Dark Munster

I wouldn't say no if we could get Mbappe, but given the choice I'd prefer Haaland.

Yes, I was waiting for someone to bring that up. You don't mention how well we did in previous shootouts under his charge, in stark contrast the the pathetic ones prior to him. Also being 100% prepared doesn't guarantee 100% success, otherwise if you meet another well-prepared team it would go to 100 or more successful penalties each.

One thing I give Southgate credit for, is he took penalty shoot outs seriously, getting the squad fully prepared for them. Except for Venables, all his predecessors didn't bother ("why practice, you can't replicate the pressure of the real one?" bullshit). Hence England's appalling record before he took over. Venables did have 5 players fully prepared, but didn't realise that it could go beyond 5 kicks. As we found out in the Euro semi-final at Wembley against Germany in 1996.

I love his ho hum shoulder shrug celebration! Why didn’t he choose to play for England. Sob

Penalty for Belgium. Harsh, they both went for the ball and clashed.

What a pass! Great goal Senegal. Bye Belgum.

France. Easy!

I thought England were bad at penalties, but I think the Dutch take the crown for being the most shit at them.

There goes my diet.

If Germany don't win on penalties I'll eat my hat.

Paraguay half a goal down. Time running out for them.

I'd laugh, but Germany will win on penalties anyway.

Yep, I couldn’t have been more wrong! I’m sure I’m not the only one who didn’t see that coming. Fair play to both teams. I’m sure both teams were well aware of the negative expectations and perhaps decided to go hell for leather instead. Mind you, it did end up in a convenient draw at the end. 😏

This third place qualification is a farce. Not fair on teams finishing their groups earlier. And just wait for the Austria-Algeria lawn chair bore draw. Compare this to the excitement of the group stages in the last WC. No easy solution with the ludicrous 48 team format. The best I can think of is have the same number of groups of 4 teams, but only the top two qualify. Have the best 8 first place finishers get a bye into the round of 16.

Baz's Uruguayan cousin goal?

Yes he has. If he gets any EFL ban the FA can f*ck off and I hope Saints lawyers hit back with everything they have got.

I respectfully disagree. The club has been punished but not him. I think a one year ban from managing in the PL would be fair.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cze9wp8r6lno

Can't blame him for choosing serial winners Germany over us, ditto Olise with France. But it's frustrating Haaland chose Norway who have no chance of winning (often not even qualifying).

Imagine if Leeds-born Haaland had chosen to play for England. Sigh.

Not necessarily. With Glamorgan doing much better than expected (they beat Surrey today) overtaking Yorkshire may be the best chance of finishing above two teams (Leicestershire and them).

Reinstated to the knockouts?

Hants got 8 points deducted last year for the same reason. And it was against Sussex (who even had a player score a century if I remember correctly).

I think I know who ate them.

I love their shirt, which is their national flag. Other teams have incorporated parts of their flag (like Croatia'a chequered) but not like Norway's.