Bolton Wanderers Forum The-Wanderer.co.uk

Ronaldo, a penalty, now that's a surprise.....and David de Gea. Got to feel for Hiero but sympathy ain't any good. Should be a good second half.

Spain's first two goals were right out of the Big Sam playbook

Football is mint.

What. A. Game.

Totally cracking game. Ronaldo is six foot one and thirteen stone plus. He goes to ground like a pensioner dancing on ice. I don't really care who qualifies from their group; somebody must, but ever since Eusabio and Torres retired for them I've never liked Portugal. I didn't like Luis Figo, but compared to Ronaldo he was a likeable chap. If Ronaldo han't been Ronaldo, would the penalty or free kick have been given or have I been reading too much Pride and Prejudice?

p.s. Spain's 3rd goal...wow!

Prufrock wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:26 pm

This is more like it!

Was saying this avvo that it'd be a drab goalless draw. I'm good at this.

How's De Gea getting on with his concussion, by the way?

Ronaldo is a diving cheat. Great player and fantastic free kick but a dirty cheating bastard.

Lucky enough to have seen all the games so far and Germany and Brazil both play today. Some odd reffing standards in play with a lot of aggression being allowed without sanction. Two penalties missed so far, one by none other than Messi, and some decent football. As ever, the entertainment is great. Thought the Socceroos were very unlucky against France. Bring it on..

Germany 0 Mexico 1. Now there's a result for you... Is there a better sight than Manuel Neuer picking the ball out of the net?

Cracking game, and cracking performance from Mexico. God Germany losing is funny. Forgot what it felt like.

And now the Yodelers get a draw with the Samba boys, oh boy, this is some good watching. Love it, love it..

Germany are still a deadly efficient side and how they didn't score a panful is a mystery (well, maybe just bad finishing and brave defending by the Mexicans). They must be up there as favourites.

Meanwhile; just have to hope all he hype about our lads isn't for naught. Lead by The Sun (you know, "our boys" till they lose and then it'll be "sad, disgraceful flops" etc) with free flags and Harry Kane masks and all the rest. Be far better just to say, "Come on lads, give it your best! " than all of it. I feel more confident than for a long time with the football we're playing right now. Come on lads, get stuck in and play.

Were you watching a different game? Mexico should have won about 4-0.

Think we'll squeeze past Tunisia. Belgium to be hyped like crazy after smashing a shit Panama team.

At some point this month the newspaper front pages are going to have a picture of a rain-sodden Gareth Southgate consoling a teary-eyed Eric Dier.

It's the circle of life.

Why, oh why does Southgate keep picking Ashley Young? He always plays live-hand granade suff and is as effective as a fiework in a bucket of water. We've had chances and our finishing as yet is less than scintilating. Come on lads, get it won and show some class.

Young's been fine. Set up a couple of good chances.

jmjhb wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 18, 2018 7:59 pm

Young's been fine. Set up a couple of good chances.

Like you said amigo, we must be watching different games....

It'll do for starters. A win, be it against a bunch of fouling assassins is a win. Hope the same thugs frustrate Belgium. Rashford made a difference, Stirling was inneficient and Kane's treatement by the Tunisian defence made me wonder just what criteria the ref's association has laid down for this tournament. Credit to Kane for not whining about it. Onwards...

Wasn't great but enough of the big teams didn't get in front once never mind twice. Take that, crack on.

Everything considered, I thought that was actually pretty positive. Tunisia were cynical and set out to try and spoil it, which is only to be expected, and then did what they could to make it difficult to get through them. That's what lesser teams do. If we hadn't snatched at a few early on, we might well have ended it after half an hour but then creating and missing chances is easier to rectify than not creating any chances at all. Both of Southgate's substitutions were well-timed and added a bit of urgency and momentum when it went flat. And not to forget, we should absolutely have had two penalties.

The main thing for me, though, is that we stuck with attempting to play football, and avoided resorting to the usual panicked, aimless punts forward the longer it went on that we needed a goal and didn't have one.

As for the negatives, two things. First, playing Walker at centre-back rather than the full-back position that he plays week in, week out, is surely not just a waste of his talent but also needlessly presents good teams with something that they can, and will, exploit. Second, I'd very much prefer it if we picked a left-footed left-back/wing-back. Having so many right-footed players on the left ruins our balance.

As I say, though, all in all, an improvement on what we've previously offered up.