Two Countries, One Cnut. ENG-DEN

[Satchmo Distel]

Yellow Matterface custard

[Amor de Cosmos]

Turn them off. All of them. Almost everyone on here knows more about football than the wanking wallies employed to dribble verbiage throughout the match, whatever it is. They're always a subtraction to enjoyment rarely an addition. Turn them off.

[NickSTFU]

I can't be the only one who listens to music while watching a game on telly?

All the stuff being talked on this thread is easily avoidable.

[Sam]

the wanking wallies employed to dribble verbiage throughout the match

Hey!

[johnr]

Me and a couple of friends once played a live Grateful Dead album whilst watching Match of the Day and on magic mushrooms. Improved the experience no end, although MotD seemed to go on longer than normal...

[Amor de Cosmos]

Hey!

Present company excepted of course.

[Favourite Worst Nightmare]

Yellow Matterface custard

Dripping from a dead dog’s eye

[Tactical Genius]

Matterface has been commentating on TalkSport for well over a decade with Alvin Martin as his sidekick. Didn't realise he was on tv until this Euros

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Matterface has been commentating on TalkSport for well over a decade

Say no more. Just say no more. I can only imagine your pain. We're all here to help, just reach out.

[Nefertiti2]

Me and a couple of friends once played a live Grateful Dead album whilst watching Match of the Day and on magic mushrooms. Improved the experience no end, although MotD seemed to go on longer than normal...

thought for a moment that said "Me and a couple of friends once played on a live Grateful Dead album whilst watching Match of the Day and on magic mushrooms"

[anton pulisov]

Who is Matterface? Is he commentating this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_2GELMwfY

I might have heard this commentator on a few Youtube clips (first noticed on the above one). He is absolutely terrible.

[Tommasi]

No that's Peter Drury.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's sad that you needed to explain that. People are losing a sense of how such things are supposed to work that was once very widespread. One wonders if such "gifts" would now need to be accompanied by multilingual instructions, perhaps in the style of IKEA furniture.

Nef is essentially right about the headline. The implication is that England "cooked up" the result and that the whole thing is a bit of a mess.

Hahahaha. I was thinking much the same thing.

I think It was eoin hand, who while managing ireland, went to Bulgaria to watch France play the hosts in our world cup qualificatiin group, and as he was drifting off to sleep the door of his hotel burst open and in came the referee, held upright by two of the best looking women he'd ever seen. He found himself pondering if there was any point in him, or France for that matter turning up for the match the next day.

Actually my parents went to bulgaria in 1975 (That stampcertainly raised eyebrows in JFK when they went to the USA in 76 to visit my grandaunt) and aside from the uncomfortably large number of striking young women in the bar areas of the tourist hotels, the second most bizarre thing was the number of half blind old women who came up to my heavily bearded father and tried to kiss his ring, under the impression that he was some sort of orthodox cleric. Italians started whistling the Internazionale and shouting Karl Marx when they saw him. (I witnessed this) but In Ireland, Children thought he was Santy. Beards mean different things to different people I suppose.

[imp]

A former colleague of mine was studying at an East German university in the 1980s and landed a gig as interpreter for an English referee who was there to officiate a European tie. My colleague asked him if there were any particular football terms he'd like to learn before the match, or if he had any other pressing linguistic or translation-related needs. "No," came the reply. "Just tell me where the brothel is." And he wasn't joking.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That there is garbage. I have watched a fair amount of games, always on TV, and this implementation and approach is remarkably less disruptive than last year in the Premier League.

perhaps it is the best referees in Europe each game. but it is remarkably better.

Though it is still fucking horseshit garbage compounded subjective decision bollocks.

There's the same amount of it, more or less, it takes just as long, they just don't show it to you. leaving you with situations where you spend ages looking at highlights videos of france vs portugal trying to figure out if karim benzema is actually offside or not, until you realise that the guy at the bottom of the screen is keeping him onside with his arse. It seems that a lot of people don't want transparency, or knowledge of what is going on. What they actually want is arbitrary judgement, so they have the outlet of complaining about it being unfair if it doesn't work out their way.

Exactly. You weren't sure. We aren't supposed to be awarding penalties without certainty. Penalties aren't awarded on the basis of probability, or in this case possibility. If they are then that is a mistake. If a replay does not show clear contact then the referee should be given the chance to review his own decision, with an open mind and without feeling compelled to either change it or double down. When a ref awards a penalty the game stops anyway, so the usual auto-reply of 'oh but the flow of the game' doesn't apply.

The ref is sure. That's why he awarded the penalty. The question for var is not "Are you sure this is a penalty/" It's "Are you sure that the ref got it wrong?" This video with Neil Swarbrick explains it quite well. The point of VAR is that the referee is still in charge, and making subjective decisions. VAR is checking if he's clearly wrong. The last bit where it talks about inconsistencies is perhaps the most important bit to bear in mind

[ooh aah]

The ref is sure, but not necessarily right. Now I know that VAR isn't used to ask the ref if he's sure, but my point is that it should be, given that the ref has stopped the game anyway.

[Lang Spoon]

This. Or it's a pointless waste of time.

[RobW]

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1413486114250309634

Charming people. Colleague of mine who was at Wembley said that she knew of an England fan who joined the Danish supporters assoc for £11 and got allocated a ticket in the Denmark end.

[jwdd27]

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1413486114250309634

Charming people. Colleague of mine who was at Wembley said that she knew of an England fan who joined the Danish supporters assoc for £11 and got allocated a ticket in the Denmark end.

You can see several England fans in the Guardian's image there - above the Guardian masthead there's a group of 4 or 5, and another to the left with his sweater over his shoulders. Most sensibly went for a red shirt to blend in.

[Ray de Galles]

I was sitting above the Danish end and you could see a significant amount of English in there celebrating when they scored. People in my ticket-hunting group had been trying to get tickets there (via the same route RobW mentions) which I tried to dissuade them from doing and I think people might have tried the same for Sunday.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think It was eoin hand, who while managing ireland, went to Bulgaria to watch France play the hosts in our world cup qualificatiin group, and as he was drifting off to sleep the door of his hotel burst open and in came the referee, held upright by two of the best looking women he'd ever seen. He found himself pondering if there was any point in him, or France for that matter turning up for the match the next day.

But the result was a 2-2 draw (manager was Johnny Giles). https://www.11v11.com/matches/bulgar...r-1976-233970/

[anton pulisov]

Perhaps, for the sake of Italians living in England (and people who could be confused as being Italians), I should be hoping that England win.

[anton pulisov]

But the result was a 2-2 draw (manager was Johnny Giles). https://www.11v11.com/matches/bulgar...r-1976-233970/

Only beacuse they missed the late penno he gifted them when the score was 2-2.

[ad hoc]

Perhaps, for the sake of Italians living in England (and people who could be confused as being Italians), I should be hoping that England win.

Doesn’t seem to make a difference. There appears to be a large section of England fans who will be violent regardless of win or lose

[Satchmo Distel]

Only beacuse they missed the late penno he gifted them when the score was 2-2.

Ah! Bulgaria's 2nd goal is also blatantly offside.