Ahhh, the relief of being knocked out, can now enjoy the final with no pressure.
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No pressure? Are you some kind of cheese eating surrender monkey or what?
The pressure is: France must not win the cup. I blame Belgium, if it had been Belgium vs Croatia then I’d have watched the final in a relaxed state. @Sushi you owe me.
From the wonderful facebook page “Irreverent Italian Memes”:
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So… England got beat by Croatia. I think France will win 2-0 and get their second World Cup. Not ideal, but there you are. England have been transformed by Gareth Southgate and getting to the Semis was a massive achievement and they have done the nation proud!
Looking forward, The semis and the Final for the 2020 Euros are in England. Also, most people don’t know that England Under 20s won the World Cup last year. And the Under 21s won the Toulon tournament for the THIRD year running. So England aren’t doing too badly at the moment and if some of the Under 20s WC Winners were added to the current squad we could take off!
Considering how badly we did at Euro 16, it was a wonderful World Cup, well organised, friendly, fun, exciting (Didn’t have a 0-0 until like the 35 game or something),
England play Belguim in the 3rd place play-off though I expect Belgium to put in a less than stellar squad and England to do the same, it would be wonderful to get 3rd like the England Ladies did in 2015 World Cup, but we will probably rest so many it won’t happen. I thought Belgium with Hazard, Company, Elbows and the others would win the World Cup in truth. But there you go, France got it.
Been a brilliant tournament for an England fan and though it stings to go out 45 minutes from the Final I do think this team will grow and go from strength to strength and that would be amazing.
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Where I worked when I was younger there were these two twins. They were pretty and around 30. One day I am working away and one of them said to me wow Vince you’ve got big hands, you could do some damage with those fingers. 
I sure hope so for you. But I’m always skeptical when it comes to young teams 
from time to time I like to look at the U20 or U23 squads from a couple of years before to see which of the names made it to the big stage. At least for Italy, that’s very few. You get some names you recognize (Totti, Pirlo) and a bunch of completely unknown people, and you’re like “what the hell happened?”.
Switzerland won the 2009 U17 world cup. Of that squad, only Seferovic, Xhaka and Rodriguez made it to this world cup. They also came second in 2011’s U21 European.
I mean, it’s a good indication of the health of the whole national football movement (in fact, despite the lack of results, today’s Switzerland is way better than 20 years ago’s Switzerland), but it’s not given just hope that England’s youth will grow to be professional.
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The Curse of City Island.
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You are right of course. There are some brilliant players from that squad, one Calvert-Lewin is making his name at Everton some of the others were scoring like mad.
It all depends really, Most England men’s players have history in the youth England squads. Some don’t but most do. Ones to watch for me are the two Dominics, Cooky and Ade Lookman.
Everton’s Ademola Lookman and Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke
Lewis Cook from Bournmouth who has had 1 full cap this year.
Spurs vs Manchester United EPL Sept 2001 — spurs led 3-0 at half time and United won 5-3
AC vs Liverpool 2005 CL final Milan 3-0 at HT, Liverpool came back to draw 3-3 and win on Pens
I’ve noticed that all the teams I have rooted so far, have lost their match.
Thus, I will root for France…
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I don’t want France to win either but they look a dead cert to. Croatia should have been worn out by 2 games going to penalties but they were good enough to beat us, fair play. I think England did brilliantly. Got further than Germany, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Brasil, that is some achievement as it is. Let alone Italy not making it to the finals along with Holland. I thought after we made a decent Sweden look ordinary with our 2-0 we would be able to take out Croatia. They’ve had better teams in the past in my opinion but they might just do it!
I thought phew, no Germany in our semi final. And AND we actually won a penalty shoot out which is a big thing for us.
Croatia basically played one match more (ET three times, it means 90 minutes more) and has one day less for recovery.
However they seemed perfectly in shape. Everything can happen. I mean, Greece won Euro2004.
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Yes. I thought with a mostly older squad it would have told. Going through Penalties twice also takes its toll.
Yes true Greece winning truly was surprising even France 98 France winning was a major shock, but then how much that had to do with Nike owning Brasil and gangsters who knows. One thing for sure something dodgy went on. France had some wonderful players back then but Brasil was not Brasil that day.
Just like there weren´t on that day in july 2014.
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Oh yeah, Germany deserved to win that World Cup. Shocking how just 4 years later…
If you do watching that video, good luck with understanding a word
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Every team can have an off day…
This game. They did a commercial DVD of, I think it sold like 3 million copies!
The Curse of Brexit Island?
nah…
Belgium vs England 2: Looking for Victories (in all the wrong places)?
Nah…
Belgium vs England 2: Day Of The Third Place ? Perhaps…
Belgium vs England 2: The Empire Strikes Back? Definitely- but no! 
Belgium vs England 2: Attack of the Clones (since none of the actual players want to play this match - again) ? Nah…
Belgium vs England 2: the big whoop!
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Ah I see. Well they will get 3rd place because Gareth will rest all the players that played the last 3 games!
I hope now you’ve learned to stop picking your nose
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Battle of the Colonists (sounds like an alternative title to Aliens, actually).
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