we could have easily won yesterday and we should have but they switched off when they thought they were in the final

.

Even Tunisia gave us a really strong defence, I think it's pretty naive to write off anyone that isn't in the circle of "France/Brazil/Argentina/Spain/Germany" as a "not decent" team :shrug: especially in this world cup, where Mexico and South Korea have humiliated Germany, Iceland have humiliated Argentina, Japan have come close to knocking Belgium out, Sweden topped a group including Germany...

To me the only "bad" teams at this world cup were Saudi Arabia, Panama, Costa Rica, Egypt and Poland (which is odd because Poland are usually great) :shrug: even the likes of Morocco, Iran and Australia put up some great performances... it's probably what's made this the most enjoyable world cup in my lifetime, for me.

But yeah, England knocked out 2 teams that finished top of their groups, and pretty good groups at that.

yeah, i think the "small" teams are catching up on the big boys so there are very few easy matches. I think that's part of the reason they are expanding the numbers again, to make the big teams look better :laugh:

Yeah exactly, plus those matches against Columbia and Sweden are the exact sort of games where we have completely blown it in recent years. So many people revelling in England going out (not on here btw, but on FB/Twitter) because we've all been so 'cocky' but they're kinda misunderstanding what the whole 'It's Coming Home' thing was about which wasn't about being the greatest or thinking we were the best team in the world, it was just about enjoying having a side that everyone could get behind for once and genuinely enjoy watching their progress. The atmosphere in the country the last two weeks is something I've not seen before, had always said in the past that I'd prefer club success to country but this tournament has completely changed that

You can understand how England international teams have got a bit jaded when you see people moaning even when England reached the semi's, most fans would give their right arm for that, can't imagine what they would have been saying if they went out in the first round :umm2:

I was more devastated losing in 1990, 1996, 2004 and 2006. Those years we had great teams that were capable of winning a tournament. I think the team this year went way beyond expectations.

Hopefully this young team learns lessons from this great experience, and it can hold them in good stead for the near future. There's no reason why this team can't kick on now and become European champions in 2 years time.

The problem for them now is that they went into this tournament with no expectation on their backs, the media will whip this team up now for the Euros and put unnecesssary pressure on them, I think Gareth is very media savvy so hopefully he will keep them grounded.

It's amazing to me how many people didn't get that the 'it's coming home' stuff was ironic, sense of humour bypass or what? It was only when we reached the semis that some people actually thought 'oh sh*t...'

I've only ever grown up seeing the England team as an embarrassment, and consistently underperforming...so this tournament has been a revelation. The videos of people celebrating all over the place, the camaraderie, the demons put to bed, Gareth Southgate, the fact they actually seem like a "team" and are likeable, etc etc have all been genuinely heartwarming. This country desperately needed this what with how divided we've been the last two years, and I'm so pleased that if nothing else they've given us a summer we'll never forget :love:

I am however gutted, a part of me thinks this is a missed opportunity...it's not often you get a bit of luck and the draw opens up like that. There is every chance we won't do this again for another 30 years, and that makes me sad. But...I never thought I'd see us make a World Cup semi-final, so!

Not wishing to burst any bubbles but each and every member of the team is bang average at best, and they are not going to get significantly better as individuals than they are now. So, given that, why would they do any better in future tournaments?

Our team were the youngest and most inexperienced in the whole tournament, most of tham have not hit their peak as players yet

Of course they'll get better, most of them haven't hit their peak yet.

What we lacked this time around was the composure when we got into good positions, and I also thought physically we were behind other teams, both Columbia and Croatia out muscled us. We got were we got on sheer effort and team spirit. The physicality and composure will come with maturing as players.

3rd youngest actually, I literally only read an article on this earlier today :fan:

Nigeria had the youngest squad then France and then England :hee:

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/foot...sportgalleries

:think:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cu...t-represented/

:think:

I guess my site rounded Nigeria's up, looks like we are joint with France for second at least :hee:

Mbappe is only 19 and light years ahead of any england player in terms of skill and speed. With the greatest respect to the england players, they will not get close to that ever in terms of performance. They succeeded largely down to youthful exuberance .... that will only fade leaving an average team

Euro 2020 we will be twice as good as we are now and the final is actually at Wembley, then its really coming home :hee:

Nope I think Frances are slightly younger still so third :p

World Cup 2018 squads
Average age (years)
England have the third-youngest squad going to Russia

At the other end of the spectrum, Nigeria have the youngest squad, closely followed by France and Gareth Southgate's inexperienced England squad, who average just 26 years and 18 days old.

I think that's saying they're tied in closely following though, their graph shows us joint on 26 and Nigeria as 25.9

Unless France are like one day younger on average

Did that youthful exuberance fade in Pele, Messi and Ronaldo? who were all star players in their teens or did they become even better players from the age of 25 to 30?

He will fade away in a couple of years, rather have Sterling

are you seriously trying to compare any of those players to the england squad? :joker:

All those players were magicians in their youth. They had inherent ability way in advance of anything the england squad have to offer

One day younger I'd say :hehe:

I'm comparing them to the French kid who you compared to the England team.