On the Road Again!

This sets up another World Cup clash with Argentina.  England will now have to contend with the eleven on pitch opponents and the referee and VAR.

Me and Reggie on this evenings walk down by the Royal Military Canal in West Hythe. Couldn't get the dog at an angle to miss out the bin!!

"Three lions on our chest"..... Tomorrow we face the one lion of the Dutch. Only 24 hours left.... To be brutally honest the last four left in this tournament are probably the least capable for many years.  Neither France nor the Netherlands have looked any better than England.  In fact all three seem to have a problem scoring goals. France seem to be the beneficiary of the most own goals in their favour, and the Netherlands needed one to get past Turkey in the last game. Maybe the Spanish are the favourites as they seem to have some idea how to score goals although they have benefited from some (exciting!) gung-ho performances like in the Georgia game where the Georgians playED as though they were winning right to the final whistle - attack after attack. COME ON ENGLAND!

England are through to the semi finals again. The game against Switzerland was better than our previous games but we still don't look that good up front. In the end it was Bakayo Saka that equalised after Switzerland went ahead.  No further goals in extra time although the Swiss hit the bar straight from a corner. Penalties. At last we won one.  Who is next? The Netherlands.

Second half...

Sadly after taking the lead in two minutes England lost to Italy on penalties.  After the full 120 minutes including extra time it was penalties that decided the trophy's destination.   A couple of dreadful misses from both sides were then exceeded by both goalkeepers making excellent saves. Both of them did their utmost and it was the misses that saw the trophy go to Italy. Players on both sides gave their all and England's young players stepped up to the mark during the game. Sadly the racist scum that benight/infest social media were out again.   Pouring their disgusting vitriol against the players that missed or had their penalties saved by Italy's giant keeper. It's time that Facebook and Twitter banned these arseholes for life. Congratulations Italy.

 

At last another semi-final of a major championship again. This time England had made it unbeaten in the group stage and this far without conceding a goal. The Danes had lost two group games and scraped through. They were the lucky recipients of a wrong decision against the Czechs in the quarter-finals when the linesman gave a corner when the ball clearly came off the attacking player. Some complaints at the time but "it's football" was the excuse. This of course will come back to bite our arses. After some early domination, what we call "huff and puff" England failed to score. Another dodgy decision gave Denmark a free kick and they scored. Apparently the first goal from a direct free kick of the championship. England hit back quickly. Kane split the defence and Saka took the ball and crossed low towards Sterling only for the defender to slide it into the goal. Into extra time. Sterling's run into the box brought a penalty. A slight touch of legs...

England win 4-0.  Into the semi-finals. 

The last time that England beat the Germans in the finals of a tournament was 1966!  We have turned them over previously but in qualification for World Cups or Euros. I watched the 1966 World Cup Final as a 10yo boy and it was one of the greatest games I had seen to that point. After all when you are a supporter of Oldham Athletic then it wasn't hard. Today though was something else.  Chances from both sides and one monumental cock up from Muller and a couple of excellent saves from Pickford from Havertz and it could have all gone the wrong way. But once Grealish came on it seemed to give Shaw more freedom and it was his cross that was turned in by Sterling.   Later his drive from the halfway line and pass to Grealish, led to another cross and Kane stooped to head in. Up to then Kane hasn't been convincing as our main goal scorer but has done enough now I think to keep his place. We'll enjoy a few beers tonight in celebration. Highlights -...

Changes made as we had already lost players due to Covid.   Two players from Chelsea were in close proximity with one of their teammates in the Scotland squad and this was enough for the Covid alert. Grealish and Saka playing well.  Maybe they should have started other games too? England 1-0 at half time. Sterling goal on 12 minutes. And that's how it ended up. In the other final group game, Scotland managed to get beaten 3-1 by Croatia.  Due to Scottish incompetence the Czechs finished 3rd in the group but qualified for the last 16.

The World in Pictures - Day 4 I have been challenged by Neill Devall to post a picture, every day, for the next 10 days. The picture can be of anything you like but each picture must have been taken in a different country. You can tell us about the photo or not, as you wish but must at least specify the country. I'm not going to challenge anyone, but if friends want to take part so well and good! England - Liverpool 2007

After navigating the third of the group games against one of the favourites to win this year's competition, and losing, to Belgium with a vastly changed team, we faced Colombia. Luckily, by losing 1-0 to belgium England assured themselves in the "easier" side of the draw that would mean avoiding the more dangerous and difficult sides such as Brazil and France, and of course Belgium again! Of course the meme writers were out in force.... Colombia. were they the force to be reckoned with?  After numerous penalties across the championship for WWE tactics in the penalty area, England went ahead after... you guessed it. Harry Kane wrestled to the ground right in front of the referee. Despite great provocation for the most part England players behaved well.  No matter how dirty the opponents.  Even resorting to a head butt under the chin from one of their players to Henderson. In the end it looked as though England would scrape through then with secon...

After a less than glorious first game against Tunisia where England won 2-1 despite being subject to WWE grappling and tackling, hopes were higher playing the lowest ranked team in the group. God alone knows how Panama are ranked 55th in the world. It's out of 205.... The WWE tackling continued at corners and free kicks but at least the Egyptian referee was wise and gave the penalties. England led 5-0 at half term. Could have been more. The second half less glorious though. A 6th after 76 minutes and then they were a little slack and let Panama score their first ever goal in their first ever finals. Belgium await on Thursday evening. posted from Bloggeroid

Arrived Dover around 8am the time we were supposed to leave our cabin and wait in the lounge for our departure slot. At least we got breakfast. In fact we were early enough to have packed and left the hand luggage in the cabin and once fully breakfasted we could go back and collect it and assemble in the Britannia Lounge until customs formalities are complete and disembarkation can start. All in all the cruise has been pretty fantastic. The food and service were excellent the whole time from the off to the return. I'd certainly think about another cruise. Whether with Saga or another line I don't know. Saga are more expensive and many things are included that may not be on other lines. But at least the experience has been a very good one. Roll on our next holiday!