The Boro Breakdown Podcast

We've Got A Semi!

England win on penalties and we're off to a Euros semi-final! Dana, Tom and Matt revel in the sweet spot kick success.

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Duration:: 41m
Broadcast on:: 07 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linkedin, the place to be, to be. Where do we start with England and this debacle? Well, that was the worst performance I've ever seen from England to ever. The long, long wait is over. A Wembley Raw to hail England's history majors. Hello and welcome to the Bora Breakdown Podcast, the Raw to Berlin, and whoever said England and penalties are a fatal match. I love how all you can hear in that is live. It's just my favourite thing. Matt and Tom, join me for this one, guys. Please tell me how you're feeling after that? It's hard to not just be on an incredible high after that. I think for a number of reasons, I think there was an improvement in the performance itself, I think, which was encouraging without being spectacular. But to dispatch the five penalties as calmly as we did, I think it's probably the most impressive penalty shoe I've ever seen from an England team. And you take the Slovakia game with the overhead kick, the drama in that, and then what happened here coming from behind after 75 minutes. When I again thought we were absolutely down and out, it just feels like even though we're not playing well, we're getting the job done and individuals are pulling us through. We're winning games when we're not playing well. I don't want to jinx it, but it just feels like something might be happening. We're getting better without peaking, which I'm glad I don't want to peek yet. So encouraging signs without getting too carried away, I'd say. I mean, I feel sounds like, I mean, it was just the end before we started recording. That was asking me what was going through my head when I was watching this, because I'd say I wasn't a player, but those scenes looked amazing. My heart beat was rapid at that point, and it was probably the first time in this tournament where I'd got so properly invested where that was the case. I never felt nervous with, well, no, a lie I did. But I will penalty say because I never felt like they were going to miss. I felt like I'd be more gutted if one did, because I was leaning more towards the fact that they were going to score. I think the fact that Pickford saved the first penalty really kind of like, my heart beat would have been faster if that hadn't been the case. I don't know, it's a bit weird, and I don't want to temper it, or anything from saying this. But the last couple of them, the only insetly, obviously. I've seen England have success in penalty show outs, which 10 years ago, even that wouldn't have been the case. I'd seen a lot of failure in penalty show outs previously. So I was really hoping it wasn't going to go to penalties. The relief after winning it was amazing. And then just on the Wednesday night. Now I think, again, like I said on the last part, after that game had finished, I kind of detached from it straight away. And just sitting me down like, all right, I'm going, I'm going to watch the bodies now. So yeah, it's probably going to be different on Wednesday night. But yeah, amazing during that penalty show. And like I said, I returned to normal fairly quickly, but I'm going to guess that wasn't the case for a lot of people watching that. Yeah, I feel weird. Like I haven't fully grasped or processed my motion post match. And I think it's probably because as I've grown up, all I've ever really known is England failing on penalties. And I know obviously at Columbia World Cup 2018, we succeeded on penalties, but that's still almost like a rarity for me watching England. But I think this is a change of tides really with this England team and Gareth Southgate's England team, especially that we don't have to fail on penalties anymore. And I know that obviously the last year I was against Italy, we didn't manage to win from the spot. But I still think that this squad and these selection of players have got that technical quality. And they've also got their routine, absolutely nailed. Like the amount of times you saw the penalty takers just take their time. Like I was shitting myself at the back of play on that. I was stuck to the shutters. I honestly was going through it. But actually just taking that time, taking that deep breath and just watching the penalties in the way that the days is I think a real flag in the sand that this England team do not have to fail anymore on penalties. And that triumph is really sweet because I tweeted yesterday that there's no more terrifying view in the watching England in a penalty shootout. But actually there's no more sweeter feeling than England winning on a penalty shootout. So I'm so, so glad that we managed to do that. Southgate made one personnel change for this game. Esri Konza in for Marghehi who was obviously suspended. But he made a big system change tweaking to a 3-4-2-1 to match Switzerland. Guys, what did you think of England's performance bearing that in mind? I thought it was better. I know we've still managed to kind of take it to extra time and penalties. And we weren't exactly, again, what everyone seems to expect from England. Now where we've got this glut of attacking talent and we should be battering teams for that five or six, know every game and stuff like that. But I genuinely thought we played better yesterday. And I'm just thinking maybe for the rest of the tournament, that's the formation of play. Obviously I've said throughout the season on our borrow base pods that I don't like teams playing free at the back. I don't care in a tournament format. It's a one, no, what's the kind of word I'm looking for? It's because the games are that important and one game could end it. I don't care how we get through the final, how you win it, just do it. And yesterday that formation, I think it seemed to give the players a little bit more confidence. They were, they looked more comfortable in that shape. Obviously, having free at the back, I would say some of our scariest moments have came from maybe, I would say like a lack of chemistry at the back maybe. And I'm not necessarily saying we're being bad defensively, but it's one we've been trying to play out from the back and win misplaced and five-yard passes and stuff like that. I'm just thinking having, having free at the back there, having the wing backs as options on either side, it might just make it a little bit easier on those two play out from the back and then you can obviously progress up the pitch that way. So I thought it was the right decision. I believe it matched up Switzerland as well. I didn't look at the formations before the game, but I heard the commentator mention it throughout the match that Switzerland had a back five. Yeah, I just, I think it was the right decision. I think we played better. I would probably prefer to see us play that against Netherlands on Wednesday. Yeah, I agree. I think the change was a nice surprise. I mean, we said last week, didn't we, that we didn't really have faith, that he'd change much, but it was good to see Southgate finally change the system. And it proves that like, doesn't have to overhaul the team as we've been saying throughout the tournament, you know, the changes system, a tweak here and there. I thought it allowed us to be higher up the pitch. We weren't sat as deep. Kane was able to press a little bit higher. Just gave us a more of a degree of control on the game, especially in the first half. I thought we controlled it for large parts again, without being particularly threatening. But I think you've got to obviously always respect the opposition in this case. And it doesn't matter who you're playing. You're in the quarter final of a major tournament. You've got to expect that you're going to go up against a pretty good team who've done well to get this far. So you can't expect to completely blow away teams at this stage. I mean, I think was it the last tournament or was it the last year as a current call when we blew Ukraine away for now? I feel like fans expecting England to do that in knockout games all the time now. But you've got to bear in mind that these are very tough games. It's all or nothing. It's nervy. We've seen other nations in this competition. I mean, France have struggled like crazy to get over the line in their games. Their game against Portugal was dreadful, really. So you haven't got a good given right to just rock up and blow the opposition away at this stage in a tournament. So I think the improved performance is definitely encouraging. And even when we went behind the resilience and the character to come back, I think it's a really important trait to have in a tournament such as this. And even if Southgates tactics and the way he sets us up isn't perfect. I said this in the last pod, we've got individuals who can just pull us through in moments when we need to. Saka did that. The reaction was really good, really impressive too. So I think you may have said in the last pod time, we might just be a moments team. Maybe this is how England win the tournament and we've seen many scenes and nations win this tournament without being fantastic. Greece were far from great when they were in Portugal, Italy. You don't have to play the best football. You've just got to find a way to win and say what you will about this England team. We keep finding a way in their moments to win. So if we keep doing that for the next two games, I don't think anyone's going to care. Plucky little England day. It's a good point actually on just finding a way to win, because one of the positives from yesterday was that Southgates did switch the system and it was a pragmatic move from him and it effectively nullified Switzerland's threat, which is high pressing on the fallbacks and then creating two V1s and the fangs. There's no numerical advantage when you have the Swiss swingback and then their narrow forward against England's wingback and our wide centre half. I still though, thought England weren't great and yes, it was an improvement, but I do think we're a bit average, which is better than what we've seen. I felt like I was being gassed late at half time because they were really talking up that performance, the BBC Pundra 2 panel and I just didn't subscribe to it. Like I thought England were a little bit better, but there's still a lot of issues within this team. I will stick to the positives though. Obviously that switch from the Southgates was a positive and he did that in the last year as it gets Germany, he matched them up. So it was probably the goal to move and he did that and I think in the end, reap the rewards. Mostly because as I said, it combited Switzerland's strengths of the ball and their pressing patterns. It felt more cohesive and a little bit more balanced. I feel like there was one big factor towards this and it was Bellingham and Ford and the two tens. They weren't getting in each other's spaces. Fordon was popping up mostly on the right and then Bellingham on the left. There wasn't probably the most creative from that from both of them, but at least that, I mean, we've been whinging about it all tournament, that they keep getting in each other's way. So that's a positive at least that we didn't really see that yesterday and it's something to build on for the next game. And another thing that I liked was that England had that width out wide with Trippier and Sacker, but it was Sacker that was exploiting Switzerland's line by running in behind. And the thing that I like within that especially is that he switched his game up. He was going on the inside and then he was taking it around the outside as well. There's been a degree of predictability with England's player that we did not see yesterday and that's why for Sacker's goal. He comes inside and I think they probably just allow him that space to do that and Deccan raised mates that underlap and running and he's able to open up just that gap for Sacker to basically shoe on goal. And I think that that was probably the biggest and most important factor towards England coming out of that game with a victory because Sacker will talk about him later, was absolutely fantastic within his performance. But it was that unpredictability that we've basically seen the opposite of in this tournament so far that was good. I also enjoyed the ball carrying from me and Bellingham in particular to try and break through, which doesn't always have to be through passing. It can be, you know, you're just dribbling at the defence and through the midfield. Me and he's been a plus point in that regard for me. I think obviously that's what he brings to the side and I liked that. However, obviously as I said, it wasn't the greatest performance and this is why I thought this. We were a bit too slow in possession at times. There were elements of us sitting back in the minutes before the Swiss goal. We did sit back and the three at the back became a five. You know, we went deep again. And Trippie was still on the left, although it was good to see Shaw back. The biggest negative of that game was Harry Kane. I said to Johnny, is it just me or is Harry Kane's movement really poor? And Sacker got down that wing so many times, took it on the inside, took it on the outside, got balls into the box. Where was Harry Kane? His movement into the box was really, really bad, really bad, like not to be sore. I saw a tweet that said Harry Kane's movement makes Cristiano and Aldo look energetic and I couldn't agree with that more. Yeah, it honestly, Tom, it was, I had to ask Johnny or like kind of get his opinion on that because I thought, am I seeing the wrong game here? Like, am I seeing this? Am I, do I need to go to boots, competitions and get my prescription changed? Because Harry Kane is a world-class striker. And I do, I don't think this is him. I think this is maybe on the system or how Southgate wants him to play. We know he's a world-class player maker within that striker role because he drops deep and he, and he threads those passes in behind, but he wasn't really doing that yesterday. And when he wanted Harry Kane to bust a gut, bust a fucking baller to get in the box, he never did that. He kind of meandered, he labored. So there's a big question mark on Harry Kane. A lot of people are saying, is he fit? To be honest, he doesn't really, he doesn't really look at it. I was watching our Southgate interview with ITV last night and he said something quite interesting that I do think is worth hearing. You know, we're showing a lot of the characteristics you need to win tournaments. It's not just about playing well. You've got to show resilience, you've got to have courage, you've got to bounce back from setbacks, you've got to handle all of the noise that goes around the beginning of the tournament, for example. And now it's about how far you can go and, you know, there becomes a shift in the energy and a change in the belief of what's possible. So he said it's not just about playing well. He mentioned resilience, courage, handling the noise, which I guess is the negativity. And I do want to credit England here because we've criticized their performance levels and rightly so. We've not been good. We're against Switzerland. It was a third time in the tournament that we've got to go down and not been beaten. Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland. Obviously, we'd much rather England not do that. We'd much rather they didn't go or go down. But I still think that that's worth praising because those intangibles, their bollocks, their confidence despite the setbacks, I do think that's that is worth mentioning because I don't know this for sure. But I do feel like England teams of the past would have crumbled. You know, like, we're in really nice to see home fans doing it. Like, I don't know about use, but I feel like that's maybe worth giving a bit of praise to it. It is something you can't know for sure. Because like you say, it is an intangible quality, but I would agree. I think that England teams of the past would kind of panicle and maybe we'd start going kind of all outstate McLaren for on strike is on the pitch and the ball into the box. And it wouldn't work out that way. But I actually think that that stat might have been incorrect. And I appreciate we went wander up against Denmark and then they equalised. So it would have been the set. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. But I even saw like the last couple of games where we've done that, it is getting reminiscent to me of, say, when Michael Carrick's instilled this in Bora, because it, you know, we've seen it so often where we'll be in a certain position with a manager. So say, for example, Chris Wilder, where at the end we go go all down, be me as well, just leave the stadium because we're like, we're getting beat now. And then we've had Michael Carrick come in is instilled that, that kind of resilience into Bora. How many times over the last season, other than maybe say the first seven games, have we gone to go all down, we're just kind of like, doesn't matter, because we'll come back and win. Even the season we made the playoffs, I would say that that feeling was a lot more resounding. So to me, I am seeing parallels between that in England and that in Bora, Hugh England losing the next match one now. But the last couple of times it's happened. I've just kind of thought we do have it in us to get back into it. And I think even in, I wouldn't even say in the last euros, but maybe the world cup, we had a little bit of resilience. I wouldn't say we had as much of this. Yeah, you know what? It's really good to have that because we were talking about then finding a way to win. And I think at this point, the narratives kind of changing. Gary Neville was mentioning it on ITV yesterday that maybe we need to just forget about England playing at their swashbuckling best or somewhere near it. Maybe this is just going to be a struggle. Maybe this is going to be a slog. Maybe we're not going to get better than this. But as we've kind of alluded to, we need to find a way to win and fair play to England. We do have some balls. I'll tell you that. Right. And Bora put in Switzerland one a lot. How did you two feel after that goal went in? It was a strange feeling because I think I did think, I think I said this on an hospital, how many lives do we have as a team? You know, have we played? I would get out a jail free card. There was a part of me that thought, well, this has kind of been writing on the wall. We've seen this come in. We've said for, you know, numerous games all it would take was a decent side to sort of put us away. And I thought, yeah, it's 75 minutes, 50 minutes to go. It's going to be an impossible task. So I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that was that was it. I think John even said when he stood next to me, he said, yeah, the game's done now. And then soccer instantly went scored about 30 seconds later. But it at the time, I did believe that, you know, finally we'd run out of luck. But in hindsight, I'm not surprised because again, we have individual brilliance. And if that continues to pull us out of trouble, then I'm happy with that. And I think leading into the goal, we could kind of see it coming so it's just starting to put us under pressure. We were sitting deeper and deeper. There wasn't a surprise. It wasn't a surprise to me that we'd gone one-nil down. And I think we were all saying that it's proof that if Southgate does have a slight weakness, it's that he can sometimes be reactive, you know, other than proactive. And he instantly made the changes after we'd gone, you know, one-nil down. So yeah, at the time, I did think we've been found out this is it now. But again, in hindsight, with the players we've got, I'm also not surprised that once again, we we found a way back into it. I also had a bit of a strange feeling when it happened. Because I mean, just before that, while I was watching this, me and me, that would just have a conversation about the election. And we would sort of tuned out from the match. And it was so kind of like business as usual, that's going on in the background. And then it happened and we were like, ah, fuck's sake. But there was about, there was 50% of me had thinking that could be it. It would be so unlucky because it, you know, John Stone's deflection kind of put it on a play for him and it would have happened if that didn't happen. But then there was another part of who's thinking, I was looking at the clock. I saw 16 minutes left, I think it was at that point. And I was like, is it too late? Because before I even looked at the clock, my thoughts were, we're gonna have to do what we did again, sort of accurate again. And there was a kind of quiet confidence in our resilience that we could do that. I saw the clock and I'm like, we haven't got much time to do it in. But it wasn't necessarily like me being resigned to this is it. It was more, like, I think we can do it. But it's just, did we have the time to do it? Well, I thought we were done. That's why I tweeted Southgate Boot. I was literally just thinking, God, Southgate's just so reactionary. And this is on him, basically. And you know, what, I do want to credit Southgate in prison because that was his 100th game in charge of England. And to be honest, the change of culture that he is basically overseeing that he has basically created himself is, is really good. And I was ready to literally boot him into the revetees. Yesterday, after that goal, I just felt like I was kind of resigned to, we can't do this again. Like, we can't keep getting away with these performances that aren't really good, to be honest. And that goal was coming. As I said, we sat deep. We invited that pressure. And then to see him ball or put Switzerland one up, I really wasn't, I wasn't surprised. But yeah, there's a lot of fair players going on here. So fair play to England and go Southgate for that. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Saka equalized not long after, as Matt said, which links brilliantly to the prison place, which is sponsored by John Pickford's war ball. Brilliant preparation there from John Pickford. What does that say? Does it say a kanji dive left? And then he dived left. We love that. I'm going to start with Saka and I'm going to let you talk about him because I know that you wanted to praise Bikai Saka. I've said in previous parts that I love him, I was so, so happy for him. Talk about who you want to praise and I'm guessing you are going to start with Saka. Yeah, Saka asked to be the main one. I thought he was our best player yesterday and I didn't think it was close either. Like you say, I'm on the wing, he was switching up his game. If only Harry Kane had a little bit better movement yesterday, I genuinely think we would have had quite a few because we were going for that to make another borough reference. Isaiah Jones kind of can't get the ball of the flock up quite a lot. I thought that was going to the game, Tom. It was always going to the defender and I was like, ah, should have called up Isaiah Jones. I've been on the right and Saka on the left and could be doing it on both sides. But yeah, it's a bit of a weird one of Saka as well because in general, I don't enjoy watching inverted wingers because I just kind of think when he cuts in and he has it on his right foot, unless you're extremely ambidextrous with both feet, like you're not going to be as accurate as you would be on your other foot. But to be fair to me, it was putting it into some decent areas. We just didn't have anyone there. And there wasn't, there wasn't exactly the time from a lock up and measure a pass anywhere else. Like it had to be done in split seconds, but he was doing such a good job of it. And just sadly, there was no one else there concert as well. I want to praise because he was absolutely stuck to Embolo yesterday, didn't give him a second worth note. And when Embolo was when he scored, it wasn't concert marketing him, which, you know, I thought I think if it had been, he probably wouldn't have been able to. And then thirdly, I just want to kind of give a bit of praise to Ivan Tony for his penalty technique. Brentford fans probably say this every, you know, however often they get a penalty. I don't know. But to me, that was the first time I've seen Ivan Tony take a penalty. And that technique is up there with like Yikubu as one of the best penalty techniques I have ever seen. The fact that you just stared out in the goalkeeper, don't even have to look at the ball and still went in. And this, this is Jan Somerus as well, who is a fantastic goalkeeper. I watched Switzerland knock out France. I believe it was in the last year, Rose, and he that was an apparently shootout. He did well in that. Like I really rate Jan Somerus the keeper and he couldn't get any of our penalties yesterday. But the fact that he couldn't get near Tony's as well, he was being stared out by Ivan Tony. That was such a good penalty. Amazing. Matt. Yeah, I'd definitely stick soccer in there. I mean, yeah, throughout the game itself, he was fantastic. And if it wasn't for Harry Kane being five seconds behind, it's like he was buffering. The matter of times that soccer put so many balls into some fantastic areas. And Kane was like, he was, he just entered the box. I'm like, what are you doing? Like, how can you not anticipate that soccer is going to put the ball into the area? But he kept, you know, stretching their, their defense down the right. He's been our best player consistently throughout the tournament. And I've just got to say, I think, along with everyone across the country, we were all, I think, extra behind him specifically when he stepped up to take that penalty. Because I said to you after the game, do you? I feel like all of his hard work would have been completely ignored by some had he missed that penalty. Even if we'd have gone through, especially if we'd have gone out, I think all of his brilliant work thus far had just been completely chucked in the bin. And I think that we all love a redemption arc. And I've seen loads of compilations on TikTok already of the missing the final of 2020 and all the horrible abuse he got off the back of that, which is just obviously completely unacceptable. And to see him step up again, I think that that tick's balls in itself. And I think he said in the press conference afterwards, and I can't recall the words he said, but his mentality was fantastic. So to see him, especially step up and score was such a great moment. So he is absolutely top of the present place. I agree on concert. I think the step into a game is such magnitude, you know, to come in for probably our second best player or equally our best player might get he was great. I think he might still be stuck to Claire and stuck to follow on his fight back to Switzerland, to be honest, he might have even jumped on the flight with him. You might have to unpack him out of his suitcase, but he was great. And I think all the penalty takers deserve credit, because as I said, at the top of the pod, like it was it was the best executed penalty shoe I've ever seen from an England team. I mean, the technique from every single one of them, it was like, no, we weren't watching an England team. It was like some other side. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. I think Trent to come in, step up as he did. I mean, it's almost like he was chucked under the bus at the start of the tournament. We thought we probably wouldn't see much of him again, but for him to come in and step up and take the win in pen. Ivan Tony's technique is ridiculous. You know, it's such a stage to take a penalty with that much confidence and arrogance is ridiculous. The balls to do that. And it's the same for all the others, you know, Bellingham's penalty was great. They all deserve credit for that. But I'd agree with Tom Sacher and console would probably be my pair from the overall game itself. I echo everything that you two have just said. I'm just going to add on Sacher that defensively, his output there was really good as well, especially coming towards the end of extra time. So yeah, I absolutely love because I've said it on previous pods, he's just such an easy player to root for. I mean, you see that smile of his and it's so endearing and the way that he plays as well with that freedom. And yeah, he's a fantastic player and also fans have seen the goal that he scored to equalize the game many, many times. So versatile, so talented and such a hard worker and especially, especially after Euro 2020, where he got that completely abhorrent abuse for missing a spot kick. That is the happiest I think I've felt. And yeah, I was shitting myself when he went up to take the penalty. We will talk about the penalties now then, because I really want to gauge how you two were feeling when it was basically done and it was penalties. So please tell me how you were feeling going into that penalty shootout. Nervous, I believe my words were like, Oh God, I don't know if I can face penalties at around that point. That being said, in my head, I was still kind of feeling a little bit confident, but then I'm having to kind of override that feeling by telling myself, you've seen England lose on penalties before, you've got no right to feel confident about this. I think the penalty where I was kind of more nervous was actually Bellingham's. But I think that was because I'm kind of sat there like, Bellingham's so confident. I'm scared that he's going to try an anchor or like, he's going to just aim for the roof of the net and like blaze it over or something. It would be typical England if Bellingham was the one that would miss it as well. So yeah, I was I was more nervous for that one. But the penalty takers that we had the fact that, you know, parmatics and Chelsea, Alexander Ronald is a bit of a dead ball specialist. I'd never thought soccer was missing. I just thought life would be too cruel if he did. Yeah, it was it kind of like a war between two sides. And we had during that penalty show, I wear I was confident, but then telling myself I shouldn't be all the while, like I said, my heart's going, you know, under 90 beats per minute trying to, trying to watch it. I hope we don't have to go through the same thing on Wednesday. Oh, God, I know. I tell you what I was. I was that Danny Diamim, I am fucking shitting myself. Honestly, I was, as I said, I was stuck to the shutters. I was on my haunches. I was doing the war on me. My hands are on my knees. The movement that I was I basically took on the profession of a breathwork specialist. I was probably deeply inhaling and exhaling, trying to calm myself down. And you know what, that kanji penalty being missed was such a way it lifted. I can't imagine how I would have felt had that been scored because I think that just kind of calms the emotion down a little bit horrendous penalty, by the way, really shit. I will credit John Pickford though, because he saved it. And it was a good said, but it was a shit penalty. I think there could be two truths here. And I want to mention Trent Alexander Arnold's penalty, because of the whip on that. I love that. I really do. Not quite sure it took the net off, as Guy Morbire said, but then we're etching into football cliches territory here. But yeah, I was, I was petrified. And I let out the biggest double fist pump role that you've ever seen from anyone, because I think it was just that pent up frustration that again, England haven't been great. And they've got themselves into into a position, excuse me, where you're having to rely on penalties. And we know the record of penalties, even despite recent, better fortunes. So the celebration that when Col Palmer scored his to get us on the board, I just thought, thank fuck. And then yeah, it was it was delirium. After that matter, how are you feeling during that penalty? So you were at play brew as well. Were you going through it just as much as I was? I think it's impossible in our DNA. I think we've been brought up through a time where England and penalties instantly has that horrible stigma. I mean, you're not human if you don't get ridiculously nervous for a penalty shootout, regardless of how good your record is. And I think naturally, it was just that kind of God here we go again as good as the line up was exactly like Tom. I couldn't agree more with Bellingham. He was the one where I thought, Oh my God, you know, you just, you just worry that they're so good. They might try and do something too good. Like in the copper America, Messy missed his penalty by taking a panengo and eat the bar. And he thinks he sometimes think these players who are that good might just get a little bit too ahead of themselves, but they were all so composed and concise with the technique. And they didn't let the emotion get the better of them. They just went through their routine, did their job absolutely brilliantly well. And yeah, I completely agree on Pickford. I think he deserves a bit of praise, although he had it on his water bottle that, you know, walked away a go. He still has to save them. And the Akange Miss just gives us that gave us that little bit of room. I know we were still one England miss away from it being back to sort of level, but it gave us that little bit of rigor room where if we just kept scoring, we would want ahead. And they then couldn't afford to miss. So missing that first penalty was massive. And I found it really intriguing, actually, that they put two centre backs or two defenders up first. I think that showed that their, their penalty tickets had, you know, were nowhere near as, you know, as quality as what I was where, but saving that first penalty did go a long way in settling my nerves slightly to a degree, but it was still absolutely, of course, nerve-wracking. I want to add on, on Bellagans. For me, I was nervous about that. I mean, I was nervous about all of them, I'm going to be honest. But I feel like there was a little bit more nervousness about that one because it followed the Akange Miss. So yeah, there was a degree of, oh God, if you misses this, then we're kind of back to like we've lost that advantage. But in hindsight, it should never have been in doubt, really. And those penalties do set up its semi-final tie against the Netherlands after their victory, their comeback victory over Turkey yesterday. How do you two see that one panning out? We wouldn't even want to hazard a guess on that one. Okay, I think I mentioned on the last pod, I watched Netherlands versus France a couple of weeks ago and I was at my work start tonight. And I don't know if both teams were equally good or equally shit. I'm going against it the way that France had been playing. It was potentially equally shit. So, but then I don't want to, I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to give, not give them respect. They're still in the semi-finals of the Euros, the patter, that, they've had to win their way here. Yeah, the Netherlands are a good team. You know, because some of the players that, that they have Van Dyke versus Harry Kane with his movement from yesterday is going to be extremely one-sided by the looks of it. But yeah, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess on how it's going to go, but I'm just, I'm hopeful heading into it. I'm wondering if England will switch their system back to the 4-2-3-1 or stick with the, with the wing backs. I think that's going to be particularly interesting. Obviously, they've got Cody Gatpo in good form. My dad said, "Cackpo" yesterday, so the new hit name just dropped. But yeah, how are you feeling ahead of that? Like, how do you kind of feel like it will, it will play out that game against the Netherlands? I think it could be much of the same. Like I said about Switzerland, you can't disregard them, even if they don't look like they're absolutely firing, and also, and just because I don't think anyone in the semi-finals is. Spain themselves needed a lit one to get past Germany. France have looked absolutely terrible. I saw that, that Paul Rood meme, you know, where he's sat there, and he's like, "Look at us, who'd have thought? Yeah, not me." And that's like England and France, like, sumo finding their way to the semi-final. So yeah, it's one of them. I don't think anyone's playing to their full potential right now, but you've still got to give respect to the side you're coming up against, regardless of how good they've looked, how bad they've looked, whether we've got a better score than them or not, it's who's the better team on the day. So we can't rest on our laurels. We've got to once again, I think, step up once more. Can we afford to go behind again? Who knows, at this point, I still probably shit myself if we do, but there's encouraging signs, I feel, and as I say, if you're going to peak, you don't want to peak yet. You want to peak in the final. So as long as we just improve again, we might be okay. I don't want us to regress at this point. That's my worry. I don't want us to regress and what happened, you know, against Slovakia and last night again, be a little bit of a fluke with how we sort of come from behind and dragged ourselves back from the brink of going out. So I'd like a more reassured performance, but as long as we keep improving and getting up and finding a way to win, I'm happy. I'm a little bit wary of shabby simons, because he's not been great in this tournament from what I've seen. It gets Romania. There were so many times that he could have had a shot and he came from the finazazz superlative school of chopping inside and chopping outside and not getting a shot off. And I think he hasn't scored yet. He had that dislowed goal in one of the early rounds, one of the good games. I just have a feeling that he might announce himself in the tournament in regards to scoring a goal. Hopefully not, though. Team changes for the game. I know that I mentioned Will England stay with the three at the back, the three, four, two, one, or will they go back to the four, two, three, one. But in terms of personnel changes, Jake from our telegram chat asks, does Conzer retain his spot next game, or should gear he come back in? I'd bring gear he back in, I think. I think firstly, it would be harsh to not bring him back in. And, you know, Conzer deserves so much credit for how he defended against Embolo, especially. But from what I gather with the Netherlands, they have to pry through the centre. So we might not be dealing with, you know, as much of a physical forward as we had against Switzerland. So I think naturally, as great as Conzer's being, we know we've got a fantastic replacement if something was to happen with gear he again. So it's reassuring to have that quality and squad depth. But yeah, I think gear he has been one of the players of the tournament for us. So it would be harsh on him. And I feel 100% feel like he should come back in to that centre back pair in our back three. It's good options to have done, isn't it? I think a lot was said about England's centre back partner for John Stones in this tournament. We've seen both gear he and Conzer come in and perform really well. So to be honest, I'm happy with either, but I would agree that the gear he comes back in. Predictions guys, the fun part of the pod. Tom, you're a little bit higher spirits than last game, but are you going to go for an England win? Well, our win for Switzerland will win the last game, didn't that? If that's contributed to Jynx and then I'm going to go to 1-0 Netherlands on Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Some reverse psychology got going on there. I'm going to be positive and I'm going to predict us to win 2-1. I think it'll be extra time again. I just can't see us doing it in 90 minutes. Whether we go behind or not, I don't know, but I think we'll do it 2-1 extra time. Hurricane penalty Dana, there you go. I'm on the quantity. I was going to say, yeah, I was literally like the cogs of my brain were tickling and I think good of penalty. All that was in my head was Hurricane Pelley. I think I've said Hurricane penalty in every one of the games that we've predicted so far. So I'm just going to say again, Hurricane Pelley England win 1-0. Fingers crossed. But we will wrap up here. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please give us feedback. It is really appreciated. Shot the video I like and a comment involved in all of the discussion as well. And why not share it with your friends? We would massively appreciate that too. So, from Dusseldorf to Dortmund, England are on their way to a semi-final. Up the England.