Jimmy_D

Utter joke.

Eh? What was the ref looking at there?

That was better, need to settle again.

Guh. Very sloppy there.

Not the first time this tournament either.

Gazza all over again!

Fast start, feels like we need to settle a little.

I probably shouldn’t be quite as confident as I am, but I still remember sitting there til the final whistle of that Leicester game with both Vestergaard and Hojbjerg in the team.

Just realised, Pickford now guaranteed the Golden Glove at this tournament.

That Italian team certainly looks beatable to me. Never mind that though, right now we need to put everything into making Denmark beatable.

Impressive since the first two.

We could be here a while...

For once I actually agree that the shootout would be a lottery Italy very slight favourites for it in my book.

Well offside but what was the keeper doing?

Please... please don’t 😬

Ridiculous thinking Spain would be at 100% after being taken to extra time in all three knockout games, more like.

Oh wow. Has to score there. HAS to score there.

Oof, expect Italy to go into full-on ‘game-management’ mode now.

Both of these looking a bit leggy/nervous to me, and a bit sloppy as a result. Italy seem to be missing Spinazzola quite a bit, went into this as favourites tonight, but just seem to be missing something. Can see England getting a few chances if we get through to face Spain and they play the same high line.

Defenders all over the world must be experts in pressure and reflex points. One hand on a striker’s arm is usually enough to make their legs stop working.

Expect Italy to win this but think it might take extra time for them to do it.

To be honest it’s really difficult to tell how good Spain/Italy are. They’ve both needed extra time in the knockouts, and even the Italy-Belgium match could easily have gone to extra time. They haven’t been blowing teams out of the water so far, while we’ve gone past everyone, including Croatia and Germany, without conceding a goal. I’m not sure it’s as big a step up for us as we’re expecting. Or as big a step up for us as it would be for them, if we manage to avoid slipping up against Denmark.

R16 predictions were poor, but all three that made it through I also correctly predicted for the QF results.

It’s not just that it’s put everyone in the same boat as us, but also that England have a lot more experience of being in this boat, not least shown by Southgate rotating the squad well, and so far not only avoiding any injuries, but also working injured players back into match fitness.

Feels weird to have just watched an England knockout game and not feel like I’ve played it myself!