EURO 2012

Ribery was excellent in the CL SF 1st leg vs Real Madrid this year. Scored as well I think.

yeah no england player has been as good at a tournament recently as ribery was in 2006

even in the first game he looked the only threat france had but hansen was still 'this ribery kid showed nothing'

what a great player he is in 2006 that time

My memory of the Brazil vs France game is a bit hazy due to having spent most of the preceding afternoon in the pub and Zidane kinda stole the limelight afterwards. Ribery's done nothing in this tournament.

i don't mind chiles tbh. he's enthusiastic, which is more than can be said for lineker. itv have been way better than bbc.

i know that's not saying much but whatever

Not in commentary terms they haven't.

No, Peter Drury has single-handedly seen to that.

well yeah ignoring the commentary cos they're all awful. but itv have had keane daring to offer an opinion, martinez with his shirts and eagerness to talk tactics, southgate's decent(he understands zonal marking ffs!), strachan's harmless, carragher looks like he gives a fuck. bbc? hansen, shearer, who else have they had in? dixon's not as interesting as i thought he was when he first started. and lineker.

argh those bbc shorts with hodgson and rooney looking into the camera and that shitty voiceover telling them "it's your time". lineker saying 'sick'. hansen. lawrenson. lineker. shearer. lineker.

Lineker > Chiles

of course the very best coverage has been eurosport's with rafa ;)

Bashar al-Assad > Chiles

Have yet to hear anyone tip Italy to win tonight, even the bookies are backing England, sweet!

Oh yeah, just this minute heard Rafa tipping England to win

Italy will win

You'll never get a job in the British media with that attitude

I think England will win, but it's no more than a hunch on a 50-50 - and I only get to the 50-50 by assuming England will be organised, have several levels they can step up to, and will be clinical, while Italy will be disorganised, fearful and a bit wasteful.

Goodness knows where all this expectation is coming from.

what roy learnt from his time in italy: the players will be under presure and they like tactical fouls. like every other country then roy? such a bullshitter.

i dunno why i get pulled on my v fair hatred of the bluffer selfserving lying spaniard when chris gets to tackle woy for the most spurious of reasons long after his spited time at lfc ended

Just think what England could have achieved with Dalglish in charge

otm

now now lads

hodgson's doin v well so far imo, just sayin

England will go 1-0 up early on, probably through a setpiece or penalty, get battered for the best part of an hour and then lose. Feel this might be the occasion for John Terry to disgrace himself in an England shirt as well.

England under Roy haven't yet had to play an attacking side with both quality and commitment and I reckon Italy will beat them pretty comfortably.

Italy being a wee bit underrated by English pundits. Just a tad.

i dunno why i get pulled on my v fair hatred of the bluffer selfserving lying spaniard when chris gets to tackle woy for the most spurious of reasons long after his spited time at lfc ended

it's the way he thinks he's imparting pearls of wisdom every time he opens his mouth. he is doing a decent job indeed, not denying that. he's being hodgson. i'm even convinced england are gonna win the thing! but the love fest is making me sick.

think that quoted sentence fairly answers itself.

i wonder if gary neville makes those sex noises on the bench when england score.

The Juventus midfielder feels the Three Lions have been unimpressive so far at the European Championship, and is confident the Azzurri will exploit their weaknesses.

"People talk about England playing the Italian way, but that's rubbish. Only Italy can play the Italian way. And we do not care for anyone who tries to impersonate us," Pirlo stated to Sky Sports.

"Maybe they will adopt a different approach against us, but I doubt it because in some ways they are very predictable.

"I have seen some of England's games in this tournament. They have been more practical than impressive, and we are confident of beating them.

"They have weaknesses that we can exploit, particularly in midfield. They are missing some key players and I think we will have the measure of them in that area.

"They also look very nervous at times in defence and, France aside, they have not had to play against too many big nations."

so fucking otm

Virginie Caprice predicted last night's match correctly:

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu216/le_bateau_ivre/tietenmeisjegoktspanjefrankrijkgoed.jpg

Now she predicts a 1-0 win for England:

https://p.twimg.com/AwKPTSeCIAIfUz4.jpg

So you know. She's no octopus either.

http://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.png
http://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.png
http://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/9bAfl.png

https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/285661_10150845781231735_992750403_n.jpg

Haha, that's awes DanM!

Who are England playing in the World In Motion video? I always had in mind it was Yugoslavia, but they don't look like Yugoslavs. Is it Uruguay?

England: Hart, Johnson, Terry, Lescott, Cole, Milner, Gerrard, Parker, Young, Rooney, Welbeck. Subs: Green, Kelly, Walcott, Henderson, Carroll, Baines, Jones, Jagielka, Downing, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Defoe, Butland.

Italy: Buffon, Abate, Barzagli, Bonucci, Balzaretti, Pirlo, Marchisio, De Rossi, Montolivo, Balotelli, Cassano. Subs: Sirigu, Maggio, Chiellini, Ogbonna, Thiago Motta, Di Natale, Giaccherini, Borini, Giovinco, Diamanti, Nocerino, De Sanctis.

Referee: Pedro Proenca (Portugal)

I'm right looking forward to this. Nobody does this quite like England.

pens. probly.

Both of these teams are worldbeaters at going out of tournaments pissing and whining and crying injustice but I'm still tipping Italy here.

It's fucking loud in that stadium by the way.

Either that or the BBC are economising and have been given the shit studio.

My dad's at this, I just hope it's better than the other quarter-finals.

oh no lawro

ooh this could be bad

crikey

wow

lol

Jesus, this is looking desperate already

A slice, according to Lawro.