Quarter-Finals 4: Sweden v England, 7th July, 3pm(GMT)

[Abertawe]

More mentally than physically after conceding so late in normal time. They should be buzzing Saturday after that. The belief within the squad should be massive.

Yeah that mental muscle cramp, that mental muscle strain.

Idiota.

 

[Carver]

I'm sick of moronic fans and the media, mainly the BBC, keep bringing this whole 'Easy run' thing up again and again which is starting to sound more and more foolish because they obviously have not bothered to look at what Sweden have achieved over the last year.

No world cup quarter final is 'easy'.

They got wins against Holland and France in the qualifying group, knocked Italy out in the play off and they have topped their world cup group which included Germany and also Mexico who they beat 3-0 and now they have gone and beat Switzerland in the last 16 and kept yet another clean sheet.

Sweden are basically the new Iceland from 2 years ago, only better, so underestimating them is a big mistake!

I would not be at all shocked if they beat us, I'd just be devastated to get beat off the likes of them in a quarter final. lol

 

[GTFCfish]

It’s coming home lads.

 

[Gassy]

I'm sick of moronic fans and the media, mainly the BBC, keep bringing this whole 'Easy run' thing up again and again which is starting to sound more and more foolish because they obviously have not bothered to look at what Sweden have achieved over the last year.

No world cup quarter final is 'easy'.

They got wins against Holland and France in the qualifying group, knocked Italy out in the play off and they have topped their world cup group which included Germany and also Mexico who they beat 3-0 and now they have gone and beat Switzerland in the last 16 and kept yet another clean sheet.

Sweden are basically the new Iceland from 2 years ago, only better, so underestimating them is a big mistake!

I would not be at all shocked if they beat us, I'd just be devastated to get beat off the likes of them in a quarter final. lol

This is exactly what I said to a couple of colleagues

Spot on

 

[snortingfrogs]

We will not roll over.
We're not as good as you are in attack, Berg is good, no doubt, but he misses a lot as well.
Our midfield is very competent, Forsberg and Ekdal are solid and Forsberg is a very technically gifted player, on a semi-good day he dribble the panties of most players.

Ekdal is a bit slow, but he can break down attacks very well.

Our defense is solid as fuck, don't read into Bilo's negative shit that much.

We're in the quarter final because we belong here, we played to our strengths and did it.
We might not be the most entertaining squad, but we're here and we fucking deserve it.

 

[PuB]

There's absolutely no doubt that Sweden will be a tough test, all teams at the World Cup, and especially more at this stage, are here on merit.

 

[valefan16]

I don't think anyone is saying specifically its an easy half it is saying rightfully so that its the easier half of the draw.

With all due respect to Sweden I would rather play them than Brazil in the quarter final for sure, doesn't mean it will be easy and I dare say Sweden will look at the draw and think, beat England we have a great chance of making the final, as will Croatia and Russia.

Sweden are a bastard to play against, I think a friendly win in 2011 or something is our only win since 1968 against them! A side we shouldn't have such a poor record against but for some reason do.

As Micky Adams always said at Vale you don't see a bookie riding a bike and Sweden are around 4/1 to win so we are big favourites but means nothing unless we get the job done and it wont be easy.

Hopefully the decent movement we saw in the friendlies and the first two games comes to the fore as that will unlock their strong defence (plus our set piece prowess) in confident we can win this one but only if we are at it going forward.

 

[valefan16]

I'm sick of moronic fans and the media, mainly the BBC, keep bringing this whole 'Easy run' thing up again and again which is starting to sound more and more foolish because they obviously have not bothered to look at what Sweden have achieved over the last year.

No world cup quarter final is 'easy'.

They got wins against Holland and France in the qualifying group, knocked Italy out in the play off and they have topped their world cup group which included Germany and also Mexico who they beat 3-0 and now they have gone and beat Switzerland in the last 16 and kept yet another clean sheet.

Sweden are basically the new Iceland from 2 years ago, only better, so underestimating them is a big mistake!

I would not be at all shocked if they beat us, I'd just be devastated to get beat off the likes of them in a quarter final. lol

They didn't actually beat Holland... they lost 2-0 and drew 1-1...

 

[Bobbin']

Sweden are a bastard to play against, I think a friendly win in 2011 or something is our only win since 1968 against them! A side we shouldn't have such a poor record against but for some reason do

We beat them 3-2 at Euro 2012 but yes, we do seem to struggle against Sweden. Even that victory we had to come from 2-1 down I think.

 

[valefan16]

We beat them 3-2 at Euro 2012 but yes, we do seem to struggle against Sweden. Even that victory we had to come from 2-1 down I think.

Yes forgot about that one! Welbeck was it?

 

[Bobbin']

Yes forgot about that one! Welbeck was it?

That’s the one. Andy Carroll and Walcott with the others.

 

[Bilo]

That's our entire head to head. It's close, and Zweden won last time out.

 

[valefan16]

That's our entire head to head. It's close, and Zweden won last time out.

Zlatan scoring a wonder goal and tearing apart Ryan Shawcross... if I recall we randomly had a few one or two cap players in that second half Zaha for example. That goal of Zlatan though was pure genius...

Should be a decent atmosphere if either side take many all the way to Samara... was at the Sweden v Ireland Euro 2016 game and the Swedish fans were decent.

 

[Bilo]

Zlatan scoring a wonder goal and tearing apart Ryan Shawcross... if I recall we randomly had a few one or two cap players in that second half Zaha for example. That goal of Zlatan though was pure genius...

Should be a decent atmosphere if either side take many all the way to Samara... was at the Sweden v Ireland Euro 2016 game and the Swedish fans were decent.

Yeah, it was a funny game that. You've only managed to beat us once in eight competitive match ups though, so including friendlies makes it skewed in your favor. The record stands at England winning one, five draws and Sweden winning twice.

Sounds like the bookies should slash the odds for a draw then.

 

[valefan16]

Yeah, it was a funny game that. You've only managed to beat us once in eight competitive match ups though, so including friendlies makes it skewed in your favor. The record stands at England winning one, five draws and Sweden winning twice.

Sounds like the bookies should slash the odds for a draw then.

Generally the case, we’ve met you a few times in recent years in the World Cup and drew, 2002 and 2006 of course with Joe Coles wonder goal.

Will be an interesting afternoon, assume it will be hot in Samara too which won’t make it easy for either Northern European nation!

 

[leedsvaliant]

I agree but coming on as a sub in that type of match is never easy, starting him would be completely different and give us better control imo.

There's no way we will play with two holding midfielder against a solid and compact team. We need to play in between the lines and look to stretch them out of shape.

 

[Nilsson]

There's no way we will play with two holding midfielder against a solid and compact team. We need to play in between the lines and look to stretch them out of shape.

Our shape has looked great in certain aspects but hasn't looked great when teams counter attack us, which is what Sweden have shown they're good at. We'll still have Sterling and Lingard playing between the lines and we'll be in a better position to create more angles for Trippier to cross for Kane. A criticism that could be leveled at us is that we've lost intensity as the games have gone on, I don't see the issue with changing it a bit. We can still bring on a more attack minded player if it's not going our way.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Can’t see Southgate changing anything other than resting Alli because he looked off the pace for large parts of the Colombia match.

Really hoping we can get the job done inside 90 mins but I think this will be a frustrating 0-0, then extra time and... more penalties which is going to be distressing to watch.

It would be fantastic to see England in a World Cup semi-final.

 

[valefan16]

Can’t see Southgate changing anything other than resting Alli because he looked off the pace for large parts of the Colombia match.

Really hoping we can get the job done inside 90 mins but I think this will be a frustrating 0-0, then extra time and... more penalties which is going to be distressing to watch.

It would be fantastic to see England in a World Cup semi-final.

We need to get the movement back to how it was a couple of weeks back as that wasn’t as good against Colombia... possibly down to the momentum being lost a bit as we saw with Belgium the night before.

I was impressed with how we kept possession and basically gave Colombia nothing for 85 minutes so defensively I don’t think we need to change too much, Colombia had pace in abundance and we dealt with that.

If we can put that together with the forward movement from earlier games and have the complete performance we will be very good indeed. Question is can we put both together into one game.

Hopefully after winning how we did Tuesday confidence will be high enough to get that momentum going again and we can put both aspects of our game together and express ourselves more.

 

[Carver]

We will not roll over.
We're not as good as you are in attack, Berg is good, no doubt, but he misses a lot as well.
Our midfield is very competent, Forsberg and Ekdal are solid and Forsberg is a very technically gifted player, on a semi-good day he dribble the panties of most players.

Ekdal is a bit slow, but he can break down attacks very well.

Our defense is solid as fuck, don't read into Bilo's negative shit that much.

We're in the quarter final because we belong here, we played to our strengths and did it.
We might not be the most entertaining squad, but we're here and we fucking deserve it.

I think Im the only England fan that thinks we will lose this one.

 

[Carver]

This is exactly what I said to a couple of colleagues

Spot on

It's funny how we play shit the whole match against Colombia and during those 120 minutes we all start saying we are not good enough etc

So we can only win it on penalties and then all of a sudden we are world beaters again and bringing it home. Lol

Ahhh we are really going to feel like shit after the match on Saturday.

I wish we had got Brazil in the other half of the draw instead, at least we would of been more humble about our chances.

 

[Gassy]

It's funny how we play shit the whole match against Colombia and during those 120 minutes we all start saying we are not good enough etc

So we can only win it on penalties and then all of a sudden we are world beaters again and bringing it home. Lol

Lets be honest, Gareth Southgate was 1 penalty away from being absolutely ripped into.

If we went out to Colombia because we finished 2nd for resting players, it wouldn't have gone well.

However, we scored that penalty kick and therefore Gareth is the messiah and it's fully coming home

 

[Bobbin']

It's funny how we play shit the whole match against Colombia and during those 120 minutes we all start saying we are not good enough etc

So we can only win it on penalties and then all of a sudden we are world beaters again and bringing it home. Lol

Ahhh we are really going to feel like shit after the match on Saturday.

I wish we had got Brazil in the other half of the draw instead, at least we would of been more humble about our chances.

Firstly, we didn’t play shit on Tuesday. Secondly, I was in a pub with a couple of hundred others and I don’t think I heard anyone say we aren’t good enough, the general consensus was that we were very comfortable and no-one really fancied Colombia to score.

Pretty much every England fan has recognised that Sweden will be a difficult game and those that are optimistic are cautiously so.

What are you going on about?

 

[dedwardp]

Yes, Colombia never threatened at all until the last 10-15 minutes when they had nothing to lose. England were comfortable. If anything, arguably the mental strength to then pick yourselves back up again after such a late blow, withstand some pressure in the first period of extra time and then start to take a hold of the game again means that the side would come out of the game with even more belief than if we'd just won 1-0.

Sweden isn't an easy draw, but it is an easier draw - a crucial difference.

 

[Gassy]

Agreed. I think the problem people have is that whilst its not technically wrong, instead of talking about the game or our opponents, it seems to be more about the 'easy side'

Iceland was supposed to be easy

 

[Fedora Dale]

I wasn't nervous before we met
But Sweden could be a potential threat.
It won't be easy, draw's not that nice
Let's hope that choking's a forgotten vice...

 

[mase]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1014787507521810433

 

[Jockney]

Everyone was saying beforehand how if we were to make the final this would be our biggest test, that Colombia are a very dangerous side going forward and indeed possibly even a better side overall.

Well, we didn’t get them a sniff for 3/4 of of 120 minutes. They were so desperate they had to resort to all manner of mind games to unsettle us and we still came through it. Don’t know what people expect of us to be honest. Win well and the opposition ain’t all that, play well but lose and who cares we still lost, show character and resolve to beat a very decent footballing nation in a high pressure game and it’s not good enough coz we didn’t Brazil 1970 them. And the very same people have the cheek to blame the media for the poisonous atmosphere during tournaments. It’s laughable.

 

[Bilo]

Everyone was saying beforehand how if we were to make the final this would be our biggest test, that Colombia are a very dangerous side going forward and indeed possibly even a better side overall.

Well, we didn’t get them a sniff for 3/4 of of 120 minutes. They were so desperate they had to resort to all manner of mind games to unsettle us and we still came through it. Don’t know what people expect of us to be honest. Win well and the opposition ain’t all that, play well but lose and who cares we still lost, show character and resolve to beat a very decent footballing nation in a high pressure game and it’s not good enough coz we didn’t Brazil 1970 them. And the very same people have the cheek to blame the media for the poisonous atmosphere during tournaments. It’s laughable.

Everyone meaning everyone English, right? Because I'd consider both us and Croatia better sides. Colombia weren't up to much for much of this tournament, to be fair.

Here's a different narrative: your only good performance this tournament came against Panama, and the "it's coming home" narrative is becoming more serious by the day. Against Tunisia you started well, couldn't finish, played poorly in the second half and won narrowly. You didn't really try against Belgium, which Southgate is hailed for now. And I don't know which Colombia game you watched, here's the one I watched:

they were set up incredibly poorly, showing you too much respect by somehow deciding to play on the defensive (possibly because their only world class player was injured). When you finally went 1-0 up they started playing and from there on matched you, at the very least. They shouldn't really have been in the game at that point though, yet you let them into it by conceding a sloppy set piece. You then kind of have one half each in the extra time, leading to penalties. And here's the cracker: had Colombia, through no fault of this likable England side, scored all their penalties you would've been out.

And that's not the same as saying "had they scored twice you would've been out!". Fairly regularly any side will put up five out of five penalties. It's called a lottery for a reason. Funny how the English always say that when they lose, yet this time it's character and coming home etc etc.

Next up, you're up against a side that has knocked out and beaten, on paper, more accomplished sides than England. Furthermore, you have a negative record against Sweden in competitive games. But you, as in the England fanbase, can't imagine going out, and it shows.

I'm glad you're doing well and I like this England side, it's much more fun seeing you lot doing well than the usual suspects. But surely you can see how some people find it annoying.

 

[Abertawe]

Everyone was saying beforehand how if we were to make the final this would be our biggest test, that Colombia are a very dangerous side going forward and indeed possibly even a better side overall.

Well, we didn’t get them a sniff for 3/4 of of 120 minutes. They were so desperate they had to resort to all manner of mind games to unsettle us and we still came through it. Don’t know what people expect of us to be honest. Win well and the opposition ain’t all that, play well but lose and who cares we still lost, show character and resolve to beat a very decent footballing nation in a high pressure game and it’s not good enough coz we didn’t Brazil 1970 them. And the very same people have the cheek to blame the media for the poisonous atmosphere during tournaments. It’s laughable.

At some point you've really got to start scoring from open play tbf.