Euro 2012

[Lineker]

You mean a red top.

And humour.

And I did laugh at this headline when I saw it at the station this morning.

[Johnny Drama]

Can't argue with the result the best team won and Pirlo was class again that penalty was outrageous. When Montolivo missed I thought it could of been our day. Germany to win it I think still. Looking forward to the Germany v Italy game.

[9 to 5]

Four people have been arrested after disorder broke out in Bedford following England's defeat to Italy in Euro 2012.

About 150 England fans headed to The Embankment after the game and targeted Italian fans, who had formed a cavalcade of vehicles to celebrate.

Some of the vehicles were damaged and one person was attacked but not seriously hurt, police said.

Officers were forced to close the High Street and The Embankment and are reviewing CCTV.

About 1,200 England fans had watched the Kiev game at bars on the High Street, with the vast majority heading home after the game, police added.

A cordon was put in place as the streets filled after the match, but about 150 people broke away.

Police said they prevented the group from confronting a larger group of Italian fans who had gathered in Russell Park.

Supt Mark Turner said: "Sadly a well behaved build-up to the game was marred by approximately 15 minutes of sporadic disorder in Bedford High Street and The Embankment after the penalty shoot-out.

"A group of approximately 150 people broke away and ran towards the Embankment straight into grid-locked traffic as many Italian fans had formed a cavalcade of vehicles to celebrate and it was at this point some vehicles were attacked by the crowd.

"While order was quickly restored, this was undoubtedly an extremely unpleasant situation for people trying to leave the area sensibly and particularly for those stuck in their cars."

Three people were arrested for criminal damage and one for assault.

Bedford has had a large Italian population since the 1950s, when workers from Italy helped rebuild the town after the war.

Supt Turner added that police had expected many people to come out on to the streets after the game.

"The tournament as a whole, across Bedfordshire, has been very successfully policed, and people have been enjoying the football," he said.

"Unfortunately a small group of mindless idiots had to break away - but unfortunately that's the price we pay sometimes.

"What I would say is that the huge majority of the crowd were very well behaved."

He said he expected "no trouble whatsoever" in Bedford during and after Italy's semi-final with Germany on Thursday.

David, you must learn to control your emotions! Keep them in check!!

I don't live there! And I would never have gone to Bedford for this game for this exact reason.

[Lineker]

England manager Roy Hodgson says there are reasons for optimism despite the team's exit from Euro 2012.

Hodgson is confident in the ability of the country's young players but concedes the national side must become better in possession following their defeat on penalties by Italy.

"We have to be optimistic. We have to believe," said the 64-year-old.

"There are good young players. We are doing well at under-21 level. It'll be good to see how we do at the Olympics."

Hodgson was appointed England manager on 1 May, leaving him with little time to prepare the squad for the trip to Poland and Ukraine.

But he said there were plenty of factors which pleased him about the team's performance, despite the disappointment of another quarter-final exit at a major tournament.

"With this year, with all that's gone on, we can take a small degree of satisfaction," he added. "There's not as much negativity now as there was."

England have been criticised by pundits, such as BBC Radio 5 live analyst Chris Waddle, for their inability to keep possession.

When asked if that problem was because of tiredness caused by constantly having to chase the opposition to regain the ball, Hodgson said: "It doesn't help your fatigue. We tried to play quite positively.

"A lot of possession is kept amongst the back players. I don't regard possession statistics as showing who is a good or bad team.

"[but] we know we need to be better with the ball. That is where we have to keep working. In this particular tournament we didn't have an awful lot of time to prepare. We defended well throughout but could have attacked better."

[Lineker]

What a fucking plum...

Police have launched an investigation into allegations of online racist abuse during England's Euro 2012 quarter final defeat on Sunday.

It is alleged black players Ashley Cole and Ashley Young were singled out by a Twitter user after they failed to score penalties against Italy.

In a series of postings the user claimed to be joking

The police said they were examining possible offences under the Public Order Act.

In one post the tweeter wrote: "All I got to say is this was just a joke, you guys need to relax, police know i was kiddin around and they won't bother me hopefully, cheers."

A reply from the West Midlands Police account said: "Wrong. Your comments may constitute a public order offence. We have advised complainants how to officially report this to police."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said on Monday: "We are aware of alleged racist comments on Twitter following last night's England game and have launched an investigation.

"The allegation was made by a member of the public relating to comments on a Twitter account supposedly based in London.

"The Metropolitan Police Service is examining possible offences under Section 18/19 Public Order Act 1986."

No arrests have been made.

[IAceI]

That reply from West Midlands Police is bloody awesome, mind you.

Other than that I echo the plum sentiments.

[Hobo]

Statistics: England not good.

Hodgson: I hate statistics I do not pay attention to them.

[Dingle]

Statistics: England not good.

Hodgson: I hate statistics I do not pay attention to them.

He's right about possession on a purely theoretical basis, but England were so poor last night I think we really need to be addressing how bad we are with the ball. All the impatience and lack of quality with the ball actually at our midfielders feet. I also thought Jordan Henderson coming on was ridiculous and would have much preferred Oxlade to have a go, may as well throw everything at Italy that we have. This tournament was easier to watch that previous ones, but we could have beaten Italy and had we found a way to negate Pirlo (I'd have played 4-3-3 against Italy since they do their best work around the half way line before driving forward) then it could've been a much better night for us.

Hopefully at the World Cup we instil fresh blood and look at a fresh approach. Whilst the only players that I felt was rubbish all tournament were James Milner and Ashley Young, the first should've been rotating with Gerrard better but he did try hard, as per, whilst the second is far better on the ball than off it, but never really got going. We were made to look worse than we are, although that's hardly a rare occurrence. The only thing this England adventure has done has made me more of a Gerrard/Parker fan.

[Lineker]

We should have brought on Defoe. Bags of pace to burn in extra time and has a point to prove after burying his father. Not to mention that he's clinical and actually takes shots. Rooney could have dropped back too.

[Matt]

The only two things Roy got wrong last night was taking Milner off instead of Young and taking Welbeck off instead of Rooney. Italy destroyed our right hand side as soon as Milner went off and Rooney was poor all game. He should have probably held off the last sub until the last couple of minutes of extra time though and brought on Defoe to take a penalty. I had no problem the way we played, we weren't (and haven't been all tournament) set up to win the match convincingly because our team just isn't good enough to do so (particularly against the better sides), we're set up to concede as few goals as possible and hoepfully nick a couple from counters/set-pieces. Not the way we want to see our side play but unfortunately the only way we can; if we'd set out to attack and take the game to the opposition, I'm not sure we'd have even got as far as we did.

[Matticus]

Glen Johnson played an absolute blinder last night. Never thought id ever utter those words. Best game in an England shirt from him. Terry was also good.

Ashley Young was ineffective and Rooney seemed sluggish and about a second off the pace.

[Matt]

He was good going forward but he was still the weak spot defensively, I felt. Terry was fantastic.

[MDK]

We did better than Holland and France (by 30 minutes >_>), if you would have offered me that before the tournament, I'd have taken it.

I wonder how different it would have been had we had Cahill, Lampard, Scholes or Carrick in the squad. Probably not much different, but its nice to wonder.

[Pesci]

Johnson was fantastic defensively last night. He's been one of our best players the whole tournament. He was the only player back to block about 4 or 5 clear opportunities that I can think of.

[Lineker]

Who knows how the game would have panned out had Buffon not been able to keep his early chance out.

[Matt]

To be fair, I was working so my opinion is based on seeing probably 30-40% of the match but I do recall Johnson being further forward than he should have been a fair few times and giving the Italian left side too much freedom, it seemed particularly noticable when Milner wasn't there to track back.

[Dingle]

Johnson was fantastic defensively last night. He's been one of our best players the whole tournament. He was the only player back to block about 4 or 5 clear opportunities that I can think of.

What?

Have you not seen John Terry this tournament? Even Lawro was commenting that Terry had done loads of work, and he's miserable about everything.

Johnson was okay for me defensively, but the weakest of the four at the back. I don't think Cahill would've mattered since Lescott had a fine tournament really, but Cahill does lend a hand getting forward. Still, I agree that we were set up in the 'right way' for our players, and we probably got as far as we could have done without drawing Greece.

[Johnny Drama]

I think quarter finals is fair considering the squad we took, also Hodgson keeps saying we didn't lose in 90 mins all tournament isn't the best outlook.

[GoN_]

[Sam]

Both Lampard and Barry would have been important as a means of keeping the midfield fresh, plus they're both handy with penalties. Outside of Rooney, Gerrard and Young (poor penalty kind of summed up his tournament), I couldn't really see who would take a penalty and score.

I echo the sentiment of the quarters being the best we could do. Other teams have that much more quality than us, although I think potentially we have a good squad going forward to the World Cup, players like Rodwell, Cleverly and Wilshere could really change how our midfield operates, plus the likes of Welbeck and Ox will only get better you imagine. A few positives for sure going forward.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Sam