Football Focus

[????]

Tonight we are going to get the normal sh1tevabout England fans- the cunts of Twitter are already away- when apparently completely innocent England fans have been targeted, assaulted and some quite badly hurt by organised groups of Russians and Locals; the police have apparently been at best indifferent and at worse joining in on the free for all on England supporters. Hope this gets out properly but media so far not encouraging.

[Otta]

I'd bloody hate to be there right now.

[????]

England fans now attacked in the stadium

[Alan Medic]

UEFA have threatened to expel either team from last night's game if there is any more trouble from fans. I can understand how the French authorities have a lot to deal with due to non football matters so can anyone complain? A lot to take in but will anyone do that? I hope the message is taken on board by anyone concerned though last night's trouble in the stadium is universally reported here as being caused by Russian fans.

[Jah Lush]

This.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/euro-2016-russia-vs-england-violence-marseille-hooligans-clash-hospital-a7077906.html

And you couldn't make this up.

This is just totally ridiculous: England's next game is in Lens, a town with few bars and even fewer hotels.

French officials are advising fans to stay in the larger city of Lille, just half an hour away on the bus. Sounds like good advice except they know Russia are playing Slovakia there the same day.

Those countries have history and trouble is expected and yet they direct our fans there. Madness or design?

The Guardian:

Concern will now turn to the northern city of Lille, where Russia will play Slovakia on Wednesday before England face Wales in nearby Lens on Thursday. England fans have been officially advised by the authorities to stay away from Lens if they don?t have a ticket and to head for Lille instead, leading to fears they will again clash with Russia fans. England striker Wayne Rooney is to make a statement on Monday urging fans to be on their best behaviour for the game, with manager Roy Hodgson likely to issue a similar warning on Tuesday.

[red devil]

UEFA's warning to England of expulsion is a joke. Prior to the England game their jurisdiction was limited to what happens inside grounds. Outside it was down to the police/local authorities/courts etc to take action. They've now moved the goalposts just to have a pop at England. At least the French prosecutors are now saying that most of the trouble was down to highly organised, premeditated attacks by a hardcore of Russian hooligans...

[Mick Mac]

I suspect the expulsion threat is a threat to the fans to behave - not intended to be carried out

I was going to say it would be completely unprecedented to throw a team out of a tournament - but I guess it has happened in respect of behaviour inside grounds (at club level) as RD said.

As regards inside grounds its clearly Russian aggression in this case.

In terms of outside grounds the French authorities need to take a stance to be proactive rather than the reactive tear gassing of everyone - but then it cant be blamed on the police that it starts in the first place.

[Mick Mac]

Death of a fan from my hometown.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36515775

[JohnL]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I suspect the expulsion threat is a threat to the

> fans to behave - not intended to be carried out

>

> I was going to say it would be completely

> unprecedented to throw a team out of a tournament

> - but I guess it has happened in respect of

> behaviour inside grounds (at club level) as RD

> said.

>

> As regards inside grounds its clearly Russian

> aggression in this case.

>

> In terms of outside grounds the French authorities

> need to take a stance to be proactive rather than

> the reactive tear gassing of everyone - but then

> it cant be blamed on the police that it starts in

> the first place.

If the Russians continue as they have or attack Welsh or Slovak fans

or the English (again) I fully expect them to go.

Outside grounds has to be included as the English did nothing inside

the ground and weren't charged.

[Otta]

UEFA would never kick a team out or play a match behind closed doors (at short notice) because it would cost them too much.

[Alan Medic]

Jah Lush Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

England fans have been officially

> advised by the authorities to stay away from Lens

> if they don?t have a ticket and to head for Lille

> instead

If they don't have a ticket there must be any number of little places they could head to. That advice doesn't make sense.

[Otta]

So to the performance. Like Rooney in that position, he did really well and worked really hard going forward and tracking back. Credit where it's due.

No one did anything wrong, but I think Sterling was a weak link.

Dier was great (Not just the goal), and pleased to see Lallana playing like that.

Total sucker punch at the end, but for all the great play with no goals, I was pretty much expecting it.

[Parkdrive]

I agree with your comments re sterling, all pace and no end result, decision making is not his strong point.

[Jah Lush]

Pretty much agree with that assessment Otta. I'm worried about Lallana's lack of goals though. He still hasn't scored for England in 24 appearances. I'd like to see Alli playing up behind Kane as he does at Tottenham which would give us a much more attacking goal threat. Dier was my Man of the Match. I'm not sure how we'd now cope without him.

[Otta]

Yeah Lallana could do with a goal, but he played well. And none of the others got a goal either in a match full of chances.

[????]

The match

Dier man of the Match agree Jah; Lallana played well agree Otta: Rooney played well agree everyone; Sterling was poorest agree; though Kane had a poor game too.

Had a first in that my boy cried when the Russian equalised....took me back to Mexico 1970 (West Germany). I said to him "You need to get used to it, it'll happen again mate" :)

[Otta]

Haha, life's hard lessons.

[red devil]

Tell him he needs to toughen up, the Germany result was much worse :-)

I thought Kane was poor too, looked off the pace. Rooney had a great game but the Ruskies midfield was poor, can't see him getting that much space and time against better teams. Sterling can't cross for toffee, don't know who you would replace him with, that's why I would've taken Townsend as an option. Rashford has played out on the right wing for Utd's U21's but a big ask...

[Jah Lush]

I'd have definitely taken Townsend instead of Stirling. He was the man in form. Kane, having played at the Under-21s tournament last year hasn't had a proper rest from football in two years so it is little wonder if things are catching up with him. He did look off the pace the other night but I say stick with him, just put Alli up alongside him and things will click.

[Parkdrive]

Belgium - not as good as the sum of their parts

[Otta]

Yeah, it was all a bit disjointed wasn't it. Didn't think Italy looked great.

[DulwichFox]

Russia have been given a Suspended disqualification and ?100,000 fine

Any further trouble and they will be out..

DulwichFox

[Parkdrive]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Yeah, it was all a bit disjointed wasn't it.

> Didn't think Italy looked great.

Really? I thought they were very good.

[Otta]

I only saw the second half, but I thought that despite Belgium not really working as a unit, Italy still weren't dominating that much.

[red devil]

Me too, they had a wobbly spell when Origi came on, but other than that, it was a defensive/counter attack masterclass...