England and Wales

Defensive football seems to have the upper hand at the moment. England played four games against teams who parked the bus, but we couldn't defend so it was obvious how to play against us. Leicester won the league playing low-possession football. Wales as far as I can discern have been doing the same, although I stopped watching Euro 2016 once England got knocked out and nothing will bring me back. When I was watching it many of the games I managed to endure were dull because the format of the competition means avoiding defeat at all costs.  If we want a decent tournament EUFA should  have a longer group format that encourages teams to win and less knockout games.

When it was 2-1 to Wales I said to my wife that Belguim would win.

I said that they would get an equaliser, then take it to extra time and win on penalties.

I said I was confident of this after decades of watching these tournaments.

But of course it was decades of watching England, who seem mentally fragile. Wales look to have a different mind set.

I wouldn't put it past them to beat Portugal. I hope so!

Simple for me Wales are getting right a lot that England are getting wrong such as,

- Playing to a system
- Having a specific plan for each game
- An environment where the pressure is lifted and the players loom forward to being part of
- Picking on form and desire rather than reputation
- Integrating works class players (England don't have any BTW) with good players.
- Managing expectation
- Appointing the right manager.

If I am honest after thinking about it all week I reckon that the England players only take a proportion of the blame for another failure and most of it should sit with Hodgson and the FA.

I hope Wales keep going (ouch that hurts) as it may kick the FA into gear.    

We are always focusing on the future aswell instead of the here and now . Let's stop trying to play like other teams - Allardyce or Pullis as manager get organised and cause other teams problems - basic 4-4-2 , Crouch and Caroll up top load then reload cause chaos . Fox

Portugal could win the Euro's without winning a game,

Up to now they have drawn their 3 group games,

Beat 2 teams on pens,

So if they do the same in the semi and final ,

They are champions without winning a game,

Very strange

Portugal won 1 game in extra time.

Got my tickets to fly out to Lyon to watch the game in the Fanzone, and to soak up the atmosphere for a couple of days as well. I've never, ever, seen my country at a major tournament before, and at 62 years of age am unlikely to get that many more opportunities for more, especialy at this stage of the competition, so this is just something I couldn't miss.

Cymru am byth!

The question of England's performance isn't just about this squad, but is a 40-year question about how a country of 60 million people with over 100 professional clubs and the most money in world football, underperforms compared to similarly and worse situated countries.

In the last 40 years, the following European countries have better records (Championships won, semis reached) than England:  Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Czech, USSR/Russia, Spain.

So, objectively judged, we're not even in the top 12 of European footballing nations.  Add in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and we're not even in the World Top 15.

So, this goes a lot deeper than "Hodgson couldn't inspire the players" or "He should have taken player X/Y" (though both are probably true), because that doesn't explain 50 years of failure and suggests the problem is more structural.

I'm inclined to agree with Forza Ivano in that the structure of the English game produces (on the whole) substandard players who are not technically and intellectually good enough to play anywhere other than in Premier League teams where they are enhanced by top foreign players.  Our players have zero transfer value on the international market and those who may be good enough care more about picking up huge pay packets than about improving their game and expanding their horizons (Tom Ince, Rooney)

So yes, we can talk about getting in a coach on big bucks, or we can think about how we improve our game in the long run so we perform more in line with our size.

Spot on Hackney.