Bombers” and I can’t let that slide.
Firstly this song is neither racist, sexist, homophobic, and has no religious overtones to it whatsoever so no issue there. So what is old Saint Nic’s issue with it? Some German’s may be offended? Well sorry if they are but I highly doubt many people would take offence and if they do, well sorry lads. 80 years ago this month my grandfather landed in a wooden glider behind enemy lines just hours before the troops came ashore on D-Day and thankfully he survived the war but many many young men never came home.
And a lot of people in little old England owe a massive debt to The Few (the pilots of fought in the Battle of Britain) who bravely went up day after day to engage the Luftwaffe over the southern coast of England to stop them gaining air superiority and thus being able to launch a cross channel invasion.
Maybe Johnny Nic should be somewhat thankful that the “RAF from England shot them down” as if they hadn’t then potentially we wouldn’t be having this debate today as we’d all be living under the boot heel of Nazi oppression.
So if the worst thing is a few pissed up England fans singing a song about stopping an oppressive enemy force for invading and bringing death and destruction to the British homeland then I say let them go for it. Sing it loud and proud lads and honour those brave pilots who sacrificed themselves so that we could live in the kind of freedom that allows Johnny Nic to write his f**king nonsense and allows me to get all up in arms about it.
Peter Stone
Source : Football365.com