S-Clarke

This lot is a much better team too, it's a different generation than before and they seem to be adapting to the challenge much better. Back in the days when we had household names such as Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Terry, Cole etc...you'd say player for player that was top. But that lot was never a team, just a bunch of talented individuals never cohesively combining to form a team. We had the odd good results with that lot, but in the main it was disjointed, frantic and very confused as numerous managers scratched their heads as to why so many good players struggle together. This lot play like a team, they may not have the stardom of that 'golden generation' individually, but they are still superbly talented and the team cohesiveness and control is on a different level than we've seen before. One element that has probably helped a lot is the progression of these players under Southgtate from the U21's through to the senior, there's a continuity right through the setup at the mo.

Great showing from the first min to the last, didn't expect it to be that easy. Sancho improved our attack ten-fold, committing players and opening up space with intelligent runs etc. Never really seen much of him, but he does look one heck of a player. My player of the tournament has to be Shaw, he is assisting goals whilst defending astutely. He looked a little out of sorts in the wing back role against Germany to start with, but he adjusted. From a rather tepid group stage, it has all come to life at the right time. If we play against Denmark as we did in the 2nd half yesterday, then they will not stand a chance. What an opportunity this is by the way.

The stories and write ups around this lad are very impressive. I can't say I've seen much of him myself, but he's seemingly someone we've tracked for a while - as well as clubs on more of an upward trajectory than us, so that's a positive. Looking forward to seeing how he does. We certainly needed more down the left hand side and this should give us that.

It didn't have the excitement levels of yesterdays games for sure, but thankfully Germany are just a little rubbish nowadays and we wore them down in the end. I'm still not entirely sure if the game plan is to bore the pants off of everyone on purpose, but to be fair it worked. Maguire was my man of the match, his nut was on everything. Closely followed by Kalvin Phillips who was equally everywhere. The atmosphere though, wow. What I'd have given to be there. It was like the old days of the camera shaking due to the atmosphere. Now the tournament has started!

The refereeing and use of VAR has shown up the PL massively, imo. You don't even talk about VAR in these games, yet in the PL season you speak about it 4 or 5 times a match day.

It's all about the reverse psychology. 🤣

Amazing. Fair play Switzerland, love to see an underdog story. France, bar 30 mins in the 2nd half, just didn't show up. They didn't seem much of a team though. I don't even want to call tomorrow. Although I don't think I could deal with an evening like tonight again.

Jeez, Mbappe. He's got to score.

McCoist is a breath of fresh air as a co-commentator to be honest. Nothing dour about him at all. Not sure about Clive though.

Wow, great effort by Coman at the end. What a frigging evening of football. Seriously. Best i've watched for years.

I genuinely do not believe what I'm seeing. France have gone back into 'I don't give a shit' mode!

Jesus christ, this tournament is incredible.

That's a wonder goal. Fair play France, they've turned up second half. Feel a bit for the Swiss, but once the French turned it up they stood no chance tbh.

The Swiss are all over the place. They looked so composed first half.

France will see this one out now, Swiss are gone. (Trying my reverse phycology again, as it worked very well in the last game)

Blimey. game, set, match.

And as if by magic. Game changed on that.

Dammit, they've blown it there.

Expecting to see much better from France in this half, I couldn't believe how off it they were. They just didn't give a shit.

Take it a run I think, anything we can get for him is a bonus - plus the wages off the books. Newcastle fans aren't going to like him I don't think.

Reminds me a bit of Euro 2004 in terms of goals/attacking. The only difference in 2004 was that England actually attacked and scored goals.

I said that on purpose.

Not been impressed with Croatia in this tournament, i think they've been generally pretty shit.

Best 3 outfits for me so far are Belgium, Holland and Italy. Although all 3 did get quite fortunate with really easy peasy groups. But they did the business, Italy in particular look a bit of an all rounder.

It was strange to give him a new deal, I always found it odd at the time. He's never looked quite at it for me...looks lacking at this level in a few aspects of his game. I'm sure he'll do ok at Crewe but the reality is that's probably going to be his level..... Matt Crocker was fairly clear on the loan situation - the club policy is that there is no point loaning players out who have a chance of playing here. If we loan a player then it's usually a case that we see their future elsewhere. So the 2 year deal makes as much sense as Forsters 2 5-year deals.