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England are just caught in an endless cycle of "The current English manager is too behind the times! We need a modern continental approach! Hey, this foreign guy looks great!" followed four years later by "This foreign guy doesn't 'get' English football, he's not getting the best out of the players, we need someone homegrown in charge, hey this English guy had a half-decent season recently".
So, can Portugal actually win this thing?
I don't know but would be curious if they did.
That's Portugal into the semi final without winning a game and without playing a team ranked inside the top 25 except for Austria who are arguably the weakest side they faced.
I must say Portugal have been poor imo and yet have somehow plodded their way to the semi-finals. They can certainly play better than they are showing so they might peak at the right time.
I usually really like a cagey low scoring game but that was a struggle to watch last night.
First half was high speed stuff but it died after that.
Can anyone ever remember a tournament where the ballboys have been so dire? I've lost count of the number of times two balls have been on the pitch.
It was a classic compared to their previous match against Croatia I thought, although it did get progressively worse (more cagey) after half time.
I'm not sure who it was on here who talked about Portugal being chokers but, if anything, I think they've been remarkably consistent and showed plenty of bottle in recent years. This will be their fifth semi final since the turn of the millennium and they only lost by the odd goal in earlier knock-out rounds against Germany and Spain in two more tournaments. They've come out the right side of a lot of high pressure games against teams around their own level, England, Netherlands, etc. For a side that are never really any higher than fifth or sixth favourites (bar maybe Euro 2004 as hosts when they reached the final) they generally reach or exceed their potential, bar a couple of poor World Cups when the United States surprisingly had their measure in the group stages.
It was good to see Ronaldo put his ego to one side temporarily and get them off to a good start in the shoot-out. Overall I'm glad they went through, they're not setting the world on fire but they've still got the potential to be less bland than Poland I think. The much maligned Pepe has been excellent in their last two games actually, I suppose you don't play for Real Madrid for nothing, even if he looks a bit out of place there at times.
Pepe was brilliant. Great defending. Pity he's such a tit.
Yes, Poland faded badly after the first half along with the game and once Portugal got their equaliser, they reverted to their defensive game. They are so lucky they are in the poor half of the draw as they would be on their sun loungers by now. A Wales/Portugal semi-final - I think I would watch Coronation Street instead.
As regards Poland who relatively comfortably took 4 points from us, they were tough going to watch in nearly all their games. Like many of the teams in the tournament, set up to be hard to beat but not much class after that.
I think that's been the dominant theme so far - the tactical (for want of a better word) pendulum seems to have swung back to "hard to beat". Most teams seem to be very good without the ball but not many seem particularly good with it.
I thought Poland wiped the floor with us for large parts of the Warsaw game. Although we were particularly poor that night and I think we have shown signs of being able to play better, I still think it strikes a cautionary note for WC18 qualifying. If a technically good and athletic Poland team can look so limited then we can't get above ourselves.
Desperate defending from the Welsh there, it was like a GAA match with all the defenders standing on the line.
Davies out of a potential semi final already. Two yellow cards in five games is hardly worthy of such a punishment. That kind of sh!te actually drives me mad.
That was an absolute rocket. Wonder how fast it was travelling?
Great strike, poor goalkeeping. You'd have to fear for them now. Bale will need to pull something majestic out of his ass tonight.
And Williams did. Delighted.
This Belgian team are thoroughly dislikable. Horrifically so. So I'll be shouting for that other shower tonight despite my natural dislike for Wales.
Hon Wayels!
Terrible defending for the equaliser - Wales just massed four players and broke apart when the corner was taken, and Belgium fell to pieces, amateur stuff - and now Bale looks like he's turning up. Cracker on the cards here.
Why don't you like Belgium?Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
Anyway I have some money on Belgium so will be cheering them.
Interesting article on their "wide open" style of play. Looks like this is another wide open game.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...space-to-play/
Although I can see it back firing on them against players like bale, or if they make it, against Ronaldo!
I'm not mad about them either for some reason. I think it might be the (up until now) unjustified hype that surrounds them. Their fans were super craic though. Brilliant response from Wales, some really good possession as well. The yellow cards are a major worry though.
Belgium are a mess from these set pieces.