I have seen a few comments saying 90 felt worst but for some reason I feel this one more.
In 90 I was only 19, so had fewer tournament disappointments behind me, we had reached the QF the previous tourny,it seemed that QF/SF territory was the norm and only cheating Argies,penalties, or Peter Shilton could prevent us from winning the trophy soon, we saw the emergence of Gazza and Platt. We had a right go in the Semi and 'only' lost on penalties to the Germans.
In 2018 had no real expectations, had easy group, had dream path to the final, had countries falling over themselves to clear the way for us to get to the there, had another 28 years of failure tantalizingly close to being erased.
Apart from first 35 mins this was an awful performance. We didnt play. We had no plan B.
Make no mistake, this tournament was there for the taking. We blew it. I have no confidence this group can kick on and improve that much - this was their time, their chance and they couldnt take it and it hurts.
Maybe in weeks to come, I will feel different, but at the moment this hurts more to me
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Comments
This has me feeling a little sad, but is the one side I have felt proud of for giving it everything they had, every game.
However, Croatia were there for the taking in the first half and we blew it. Probably the best chance of getting to a final we'll ever have and I'm f*****g sick of us being heroic losers.
Best England performance at a World Cup in my 25 year life time.
Lineker vs Kane
Gascoigne vs Henderson
Shilton vs Pickford
Walker/Butcher/Wright vs Walker/Stones/Maguire
Waddle and Anderton vs Sterling and Lingard
It was a much better team (you would pick the 1990 version as better in every case above!), and the expectation was therefore high. To lose as we did on penalties was horrible.
This year, we are a young side, with lots of potential, who exceeded expectation. OK, they played poorly for the last 3/4's of the game, but let's not knock them just yet. They did us proud! Shout it loud!
Said it once we beat Sweden on Saturday that whatever happened Southgate had beaten the target that had been set for him prior to the World Cup (dont believe in the target changing as the Tournament progresses) so a win against Croatia would have been a bonus
Not to mention the way the game went last night I felt that at Half-Time we were going to be made to rue our chances
Iceland on the other hand was a game I felt we should have won yet went straight out without a whimper
I was only 11 in italia 90 and at the time just assumed there would be many more latter stage appearances at tournaments. 28 years later that hasn't been the case and last night was as good a chance as we might ever get again to reach a final.
I think many of us knew that in reality this team was being built for the next Euros and World Cup, not this one, also lets be honest Croatia was the first really decent team we faced, that said we were 25 minutes from a world cup final. Not disappointed , just very proud and also surprised how well they all did.
What has been great is this divided country has been united, albeit for a short while, during this great summer, and from a personal perspective, it been lovely for all the Greenie Juniors to understand what its like to support an England team that gave us a great run in a WC, having listened to me wittering on over the years about 1990.
Hoped we'd win this year but didn't really expect to. In 1990 convinced we'd win.
Last night we were beaten on the night, so while really disappointing, it doesn't feel so "unfair". The final would have been a tough match too
I don't remember us being particularly great. Egypt were the only side we beat in 90 minutes, scraped past Belgium and then we needed 2 penalties to beat Cameroon.
1996 and 2006 both hurt more than last night.
On the negative side, if we lose to Belgium in the Third Place Match, our record will be 3 wins, 1 draw (if you exclude penalties) and 3 defeats. We have performed to FIFA rankings in games except for Croatia who are ranked lower than us.
On the positive side, we have found a team that looks as though it wants to play together with no big egos. I really hope this team goes on from here. If any of these players get too big for their boots, I hope Southgate has the strength to leave them out. Two or three of younger players probably need to progress from impressive young international footballers to world class international footballers, but it's a damn good start.
I fear we’ll never get a better chance.
90, 96 and 98 we were looking genuine quality sides in the eye and exchanging blows. If you watch the replay of Gazza in 90 and 96 where the ball comes back to him off the post on 90 and is slashed across the goal in 96 I'm sure he will reach it one day
We don't really have a right to be disappointed because expectation levels were on the floor leading into this tournament whereas the others we were contenders, however itndont work like that! We had to take advantage of ripping them a new one in the first half and we would be on cloud 9 now.
90 was more sad, just!
96 was the worst of all though. I wondered how I would get through the weary remainder of life.
The unlucky Parker deflection.
Gazzas tears.
Linekers pointy finger and funny face.
Waddles near miss hitting the post and of course the penalty drama.
Yesterday didn't seem to have many moments; Having said that I missed most of the second half having accepted a £25 bet to eat 20 hot dogs without stopping.
At least I won!
Much as I would have loved for us to get to the final I can't say that it took me more than a few seconds to move on.
Important Charlton defeats have a more lasting effect on me.