A superb performance by England, whilst the tempo understandably dropped in the second half (difficult not to when you are 6-0 up), they continued to play really well and scored another 2 including Beth Mead getting her hat trick goal. Norway are no slouches but just seemed shell shocked in the first half as England sliced through them at will, they played better in the second half, but England had dropped down a couple of gears.
This is only the second game of the tournament, but if they continue in this vein not sure any of the other sides will be able to live with them.
They can hold their heads high whatever as they have continued to improve during the games they've played. They are after all only just semi pro and good luck to them, they've played with pride and tried their best which is all we can ever ask. I take my hat off to you NI Women!
Jose Mourinho stormed the pitch of AS Roma's friendly with Sunderland - demanding that Black Cats player Luke O'Nien was sent off for a dangerous challenge.
With the scores locked at 0-0 in the 44th minute, Mourinho raced onto the pitch after O'Nien caught Roger Ibanez with his elbow.
The match referee in the Algarve told Sunderland manager Alex Neil that O'Nien had to be substituted - or face being sent off after the Portuguese manager's complaints.
"I think he [O'Nien] is a bit unfortunate, he goes up for a header and catches the man with his arm," Neil said after the game.
"I didn't think it was meant but the referee informed me that if we didn't take him off, then he'd send him off. It's a friendly at the end of the day."
Roma won the game 2-0 late on thanks to goals in the last 15 minutes from Felix Afena Gyan and Niccolo Zaniolo.
Tre Fiori of San Marino beat Fola Esch of Luxembourg 4-1 on aggregate (1-0 and 3-1) in the Europa Conference League. Luxembourg are meant to be quite good now so this has to go down as a major shock. Elsewhere St Joseph's FC of Gibraltar beat Larne of Northern Ireland 1-0 to win 1-0 on aggregate and Larne fans are fuming cos they thought it would be a walkover.
In the Women's euros Italy & Iceland played out a decent 1-1 draw which was probably the right result, In the other game France started great and then tailed off horribly in the second half, to be honest they should have beaten Belgium by more than the final score of 2-1. Whilst Belgium improved in the second half and worked hard to close France down, the French just looked lacklustre again. as ever with the French it looks like something isnt quite right within the camp or their attitude, so am expecting a spectacular collapse in the quarter finals...
England play Northern Ireland tomorrow night and if the Lionesses get anywhere close to their performance against Norway I seriously fear for the Irish lasses.
Hats off to Northern Ireland who I thought played really well to limit England to only 5 goals.
England were good but again started slowly and looked a little leaden footed at the back at times and were a little wasteful in front of goal but are still very much in contention.
In the other game in that group Austria beat Norway, the latter must rate as the biggest under achievers of the tournament.
Tonights games were a predictably easy win for Germany over Finland 3-0 & a very interesting clash of styles between Spain & Denmark.
The former played beautiful 2 touch tika-taka football, the latter a very disciplined counter attack absorbing loads of pressure and breaking swiftly. Spain had a ridiculous amount of possession (75%) but didn't seriously troubled the Danish keeper (arguably the keeper of the group stages) until the 90th minute when they managed to get an overload on the Danish defence and scored. Denmark just didn't or weren't able to commit enough players forward on the break (until the last 5 minutes) to seriously threaten Spain and pushing for the goal they needed to go through left the space for Spain to finally exploit.
It will be really interesting game between Spain & England in the quarter final.
The penultimate group games were held tonight with Sweden completing a regulation 5-0 win over a resolute but ultimately outclassed Portugal. The Swedes will not mind who they play from Group D (Belgium, Iceland or Italy)
In the other game Netherlands looked like a team that didn't really want to be there and had only met just before kick off for the vast majority of the game and were second best in the first half. The Netherlands eventually clicked towards the end of the game, following some decent substitutions and ran out 4-1 winners over a very solid and organised Switzerland who ran out of legs chasing an equaliser in the last 10 minutes (when the Dutch scored their final 2 goals). The score line seriously flattered the Dutch, who will struggle against France if they play as poorly as this.
Belgium beat Italy 1-0 to take second spot in the group after Iceland managed a last minute draw against France.
I was really impressed with how Iceland played, well organised and hard working and they harried the French well. France got more and more frustrated and petulant as the game went on especially as VAR disallowed 2 goals (rightly) & awarded a last minute penalty to Iceland. Even though France comfortably headed their group they looked incredibly surly & out of sorts at the final whistle.
Next up England - Spain in the first quarter final.
I was also impressed with Iceland, and was convinced they'd nick a draw after France hit the woodwork twice and had the first goal rightly disallowed for offside. However, they were ultimately completely robbed of victory by VAR and rightly annoyed at the final whistle. I thought they took the disallowing of the goal for handball remarkably well (the ball deflected up and hit the striker's arm which was against her body before she hooked it in). And as for the penalty, no one in the commentary box or studio was remotely sure what it was even given for. Absolute nonsense from VAR once again. Thankfully it ultimately had no bearing on who qualified or in what position in the group.
Comments
I was so wrong. This is a cracking game.
Please make this prediction for every game this season.
Nor-way are England going to score less than 10 here.
See, now you’ve ruined it!!
Wow
What a first half from England, at times their front 3 of Mead, White & Hemp were almost unplayable
Beth Mead’s crossing is the best the country has seen since Steve Guppy
A superb performance by England, whilst the tempo understandably dropped in the second half (difficult not to when you are 6-0 up), they continued to play really well and scored another 2 including Beth Mead getting her hat trick goal. Norway are no slouches but just seemed shell shocked in the first half as England sliced through them at will, they played better in the second half, but England had dropped down a couple of gears.
This is only the second game of the tournament, but if they continue in this vein not sure any of the other sides will be able to live with them.
Wow! Superb performance. I hope Wycombe can emulate that this season.
Might need to lie low on Friday over here. I’m a bit worried for the NI Women
They can hold their heads high whatever as they have continued to improve during the games they've played. They are after all only just semi pro and good luck to them, they've played with pride and tried their best which is all we can ever ask. I take my hat off to you NI Women!
Anyone know who the commentator is on Netherlands Portugal? He’s much better than Pearce who is deeply creepy when commentating on women’s matches.
Must be someone off the list here - could well be Seb Hutchinson as he does the WSL
Mark Scott apparently
Who’s not on that list lol
Netherlands have been very lacklustre, hats of to the Portuguese though, who have been great especially as many of them are semi-pros.
Of course as I type this a moment of magic from Danielle Van de Donk to take Netherlands back into the lead.
Sunderland vs Roma "friendly"
Jose Mourinho stormed the pitch of AS Roma's friendly with Sunderland - demanding that Black Cats player Luke O'Nien was sent off for a dangerous challenge.
With the scores locked at 0-0 in the 44th minute, Mourinho raced onto the pitch after O'Nien caught Roger Ibanez with his elbow.
The match referee in the Algarve told Sunderland manager Alex Neil that O'Nien had to be substituted - or face being sent off after the Portuguese manager's complaints.
"I think he [O'Nien] is a bit unfortunate, he goes up for a header and catches the man with his arm," Neil said after the game.
"I didn't think it was meant but the referee informed me that if we didn't take him off, then he'd send him off. It's a friendly at the end of the day."
Roma won the game 2-0 late on thanks to goals in the last 15 minutes from Felix Afena Gyan and Niccolo Zaniolo.
Tre Fiori of San Marino beat Fola Esch of Luxembourg 4-1 on aggregate (1-0 and 3-1) in the Europa Conference League. Luxembourg are meant to be quite good now so this has to go down as a major shock. Elsewhere St Joseph's FC of Gibraltar beat Larne of Northern Ireland 1-0 to win 1-0 on aggregate and Larne fans are fuming cos they thought it would be a walkover.
In the Women's euros Italy & Iceland played out a decent 1-1 draw which was probably the right result, In the other game France started great and then tailed off horribly in the second half, to be honest they should have beaten Belgium by more than the final score of 2-1. Whilst Belgium improved in the second half and worked hard to close France down, the French just looked lacklustre again. as ever with the French it looks like something isnt quite right within the camp or their attitude, so am expecting a spectacular collapse in the quarter finals...
England play Northern Ireland tomorrow night and if the Lionesses get anywhere close to their performance against Norway I seriously fear for the Irish lasses.
Let's have some love for Bruno's Magpies too! Narrowly lost on aggregate (4-3) to Crusaders (Northern Ireland) in UECL qualifying.
In my experience Irish lasses rarely fail to rise to the occasion. mrs micra is confident they’ll keep it down to single figures.
I put it down to their history of tin baths!
Getting back to the title of this thread, can anyone have ever played for so many clubs?
https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/20281751.journeyman-jefferson-louis-spotted-playing-risborough-rangers/
Hats off to Northern Ireland who I thought played really well to limit England to only 5 goals.
England were good but again started slowly and looked a little leaden footed at the back at times and were a little wasteful in front of goal but are still very much in contention.
In the other game in that group Austria beat Norway, the latter must rate as the biggest under achievers of the tournament.
Tonights games were a predictably easy win for Germany over Finland 3-0 & a very interesting clash of styles between Spain & Denmark.
The former played beautiful 2 touch tika-taka football, the latter a very disciplined counter attack absorbing loads of pressure and breaking swiftly. Spain had a ridiculous amount of possession (75%) but didn't seriously troubled the Danish keeper (arguably the keeper of the group stages) until the 90th minute when they managed to get an overload on the Danish defence and scored. Denmark just didn't or weren't able to commit enough players forward on the break (until the last 5 minutes) to seriously threaten Spain and pushing for the goal they needed to go through left the space for Spain to finally exploit.
It will be really interesting game between Spain & England in the quarter final.
The penultimate group games were held tonight with Sweden completing a regulation 5-0 win over a resolute but ultimately outclassed Portugal. The Swedes will not mind who they play from Group D (Belgium, Iceland or Italy)
In the other game Netherlands looked like a team that didn't really want to be there and had only met just before kick off for the vast majority of the game and were second best in the first half. The Netherlands eventually clicked towards the end of the game, following some decent substitutions and ran out 4-1 winners over a very solid and organised Switzerland who ran out of legs chasing an equaliser in the last 10 minutes (when the Dutch scored their final 2 goals). The score line seriously flattered the Dutch, who will struggle against France if they play as poorly as this.
FFS how is that muppet Pearce let near a commentary microphone? He not only rambles on talking a load of old tosh but is also very weirdly creepy.
Belgium doing a Wycombe.
Belgium beat Italy 1-0 to take second spot in the group after Iceland managed a last minute draw against France.
I was really impressed with how Iceland played, well organised and hard working and they harried the French well. France got more and more frustrated and petulant as the game went on especially as VAR disallowed 2 goals (rightly) & awarded a last minute penalty to Iceland. Even though France comfortably headed their group they looked incredibly surly & out of sorts at the final whistle.
Next up England - Spain in the first quarter final.
I was also impressed with Iceland, and was convinced they'd nick a draw after France hit the woodwork twice and had the first goal rightly disallowed for offside. However, they were ultimately completely robbed of victory by VAR and rightly annoyed at the final whistle. I thought they took the disallowing of the goal for handball remarkably well (the ball deflected up and hit the striker's arm which was against her body before she hooked it in). And as for the penalty, no one in the commentary box or studio was remotely sure what it was even given for. Absolute nonsense from VAR once again. Thankfully it ultimately had no bearing on who qualified or in what position in the group.
Interestingly, I note that neither disallowed goal makes it onto BBC's short online highlights: Euro 2022: Iceland's Euro journey over after France draw - highlights - BBC Sport. Is this a thing, not including game-changing VAR incidents in highlights?
João Cancelo has just taken the number 7 shirt for City, game's gone