One of the best matches of our team I've ever watches... It looks like I was right stressing Kranjcar (goal), Eduardo (assist), Modric (excellent game) and Srna (I think he ran 10+ kilometeres in this game), but Olic was great positive surprise. He could even score 2 more... I am very glad to see this ending because now noone will say that Croats didn't fight, that Croats let England get through etc etc etc... We've played an excellent match and I was tensed like we have to win this to qualify... I am really proud to be Croat this evening... Really don't want to offend anyone, these are just my 2 cents...
Have to agree Croatia were excellent tonight, that coming from an England fan. Still very bitter that were out though!!! Croatia had already qualified yet they showed more passion and fight to win the game than our so called players did. Gutted that we won't be there next summer, me and a few amtes were planning on going but I suppose the players will be glad to have a summer off. Get McClown out and some of the overpaid players who say they give a damn about our team and lets start afresh for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers.
Too bad England didn't make it.. I always have a special pleasure when Portugal beats them. LOLOL Didn't saw the game, can't wait to see the highlights.
I suppose one good thing has come out of tonight, our Chav element won't be able to shame the country next summer, but even that hasn't cheered me up
I dunno how the heck he stayed for so long as a manager. Beck wasnt playing most matches, did they have some sort of conflict?
Beckham was dropped after the 2006 World Cup and at that time it was the right thing to do. However a year on and we pick him in the team again and he does ok. McClown had made some bizarre decisions as England boss and has paid the price tonight for not qualifying.
No complaints, Croatia were by far the better team. Why we are so second-rate given the place football has in our culture is beyond me.
because we have a manager who can't manage:/ he was wrong from the start. Fact is we would never had lost that match with Mourinho as manager because he would not have let the players play like that. Beckham was dropped after the 2006 World Cup and at that time it was the right thing to do. - becks din't even play that badly in world cup, he only dropped him to prove a point that no one was safe in team. But well done to croatia anyway.
Because half of the Premier League is made up of foreigners and only a hatful of English players are good enough to make the England team because they get regular football action. The FA need to set a limit on the number of foreign players a team can field as its ridiculously obvious that that is one of the main reason's we have failed to qualify, no strength in depth of English talent.
Beckham showed yesterday that he is high class player. The assist for Crouch is something that is really for all football books... McClown's greatest mistake yesterday was to put unexperienced goalkeeper instead of unlucky but better one...
glendowney, I think this is not the main reason for failure to qualify. Check out our team - there is only Modric in starting 11 who playes in Croatian league and they inspite of that make a good team. Your manager was the first one to blame because the team is full of individuals, you don't have a team... There is a key for me...
That's true, but there's more to it than that. The top division has ALWAYS been full of foreigners; it's just that in the old days they used to be Scottish, Welsh or Irish. Back in the 1980s Liverpool won the FA Cup and there wasn't an single Englishman in the starting XI !! I personally don't want to see quotas imposed.
I made a small post about the quotas here. A little more research needs to be done- I need to include teams outside the big four, and clubs in other countries. As for the game, playing Peter Crouch alone upfront was a mistake. The long ball strategy failed miserably, and the condition of the pitch didn't help the players. Bridge had a horrible game. Had a 4-4-2 been in place right from the beginning, several half chances could have been converted, like the two in between the goals from Kranjcar and Olic. After the equaliser was scored, going back and losing possession was the very thing that England should have avoided. They lacked proper aim and focus and played with a defensive mindset, and paid for it at the end.
You didn' t deserve to go on eu 08 with playng like that, it is not everthyng black Mclaren fired that is the best for England..... here again in youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFeG9GtAoV8