My Two favourite teams

[Sammy Chung was King]

At the tournament lock horns, The Lions of England v The Icelandic Viking Horde. What do we think to this fixture?. Very under-rated so far Iceland, as happens with tournaments, new comers are written off.
 Drew with Portugal, kept Ronaldo quiet, drew with Hungry the descendants of the 'Mighty Magyrs', and turned over an Austrian team rated by many as a 'Dark horse' in the tournament. They were my dark horses, with Dragovic and Hinteregger at the back plus one or two offensive players, i thought they would do well, Iceland turned them over!.

We face a really motivated team, because they don't play as individuals, they play like men, you don't get the diving and feigning injury with this team.
We used to be like this in our football, we still are to a degree but it has slowly seeped into our game, like a poison going into the blood stream!.
This is one game i really envy those who are out there. The Iceland fans are there to enjoy it, no expectations, every game they have been the same, flooding the stadium with sea coloured blue. I find it hard to pick an individual out that needs to be stopped, they really are team orientated.

How refreshing to see, new teams, players and fans, it's made a usually boring group stage, into an improved stage. Even though the tournament, is down on usual goal totals.
Which for me doesn't suggest better defending, it's the conditioning of all the teams, that is very much level for each squad in the tournament. And it's also a decrease in finishing prowess, and also the long seasons that players are facing!.
Yes the Liverpool sides and other successful sides, back in the day, played more than these players, but they didn't play at the frenetic pace, that the game is played at now.
When i was younger, i thought there was very little between the pro players, and with the right break i might have a chance. But for me the gap between amateur and professional has widened.
 it's not just the technique, it's having the technique and being able to think quick enough. The constant movement of the ball, it's in one goal mouth, and two players and twelve seconds later, it's in the other goal mouth!.
A player is virtually an athlete these days, they train as hard if not harder. I find the game too fast at this tournament, you're eyes don't get the chance to see subtle moves, the intricate skills aren't used as much, because they haven't the time, before somebody is hassling them for the ball.
I don't know if anybody agrees with me, that technique and entertaining a crowd, are almost gone now, due to the pace of the game?.

Anyway back to England and Iceland. Not being disrespectful, but if we could have picked a second round opponent, they would have been high on the list. The problem as we have already mentioned whoever wins this game, then most probably face the home nation, France.
I don't particularly fear them, they have a pretty average side, but they can defend, even though there are weaknesses, and they have Payet who all our back four have already faced. As we have quite a few of them, but he is very talented, not quite world class, but not far off.
Griezsmann has been largely disappointing, Pogba has had one good game so far, but they are a side i think we could handle!.
First though we have to beat Iceland, as always in this tournament, you have to attack with the players we have, that's our strength.
They are strong on set pieces, they are a tough rigid group the icelanders, it will be a real battle, unless this is the game, where everything clicks!.

[Red wizard]

Its going to be tough. We are struggling to break sides down and I expect the same here.

[Donnywolf]

Its going to be tough. We are struggling to break sides down and I expect the same here.

It gets worse ! I decided that my appalling Euro betting could not go on so got 2/1 for both Wales and England to win in 90 minutes.

Fate has dealt me the first Card - a Wales win - and is now waiting to taunt me on the second leg of the Bet. I suppose I could go for a 90 minute "draw" to lay off the bet a bit - or do others think I should "let it ride"

[darren61]

A very tough game, blood and thunder with no quarter given by either side, thats what im hoping for. England really should have enough to win and a early goal would really help our cause, i know that goes without saying but that hasn't happened so far. I can't wait for kick off.

[Red wizard]

I just fear them getting a goal. There going to have 10 men behind the ball at 0-0
 I'd hate to think what they would do if they go a goal up.

[RedJ]

Basically stand on the goal line.

[Donnywolf]

Basically stand on the goal line.

... they would be buoyed by their Goal and moor the Trawler and let us just batter away and hopefully not get a net full. It would produce a reet scrap

[Akinfenwa]

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more about Austria. Back in 2008 they were 92nd in the World Rankings, and rightly concerned about hosting a 16 team tournament in which they were comfortably the worst ranked nation.

Fast forward to 2016, they topped their qualifying group with a near perfect record (W9 D1 L0) and are ranked 10th in the World Rankings. Yes they have had a disappointing tournament, but to claim that Austria have not improved significantly since they co-hosted the tournament 8 years ago is simply untrue.

[RoversAlias]

Alaba, Arnautovic, Dragovic, Schopf, Baumgartlinger...they've got a lot of players in top european leagues now that weren't there 8 years ago. People like Fuchs too who have a lot more experience and, as Akinfenwa says, had a terrific record through qualifying.

[Sammy Chung was King]

Austria are probably the biggest letdown in the tournament, they have almost everything except a real goal threat. On the iceland game, matching physical player for physical player isn't the way to beat them. We need a constantly moving team, players that can take a man on, pace and skill, and we have to take our chances.
I see us having a bad start going a goal down, then really having to battle to win this game!. Picking this side, you have players capable of rotating positions, and taking positions on the wings or centrally.

 It would make them hard to mark and create the movement, needed to break down, a defensive minded side. Both forwards can also cause problems drifting wide, plenty of pace, then you have the full backs giving regular width. And i would use this game, to put stones in, against better sides we will need a ball player back there, this game would be ideal to put him in.

  4-1-3-2                           Hart

                                 Smalling  Stones

                     Walker                                 Rose

                                            Dier 


                               Alli        Rooney     Sterling


                                     Sturridge    Vardy