Righto you miserable lot (although I must admit it's getting more positive!)

So, COME ON ENGLAND !!!

Summary of last night - France are a spent force, Brazil are NOT s**t, but they are certainly not the football gods we thought they were. Great to see that as if England meet them at any time during the tournament the fear factor will be diminished, even if Brazil do go on to put in some great performances from now on.

Also, great to see Croatia attacking them and showing the rest of us the way. The best thing you can do against Brazil is attack them as England did until we scored in 2002. The worst think you can do is sit back and try to defend them, as England did after we scored in 2002!

I'd love to have seen Brazil last night trying to defend Beckham inswinging free-kicks with Owen, Crouch, Terry or Campbell coming on to them and Gerrard and Lampard sitting behind picking up scraps.

Croatia ? OK. Not as good as Sweden. Slightly better than Paraguay.

Best teams so far ? Overall, Czech Republic without a doubt in my mind. Italy come in second but mostly on the counter, and can they do it as effectively if you don't attack mindlessly like Ghana ? Argies and Dutch were not that great - slightly better than England and on a par with Portugal. All 4 of those will get better I feel.

And once again. France. Ha ha.

Steve

Posted By: Steve in Holland, Jun 14, 09:25:14