From the Sublime to the Ridiculous - The Matchgoing Thread

[Artificial Hipster]

I'll probably get hounded off the board for this but my two are huge fans of Bohemian Rhapsody and would have loved this. I've mentioned before on here that my daughter sang a medley of Queen songs with Tony Hadley at a Young Voices concert a few years ago after which I got them a copy of Greatest Hits which still gets regular airings. I'm not a Queen fan by any stretch of the imagination but I don't mind admitting I do love a a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody myself.

[Benjm]

We got the Bohemian Rhapsody singalong at Germany-Austria too. My wife told me to stop pulling faces, which I hadn't realised that I was doing. Not pulling faces was the better option.

[Jobi1]

I had the misfortune to be sat next to some bloke who was clearly there under duress, he spent the first twenty minutes moaning constantly then his wife clearly had a word and he shut up, spending most of the rest of the game sitting very far forward in his seat and looking on his phone at what looked like pigeon racing results.

We had an absolutely crushing bore sat behind us with his family, increasingly supporting France because "The Netherlands are boring me to tears. They're just not trying to play", and clearly trying to impress his wife and daughter with his superior Soccer knowledge by referring to Sherida Spitse as "the number 6", so that when they responded with bafflement he was able to say "Well yes she's wearing squad number 8, but she's playing in the number 6 position". Honestly, just get right in the bin.

[Southport Zeb]

Last night I was sitting next to where the French subs were warming up. Given the range and duration of exercises that the warm up coach was putting them through, I suspect that they were happy to get on the pitch so that they could have a rest.

There was a woman a few seats from me who watched the match whilst also crocheting a hat - I was quite surprised that she had been allowed to bring her crochet hooks in. A couple of seats to the other side was one of the most evil people I've ever had the misfortune to come across - he spent half the game trying to incite the crow dto commit the vile scurge that is the Mexican wave.

[Gangster Octopus]

Must be something in the air; two weeks ago when we were watching the France-Italy game, a woman from in front of us went down to the front of the seating and kept trying to start a wave. It kept failing. Good on Rotherham...

[longeared]

You were sat near me then Zeb - I watched the very active warm up coach with his routines below me and both saw and heard the Mexican Wave chappy. He got one wave started towards the end of the first half which went round the ground one and a bit times before it got stopped by France missing another chance.

[Merlin the happy pig]

A bit late, soz. England 1-0 Austria.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Spain 4-1 Finland.

[Merlin the happy pig]

France 5-1 Italy. All the goals up the other end.

[Merlin the happy pig]

England 8-0 Norway.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Germany 2-0 Spain.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Netherlands 3-2 Portugal. My only tick of the tournament.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Italy 1-1 Iceland.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Northern Ireland 0-5 England.

[Merlin the happy pig]

Finland 0-3 Germany.

[Merlin the happy pig]

France 1-0 (aet) Netherlands.

[imp]

Last night I was sitting next to where the French subs were warming up. Given the range and duration of exercises that the warm up coach was putting them through, I suspect that they were happy to get on the pitch so that they could have a rest.

Frau imp and I had the same view from Row A at France-Iceland, down by the corner flag - we were exhausted just watching them.

[Jobi1]

England 4 Sweden 0

Pre-match corteos from both sets of fans. Only saw the tail end of the Swedish one in the distance, but followed the England one along – everyone's favourite band parping away on top of the bus while everyone solemnly followed in the drizzle. Let's just say it wasn't quite the fiesta the Dutch ones I've seen have been.



Thought the match was actually pretty even for long periods, but you always just felt England had that little bit extra. Sweden had no real equivalent of Hemp, Mead or Kirby – when any of them cranked up to full pace, it felt like something could happen. The shot count seemed pretty even, England were just a bit more clinical. What more is there to say about the Russo goal? Fabulous improvisation (heroic as she is, there's no way Ellen White's scoring that goal), it'll live long in the memory.



Only downer of the evening was being sat in front of another utter joy vacuum, a bloke there with his teenage kids, again feeling the need to practically commentate on the whole game. Any time any player (though particularly English players) hit the deck for any reason it was "Oh, there we go down again! GET UP! They're getting worse than the men!" Other than that it was pretty much any tedious cliche you can think of. He didn't seem to be supporting Sweden (by their accents they were English), but then when England's goals went in, he and his son stayed stoically in their seats, barely even applauding, and again at full time just stayed sitting down for 5–10 minutes before leaving. Absolutely baffling behaviour.

[longeared]

England 4-0 Sweden

Fucking hell, a strong candidate for highlight of the season and it's not even August yet. You probably watched the game if you're interested so I won't go into detail, but three things that stand out that you don't pick up from the telly; 1) how important Keira Walsh is playing in front of the defence in what I believe tactical weirdos call a "pivot" and then being the defence when they send Williamson and Bright up for corners 2) how good Georgia Stanway is at creating space 3) what a real leader Leah Williamson is, constantly communicating, giving gestures, signals, guiding the team on the pitch. I was sat a few rows beneath the telly platforms so after every goal everybody turned around to watch Alex Scott and Ian Wright celebrating, when the team did the lap of honour Williamson made a point of gesturing towards the pair of them in delight, which they both reciprocated. I also noticed Swedish telly at half time showing footage of Cecile Uttrup Ludwig winning yesterday's Tour de France Femmes stage (bet it's been a great few days for them)

Obviously this was a different atmosphere to everything else I'd been to, what with most of the crowd supporting a team, people cheering and standing up a lot, I cheerily sang pro-Wednesday songs from the Kop. I noted the lass in front of me sending a message saying "only time this ground will have an atmosphere" and I wanted to marry her for that. The ground still hasn't got any legroom and I couldn't move seats this time. You couldn't hear the PA which was a bonus as they tried the Bohemian Rhapsody thing again. They also turned the sprinklers on and soaked the kids holding the flags before the game. Terrible club.

Felt almost like the end of the season rather than the start of it, going to a big semi final under the lights on a damp and drizzly evening. Been a terrific tournament, great fun to go to, absolutely loved every game. Now to spend a couple of days deciding if I want to jump straight back into the muck and nettles of the NCEL on Saturday.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

England 4 Sweden 0

Pre-match corteos from both sets of fans. Only saw the tail end of the Swedish one in the distance, but followed the England one along – everyone's favourite band parping away on top of the bus while everyone solemnly followed in the drizzle. Let's just say it wasn't quite the fiesta the Dutch ones I've seen have been.


.

me when fans of other nations do a corteo at the women's euros: "oh it's lovely to see supporters bringing some colour to the occasion"
me when england fans do the same thing: "you horrible edl bastards"

it's just a pavlovian reaction at this point i think

going to the final and idk i'm genuinely worried i'll have a panic attack or something.

[Third rate Leszno]

Netherlands 3-2 Portugal.

You're about a dozen rows above me there, Merlin.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

me when fans of other nations do a corteo at the women's euros: "oh it's lovely to see supporters bringing some colour to the occasion"
me when england fans do the same thing: "you horrible edl bastards"

it's just a pavlovian reaction at this point i think

going to the final and idk i'm genuinely worried i'll have a panic attack or something.

(Should say I've had nothing but positive experiences with supporters of the England women's team when I've seen them play Wales so this is very daft)

[Ray de Galles]