Euros 2012

Although hardly the prettiest football I have seen, I simply cannot argue that we have played to our strengths, lessened our weaknesses (not completely proven yet) and got results.

I still don't rate our chances going forward but I am pleased to see that we have not embarrassed ourselves, played fairly well against the Swedes and are in the quarters.

I was expecting to hide behind the sofa before a ball was kicked.

I think we should keep behind the team, I think we will come out of this tournament with our heads held high, despite the dull nature of our play.

Gutsy is a word that comes to mind

And yet you came on as a sub against Sweden and scored a great goal and set one up. I like the modesty

Brilliant result for England tonight, bring on the Italians.... 2-1 England for me.

What do you think ?

1-0 again.Gerrard with (yet) another assist. Best English player overall so far.

I've no idea how we won that, or how Sweden beat France 2-0.  Think Roy saved all the luck he was missing from his Liverpool days to use in this tournament.  Long may it continue...

For me Johnson, Parker and Terry have all played better than Stevie G... Lescott though has been the stand-out... he looks World Class so far.

England as a collective (Borg sounding , lol ) haven't yet started... might be amazing should England 'click' into gear and actually go at the opposition given that for once, the players are there to do so ?

It just looks like trhey lack a wee bit of belief in themselves eh ?

Lol, Ben... nice  (chortle)

Hey , thing is... had Ukraine played like That from the start... they'd have been through With England.

It's all about mind-set for me.....Ukraine as far as I saw raised their game against England, Sweden expected to win agaiunst England as did France.

Well done England !

Based on the 3 qualifying games, England seem to have a (very) understated collectiveness I've not seen, probably ever. This comes down to Hodgson. It's the flipside to the world cup in S Africa. It isn't spectacular to look at but the winning habit makes a nice change.

Can't see them beating Italy... that doesn't really matter. Given the year England have had: Capello resigning, the call for Arry, injuries and Hodgson only manager for about a month. Terrific.

That was my prediction before any balls were kicked. Obviously revised accordingly.

Gotta start with optimism!

 Lescott (and JT) are making last ditch tackles because they are either too slow or have made a mistake previously.

Great example last night with the goal-line clearance. Yes he did well to almost scoop it out, but a more mobile defender wouldn't have had to.

Gerrard has been at the centre of almost everything positive we've done. 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1225157-euro-2012-power-rankings-grading-the-top-16-players-after-the-group-stage/page/13

That aside, we need more movement. There was a moment in the match last night where they had the ball in the final third and just didn't know what to do. Nobody was making any runs or movement of any kind. And the ball went back again.

But we  have a good team spirit and we are a better team than Greece were in 2004. I think we can take Italy on Sunday, but then we have Germany and I wonder if we'll end up with penalties?

Player ratings v Ukraine (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18514554

*God bless 'er.

Times was somewhat more circumspect this morning:

Hart 6, Johnson 5, Terry 7 , Lescott 7 , Cole 6 , Milner 4 , Parker 5 , Gerrard 7 , Young 6 , Rooney 6 , Welbeck 5, Walcott 4

Probably more accurate. However I think the universal opinion is that Steven Gerrard has been far and above the best England player so far

Still, I like the BBC. I like the enthusiasm they are showing along with the lack of tabloid like nonsense about Wayne Rooneys hair (no matter how funny that is)

BBC. The goto website for proper journalism and unbiased (mostly) reporting.

Last nights game was a lesson in how to win ugly.

If that is what it takes to progress, then we will see a lot more poor games.