THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

I want England to beat France, but I’m not expecting it, they’re a great team and world champions for a reason, but there have been some bizarre results at this competition, so I’ve not given up hope, we will have to be at the top of our game and try to shackle Mbappe to progress any further.

If England do play well and beat France on Saturday, I will credit the performance and give it the respect it deserves. That's fair enough.

The last time England beat a team at the World Cup that was better than them on paper was when they beat France in the group stages in 1982.

EDIT TO ADD: Argentina 2002 was through an extremely dodgy penalty!

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

For a long time I felt disillusioned by the England team. Maybe it was growing up with the 'golden era' who kept failing, then we fell into this boring squad of mediocrity, ageing stars and player of the month call ups. However there is something different about this team. Whilst at times I struggle with Southgate I like a lot of this squad. Many of them have made smart career choices, they come across as fun personalities off the pitch, they interview well (except the Captain), some unique talents in there and when they get going can be quite exciting to watch.

In terms of the fuckwits at Boxpark I agree. I felt the response to England to an extent last summer was fun. After 18 months of lockdowns, there was something quite nice about the Euros, minus the behaviour of some fuckwits. A lot of it seems forced. Some want to look cool and feel like proper fans, despite many of those who regularly attend games at any level would probably never throw a pint or buy vile fake vintage shirts. Some like it as a national pride thing too. But in the large part, or at least my experiences working in bars during tournaments, is it is quite nice to see people actually giving a shit about this team for a change.

I also want England to do well to make my friends lots of money

Let's be realistic, to win the Cup we would need to beat France, then probably Brazil OR Argentina. Comm'on it ain't gonna happen. Oh hang on I forgot, football's not realistic.

It certainly isn't realistic to beat Brazil AND Argentina, given that they're both on the other side of the draw to England.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

You can replace England\Inggurlund with most league teams depending on your view though, some on here would even say it about MK !

True - probably describes my relationship with the Dons about ten years ago!

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

"Shut the fuck up, you sausage!"

I want England to win and also have a completely empty life and need something to give my otherwise facile existence meaning. But, then, I'm an existentialist.

Also, England are better than you think.

Further, everyone moaned about how shit England were against Senegal. Whereas I think that's patronising and vaguely racist. We were shit against Senegal because Senegal played well. But they didn't score and couldn't keep up that pace and high press indefinitely. African champeens. Not a bad team by any means.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Being Scottish I obviously don't have the emotional connection that an English supporter would have, but I want them to win.

Everyone knows my relationship with the Scottish national team. When the wonderful Tartan Army routinely boo any Rangers player, then they can fuck right off. I've gone from being a casual supporter to wanting them to loose every match. Which is convenient, as that's what they do.

Getting back to England. They're a good team, but unfortunately they're not as good as France. I'd love them to win, and stranger things have happened this tournament so far, but l think it's a big ask.

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For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

When you say not as good do you mean as a team or individuals? I feel when discussing nations it's more about reputation rather than actual current team.

France are without their main number 9 , their two main centre mids, one of the best young attackers in Europe (who I thought would be player of the tournament in Nkunku), playing a centre half at right back who can't dress properly and now using their back up left back. Let's not forget how much lloris loves a mistake. France are still a superb outfit and have more Champions League level centre backs than most of Europe combined. But player for player domestically I wonder how many would get in a team above an English player.

I say all this, I can see a repeat of Italy in the final. Painfully defensive to our detriment, mainly because Southgate and our holding midfielder Kane