by Arneb » Thu Jun 24, 2021 6:18 am
Of course, everyone was looking at the tournament tree and noticed that, among the big guns, the big big guns (Italy, Spain, France, Portugal) are all in the other half. So we just have to beat Brexistan at Wembley (which, naturally, we will), then it's a walk in the park with Sweden or Ukraine in the quarterfinal, after which the Netherlands or something even easier will be resolutely shoved aside in the semi. And since die Mannschaft always outgrows itself in the really, really, really big games, we've practically won the thing already. Minutes after being nearly brought to our knees by the Hungarian football giants doing nothing but apply the very recipe brought up against us regularly and with great success since the fall of 2014, a mere seven years ago: Resolute defending and a few well-placed counterattacks. Yes, it's that easy.
Meanwhile, our goalie blathered on how we struggle against weaker teams, but always get better against stronger teams. Which I guess you can say after winning 3 out of 11 attempts against teams placed above you in the FIFA rankings in the last 4 years.
What the fuck are they thinking? England don't even need to play strongly. Run-of-the-mill 4-4-2 with a defense-oriented midfield that springs into action the moment we forget, again, to secure the penultimate line will probably do nicely.
[ETA]OK, I admit I was prettty much in the same mood after Algeria in '14. And we know how that turned out. Still, let's hope the Penalty Squanderer and his band of highly-gifted kids fall into the trap of trying to out-football us with their idea of o jogo bonito à Inglesa. Then, we'll have a chance.[/ETA]
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem