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It's Coming Home (Euro 2020)

Peet

Peet

Giga Poster
I can't see a thread for this already for some reason - perhaps the venn diagram of coaster enthusiasts and football fans only has a very small overlap between the circles...?

Anyway, after last night's game I can't really think about anything else today, even roller coasters (!). This is the first time England have ever been in the final of the Euros, and only the second time after 1966 we've been in any kind of major tournament final. I feel quite emotional thinking back through the disappointment of every major tournament throughout my childhood and adult life, never making it past the quarter finals until 2018, and even then the semi-final performance was a huge disappointment. Then there was the defeat to Iceland in 2016, finishing bottom of the group in 2014, losing 4-1 to Germany in 2010 etc etc.

And by the way, "football's coming home" originally referred to the fact that Euro '96 was taking place in England, so with the semi-finals and finals back at Wembley this year, anyone who says that football is not coming home is factually incorrect!

So any reflections on the tournament so far? Any non-England fans care to share your views? Any predictions for the Final?
 
Hope England win, but the penalty wasn't one.
Two balls on the pitch, no physical contact, and a penalty "earned".
Not cricket, if you pardon the pun.
 
The two balls on the pitch thing doesn't matter.
If a second ball is on the pitch, play should stop only if it interferes with the game / players. Despite how close it was to the 'in play' ball, it didn't interfere with anyone; there was no point when it was in anyone's way, and at no point did it seem like the Denmark defender was distracted by it. So not a problem in my books.

It wasn't a penalty; most telling thing was when Sterling was asked about it post-match. Looked away from the camera, avoided answering the question directly. Whole thing screamed that he knew he was lucky it was awarded. Don't think it was really a dive though; it's easy enough to fall when going at such speeds and even a small touch can cause that. Obviously it was milked a bit, but that's football really.
VAR probably saw it wasn't a penalty, but can't overturn it as it wasn't a "clear and obvious" error by the on-field referee, which is the only circumstance they can overturn their decision.

With the way the game was going at that point, the only way it wasn't going to go to penalties was if England got a penalty. Denmark were defensively solid and very difficult to get through, and had been since the beginning of the second half. Was either going to take a penalty or a 'wonder goal' to win it for England. Probably a good thing it didn't go to penalties either; Kane was clearly significantly nervous when taking the penalty, and Pickford was losing composure in Extra Time. Probably would have ended in tears for England.


I'm actually not that big a football fan really, but do enjoy the whole tactical side of it, whilst seeing it remain as a reasonably free flowing game. Watched the England games (fell asleep during 2 of the group games), the Finland games (chose them as an underdog to watch, plus I like their team. Obviously meant I watched the terrifying Eriksen incident though...), and the odd other when free. It's all been alright.

Hate the whole laddish culture that's associated without football fans. Really not for me. England have played well and clearly have a good squad with lots of likeable people, so hope for their sake they win. But if it does, I'll hate all the rowdiness.

Another thing I've not enjoyed is the whole narrative of "This country has had such a hard 18 months, it's nice to bring some happiness to people". Weird narrative that makes it out like we're the only country to have suffered during the pandemic. Some fans use it to create a political 'us vs them' landscape too against other countries ('We've suffered during Covid, so we deserve it more'). Not a fan.
 
I'll admit I did feel for the Danes, obviously they'd overcome adversity early in the tournament and done well to get so far. I do think the best side won though - by 70 minutes into normal time, Denmark looked spent and their goal was being bombarded. Also, they've won a tournament in my lifetime, whereas my Dad was 5 last time England won one (as I kept having to remind him when he asked what everyone was so excited about!)

Also, if we look back at the Hand of God, Lampard's disallowed goal, Campbell's disallowed goals, Beckham's red card, Ronaldo's 🤬 wink and Ronald Koeman for some reason still being on the pitch in 1993 and you can't deny England have been on the rough side of some poor refereeing decisions over the years and were probably about due some luck in that department - possibly helped by having the 'home advantage'

I'll agree that the booing is loathsome though - I could about understand and forgive it with Scotland & Germany where there's decades of rivalry, but Denmark and Croatia, really?!

Finally - I've got to say I don't fancy us against the Italians. I've always said they'd probably come out tournament winners.
 
Yeah it was definitely a "soft" pen, but the free kick for Denmark's goal was very soft too, Maguire's yellow card was ludicrous, and Kane should have had a penalty awarded before full time, so I think it's evened out in the end.
JoshC. said:
Probably a good thing it didn't go to penalties either; Kane was clearly significantly nervous when taking the penalty, and Pickford was losing composure in Extra Time. Probably would have ended in tears for England.
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Yeah England looked the better side overall, but I agree we probably would have lost on penalties given Pickford didn't have a particularly good night, and Schmeichel was immense (and surely by now sick to the back teeth of being compared to his Dad!). It was a surprisingly poor penalty from Kane but he only had to wait 2 seconds for his redemption, unlike Gareth Southgate who has waited 25 years for his!

Will said:
Finally - I've got to say I don't fancy us against the Italians. I've always said they'd probably come out tournament winners.
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I kind of agree with this, they have looked very strong from the start, but it's interesting that the bookies seem to have us as slight favourites. I don't bet, but I'm always interested to see the odds.
 
JoshC. said:
Another thing I've not enjoyed is the whole narrative of "This country has had such a hard 18 months, it's nice to bring some happiness to people". Weird narrative that makes it out like we're the only country to have suffered during the pandemic. Some fans use it to create a political 'us vs them' landscape too against other countries ('We've suffered during Covid, so we deserve it more'). Not a fan.
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I thought this exact same thing! The commentator last night kept saying it and I was like...this is why the world hates us, y'know?

It's been very interesting 'actively' watching football again for the first time in forever these past few weeks as it's so clear to me how much has changed? We've got a team that take the knee, wear rainbow coloured laces, armbands for inclusivity, campaign against child poverty.

And I know the camera likely makes a point of showing a diverse selection of fans in the crowd but the range of people enjoying it seems to have diversified a lot too. Yes, the gross lad culture is still there. Yes, the booing is abhorrent. BUT, it feels to me like a lot has changed from the football I remember (last major tournament I felt invested in was probably...2004? I don't even know what the tournament was but I remember what I was wearing and it feels very 14 year old me).

My husband is Irish so it's been quite fun watching him sulk every time England win when he's so passionately cheering on the opposition.

Also hate to say it but I can't see us beating Italy - in my head they're just the 'better' team, not that I know what the **** I'm talking about in any way.
 
nadroJ said:
And I know the camera likely makes a point of showing a diverse selection of fans in the crowd but the range of people enjoying it seems to have diversified a lot too. Yes, the gross lad culture is still there. Yes, the booing is abhorrent. BUT, it feels to me like a lot has changed from the football I remember (last major tournament I felt invested in was probably...2004? I don't even know what the tournament was but I remember what I was wearing and it feels very 14 year old me).
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I think that's always been the way with internationals - not to sound snobbish, but a lot of the people who'll turn out to watch an England game have never been to a 'real' game. It's definitely a different and arguably more family friendly atmosphere, moreso with it being luck of the draw who got match tickets this time around. I went to the Wembley games against Kazakhstan, Ukraine and (as you'll remember) Croatia with Lain back in 2008-9, but it wasn't until 2015 that I realised it was a trip up the A500 to the bet365 was a fair bit easier and better value! I admit I've rather lost touch with football since we got relegated during Covid though!

That said, I did of course tie in women's Euro 2017 with a cred trip to the Netherlands, so there's my 'inclusivity' points :p

2004 would presumably have been.... Euro 2004? I think I'd just finished my GCSEs and could watch the action without parents tutting at me, when we proceeded to exit on penalties to Portugal. Some rather suspect refereeing that night as well, if I remember rightly. Oblivion at Alton Towers also got rather 'tastefully' redecorated with England flags during that tournament and looked bloody awful :D
 
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Looking at the games where I've been a neutral, it really has been a great tournament - The group matches were full of goals, and the last round of matches in group f were fantastic to follow, and the Croatia v Spain, and France v Switzerland last 16 matches were brilliant, quarters and semis have been more cage, but that always seems to happen.

As an England fan - they have exceded my expectations - when I saw the warm up games and first couple of group games, they just looked so negative - but they've played brilliantly in the knockout rounds.

Granted - we did benefit from a soft penalty yesterday, but other than about 20 minutes of the first half, we outplayed Denmark, and there were a couple of other appeals not given.. I'd have been gutted had it been the other way round though!

Italy have looked very impressive, so I think that it will be "Coming to Rome" rather than "coming home" - but you never know!
 
Nitefly said:
Sort of related but Alton just tweeted that they are going to re-theme Oblivion after Sterling (presumably based on his amazing performance last night).
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They once themed an Oblivion train to the England team for Euro 2004

Euro 2004 Oblivion

The best, most reliable and user-friendly source on Alton Towers, the UK's number 1 theme park.
gallery.towersalmanac.com gallery.towersalmanac.com
 
JoshC. said:
Are we sure they didn't mean the currency? I'm sure that's due to plummet into a hole sooner or later...
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Ha why not both? Two birds with one stone.

(Such birds presumably being peregrine falcons 🤔)
 
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It's been brought to my attention that there must be some kind of penalty introduced for booing Il Canto degli Italiani on Sunday.

Nothing to do with nationalistic pride and everything to do with the fact that it sounds like a very enthusiastic seaside carousel :D
Fortunately, I don't know the words, so I don't try to join in, unlike with Advance Australia Fair :D
 
Argh - what a nail biter. Italy were the dominant side in most of the match, but to go out on penalties like that makes it so sour.

That Rashford penalty - hhhhhnnnn 😬
 
Nitefly said:
Argh - what a nail biter. Italy were the dominant side in most of the match, but to go out on penalties like that makes it so sour.

That Rashford penalty - hhhhhnnnn 😬
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Hopefully the press/public don't go after him, he's a good lad just an unfortunate penalty :(
I wouldn't be so mad if Italy hadn't been so slimy in some of their play, just didn't feel very sportsman like. I do however feel sorry for any Italian fans having to brave London tonight wearing an Italy shirt, given all the silly brits causing trouble outside earlier.
 
Ethan said:
I wouldn't be so mad if Italy hadn't been so slimy in some of their play, just didn't feel very sportsman like.
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As a neutral this is sort of hilarious to read. There were one or two tougher tackles from the Italians that were noticed by the ref and booked accordingly. But on the other side, Walker got off completely scot-free injuring their star attacker (Chiesa) and Sterling's dives were getting more and more hilarious as the match went on, but luckily the ref wasn't having any of it.

A deserved win for Italy, who have played exciting attacking football through most of the tournament and I feel that England only got this far because of decent defense and then relying on Sterling's and Kane's individual quality when they came forward. I don't think any of their matches were exciting this year, so I don't think the win would've been as deserved as it was for Italy.
 
"To be fair, no one ever said when it was coming home"
"Maybe the real coming home was the friends we made along the way"
And all the other corny responses...

Italy played better throughout the tournament, and were the better team on the night.

One could make arguments about why we didn't make more attacking-minded substitutions sooner, which could have changed the game, why we had some of the lesser-experienced penalty takers in our original 5, etc. etc. But ultimately, all fine margins.
Much like with the Denmark game, England became more erratic and uncomfortable as the game went on, and it felt like it was only ever going to be an Italy win on penalties towards the end. Youthful squad though who can learn and build on that though.
 
The best team in the tournament won, no arguments here

Well done England, first silver medallists ever
 
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