In the end of the day, we had one team that just somehow regularly finds a way to win even if they are outplayed defeating a team that regularly seems to find a way to lose in the biggest games. Sort of like KC playing the Bills. This game felt very even to me the entire time really until the last 25 when England just decided to park the bus.

One note from the game: I've been a Chelsea fan since the day I first saw them live at The Bridge in 1993 and I've seen almost all of James' games with Chelsea (a couple live but most on tv of course). It was right to bring him out. He was finished by that point and had become a liability on the pitch. Not sure who else they could have brought on vs. the guys they did bring on but James needed to come off.

28 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

One note from the game: I've been a Chelsea fan since the day I first saw them live at The Bridge in 1993 and I've seen almost all of James' games with Chelsea (a couple live but most on tv of course). It was right to bring him out. He was finished by that point and had become a liability on the pitch. Not sure who else they could have brought on vs. the guys they did bring on but James needed to come off.

Tuchel's squad selection always looked questionable, he didn't take enough full backs, the center halves he had weren't the best England has to offer either, Harry Maguire should have been in there, he's better than Konsa, Quansah, Chalobah and Burn by some distance.

In midfield I still have no idea why he took Mainoo seeing as he went out of his way to not bring him on, including last night bringing on O'Reilly to play midfield when he is a full back and playing Dan Burn who's basically an Easter Island statue at left full back, lo and behold Messi is sat in acres of space on the right and eventually supplies the cross for the winner. He took Henderson as a back up midfielder simply because he was 'a good dressing room presence', meaning England were reduced to playing the same 3 central midfielders for most of all the games. He should have taken Wharton in place of Henderson and Mainoo should have got some playing time, especially when Tuchel was forcing Rice to play while clearly struggling with injury and illness against Mexico and Norway.

Every football fan knows that dropping deep like England did against Argentina for that length of time is going to be punished at any level of football, Tuchel has to have watched Egypt snatch defeat from the jaws of victory doing exactly the same thing, it is baffling to me how he allowed that to happen.

20 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

Tuchel's squad selection always looked questionable, he didn't take enough full backs, the center halves he had weren't the best England has to offer either, Harry Maguire should have been in there, he's better than Konsa, Quansah, Chalobah and Burn by some distance.

Yeah, I can confirm that Chalobah has no place on a strong national side (again, as a Chelsea fan I watch almost every game he plays). Quanash was suspended and wasn't available but he may have been a better choice than Burn and they could have shuffled a bit. We shall never know.

5 hours ago, gregbwfc1 said:

Saka hasn't been fit for a while and wasn't really a factor when he did get on because of this.

More than him taken who wasn't 100%, some strange selections 🤔

Seemed fit enough against Norway.

12 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

Who's your side?

Bolton Wanderers mate.

Nobody on here will know of them, we had a good spell in the top flight first decade or so of this century but never won anything.

Never fail to disappoint, bit like England really 😄

Even have the same uniform 😄

8 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Seemed fit enough against Norway.

He's not been 100% all tournament, looked like he'd lost a bit of speed which is a big part of his game.

I like the guy, he is better than he showed.

28 minutes ago, gregbwfc1 said:

Bolton Wanderers mate.

Nobody on here will know of them, we had a good spell in the top flight first decade or so of this century but never won anything.

Never fail to disappoint, bit like England really 😄

Even have the same uniform 😄

Of course I know of them. I've been watching the PL since the mid 90s.

10 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Of course I know of them. I've been watching the PL since the mid 90s.

We were, for us, successful for quite a while.

It's tough for smaller clubs to sustain themselves in the Premier league.

If you get a decent player, he tends to get bought by the big fish.

Bolton got relegated at just the wrong time, the money at the top exploded afterwards.

Very nearly went out of business a few years ago and have done well to get back to what I consider our historic level.

If you follow Chelsea, you will have seen your team clinch the title at our stadium 👏

43 minutes ago, gregbwfc1 said:

Bolton Wanderers mate.

I remember watching guys like Nolan, Diouf, Davies, Anelka, Okocha, and Djorjkaeff and all under SamA.

1 minute ago, gregbwfc1 said:

If you follow Chelsea, you will have seen your team clinch the title at our stadium 👏

Indeed. Now you've stirred a little Chels in me so you'll have to pardon the next paragraph.

I first went to Stamford Bridge in 1993 for an FA Cup game. Chelsea was a small club at that point but they got on a run and then about 10 years later Roman came in with the money. I never saw Bolton live though I've been to about 10 PL games. Best Chelsea game I saw in person was them winning the Cup Winners Cup in '98 in Stockholm. Zola subbed on and scored in the 69th minute for a 1-0 win. Dennis Wise lifted the trophy right in front of me and the team jumped up and down with the champagne. I sang Chelsea to the tune of Hey Jude until 4am hanging out of bars in downtown Stockholm with 20k Blues fans.

1 minute ago, DrPhilly said:

Indeed. Now you've stirred a little Chels in me so you'll have to pardon the next paragraph.

I first went to Stamford Bridge in 1993 for an FA Cup game. Chelsea was a small club at that point but they got on a run and then about 10 years later Roman came in with the money. I never saw Bolton live though I've been to about 10 PL games. Best Chelsea game I saw in person was them winning the Cup Winners Cup in '98 in Stockholm. Zola subbed on and scored in the 69th minute for a 1-0 win. Dennis Wise lifted the trophy right in front of me and the team jumped up and down with the champagne. I sang Chelsea to the tune of Hey Jude until 4am hanging out of bars in downtown Stockholm with 20k Blues fans.

Ah, that cup winners cup thing.

Bolton played at Chelsea in the final round of league games the Sunday before needing to match Everton result to avoid relegation. They drew and we managed to lose to your lads who weren't really trying. Even the Chelsea fans were cheering Bolton on.

Good times 🤦‍♂️.

And in a really weird twist, our teams met in a cup tie the year before which we won.

Chelsea owner had flown up in a helicopter as he was short of time. On the way back, it crashed in Cheshire killing all on board.

Matthew Harding.

9 hours ago, gregbwfc1 said:

Ah, that cup winners cup thing.

Bolton played at Chelsea in the final round of league games the Sunday before needing to match Everton result to avoid relegation. They drew and we managed to lose to your lads who weren't really trying. Even the Chelsea fans were cheering Bolton on.

Good times 🤦‍♂️.

And in a really weird twist, our teams met in a cup tie the year before which we won.

Chelsea owner had flown up in a helicopter as he was short of time. On the way back, it crashed in Cheshire killing all on board.

Matthew Harding.

Yeah, that was sad and a day that is remembered at Cheslea. I hope you make it back to the Prem. I always hoped you'd stay up.

On 7/15/2026 at 7:03 PM, Dave Moss said:

Just ask @dawkins4prez who he has in the final and then go on all the betting sites for the other team.

Good grief, I did give the caveat that Spain was the one team that matched up well with France and could possibly take them out, but lordy lord that was a carving. As for Argentina, kudos to them, but England fans can't be happy about that 2nd half strategy.

2 hours ago, dawkins4prez said:

Good grief, I did give the caveat that Spain was the one team that matched up well with France and could possibly take them out, but lordy lord that was a carving. As for Argentina, kudos to them, but England fans can't be happy about that 2nd half strategy.

This is a great response from England. They need to keep going, France defense is terrible

England came to play, France just wants to go home

The team and manager are just trolling all us fans at this point.

I (incorrectly it seems) assumed Saka wasn't fit enough to play on Wednesday and now it seems the manager just doesn't rate him.

Agree France aren't rightly bothered though, it's meaningless

Well this game just got interesting

For a meaningless game, this is absolutely brilliant to watch

England hangs on to beat France 6-4. What a game

Argentina is gonna end up pulling this out in penalties after being thoroughly dominated all game.

Alright reverse jinx - that happened quick!

Messi chokes as usual. Barca players on both teams put together a snooze fest as expected.

Meh that game was boring as hell. Kinda figured it would be low scoring but did not expect Argentina to have zero shots and zero shot attempts after 90 minutes. Congrats Spain that defense is something else. Game sucked overall