David Brent

How on earth did the referee award that free kick AGAINST Scotland that led to Italy's cruel winner?
It was a blatant foul by the Italian player and should have been awarded TO Scotland.
The stories of referees being blind seem to bare some truth.

Bad luck Scotland, you certainly deserved to progress.

Dave.

David Brent

So England got their "Get Out Of Jail Free" card thanks to the Israeli team.

I feel happy that England have another chance to qualify for Euro 2008 but another part of me thinks how embarrassing it will be to go to Austria & Switzerland next year with our current manager and squad of players.


Dave.

BristolUK

How were Scotland unlucky?

A perfectly good goal wrongly disallowed for Italy and a wrongly allowed offside goal gave Scotland their equaliser when they should have been 2-0 down.

Admittedly they were unlucky in being a strong group. Or maybe that raised their game to the levels we saw?

Moor Larkin

Absolutely, but that's football. I often think the reason soccer will never catch on bigtime in the USA is it's inherent unfairness. It is often the case that the best teams don't win out. I sense Americans like a 'fair' outcome, as a cultural thing they think the better team should always win.

Going back to Scotland, I'm amazed none of the commentators have mentioned that the real reason they've gone out is that silly 2-0 loss against someone or other a few weeks ago. That left them having to beat Italy, which was always a big ask.

So it's "Come On England"....... again.......

And "Come on Northern Ireland"....... for a change......

Merton Park

Unfortunately, the best team always seems to score more goals than the other one. The main reason Football will never catch on in the US is it's a relatively low scoring game, and no Father wants to take his kids to a game where they know more about it than he does.

Moor Larkin

Just not so. There have been many many games where one team dominates the entire match, fails to score and then the defenders break away and pop one in. I agree that the Yanks like lots of point scoring (don't we all..... ) but I think it goes a bit deeper than that.

Marky B

It has been said before,Dave,that a lot of people are hoping that England won't qualify for Euro 2008 so that McLaren gets the boot.
I think it is disgraceful that our national side has to rely upon the fortunes of a lesser side to get anywhere.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

cletus awreetus

One thing to be said about Erikkson's tenure, at least he got the England side to finals under his own steam.

David Brent

Crunch time tonight. If McClaren and his team do not do the business tonight I fear the crowd will try to lynch them.

Surprised to hear the Croatian coach saying that the current Wembley pitch is not up to international standards. Apparently the recent gridiron game played there has cut up the pitch very badly. Some say the pitch is now soft on top yet solid below the surface making it very slippy underfoot and playing like an ice rink.

Not great news for such an important game.

Dave.

batman

Our players are mainly a bunch of overpaid prima donnas, the coach is hopeless, the pitch is in poor condition, but ......

COME ON ENGLAND!!!!!

Bats.

Steve Crook

Now there's a cry of desperation if ever I heard one

Steve

batman

What a perceptive chap you are Mr Crook .... .

Bats.

dremble wedge

The pitch has been terrible ever since Wembley opened. Perhaps it takes time to settle down?

orpheum

More to the point what idiot at the FA or Wembley decided that it would be a good idea for the NFL to stage a game at Wembley 3 weeks before this game.Maybe they forgot that it can rain quite a lot at this time of year.Reminds me of the time when the horse vof the year show was held at the old wembley just before our League Cup Final v Swindon.The pitch looked more like a cabbage patch.

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

Harleybloke

As I recall, back in 80s, England played several matches in the USA during the summer. Some tournament. As is not uncommon, the England team was dire, one TV pundit blamed it on the wrong sort of grass................

.................now I'm not gonna say anything........... but........... about the best 100 excuses.....

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!