Semifinal: England v Denmark

[Consigliere]

As a neutral, I wouldn't mind England winning it just for the salt.

[lessthanluke]

Just now, Consigliere said:

As a neutral, I wouldn't mind England winning it just for the salt.

As a Welsh man who spends a lot of time in England I just dont wanna hear about it for the next 40 years.

[shortstark]

4 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Between Italy's great attacking football for most of the tournament, it's recovery after not making the WC, Southgate's conservatism and Sterling's shameful dive against underdogs Denmark, it's clear who will be the neutral's favorite Sunday.

Shameful dive is a bit much.

Sterling was relentless today and kept the Danes under pressure..big up..

[Consigliere]

3 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

I think Southgate needs to bring Henderson into midfield. They've got by so far with Rice and Phillips in there but Ukraine was the only game they had a real grip of midfield and you can't help feeling it's going to cost them at some point. Henderson's a better player than both Rice and Phillips, if he's fit he should be in the side.

I don't see Southgate dropping either Rice or Phillips. Best case scenario is he decides to match Italy's formation, drops Mount and goes with a Rice, Phillips, Henderson midfield.

[David Selig]

What the hell is the point of VAR if the ref on the field doesn't go to check even on such a huge call? Especially since the refs in the VAR room apparently have been instructed to never overturn any penalty calls during this Euro unless there is a clear foul by the attacking team or an offside.

[Mark Antony]

VAR really should be overturning it. Sterling going down before any contact is made. Just encourages players to dive more if they are going to reward it 

[Heartofice]

I was loving the Ole’s at the end, it’s a refreshing change from the utter panic most England sides have created down the years, where they completely balls it up at the end. I think it shows a real evolution.

It’s interesting how I think the English are much more comfortable with the darker arts than they used to be ( although we always loved a dirty tackle), watching Harry Kane do his special move of backing into a player and falling on the floor over and over brought me some pride. 
 

Southgate generally made some good decisions throughout , didn’t panic, didn’t go overboard with subs till he had to and switched formation when needed. I thought Grealish for Saka didn’t work though. Sterling and Shaw were combining really well first half and we lost that after the switch. Noticeable that Henderson’s first action was to shout at Grealish. 
 

I can’t see us beating Italy, but for the first time I can imagine there being a chance 

[john]

31 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

As a Welsh man who spends a lot of time in England I just dont wanna hear about it for the next 40 years.

Best case scenario for the other home nations if they win it is they win something else soon afterwards so it’s normalised and they don’t go on about it all over the media.

[The Sunland Lord]

54 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

 

I wasn't complaining that the Italians do it.

That's the point, everyone criticized them rightfully but now England gets awarded a penalty by a dive and two balls on field.

[Mark Antony]

https://streamable.com/xcxx36

Wenger spot on

[Corvinus85]

Just watched the game. A great game, and England were deserving of the victory. But congrats to Denmark for a great tournament, fighting hard to reach this place, especially considering how they started. Great goal from Damsgaard, I had him in my team. Kane won me points for the goal, lost a couple for the missed penalty. smh But England showed great fighting spirit after they went behind, and they probably should have scored a few more.

I disagree with everyone saying that was a blatant dive and not a penalty. It was soft, but not an egregious error. It's easy for a lithe player like Sterling to go down when he quickly zigs-zags like that with just a bit of contact.

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

7 hours ago, Mark Antony said:

VAR really should be overturning it. Sterling going down before any contact is made. Just encourages players to dive more if they are going to reward it 

No way. That penalty was very soft, but there was some contact before Sterling went down. Did he make a meal out of it and did he try to buy a penalty there. Yes, most certainly. But as I said there was a contact there, thus it was not an egregious decission, thus the VAR could not interfere there. The ref should not have made that penalty call, but once he made it, it was going to stand, as bad as it was.

[mormont]

No, there is no contact until after Sterling has already started going down. He's lucky that there was even contact at that point. It wasn't soft - soft penalties happen: and it wasn't making the most of contact, because that happens too and I don't have a problem with players doing that. This, though - well, if you think there was contact prior to Sterling heading to the ground, that's just not what the video shows. He bumps intp a Danish knee on his way to the ground. That isn't a penalty.

[baxus]

Was there contact? There definitely was.

Was the contact made a split second before or after Sterling started going down? I'm not sure, but even in the worst case scenario, I'd say it was an honest mistake, without any ill intent.

Was that contact enough to cause Sterling to go down like that? I don't think so.

Should VAR have checked the situation much more thoroughly? Without a doubt, yes!

The main problem I have with that penalty is that one of the main reasons I started watching English football was that, unlike in Spain and Italy, in England penalties weren't awarded for situations like that. Not saying that penalties should only be awarded when someone breaks a leg, but I really don't think weak challenges like this should result in penalties.

[lacuna]

The referee had a "play on" attitude throughout up until that point, so if nothing else it's inconsistent from the ref.

So in all, three incidents come together to make one exceedingly unsavoury penalty. An extra ball on the field in the run-up, which has caused refs to halt play previously in the tournament. Very light contact, possibly after Sterling started diving. And thirdly, some cretin in the stands tried to shine a laser pointer into Schmeichel's eyes as Kane took the penalty.

 

Edit 2: Oh, and imagine the shitfest if the roles had been reversed...

[john]

There must have been some kind of body check beforehand otherwise I don’t know what the VAR is doing. There’s no contact with the legs before he went down, if the ref had reviewed it he’d probably have overturned himself.

[Heartofice]

Talk of the pen being soft, but the free kick for Denmarks goals was really soft as well, plus Kane had a good shout for a pen earlier. Swings and roundabouts and all that. Honestly i don’t care, we’ve had it happen to us many times down the years. 
 

I never understood why so much of football discussion is taken up by talk over decision making, I’ve always found supremely boring , you can’t change decisions by discussing them so why argue over it.

[Soylent Brown]

Whether it should have been a penalty or not, Denmark were incredibly dumb all game, with the number of soft fouls they gave away to England players who had nowhere to go and were waiting for an opportunity to go down.

 

[Mark Antony]

6 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

No way. That penalty was very soft, but there was some contact before Sterling went down. Did he make a meal out of it and did he try to buy a penalty there. Yes, most certainly. But as I said there was a contact there, thus it was not an egregious decission, thus the VAR could not interfere there. The ref should not have made that penalty call, but once he made it, it was going to stand, as bad as it was.

Disagree completely. Sterling was going down before any contact is made. A dive is a dive. If shouldnt stand. What’s the point of VAR if it’s absolutely useless in devices moments on the biggest stage? I’m gonna agree with Mourinho and Wenger and pretty much every non English person who watched the game. Never a pen

[Consigliere]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Talk of the pen being soft, but the free kick for Denmarks goals was really soft as well,

The free-kick for Denmark was extremely soft. Furthermore VAR should have disallowed Damsgaard's goal.

FIFA rules state that: "Where three or more defending team players form a 'wall,' all attacking team players must remain at least 1 metre (1 yard) from the 'wall' until the ball is in play."

The Danish 'wall' started out at the requisite distance but then encroached before the free-kick was taken and the ball back in play.

 

The on field ref and the VAR were really poor in this game. Got all the big decisions wrong while the on field ref also allowed Denmark players to get away with persistent and cynical fouling. Amazing that Wass was the only Danish player booked. Vestergaard was lucky to still be on the pitch since he repeatedly just hacked down any English player that went past him.