England are through to the round of 16.

TeaCider said:
If we get beat, we have to play France in Russia in the quarter-finals, should we beat what is likely Spain in Copenhagen in the round of 16

If we win our group, we'll probably play Germany at Wembley and then Sweden in Rome.

Winning the group is the easier route to the final.
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not only that easier path, we need to get a bit of attacking confidence going again
 
In my hearts of hearts I think coming second means we have a better chance of going one round further. I don’t see us winning it if I’m honest, but I’d love to be wrong.
 
parmoboy said:
Won't we then play the semis and final at Wembley (assuming we make it that far)?
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Yeah, and if we finish 2nd and somehow got past Spain and France, we'd then likely have to play Italy or Belgium in the semi-final.

All for the sake of trying to avoid playing a German side at home that were knocked out of the World Cup by South Korea.

It's a weird cowardice from fans to want to finish 2nd that I don't think holds up to scrutiny at all.
 
BoroMart said:
not only that easier path, we need to get a bit of attacking confidence going again
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Exactly.

England fans have turned on the manager yet again at the first setback, there's absolutely no chance the same doom mongers would miraculously start backing the team if we lost to the Czechs tomorrow.

It will do absolutely no good for the squad confidence either.
 
Obviously the correct answer is to win the match and win the group.

BUT if we do come second then we should try and make out like it was intentional. Otherwise there will be another national meltdown.
 
TeaCider said:
Yeah, and if we finish 2nd and somehow got past Spain and France, we'd then likely have to play Italy or Belgium in the semi-final.

All for the sake of trying to avoid playing a German side at home that were knocked out of the World Cup by South Korea.

It's a weird cowardice from fans to want to finish 2nd that I don't think holds up to scrutiny at all.
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I haven't been impressed by Spain at all. This Spanish team is a shadow of some of the great Spanish teams we've seen in recent times. I actually won't be surprised if they fail to beat Slovakia, meaning if we do finish 2nd we would likely face Slovakia or Sweden in the next round.

Still, that's probably going to lead to us having to face France in Russia. Finishing top of the group will mean we could potentially play all but one of our knockout games at Wembley. Surely that makes it the better option.
 
atypical_boro said:
Obviously the correct answer is to win the match and win the group.

BUT if we do come second then we should try and make out like it was intentional. Otherwise there will be another national meltdown.
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Good thinking. 👍👍
Another thing people forget is getting beat by Belgium in our last group game in 2018 lead to arguably a tougher game in the last 16 of the World Cup than if we'd won the group.
But it worked out ok, so itll be fine, probably.
 
TeaCider said:
England fans have turned on the manager yet again at the first setback, there's absolutely no chance the same doom mongers would miraculously start backing the team if we lost to the Czechs tomorrow.
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If they think a 0-0 draw is a setback (they do, but it isn't) then they haven't really been paying attention to the English nation team, in like, forever. A win tomorrow and Southgate will go level with Robson with 5 finals game wins, with only Alf Ramsey and SGE above him.
 
BoroMart said:
If they think a 0-0 draw is a setback (they do, but it isn't) then they haven't really been paying attention to the English nation team, in like, forever. A win tomorrow and Southgate will go level with Robson with 5 finals game wins, with only Alf Ramsey and SGE above him.
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Is Sven the only manager to take us to three Quarter Finals? I'm guessing he must be. In my book he was the manager who had the best ever group of players, and possibly the most underachieving.
 
atypical_boro said:
Presumably Scotland are now in a scenario where a win is definitely good enough for them?
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Yeah, either Scotland or Croatia could go through with a win. That game should be a cracker. They're both going to have to go all out to win the game.

Another thing worth considering is we could still finish 3rd, assuming we lose and one of them win. Not sure what our potential route to the final would look like then.
 
atypical_boro said:
Presumably Scotland are now in a scenario where a win is definitely good enough for them?
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I have to be honest I'd be delighted if Scotland went through tomorrow. It shouldn't be allowed but after Boro and England my second loves have been since the age of nine Hartlepool and Scotland, so it would make this week perfect basically.
 
I was just looking at both teams to score tomorrow, their leading scorer to net one again any time in the game, and a Czech win ... got odds of 25/1 on a bet builder. Haha... I'm a traitor.

.. tempting :unsure:😛

I do hope we win though and Kane finally gets off the mark. If we win by a couple at least that'll be smashing, and the players show what they're capable of ready for the next round. But to know we're through anyway is good, it'll be interesting to see the starting 11.
 
TeaCider said:
If we get beat, we have to play France in Russia in the quarter-finals, should we beat what is likely Spain in Copenhagen in the round of 16

If we win our group, we'll probably play Germany at Wembley and then Sweden in Rome.

Winning the group is the easier route to the final.
Click to expand...
Spain look poor, so second place is the way to go!
 
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