DE.

Let's be honest, the only one who takes Ronaldo off is Ronaldo. Martinez is just a cheerleader on the sidelines.

A textbook case of falling upwards. Remarkable really.

True, but it still makes it look more impressive than it is to say 1967 - 2016 when it's arguably not really comparable until 2000, or 1996 at a push.

Some signficiant caveats there, particularly when it comes to both the WC and the Euros being continuously expanded to include increasingly weaker teams which make it easier to qualify, easier to get out of the group and easier to win earlier knockout games. In terms of tournament statistics, it would be difficult to compare Southgate with any manager pre-2000 simply because of how much the tournaments have changed structurally. The 1992 Euros had 8 teams, now there's 24. Also have to factor in that many England managers post-Robson didn't have the amount of tournaments Southate has had. Venables had one, Euro 96. Hoddle had one, World Cup 98. I think you could argue quite sensibly that the only managers Southgate can be directly compared to on most metrics are Sven and Roy.

Georgia gave it a go, but the gulf in class was too much in the end. If Georgia has scored on one of their counters when it was 1-0 or 1-1 it could have made things very interesting, but it wasn't to be and ultimately Spain deserved to go through as they were by far the better team. Georgia can be proud of their efforts regardless, a brilliant first tournament for them. Spain / Germany in the quarters will take out one of the two best teams in the tournament in the last eight.

I think we're both in agreement there. I don't think the Swiss will be too concerned. I imagine they'll consider this their best chance so far to reach a semi final.

Ref seemed to be trying to establish his authority early on with unnecessary yellows, but as you say, it made him look inconsistent when he didn't give cards for fouls that were clearly worse later on and actually deserving of a yellow.

Not sure I agree that it's true tbh. Aren't international tournaments supposed to be fun? Aren't you supposed to have pride in watching your team? Aren't you supposed to look forward to watching your country play? I dread every England match. Not because I'm anxious, but because we're so boring. Grinding out wins all the way to the final doesn't sound like a good time to me. I'm not sure winning the tournament will mean that much if every match was total shit. Or maybe it would, idk. Doesn't feel like it right now though.

They all come across as delusional, honestly. Don't agree with anything being thrown at Southgate, but has deserved the jeering for some of his ridiculous comments. He's been on another planet in this tournament. The players I'm less critical of as I appreciate they'll be defending each other and the manager. Standard us against the world stuff. That arrogant 'you were saying?' reaction from Jude after he scored, though... yeah, pretty silly when he's spent the majority of the tournament playing the way he has. Well done on a very lucky last gasp equaliser against Slovakia, having spent another 90+ minutes boring everyone, English or otherwise, to tears. You sure showed us! Meanwhile I watch Georgia and wonder how they are showing more pace, trickery, guile and effort than any of our players have at any point in the tournament.

Was very much true at the time it was posted tbf. Still is arguably. Bellingham's goal was superb but the only useful thing he did all game. Kane's was just a fortunate poacher's header which was only possible because of a miskick which led to a flick on. Both need to step up two or three gears against the Swiss.

Southgate is a lucky, lucky bloke. The Swiss will dispose of us comfortably if lessons aren't learnt from tonight. Foden and Trippier need to be dropped. Palmer at the very least needs to start. Massive question marks over Kane/Bellingham playing together despite their goals tonight. Can't say I feel too sorry for Slovakia. They had a glorious chance to go two up and wasted it. They had a huge chance to progress tonight and I think they'll have some major regrets. We limp on. Southgate has crippled this team, and we can only drag ourselves so far. Switzerland will be our first real challenge, and there needs to be a radical shift in pretty much everything for us to get any further.

Unbelievable.

Tbf Slovakia blew a gift wrapped chance to go two up. Only had to hit the target, but missed. Can't do that at international level.

Oh great, another 30 minutes of this.

Evidently trying not to disrupt our anti-momentum.

Bellingham and Kane must go down as two of our worst attackers in any tournament. Bellingham useful for 45 minutes and Kane for that ten seconds when he tapped in against Denmark.

Have we still not had a shot on target? BBC saying 0...

I would actually somewhat respect the sheer audacity of bringing on TAA or Gallagher in midfield. Would be some top tier trolling.

Get Gordon and Palmer on ffs. I would say Gareth is paralyzed by fear but I think he's just clueless.

Pickford must be the most passed to player on the pitch. Not sure I've ever seen a team pass back to the keeper so often.

Haven't had a shot on target have we?

Aye, but sometimes you've just got to let it out. With that done, please Gareth, prove me wrong.

The usual suspects anonymous. Defensively a shambles as soon as a decent team tries to have a go at us, to the surprise of no one. Special mention to Trippier, Bellingham, Foden and Kane who have all been particularly useless. 5th best team in the world? Don't make me laugh. Couldn't beat Denmark. Couldn't beat Slovenia. Narrowly scraped past Serbia. Now being embarrassed by Slovakia. Lose this one and Gareth needs to do the honourable thing, much like the manager he replaced, and resign immediately afterwards. Best England manager since Sir Alf my foot. He isn't a patch on Robson, Venables or Hoddle for a start. Getting a bunch of easy tournament draws and achieving the bare minimum of squeezing past mostly lesser opposition, before inevitably losing to the first good team we come up against, don't impress me much, to paraphrase Shania Twain. Russia 2018 and Euro 2020 were huge chances for us to finally win an international tournament. I genuinely think with a progressive, modern manager at the helm we'd have done it. Such a shame. We can still win this one, but even if we do scrape through the Swiss will teach us a lesson. Might be for the best if we crash out now.

Wish Southgate would resign at half time. Totally fucked this tournament for us.

It's simply because he has no imagination. He can't see any other way of winning.