I hate England fans. Not aimed at anyone or anything I've seen in here but I really do.

You know what it is, right? A lot of foreign football fans, especially other home nations, ****ing hate us. They hate us because they perceive us to be delusional, arrogant, unrealistic fans with a sense of entitlement, who believe we can or should be winning everything. To me this is quite clearly bollocks. I don't know a single person who genuinely believes England are gonna win anything. In fact I think the total opposite is true. We revel in defeat. We love it. So many of us, too many of us in my opinion, take great pleasure in Englands shortcomings.

However, even with that said, nights like tonight remind me where these critics are coming from. It reminds me why they think what they do. Too many "I told you they were ****!" comments from smug little ****s who LOVE to be seen as a football fan who wont back their national team. Too many people heaping the blame on two defeats on our best or star players. It's Rooneys fault. It's Gerrards fault. Nobody, not one single person I know, has said a thing about Leighton Baines and the performances he has put in. Not one person has pondered whether Henderson was involved enough. Nobody has said anything about a quiet performance tonight from Sterling.

There's one night every two years when I remember why plenty of people hate the England team and their fans and tonight is the night.

Football is football: fickle and unpredictable. Nobody thought Chile would teach Spain how to play football. Nobody imagined Brazil would need extra help to win their first match. Nobody thought Costa Rica would beat Uruguay. Then, personally, I never imagined England would lose to Italy. Uruguay won't have an easy one against Italy, and you guys are supposed to whitewash Costa Rica hands down. Have England crashed out of the cup this early? I wouldn't be so sure. England must absorb this tough blow and think of nothing but beating Costa Rica. There's a chance and it mustn't be passed up.

Italy to win all three of their matches and us to beat Costa Rica. It's not implausible to think this will happen, but it is certainly clutching at straws from an English perspective.

Seeing a fair few on Twatter saying Baines was shit and not taking Cole was bad.

One day, we will win a major competition again, it might be 2014, it might be 2016 or it might be decades from now, but we will.

When we do, I hope these lot just keep to their word and stay away from the street parties and parades while the rest of the country is basking in glory and having the time of our lives.

The absolute worst are Man Utd & Liverpool fans. The former because in their heads, they want to believe we purposely want to blame them for absolutely everything and the latter for their 'not English but Scouse' nonsense.

Not since 1958 but we didn't even qualify in 1994.

Italy 2-0 Costa Rica
Italy 2-1 Uruguay
England 2-0 Costa Rica

Would see us through. Wouldn't even need to batter Costa Rica just win by two goals.

Clutching at straws is right.

:clap:

I could not agree more! The England team are as deserving of criticism as any other, but it's these people, the ones who have refused to back them from the very start, that are so quick off the mark to applaud themselves when England lose. As if the teams shortcomings justify their stance, and everyone else is ****ing stupid to even gave the slightest of ****s.

I know who they all are of the people I know, and if I am ever fortunate enough to see English success then you're ****ing right I wont let them forget it if they suddenly change their mind.

I have seen some criticism of Baines as well to be fair, but it has been mostly people who specifically write about football. Not just mates and people I know. They might think he's had a poor tournament as well, but he isn't getting it in the neck.

Straws will be clutched, quarter finals will be reached :cool:.

:(

Haha. I wish I had your faith and confidence. Really I do.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqlQXsDCQAAj5OL.jpg:large

Forza Azzuri.

Doctored pic, no?

Na, he is on BBC now wearing that.

Balotelli has missed two great chances. At least Italy are creating though. They should win this.

Hope so. But Chile have upped their game in the last 5 minutes.

F*ck!!! :(

Chile? Costa Rica looks really good.

Sorry. Yeah. Costa Rica. They should be 2-0 up. Definite penalty.

That was certainly a shove in the back worthy of a penalty.

It's laughable they got refs from each continent despite the fact only the European and South American leagues are top level. You can't go from reffing in places like Qatar and Cameroon to the World Cup.

...Robbie?

We are officially #out. Same old story, pissing myself here. Linekar then:

"Can't wait for Euro 2016" with monotonous delivery.

Amusing.

:laughing:

Arguments that crop up every time we go out of a tournament:

- Too many foreigners in the English league
- We need a foreign manager
- No we need an English manager
- English players need to move abroad to better their game
- Manager was unproven
- Change things from top to bottom
- Players are on £100k per week to play like that

Etc. Don't know why we can't just say we ended up in a tough group (because we weren't in the top 8 and thus not seeded) and lost to better teams.

Still think the players are there.

Oh, the players are there, but they seldom play well as a team. I don't know enough about football to pretend to know why that is, but it seems a common theme in England teams. Maybe Vialli was right, maybe the big occasions get to English players and they simply bottle it.

The last game where we genuinely dominated for 90 minutes was the 5-1 at Wembley vs Croatia, 2009ish that would have been. The last tournament game... Denmark in 2002.

One thing I do think is an issue is players being picked because of who they play for. This is basically undeniable. I was disappointed Delph didn't get picked, looks even sillier post-Rooney/Italy.

I saw Vialli's comments, he is right that they handle pressure better than we do.

We English love to be ****ing cynical and exaggerate weaknesses.

I don't know about anyone else but I was more excited by the potential in this England squad than I have been in a long time and I'm hopeful of being able to say the same for the Euros. It's not ridiculous to think the likes of Barkley, Sterling, Sturridge, Henderson and others could be better footballers in two years time.

Hopefully Roy will be long gone by then. I swear he got the job largely because he's English.

Anyone else getting annoyed by "Blah zeeeeel, BLAH ZEEEEEEEEEEEEL!"

?

It's the highlight of ITVs coverage.

It actually is. They just missed the kick off of the second half because the pundits were too busy talking shit.

Aye, much prefer the BBC coverage.

Holy ***t; who would have thought... Costa Rica were the absolute underdog here! Let's take our hats off to them; fine performance against the Italians.

Messi tho

^

There's no doubt in my mind he is going to win it for them.

He's wonderful, the little man has got everything.

I feel for Iran. They defended so well and still created chances. Argentina created many more chances but I didn't feel they really came any closer to scoring than Iran did - and then obviously Messi happened.

Anyway, gutsy performance. The only real difference between the teams in the end was the greatest player in the world. Not too shabby.

A lot of people who've been peddling shite for the last four years were disgruntled when that one went in.

'Needs to do it in a World Cup'. And he is :cool:.

Once Argentina reach the knock outs and aren't playing teams who swarm Messi and stick 10 men behind the ball, Messi will have the freedom to roam the pitch and will come alive. Even the hipsters won't be able to deny his greatness.

#ExcitedChild

I expect a different Argentina as well once they reach the knockouts. Even though they have been restricted and had to play through ten men I've been underwhelmed by them so far to be honest. But they still have been the better team in their matches, have six points, Messi is scoring goals, and I think in matches that are more open they will be much more dangerous.

A good start for sure.

http://www.hypun.com/lollibs/meme_th..._218123674.gif

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tnRK9KeKlc...00/ronaldo.jpg

Argentina don't stand a good chance. Everyone's expectations are sky high here, but I'm afraid the team won't live up to them. Maradona pulled it off on his own in 1986; Messi will not be able to make it alone. I think Argentina are a fine team, but they don't have the prowess they are thought to have: we lack headers; many players aren't strong enough or tall enough (these are not minor details, seriously); our defenders (with the exception of Rojo) suck - hugely. Remember what happened 4 years ago against Germany. It'll be absolutely tough from now on.

Sooooo Zabaleta sucks?