Thrown to three lions in a Roman arena - UKR v ENG

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Well, this has the potential to be the biggest anti-climax since Llne of Duty. There appears no reason on paper to predict anything other than an England win so 1-0 to Ukraine, Yarmolenko. Kane sent off for grabbing the ref to argue about a VAR penalty decision.

[Duncan Gardner]

It'll be tough, but I plan to watch the Ukraine game to the bitter end

Ooh...Gareth McAuley

[Duncan Gardner]

[tee rex]

Safe 6/10 for the thread title. Bonus points for avoiding chicken Kiev.

Ignore all the jinxing and reverse double jinxing, this will be a mildly diverting but niggly 2-1 to England, both teams finishing with 10 players.

[ad hoc]

I hope the papers are doing some kind of Crimean war special editions with rewrites of The Charge of the Light Brigade and Southgate photoshopped to look like Florence Nightingale

[jwdd27]

I saw an image on Facebook of Southgate mocked up to look like he was consoling himself in 1996. It wasn't very good.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again about the game. It finished 1-0 Ukraine, a flicked header from a corner.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think it will be 1-1 until about 75 mins then England get a couple against a tiring defence for a flattering 3-1.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Vitali, the Ukrainian roofer, has just told me 2-2, but I'm not sure if that's AET and what happened if it went to penalties.

[Ray de Galles]

I read that as rooster not roofer and thought we had another animal predictor.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I read that as rooster not roofer and thought we had another animal predictor.

Heh.

I think that the animal pundits tend to limit themselves to plumping for a winner, rather than supplying scores, but perhaps that leaves a gap in the market.

It will only take some hyperactive chinchilla or over-excitable parakeet to predict a 23-0 thrashing to undermine the whole process, though.

[jason voorhees]

Enough of this anticlimax horsepucky and disrespect for Ukraine. Their game against Holland was a scorcher, their 4 games have totaled 12 goals for an average of 3 a game, they scored a last-second extra time winner, and their only loss was to Austria who was much better than anyone thought and were a foot away from knocking Italy out and would have pre-VAR.

Fine, keep expectations low and don't get your hopes up, but Sheva's gang has a bit of Greece 2004 going for them and are 1,535,063% more watchable. They are a black hole level of dark Dark Horse. They may very well end up as champs. Keep waiting for their wheels to pop off until they run you over.

[Snake Plissken]

over-excitable parakeet

Great band, once saw them supporting Carcass.

[jason voorhees]

And it couldn't be any bigger of a trap game for England, either. Coming off getting over the German hex at Wembley, and "hey lads, win this and we're at home for the rest of the tournament!" What could go wrong?

I mean good thing England never turns in a stodgy stinkbomb performance against supposed lesser teams or else I'd really be worried.

Ukraine has proven they can score first, in which case England starts panicking at the game goes on, or can come back, so there goes England 3-0 out the window.

Oh yeah....UKRAINE WON THE U-21 WORLD CUP TWO YEARS AGO. THAT MEANS THEY'RE U-23 NOW.

[Eggchaser]

I didn't even realise this was on today. I was more focused on the Lions vs. the Lions down in South Africa.

[Sheep]

their only loss was to Austria

They lost twice.

[jason voorhees]

They lost twice.

Sorry, meant only shutout loss. Point being this is not a team that lays 1-nil after nil-nil snoozefesters. Austria-Switzerland-Ukraine have come VERY far since 2008 and 2012. They're getting no credit and no respect and they should.

[Sheep]

Sorry, meant only shutout loss. Point being this is not a team that lays 1-nil after nil-nil snoozefesters. Austria-Switzerland-Ukraine have come VERY far since 2008 and 2012. They're getting no credit and no respect and they should.

Fully agree. Their presence has enriched this tournament.

[Patrick Thistle]

Read an interesting interview with Jack Grealish where he said having six really good players to slot in around Harry Kane was difficult for the manager. More insightful than I would have given the lad credit for tbh.

[Sean of the Shed]

Read an interesting interview with Jack Grealish where he said having six really good players to slot in around Harry Kane was difficult for the manager. More insightful than I would have given the lad credit for tbh.

Grealish seems to be easily dismissed as some thick Brummie. Any interviews I've heard he seems to come off with a refreshing level of honesty and humility.

[Patrick Thistle]

My brother is recording his kids saying "It's coming home" and sharing it on the family WhatsApp.

I don't feel there is a right way to respond to this.

[scratchmonkey]

How can it "come home" if England's never won the Euros? I can vaguely understand the monomania regarding a World Cup win at home 60 years ago; it just speaks to something to apply that to a competition with no previous success.

[Sean of the Shed]

Do you take all songs this literally?

[scratchmonkey]

I've got a degree in linguistics with a specialization in syntactic-semantic crossover, I've got to deploy it somewhere.

[Sean of the Shed]

Hope you're going to credit me with the assist for your humblebrag there.

[scratchmonkey]

Not sure that having a four-year degree that's mainly deployed on messageboards as pedantry ill-disguised as musing is much to be proud of; however yes, good low far-post cross for a tap-in, thanks.