[Archived] England 1 - 2 France

[Blue blood]

True France didn't have many opportunities, only a few half chances and a good shout for a penalty, but in the second half they had the majority of the possession and if you sit back constantly giving away possession as we did you're almost inviting the other team to score.

Didn't think Rooney was tired but tempermental - I think Sven was worried about him getting booked. Ironically it might also have been worrying Sven Rooney would commit a rash tackle on the edge of the penalty area giving France a way back into the game...

Totally agree with you about Hesky - he should not be there. Defoe Beattie or Smith should be there ahead of him. What he brings to the team I've no idea. He simply isn't international class.

[roversWASmylife]

Not too sure about Rooney looking tired either; as he'd just been on a fantastic run from the half way line to earn us a penalty that doesn't hold up too well. Maybe I'm just thinking that though after what happened. Besides, why put on someone to hold the ball up? The French defenders when tiring would have been susceptible to some pace and a ball knocked over the top and a pacy striker could leave them for dead. Probably because Sven decided to take Heskey to Portugal instead of Jermaine Defoe that's why...

I didn’t notice Rooney getting tired at all. I thought he had a brilliant game and as the game went on Rooney got better.

I can see why Heskey was brought on and did link up rarely with Vassell well together. However Heskey, being the clumsy fool he is fouled Vieira stupidly outside the box.

Defoe should have gone as he has the ability to stretch defences as the game goes on and surely with France chasing the game, the pace of Defoe could stretch the game and perhaps have created more goal scoring opportunities that we had. I can’t think of many actual chances that we had.

It was his determination to win the ball and then go on one of his pace runs to try and create a scoring opportunity.

A more experienced Rooney could have had the vision to have laid it off to Vassell who could have taken a shot or approached Barthez on a one on one situation.

Rooney did remarkably well, he was strong, came short to give the midfield another option instead of hoofing a useless ball up to Owen to win in the air.

He was unlucky not to go on and score if it wasn’t for the bad defending of Silvestre who should have been sent off.

Ok, we lost the game and after listening to many, different opinions on Sky it’s not the end of the world. We still have two games to play in total six points to win. It’s up to us now to make sure we win our next game and not draw; otherwise it’ll be even harder to get through.

Rooney will make his mark on the competition at some point; he has to with his ability as long as he keeps a cool head.

[Tris]

I can't believe this thread has mushroomed to 3 pages.

Thorpe played a great innings, and although I had some sentimental pangs for Cairns making his international farewell at the wonderful Trent Bridge England fully deserved a 3-0 whitewash.

As for Zidane, well, if he had to face an Ashley Giles wrong'un he'd be wearing his bald patch at the other end of the evolutionary spectrum to be fair.

We (England) 'll still win the thing ... plan A has been sabotaged in the most horrible way .. plan B is up and running. Plan C is ready and waiting. Just keep the faith people.

[Ste B]

I can't believe this thread has mushroomed to 3 pages.

Thorpe played a great innings, and although I had some sentimental pangs for Cairns making his international farewell at the wonderful Trent Bridge England fully deserved a 3-0 whitewash.

was there another gane on ???

Wish i had walked 21 miles too !!

[vindaloobob]

this was a great game to watch, a bit like zulu but with football, oh and the english loosing at the end. not really sure how people can put the french win down to luck - yeh so they didn't create much, how much did england create? even less. france controlled that game for maybe 60 or 70 minutes, except for that spell in the first half when england got back into it, and managed to score a goal from a well worked free kick that you might also say was "lucky". i tell you what is lucky though, that after defending on the edge of their box for 45 minutes england hadn't already conceded a goal.

if france can make it happen in the final 3rd, then i can see them powering their way to victory in the tournament, their play has a fluidity to it that can be awesome to watch. the consolation for england today was that both croatia and switzerland looked equally as inept as each other, and should get thoroughly turned over.

[blubawls]

Extremely good game, bit on the technical side. France dominated possession but never looked convincing in the final third. We played counterattack probably due to froggie midfield dominance. We should have been able to hold on though, Heskey should have known the danger of conceding free kick in that area and Gerrard should have put ball in row Z.

[BMan]

Felt bad for the 3 Lions today.

Now it's time to show their pride and roll over a tougher then you think Swiss team

Croatia are not what they once were.

England will still qualify for the knockout stages.

[philipl]

A lot of tactical naivety in these pages.

Had we defended further up the field we would have been turned over long before the 92nd minute.

France have pace to burn. Give them space by defending too far forwards and they will create chance after chance. As it was, they had perhaps two half chances from open play all game?

The English failure was not holding the ball in the second half when we got possession. Had France been defending a 1-0 lead in the second half, you would have seen far more keep ball and players running into space (not going forwards neccessarilly).

The criticism of Scholes and Beckham in that regard is correct. Both were very poor on the "out" ball.

Fortunately Hargreaves looked very good as a Scholes replacement,

[greggyk]

Im sure England will now be hurt and will easilly beat the swiss and croatia. I can see a re-match of England v France in the final!!

This isnt the time to have a go at the lads, all england MUST get behing them!

KEEP THE FAITH!

[philipl]

Some more reflections:

The England defence looked good enough to be able to resist the occasional Swiss break away or Croatian magic so on balance I now expect England to qualify. The Swiss game will be very dour if England dont break through early.

Nice to see Englands most potent forwards coming from non-Champs League Clubs (Everton and Villa).

With the report in the Mail this morning that Gerard is definitely going to Chelsea, looks like Abramovich has moored his yacht for more than watching football. Could be a big disruptive influence if he is trying to buy Rooney and Gerard. No wonder Everton are jumpy. Joe Cole must be feeling highly insecure as well.

With Heskey confirming his lack of guile, their is a vacancy for a tall commanding English forward- Jon Stead could be a feature in the World Cup qualifying matches.

[Jimbo]

With the report in the Mail this morning that Gerard is definitely going to Chelsea, looks like Abramovich has moored his yacht for more than watching football.

Rumour has it that Arsen Wenger is looking at buying Gerrard for next season, apparently he's very impressed with his link-up play with Henry.

[Guest Kamy100]

I think that whilist it was a great fighting performance by England but throughout the game France showed why they are a superior footballing side. I felt that they controlled the game for long periods, we sat of them far to much in the second half. Zidane showed why he is the greatest player of our generation, that free kick was awesome, it was amazing the way that he managed to get that amount of bend and speed.

Postives for England were the performances of King and Rooney.

Negatives were that England seemed knackered in the second half and were far to defensive, Sven is also going to have a big job picking up the players after last night.

However after watching the Crotia v Switzerland game I see no reason why England can't go on and beat those teams. I can't see Croatia or Switzerland beating France so all we need is a win and draw.

[philipl]

For many of the Swiss, Switzerland v France is not dissimilar to being Scottish playing the English. Stranger things have happened...

England need two wins now and certainly to beat the Swiss- preferably by a decent margin.

[adopted scouser]

Watched it in a packed pub last night. How the hell do you lose a game when you're one up at 89 minutes ? Sven's taken a leaf out of Houllier's book watching England in the second half, they sat so deep it could have been 'boring boring' Liverpool.

Oh well, lots of bitter beer and a kebab have given me tummy ache this morning, where's me antacid ?

On a lighter note, Watching the Croatia game earlier, Mark Lawrenson commented "It takes a lot of training to be a natural left footer"

You said it mate

[herbergeehh]

James has to take some of the blame for Zidane's freekick, it's in the long corner and that shouldn't be possible - great freekick or poor freekick. It's his corner, he didn't move and was misplaced to far left where the wall covered. He was probably afraid of a great freekick to the other side, but that just isn't good enough - the far corner is James' corner and it should not be possible to score there.

[Roaming Rover]

I'm as gutted as anyone, but if we had won it would have been a fantastic performance, we lose and everything was wrong with our performance. OK so France played some fantastic football, they can do that all day for me in the middle of the park.

As for the free kick I don't blame Heskey. He is not good enough but that is not his fault, it is Sven's for picking him.

Hargreaves was poor, he always turned his man then instead of giving the ball or running past him he tried to beat him again and lost the ball. Scholes IMO played well tonight. He was always available to get the ball and kept possession well.

We aren't going to win the competition playing French / Brazil type football, we have to play to our strengths. It's about winning not how you win. (And I realise how stupid that sounds seeing as we have just lost )

As Gary Neville said, it's better to lose like that now than in the knockout stages.

[1864roverite]

fully agree with AEsf

Put a donkey on and you will get kicked !

The only people to blame are the following

Erickson for putting on Heskey and vassel when a holding midfielder should have been the option ie BUTT

Donkey Heskey for that stupid challenge

Gerrard for the biggest and most costliest peice of passing I have ever witnessed at International level. £40 million ? Think not

Beckham for his laid back approach to the game and the penalty. Great cross for Lampard but what a poor effort penalty wiaw, FB was on his way down before he kicked the ball leaving all of the left hand side open

I was gutted last night but having had time to reflect if that is the best French team there is then if we manage to recover and see them in the final they are there for the taking.

Henry was anonymous, Viera was outplayed, Zidane really did nothing with the ball until the 89th minute and the defence looks poor against a player such as Rooney.

finally

did anyone see Micheal Owen on the pitch ? I thought England were daft to play a big game with only 10 men !

[Tom Pringle]

Ouch, head hurts

Taking Rooney off was a massive mistake.

Ah well, it's football. Never expected us to get out of this group, but we still could do it.

Go England...i think....

Ouch, head hurts...damn you Ocean Bar for making it 4 bottles for £4

[jim mk2]

Unfair criticism of Eriksson and England.

England played the perfect defensive game last night. They sat back to deny Henry the space to run into and sought to hit France on the break, which Rooney did. Beckham's penalty miss the was the turning point.

As Sir Alex Ferguson said in one of his more lucid moments: "Football, bloody hell!"

[Tom Pringle]

Oh yeah, forgot to ask.

Does Michael Owen still play for England? We looked like we only had Rooney up front last night...

[RoyRover]

I wouldn't say that England played well last night. Defensively they were brilliant, with France finding it nearly impossible to break them down. But England didn't actually play that much football, but then again, when you are 1-0 up against the French, you are going to defend your lead. I thought that Rooney was very good, but his run leading up to the penalty was the only time that England really looked a threat. I thought that Beckham was hopeless. A draw would have been a far result, but even to draw at that stage would have been cruel, let alone lose. Zidane's free kick was the work of a genius. He is the best player that I have ever seen and when you think that someone like Beckham is a world class player, you see Zidane and see that he is a class above.

[rover6]

As much as it may pain people, you cannot make Heskey the scapegoat.

In fact, imo Sven got it right when he brought Heskey on. All night Owen and Rooney were being bullied in the air by the French. Heskey came on and England started winning headers and Vassell was looking a threat with his pace and energy.

It was crucial that we added some brawn up front as the English defenders were increasingly resorting to long balls. And Owen, esp, was being swatted away by Silvestre and Co.

Ignoring the foul, Heskey did very will. Just like Gerrard.

England played reasonably well and deserved a draw at least. We should go into the next matches with confidence. I would play Hargreaves on the left instead of Scholes.

[Tom Pringle]

Just got this e-mail, made me chuckle

Well, it's been a good weekend for the 'that useless *naughty* cost us the tournament' league.

Here are the early standings:

Steven Gerrard: below average performance, dodgy backpass: 5 points

Emile Heskey: I've seen better tackles at a fishing contest: 4 points

David James: You're no good with your feet, why else would you be in goal?: 2 points

David Beckham: Call that a penalty?: 1 point

Ashley Cole: Tell that scouser to *naughty* off and put it in Row Z: 1 point

Edited June 14, 2004 by Tom Pringle

[Steddy]

Rooney for Norway!!!

What a game he had, amazing!!!

[blue phil]

4) The fairly mediocre penalty by the number 7. It was the right height for Barthez, and he was able to read the direction reasonably easily.

Can you not even bear to say his name now , AESF ?

The outcome of this game will be to make us stronger and we will comfortably qualify in second place .

England now know that they got the better of the reigning champions , who for 90 minutes had a lot of possession but posed virtually no threat to a well organised English team .

Agree with those who have said that the Rooney substitution was folly. Hekey is out of his depth at this level and I reckon Eriksson is simply being stubborn in persevering with him .

ZZ's free kick was identical to Henry's kick against the Rovers last season . Then , and again last night , I was praying for someone to do the sensible thing and get on the post to prevent a goal .

Keep the faith .