Euro 2012

Gerrard with both the assists for both England's goals, and both goals from headers. We do like we wanna play and look like we know how to for once! Won't get carried away but that was a cracking goal. Good lads.

A few of the England boys are playing with passion, Carrol impressed me, for some reason Hart believes standing still is the best way to save shots on goal. Who misses Rooney?

Not me. He is too often one of the under-performing prima donas I was referring to for England. Hopefully having sat watching the spirit and graft of his team mates he will come and play to his potential.

That Wellbeck finish was sublime!

If they play rooney next game, and we lose, we'll blame Rooney/disruption of the team.

If we dont play rooney and we lose, we should have played rooney etc.

I reckon keep it as it is, because its easily winnable without him, but he can perform and pull something special out the bag if needed..

But we pulled it off tonight so, alls good so far.

Well that was another nail biting performance. Don't think Ashley Young should start the next match, he was pretty crap tonight. Rooney should add the spark that was missing from the attack, until Walcott came on.

very very exciting match tonight! excellent defensive performance from johnson, proved his worth with some vital challenges at the back! Gerrard was solid as expected, carroll took his chance with composure and welbeck was bright. Walcott looked good when he came on.
I was slightlydisappointed with Milner and Cole, but you can't have all eleven playing well or we'd be favourites to win the whole thing. Good result though, hopefully a win against the Ukraine and on to the quarters.

JC, your analysis please

Glen Johnson was very good tonight, Scott Parker put some real hard work in too. One thing I did notice is that almost all the England players were pushed around alot and pushed off the ball, need a bit of work on the strength.

Yeah Young is like that, either really good or barely in the game. I like him, but I'd drop him for his diving alone.

I know it's hot out there, but England seem to drift in and out of games. When they attack teams with the pace and style of a Premiership team they look very hard to handle. After all with a team including Wellbeck, Young, The Ox, Milner, Walcott etc, undoubtedly our best asset is pace.

And I wouldnt start Rooney against Ukraine, I think it would send a good message to both Rooney and the rest of the squad for him to start on the bench.

I hope Hodgson has the balls.

I agree




I was working till 11pm. Got till 10.30 and an old woman snook up on me and said 'so 3-2 that's good'


I could of hit her

They did the most important thing last night, which was too win, but defensively we were poor (Johnson apart, who was probably our best player), and against a very average side we created very few chances

Imo if you're going to play with an extremley rigid structure as we are, you need to attack with pace. Milner needs to go.....he brings very little too the side offensively. Young also needs to get more involved in the game....he has been anonymous so far

I can't believe ppl are saying rooney shouldn't come straight back in. He is the one creative world class player we have.

I'm not saying it based on footballing ability, I'm saying it based on trying to get the best out of him and the rest of the team. Wellbeck shouldn't be dropped. Carroll would/could be picked based on game plan. I'm saying it shouldn't be automatic for him to walk back into the team. Teams where players are guaranteed their place tend to underperform.

Having said that, I thought the Rooney/Wellbeck combination really improved over the last few months of the season. They were sublime together against Everton and if they could put performances likes that in an England shirt we'd trouble any team.

Wellbeck & Carroll both scored, but neither played spectacularly well.

Anyhow, He's confirmed as a starter for tonights game, probably with Wellbeck. It seem Hodgson is going to persist with Milner (probably for his defensive solidity) and Young (I would have picked him, but made it clear it was his last chance to perform) on the flanks tonight.

Looking forward to the game...hope its not 0-0 into the 2nd hald and we pull our usual trick of dropping deeper and deeper. I think we'll win the game by a couple of goals though, but still finish 2nd and face Spain

I think the Spaniards need hold no fears for England at the moment...yes, they retain the ball very well, but in the 3 matches so far have played with very little tempo, and there penetration and creation of out and out chances has been pretty poor

Wide open tournament IMO

Agreed.

Spain would be favourites but they are players that the English know well whether it be through the Premiership or Champions League. The Spanish would want to up their game from the group stages as they haven't been as fluid as you would expect.

Croatia missed a few great chances last night.

thank goodness for that. embarassingly bad!