Fierce_LiNk

I've been following the No Man's Sky news on Reddit for months, shortly before the Foundation Update. As each update has arrived, it has made the game better each time, clearly. I've been waiting for that moment to jump back in, which looks like right about now. Curious to see where they take the game from here because clearly the longterm goal has been towards making this more multiplayer orientated, so it'll be interesting to see what happens now that they've finally got that up and running.

Why would you want to sell Courtois?! Alisson would be a major coup for Liverpool. The one position or department where they are inferior to many other teams is in the goalkeeping region. Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City and Spurs have better keepers, who are some of the best goalkeepers in the world. It is definitely the biggest area of concern for Liverpool and is an area which needs plugging straightaway. Even if they have to spend lots of money in this area, sometimes things just need doing. Imagine how that Champions League Final would have gone if there was a different goalkeeper for Liverpool that night.

Modric with player of the tournament (Golden Ball) and Kane with the Golden Boot. Courtois wins Golden Glove. Hard to argue against Modric winning it, as he worked his arse off in each game and dragged his team to the final. Quality player. I would have gone for Varane as another player who is deserving of praise. Courtois and Lloris are both neck and neck imo and either one could have won it.

A trip to the Gulag, I imagine. France have won it! They are very good at finding ways to get through games. When you look at the opponents who they have beaten, having to beat Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium and now Croatia, I think they've earned it on merit throughout the tournament. A few dodgy refereeing decisions aside.

It's going to be a shame if Croatia lose this game by two goals. Those first two goals for France were a joke.

I find it hard to believe that, in a country with so much football prestige, talent and quality, that Giroud is the best striker that they can find.

I didn't know Karius was French!

Lol, forget what I just said.

There's around 30 minutes left. If Croatia can get another goal in the next 15 minutes, it's still game on.

Great goal from that man who I simultaneously love and dislike!

Kante has gone off, but I don't think it'll affect France to much today because he's looked a bit off it. A bit below his usually high standards. I can see Croatia getting another goal, but I think France will score, too. They seem to be getting all of the luck today.

We're having a debate about it here! It's a harsh one and it's clear that the arm is coming down after Perisic is jumping. So, he's jumping and then on the downward-portion of the jump his arm is coming down and that's when it connects with the ball. So, his hand is in a natural, downward position. His arm isn't intentionally moving towards the ball, so it's not a deliberate handball. Also, I think it's Matuidi who is in front of him, possibly obscuring his view of the ball. Yet, I'm conditioned to believing that a handball in the box usually results in a penalty. That's where the grey area is. There are hardly ever any instances where a player will "deliberately" handle the ball. A player is never, ever going to bend down and pick up the ball, or use their arm as a baseball bat to whack it away. So, in my opinion, the law is outdated and not really fit for purpose. If we follow the law, a penalty will rarely be given for handball, yet we know this not to be the case. The ref had to go and look at it. The video refs looked at it and asked the ref to look at it and the ref had to look at it several times, so it wasn't an obvious crystal clear decision. To me, I look at that and say penalty because (unless the ball rebounds off another body part onto the hand or if the distance between player and ball is short beforehand) ball touching hand in the box usually equals penalty. So, my answer: It's a penalty, because nobody enforces the law properly or with consistency.

Amazing equaliser! Croatia have looked by far the better team, so far. France's midfield hasn't got going.

It was a bit of a dive for the free kick that led to the France goal. Croatia were on top before that.

England played better in the second half, but overall I think Belgium are probably more deserving of third place than England. It's a shame they didn't make the final tbh. Final is about to start. Think France will win this 3-0. Pogba, Mbappe and maybe a goal from Varane from a corner. Think Croatia will put up a good fight but France will be too strong for them.

I'm working my way through the Dutch course again and have cleared the first 7 areas, so they're up to level 5. Will work my way through the rest of the course in good time! Just cleared the Dutch 3 course on Memrise, so have just started Dutch 4. There's 7 of those, plus I've also added another one which contains the 5000 most common used Dutch words, which is quite a good course as I still need to build up my vocab.

So Chelsea have sacked Conte. They were nice enough to leave him waiting since May and even let him do pre-season training this week. Sarri looks to be on the way.

They just ran out of steam and didn't know how to react when Croatia controlled the play. Tournament football is tough on the body and this was largely the same 11 who have played in most of the other games, including the last one. They couldn't create enough and their passing game just didn't work. It's a different problem to Belgium yesterday, because at least they could get onto the ball. Croatia just used their experience to hold their nerve to get back into the game, and then they always looked more likely to score another after that. Croatia should be applauded tbh because they've made it through extra time three times...which is a tremendous display of fitness. Going forward, central midfield is the area that needs sorting out. If Southgate can find a solution into how they can control the game from there, then who knows what'll happen in the next tournament.

I predicted that we'd get to the quarter finals, so to get to extra time in the semis is a great achievement. Unfortunately, Croatia just seemed to improve after half time and were the better team until the end of the game. England looked like they ran out of options and didn't know how to break Croatia down. Not a disgraceful exit at all. They've played well throughout the tournament and, on the basis of this game, a narrow loss in extra time is about right.

I hope that the break before extra time gave them a chance to regroup. Croatia have been through extra time three times now...so they must be knackered. Just need to exploit that, if we can.

This is a footballing lesson in how not to rely on a one-nil lead and to take your chances.

This England midfield is like a 5-a-side team. They do best when they win the ball quickly, move it on and get it up the field fast. There's no real control in there and nobody can really get hold of it and slow things down, or set the tempo. It's not on a par with, say, France's midfield. That's what it may boil down to in the end, the lack of control in midfield.

All Croatia. England need to get the ball and just hold onto it. Rashford, like I said earlier, should have come on about 10 minutes earlier. At the moment, Croatia look more likely to get a second.

Fucking typical. The one decent cross they put in and they score. Tbh, they've been the better team after half time. I still think England will win, but definitely a change is needed.

Yeah, I feel a change is needed now. Get Rashford on. Croatia are having a lot of the ball, but they've done nothing with it. No pace in their team at all and their crosses have been dire. England need to just kill this game off now.