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Yeah, what I meant was people are now going to expect us to win it.

That's inevitable. Whether it's something that happens a year before the tournament or a day before, England fans will always get worked up and start expecting to win, aided by the hyperbolic media idiots.

I'm looking forward to the experience of Euro 2012 while living in England. I expect it'll be chaos, and the whole country will have mood swings like nothing else.

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Couldn't help but laugh at Fabregas criticising our tactics. Bad loser!

England manager Fabio Capello will give Jack Rodwell, Daniel Sturridge and Kyle Walker their first international starts when England face Sweden on Tuesday.

Chelsea forward Sturridge, who will earn his first cap, will partner Fulham's Bobby Zamora in attack.

Captain John Terry and Gary Cahill will also return, replacing Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka in defence.

Capello is also considering giving goalkeeper Scott Carson, 26, a first cap in three years.

It would be his first outing at Wembley since the 3-2 defeat to Croatia in November 2007 that saw England knocked out of Euro 2008 in qualifying and cost Steve McClaren his job.

Carson joined Turkish side Bursaspor in a £2.1m deal from West Brom during the summer.

England beat world champions Spain on Saturday but Capello is mindful Sweden will provide another stern test.

Sweden reached Euro 2012 as the best runners-up in qualification after finishing second behind Holland in Group E, with 24 points from 10 games.

Capello added: "They are really good and play in a very organised way. Everybody knows what they need to do in every moment of the game.

"It is a little country with a small population but it's always difficult to beat Sweden."

Capello is looking forward to coming up against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the striker the Italian signed for Juventus for £15m in 2004.

He said: "Ibrahimovic is a really good player who can decide a top-level game in a single moment.

"I bought him as Juventus manager and for this reason I know how important he is for Sweden and what a real danger he is for every opponent."

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Holy double-post, Batman!

The Republic of Ireland want to arrange a friendly against England - the first meeting since crowd trouble caused the abandonment of a game 16 years ago.

The game at Dublin's Lansdowne Road in 1995 was abandoned after 27 minutes.

The Republic lead 4-0 after their Euro 2012 first-leg play-off against Estonia and are keen to face high-profile teams before their likely finals appearance.

It is not yet certain if the match will be agreed before the draw for the finals is made on 2 December.

Football Association of Ireland (FAI) chief executive John Delaney told the Sunday Independent: "I think there is a real enthusiasm, particularly from the English FA, to have England in Dublin sooner rather than later."

Republic assistant manager Marco Tardelli was more focused on securing a place in the finals before considering the build-up to the event, which takes place in Poland and the Ukraine from 8 June to 1 July.

"For us, all teams are the same. I think in Europe, there are many strong teams," the Italian said.

"For us, if we play against Italy or England, it's no problem because we must play these games. The teams are not important, it is important to qualify."

England could also be Sweden's first opponents in their new national stadium when it opens next year in Stockholm.

The proposed friendly at the new 50,000-capacity arena is scheduled for November 2012.

It is understood that the fixture has been agreed as part of a reciprocal arrangement which brings Sweden to Wembley on Tuesday.

England also played the first match in Sweden's current national stadium, the Rasunda, in May 1937.

England won that game 4-0 but have not beaten Sweden in 12 games dating back to 1968.

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But we won the match. That's what matters!

Phil Jagielka is set to miss the Sweden game. And goalkeeping coach Ray Clemence has been admitted to hospital. Clemence began to feel unwell on Friday, when he missed training and also Saturday's friendly win over world champions Spain.

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Couldn't help but laugh at Fabregas criticising our tactics. Bad loser!

He was right though :shifty: Of course bus parking and set pieces did the Bubbles well so it could be the way forward.

Criticising something implies by its very nature that there was something wrong with our tactics. Given those tactics worked, leading us to win the game, any such criticism is completely unfounded because they worked and we won. The tactics that need to be criticised are Spain because despite knowing we were playing in a certain way, they failed to adjust their tactics and just kept hammering the ball at us despite it not working. Switzerland can vouch for this.

Edited by Pepsi Twist
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Couldn't help but laugh at Fabregas criticising our tactics. Bad loser!

He was right though :shifty: Of course bus parking and set pieces did the Bubbles well so it could be the way forward.

Criticising something implies by its very nature that there was something wrong with our tactics. Given those tactics worked, leading us to win the game, any such criticism is completely unfounded because they worked and we won. The tactics that need to be criticised are Spain because despite knowing we were playing in a certain way, they failed to adjust their tactics and just kept hammering the ball at us despite it not working. Switzerland can vouch for this.

I don't fully agree with your logic given that I've seen Sam Allardyce teams occasionally win football games (there's always an element of chance to football after all), but I didn't see anything wrong with Englands tactics at all.

It wasn't a full on bus park, it was a sensible game with two holding midfielders to protect the back four and try to get some possession, before using the wings to attack. I think with Rooney in Lampards position (I like Frank, but Rooney is so busy in midfield he'd make more space for the front three) and a more involved centre forward we could've exploited that more. For all Spains possession we really limited their chances (pretty much to the times where Parker dawdled about and lost possession) and looked solid throughout. Well played and a ground out result, which I can't remember saying about an England performance for a long time.

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Couldn't help but laugh at Fabregas criticising our tactics. Bad loser!

He was right though :shifty: Of course bus parking and set pieces did the Bubbles well so it could be the way forward.

Criticising something implies by its very nature that there was something wrong with our tactics. Given those tactics worked, leading us to win the game, any such criticism is completely unfounded because they worked and we won. The tactics that need to be criticised are Spain because despite knowing we were playing in a certain way, they failed to adjust their tactics and just kept hammering the ball at us despite it not working. Switzerland can vouch for this.

I don't fully agree with your logic given that I've seen Sam Allardyce teams occasionally win football games (there's always an element of chance to football after all), but I didn't see anything wrong with Englands tactics at all.

It wasn't a full on bus park, it was a sensible game with two holding midfielders to protect the back four and try to get some possession, before using the wings to attack. I think with Rooney in Lampards position (I like Frank, but Rooney is so busy in midfield he'd make more space for the front three) and a more involved centre forward we could've exploited that more. For all Spains possession we really limited their chances (pretty much to the times where Parker dawdled about and lost possession) and looked solid throughout. Well played and a ground out result, which I can't remember saying about an England performance for a long time.

I was probably too general in that and your point about ol' Big Head proves as much. I think the core point stands though, the tactics at fault were Spain's, as a number of results have proved. If a team gets behind the ball, Spain find it hard to deal with. Yes, everyone wants football to be played a certain way but when a certain game dictates a change, you should change. Spain seem incapable of that. They ran at the defence, tried to work the ball into the box but they were probably better off dropping deeper crosses in and attacking England that way because their usual tactics were evidently not working.

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I can't stand teams who seem to think that they have a divine right to win because of how they play, England came out with a gameplan to contain a very narrow Spain team and it worked and they benefited it from it with a win. What's wrong with that? It would be idiotic to try and play Spain at their own game, no one is going to have more possession than them and beat them with a passing game - we know that and we played our game accordingly.

Maybe if Spain had some actual width, since Pedro was injured they had none, they could have done a bit more but since they had about six players all wanting to play through the centre you can't really blame England for defending them properly and, ultimately, well.

Fabregas can whine all he likes but I'd rather win a European Championship ala Greece than lose in the semi-finals playing like Spain. Football is about winning, playing the game beautifully and succeeding is a bonus but technically we are far, far, far too inferior to Spain to do anything of the sort.

You adapt your game to try and get an advantage over your opponents, you don't just play your own game and hope that tactically it is a good weapon against them. It would be like trying to out-hit Rafa Nadal, or stand and punch with Brock Lesnar or something, you make your game exploit your opponents weaknesses and we did just that and it worked. Not our fault Spain had no real tooth up front, Hart wasn't particularly tested a great deal and Jagielka and Lescott were brilliant and focused. Not our fault is it?

Croatia had 30% possession against Turkey and won 3-0. Which would you rather have, the possession or the scoreline? It seems to me Spain sometimes think that possession is the most important stat, and so do a lot of English fans and commentators. There's a lot of emphasis put on possession but that percentage doesn't tell you everything, a goalkeeper passing to a centre back and the back again is possession - not exactly threatening the opposition though, is it?

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For anyone interested, the U21's are just about to kick off against Belgium in the Euro 2013 Qualifiers.

EDIT: ESPN for anyone wondering. 5 minutes in, England with a lot of possession and looking to play pretty quick passes and quite direct as well. Be interesting to see if they can keep it up, seems a few of the players are struggling to try and pass and move at a high tempo.

Edited by IAceI
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a goalkeeper passing to a centre back and the back again is possession - not exactly threatening the opposition though, is it?

But let's not pretend that that's what Spain do. They spend the majority of the time camped in their opposition's half.

Not surprised Fabregas or the Spanish press are having a whine about how we played, and whilst I think there's something in lining up the way we did on Saturday for the majority of games (cutting off the middle with two defensive screens, predominantly using quick players on the wings), I don't think we should kid ourselves that having loads of possession is somehow a bad thing. You can never have too much of it, and I'd argue that ultimately Spain's poor showings in recent friendlies (and after all they are friendlies, they've won the last two major tournaments they've entered) has more to do with Del Bosque's selections rather than the style of football they play.

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England are 1-0 up against Belgium thanks to a Martin Kelly header from a Jordan Henderson freekick. A Liverpool goal. Seem to have stepped off a little bit now and Belgium look like they could get back into it now and again.

Raw doesn't even begin to describe Sammi Ameobi either.

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2-1 to Belgium in stoppage time. Hit on the counter attack, El Kaddouri with the goal - he set up the equaliser too and he's only been on the pitch about fifteen minutes.

England will be ruing not converting their dominance at an earlier stage but credit to Belgium, they stuck with it and look to have got the win.

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1419 FOOTBALL: Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck has been withdrawn from England's friendly with Sweden at Wembley tonight with a muscle strain, the Football Association have confirmed.

Just seen the possible team on Sky. I never go out of my way to watch England friendlies but I may actively dodge this one.

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1820 FOOTBALL: BBC Sport's Sam Lyon, before bringing you his live text, with a hint on the England team via Twitter: "Word on the Tweet says Eng team v Sweden tonight is: Hart, Walker, Terry, Cahill, Baines, Walcott, Jones, Barry, Rodwell, Downing, Zamora."

Not comfirmed yet but interesting nonetheless. Sturridge presumably on the bench.

Wonder what odds I can get on England conceding due to a catastrophic John Terry error?

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I'm sorry, and no offense to the fella, but friendly or not Bobby Zamora should never be starting England games. Sturridge is on the bench, and Andy Carroll even off form is far better. He's not even playing that well in the league.

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