Euro 2012: France 1-1 England – XI Conclusions

Chris Wright

12th, June 2012

10 Comments

By Chris Wright

First rule of goalkeeping: Shut your eyes and hope for the best!

1. Chelsea, meet England. England, Chelsea. Seems we have a new blueprint for nullifying technically superior sides in this country and boy does it work a treat!

2. They’ll be frustrated and narky, but as good as France were on the ball, England were just as good without it. There are two sides to this game mon amis, and we’re not very good at one of them.

3. England’s ‘Helms Deep’ tactics may have been a tad lumpy and unenterprising, but jilted/bored fans must realise that they aren’t actually out there playing for our benefit. That’s just what ‘trying to not lose a match’ looks like – get used to it.

4. James Milner definitely should’ve scored his open goal – we’re not disputing that – but let’s not be too hard on the lad, eh? These things happen when you’re trying to get your duff foot around the ball at pace.

5. Defensively speaking, Lescott, Terry, Gerrard, Parker and – dare we say it? – Glen Johnson were all rock solid but thank heavens for set pieces. Where would England be without them? Not sixth in the world rankings, that’s for damn sure. Splendid arching delivery from Gerrard and a header to match from the big bad Lezzer…

6. Save of the night? Hart from Diarra? Hart from Benzema? Nay, ’twas Danny Welbeck getting an errant thigh to Yohan Cabaye’s shot after an 80th minute corner ricocheted around the area. Kept England in it.

7. It tends to get glossed over due to his phenomenal work elsewhere, but Joe Hart is still worryingly suspect when coming to claiming crosses.

8. Call it nitpicking if you will, but we can’t help thinking Roy Hodgson should’ve utilised a sub or two earlier in the second half. Oxlade-Chamberlain impressed but was completely out of steam after an hour. He had the beating of Debuchy (who also put in a hell of a shift for Les Bleus) on several occassions but didn’t have the legs to careen past him – Walcott would’ve had him in tatters pace-wise and, with half an hour to get something right, may have even managed to roll a couple of crosses through the area.

9. Was the second half a bit dull? Try asking this chap…

€100 well spent.

10. He’d just scored a lovely goal to equalise, so why did Samir Nasri have to go and ruin it with such a dickish celebration? After raising his finger to his lips, he apparently shouted ‘shut your mouths’ at the England bench. All a bit needless.

11. A hearty ‘get well soon’ must go out to England goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence, who severed his Achilles during the warm-up. We’re hearing Clemence has already been flown home for surgery and will miss the tournament entirely. Not nice

Anything to add folks? Let it all hang out…

Posted in Euro 2012, Featured, International football

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10 Comments

  1. Lionel says:

    Hi,
    As much as I like this website, I have to say you are wrong on the Nasri fact.
    Nasri’s “celebration” was aimed to the French journalists not the english bench.

    • Chris says:

      @Lionel: Fair dos, I’m just going by what L’Equipe were reporting – sounds like they may have been trying to divert attention elsewhere!

  2. Mr. Chopper says:

    Yeah, Lionel’s right on.

  3. CFC Jay says:

    One thing you forgot to mention was the poor refereeing……..! he got quite a few decisions wrong but the foul on Gerrard on the edge of the box that wasnt given was a serioulsy poor call!
    Overall not a bad result and very happy with the performance. C’mon Eng-er-land!!

  4. Jay says:

    Nasri is going to get stick next season in the EPL. Even if it was at the French Journalists, lets face it, didn’t look good.

  5. Lionel says:

    After the game, L’Equipe journalists asked him who it was aimed to. He replied that it was for them. I don’t like L’Equipe even if they are the most readed sport newspaper in France. They are not objective and often write articles to destabilize french footballers and others.
    I remember how they were telling that Arsenal will not be part of the top 8 in EPL after 5 games.

    Allez les bleus!!

  6. muppets says:

    Yeah the referee was giving us absolutely nothing when it came to numerous obstructions and blocks on the part of the french. I hope to god we don’t get UEFAd.

  7. Mr Sensible says:

    Either way, Nasri is a moaning little bitch.

    The ref really didn’t like England for some reason.

    Listening to Liverpool fans moaning about how useless Welbeck and the Ox were and that Carroll and Downing would have offered so much more was pretty funny.

    Overall a satisfactory performance by England, this game was always gonna be tight, a defeat for either team would have been a really bad result. I like that Woy went for Chamberlin too, I really rate that kid.

  8. Pete says:

    I saw Nasri saying “ferme ta guel” which is French for “Shut your trap” basically. I assumed it was directed to England fans, but wasn’t aware that it was to the French press.

  9. markito says:

    It was definitely targeted to the French press (And especially a few guys at L’Equipe newspaper), and you may think he is disgraceful to celebrate like this, but you may not have read or heard everything they said about him in the last month or so. More than his skills, they criticized the man. They got bitch slapped yesterday for it and today, they are as silent as possible about him.

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