The fact that at times France had twelve players on the pitch was slightly frustrating. No, there was not a cock-up by the fourth official (or in fact any of the other six) but a certain leaning of the referee in favour of France. There were clear obstructions/barges by French players on both Gerrard and Johnson, and a few unpunished nudges. As ever, Ribery got away with a few misdemeanours.
Of all the players that England fans would like to see with an open net before them, James Milner is not one of them. Bad luck, therefore, that instead of Oxlade-Chamberlain or Ashley 'time to fall over' Young with a chance to slide the ball into the French goal, it was Milner and so the miss was inevitable.
My worry is that England players try to do things that continental players can do. When we stick to our ways, we have a reasonable chance. So, getting clever in defence and passing the ball around near our own goal should be avoided. Intricate passing and 'triangles' are not as necessary to us, so crossing and heading should be the way forward - we are unlikely to walk the ball into the opponents' goals.
I am not sure why is was deemed worthwhile to bring on Theo Walcott in injury time. That's right, after ninety minutes and five seconds, he jogged on to the pitch for the three minutes of boring injury time play, touching the ball once. Pointless.
Commentary
- "Let's give a lot of quality to the finish" [Andy Townsend, ref Nasri]
- "A goal that raised serious question marks" [Clive Tyldesley, suggesting that punctuation marks can now have an inherent level of seriousness]
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