'The Road To Redemption'

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

If we are on the same points it goes down to results against each other rather than goal difference - hence we need at least a draw.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

How the **** are Montenegro going to overtake England, especially when you look at our superior goal difference? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about (on a variety of subjects). And Germany are clearly the team to beat now.

If they beat us and also win their last match away they'll be level with us, in which case they'll go top of the group, as it's the head to head results that count and not goal difference.Actually,you're clearly the one who doesn't know what he's talking about.I await your apology,not only for an error of fact but also your immoderate tone.
(I'd expect Germany to make the SF's but not at the expense of either Spain or Holland).

 

[Blue_Wes]

How the **** are Montenegro going to overtake England, especially when you look at our superior goal difference? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about (on a variety of subjects). And Germany are clearly the team to beat now.

Unfortunately he does have a point. They are using the head to head rule for this qualifying campaign. So if Montenegro win their remaining games (Us and Switzerland), then they finish top due to the fact we failed to beat them at Wembley. The superior goal difference only comes into play if two teams are tied on points and the head to head system doesn't seperate them. I personally don't like this system as it removes the incentive for teams to play attacking football, but it seems popular in most high profile European leagues.

As for Wales playing well, well I don't think they did, they had no shots on goal and only c40% of posession, they had that one Earnshaw opportunity to equalise and that was that. We didn't play particularly well, which made the Welsh look better than they were (pretty poor), if the Welsh performed like they did Tuesday night against a team playing well, albeit England or another nation, they would of looked pretty terrible. It was only because we were below par that made them look competitive. However, we did what every football team should, and beat the team in front of us, with minimal effort and only a little bit of fuss.

I fancy a narrow win in Montenegro to seal this group off. They'll be looking for the win they need to keep their hopes of automatic qualification alive, and that'll leave gaps for us to exploit. So long as we play the younger quicker players, we should do just that and take the 3 points.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

If they beat us and also win their last match away they'll be level with us, in which case they'll go top of the group, as it's the head to head results that count and not goal difference.Actually,you're clearly the one who doesn't know what he's talking about.I await your apology,not only for an error of fact but also your immoderate tone.
(I'd expect Germany to make the SF's but not at the expense of either Spain or Holland).

Well I stand corrected. As for my 'immoderate tone', you can go and **** yourself my son.

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

Well I stand corrected. As for my 'immoderate tone', you can go and **** yourself my son.

Just wondering - if you **** yourself is that technically incest?

 

[Rob Noxious]

As for Wales playing well, well I don't think they did, they had no shots on goal and only c40% of posession, they had that one Earnshaw opportunity to equalise and that was that. We didn't play particularly well, which made the Welsh look better than they were (pretty poor), if the Welsh performed like they did Tuesday night against a team playing well, albeit England or another nation, they would of looked pretty terrible. It was only because we were below par that made them look competitive. However, we did what every football team should, and beat the team in front of us, with minimal effort and only a little bit of fuss.

I fancy a narrow win in Montenegro to seal this group off. They'll be looking for the win they need to keep their hopes of automatic qualification alive, and that'll leave gaps for us to exploit. So long as we play the younger quicker players, we should do just that and take the 3 points.

It's a relief that Bellamy wasn't playing as I think that they'd have had a more cutting edge (in all senses) up front and I was worried when that free kick came over as Gunter could have deflected it past Hart rather than play Earnshaw in. We were incredibly lucky to get away with that as Earnshaw is usually a good finisher. Perhaps it's a good sign that we can play poorly and win - on this occasion.

I think that you're right about Montenegro and (barring injuries) I suspect that Don Capello will play the quicker players up front in readiness for the counter-attacks. It promises to be one of those England 'white knuckle rides' once again though.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Well I stand corrected. As for my 'immoderate tone', you can go and **** yourself my son.

That's the trouble with you and you kind,you never apologise(even when you're clearly wrong,as here) do you?I've often wondered(along with several others on SZ)how you've obtained your licence to abuse any poster whose opinions you diagree with, especially so if their politics are different to yours.Some shadowy person(s)among the SZ mods/owners are doing the rest of us a great dis-service by allowing your foul mouthed,intemperate posts to continue unchecked.The really interesting questions though, to my mind, are who is letting you get away with this and why?

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

That's the trouble with you and you kind,you never apologise(even when you're clearly wrong,as here) do you?I've often wondered(along with several others on SZ)how you've obtained your licence to abuse any poster whose opinions you diagree with, especially so if their politics are different to yours.Some shadowy person(s)among the SZ mods/owners are doing the rest of us a great dis-service by allowing your foul mouthed,intemperate posts to continue unchecked.The really interesting questions though, to my mind, are who is letting you get away with this and why?

You might be right Barnaby. The shadowy forces of the New World Order may be supporting me, allowing me to propagate my neo-con views to all and sundry. Or it might just be that you're a bit of a tit and nobody really cares if you get a mouthful of abuse.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

You might be right Barnaby. The shadowy forces of the New World Order may be supporting me, allowing me to propagate my neo-con views to all and sundry. Or it might just be that you're a bit of a tit and nobody really cares if you get a mouthful of abuse.

It probably won't suprise you to learn that I prefer the former hypothesis.:smiles:

 

[Southend Neil]

You're talking about results(mainly) in the qualifiers.I'm talking about last night's "performance."
England will qualify( quite possibly as second in the group,via the play offs )and then their results will return to their usual tournament form, ie getting out of their group,then getting knocked out by the first half decent team they play in the later stages.This England team is **** poor ie ordinary and won't come anywhere near making the SF stage in the summer.Looks like a Spain v Holland final to me.

You were making a general observation that England are ordinary. I still dont understand how they are when they very rarely lose, I however accept that this tends to happen in the knockout games. However you predict that England will reach the last 8 and then say that they wont make anywhere near the semis? Surely thats a contradiction, the last 8 seems pretty close to the last 4 to me. Also how is being in the last 8 oridinary, **** poor? Seems perfectly good to me, it means that only 4 teams would get further than us, hardly the whole of Europe.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

You were making a general observation that England are ordinary. I still dont understand how they are when they very rarely lose, I however accept that this tends to happen in the knockout games. However you predict that England will reach the last 8 and then say that they wont make anywhere near the semis? Surely thats a contradiction, the last 8 seems pretty close to the last 4 to me. Also how is being in the last 8 oridinary, **** poor? Seems perfectly good to me, it means that only 4 teams would get further than us, hardly the whole of Europe.

If you think that England justify their current number 4 position in FIFA's rankings then I suspect you're going to be disappointed next summer.

 

[GrumpyBlue]

If you think that England justify their current number 4 position in FIFA's rankings then I suspect you're going to be disappointed next summer.

You are probably right but I hope Barna is proved wrong this time :winking:

 

[Rob Noxious]

An intriguing game in store tonight and I hope that it won't be too exciting either. Montenegro are going to have to come at us, which should ... I say, should ... work in our favour as they'll be open to the counter-attacks which I'm hoping that our speedy forwards can exploit. With Gerrard and Wilshere out and Lampard looking lack-lustre, it is strange how quickly Scott Parker has emerged as England's crucial central midfielder for this game. He has been looking imperious for Spurs already this season and he is the lynchpin for breaking up any Montenegran midfield movement towards our box and releasing our front players with his consistent passing. I just hope that we can withstand the early assault (as they're bound to come out flying) and then slowly take control of the game. If we go a goal down in the first half, it could be difficult to get back as these boys know how to "park the bus." Fingers crossed that we do finally get halfway along that road to redemption tonight. :thumbsup: