They must have heard you!

I still wager on Spain in the final, but if England win, well it will be a change, rather than the same old faces always winning (oh wait there's no Brazil or Argentina this time :D ). Spain are more deserving though. They've PLAYED football. England have been "ducks floating around a pond hoping luck will get them through". Which it has - even in normally cursed England penalty shootouts.

Well, there is Argentina in the Copa America final. That is taking place at the same time, after all, and had some pretty crazy results, with USA and Mexico knocked out in the group stage, Venezuela winning a group, Uruguay beating Brazil in the QFs (on penalties) and Canada making it into the SFs.

I think more and more people are starting to realize this, sure I like having big tournaments in summer, but all you get are less intense and exciting matches so ehh
Of course having them in winter has its own problems, like players saving up for the big date, who then come back tired/less motivated for the local leagues, so it's not exactly perfect either

Amazing last eve . . . 10 secs after the 90 min mark..... unbelievable!

Well, at least its the Brits, 'uncrowned founders' of modern day western society

A gentleman never runs

So, what's everyone thinking about England's chances tomorrow then (I'm English, living in the US)? Spain are looking very good, but England have been improving and I think are in with a shot. I'd say they have about a 35-40% chance of winning it.

The thing that occurs to me with England is, we have quite a strong late-game, because we have such strength-in-depth on the bench. It gives us a lot of options for late-game changes. This is why so many times, we've seen England bring on subs that have scored late goals to turn the game in our favor.

I reckon Spain are going to have to finish England off, before it gets into that late-game period. If England go into the last 20 minutes or so being only 1 goal down (or better), I'd start to fancy their chances more, with their strong subs. I would definitely fancy their chances going into extra time or a penalty shootout, after their very confident penalty win over Switzerland.

So, Spain go into the last 20 minutes at least 2-up, or England win it! ;-)

England should win at last. Finally something for them. And they *are* playing good football. But even if they are not the better team, I just feel sorry for the English side. Give them the win.

I feel like a lot of the negativity around England has been a bit unwarranted. I haven't watched many of the games (been v. busy with work), but when I watch the highlights, they seem to be playing some good football and creating nice chances. Foden was literally inches away from scoring twice against the Netherlands ...

The most disappointing player so far has been Bellingham (except for his excellent bicycle kick).

I think they kinda deserve a win to be honest. They are cohesive as a team, no disgruntled players, always loyal outwards at least, and they work hard.

There was an article in a Finnish news outlet about the absolutely astounding amount of work that went into the England side's penalty kick training. A couple of years ago, they analysed data from all possible angles, implemented strategies per team and goalie, and coached their own players thoroughly. Southgate didn't like penalties for obvious historical reasons - now he's mastered them.

Anyways, it was an interesting interview of the expert in penalty kicks (yes, he exists, Norwegian? Dutch? I forget).

I would love to root for England. I'm just hesitant - I have bad memories of their fans. I don't think they've changed much seeing footage of them in Germany :|

Yes, that's one area of their game that has improved massively. Ever since I was a kid, I've always seen England blow it on penalties in big tournaments. But, the way they put those pens away against the Swiss was like watching a different team - really impressive. Especially the couple of subs that came on, played 5 minutes, then put their penalty away with such confidence.

That's the trouble, in the highlights they only show the ten minutes or so of good play and leave out the eighty minutes of boring, predictable play where we just seem to always be either losing the ball or passing the ball backwards and so not pushing forward to make any chances.

England only really "improved" in the first half of their last game, because some players actually played on their actual position lol but as a team they absolutely don't deserve a win

I get where you're coming from, and I don't doubt some of the group games were a bit underwhelming. But still, in the highlights I saw of the knockout games, they seemed to be creating a decent amount of chances - pretty much what I would expect to see in an international knockout tournament game. /shrug

I think part of the issue with England is that the fans/press often seem to have unrealistic expectations. It's like they expect them to dominate the game for 90 minutes and just blow the other team off the pitch. And they expect them to walk over any team that isn't France, Germany, Spain, Italy ...

Well, they've managed to bungle their way through to the final playing badly. You guys had better hope they don't suddenly find some inspiration and start playing well!

We could be the new Italy, lol! XD

Well, I did watch the matches and I'd say that England was among the least interesting teams to watch, and just scraped through each step of the way, undeservedly imho. France and Italy were worse, but that was about it really. And I'm even including teams that didn't make it out of the group stage here.

30 minutes to the final....beer and snacks ready...

Great win for Spain... totally deserved, played positive football from first game to last