Really? I think clashes against the big boys are what the World Cup is all about.

Winning by default is pretty hollow.

How great will it be if we stuff Der Kaiser's words down his throat?



Wouldn't mind a victory over Maradona via a disputed goal either.

Must admit, I'm still concerned by Glen Johnson (and David James). Despite firing one of the best passes I've seen in this World Cup and a couple of penetrating runs he looks dodgy in defence. The Algerian full-back had him on toast and he was lucky not to be subbed.

...his tackling is woeful too...he should definitely have been booked quite early for not one but two very reckless tackles.. Do we have a better option though?

Whilst England haven't been uprooting trees lately, i dont think Germany have been that good, bar their 4-0 demolition of the Aussies, who were wrongly down to 10 men at the time.

I dont think they played that well today, and Ghana did expose them on the break.

They played crap against Serbia too until the last 20 mins or so.

Yes, we need to improve, but so do the Germans.

Thought you'd be getting all patriotic now Stevie G is captain?

You are Fabio...I claim my £5.
Who can score goals and who cant???

Besides which....we could have played the ball to him....we'd want him to hold it up at that stage and take some pressure of our overworked defence. He's an awkward enough character and wins free kicks.

Fabio will be harking back to when we beat the Germans 5-1 and could well revert to Heskey, who played in that match....please god no!!!!. Not that I believe in god. But I believe more in Michael Owen, who unfortunately isn't there.

Don't tell me you're an Heskey fan??

I thought England were much, much better today. They moved the ball about with a lot of zip and crucially they had two fullbacks willing to get forward. This meant we effectively had a 2 - 4 - 4 formation when we had the ball. That lineup and formation would have destroyed Algeria. Upson performed well and Gerrard, Rooney and Defoe played well. Milner was the man of the match by a long way, constantly troubling them and throwing quality balls in with both feet from the right. Tonight should shut up the Joe Cole fans as he was simply dreadful when he came on.

Having said that I still we're out next round. We still don't have the quality and defensive discipline the top teams in the world have, we're just not that good. Rooney on top form might help, but he's totally unfit, lacking sharpness and fitness. There are too many aimless balls, too many missed placed passes and not ruthless enough defensively. We would have conceded very early on tonight through Terry's mis placed pass.

Just had a thought, did Australia not get anyone sent off against Serbia? Thought they might have gone for some sort of record.

A good performance today, should have been 4/5-0. Rooney played well I thought and it was a shame the keeper denied him his goal, that's all he needs to be flying again.

The Germany game is finely balanced imo, hopefully Capello will get it right and be our lucky charm we will need to get past them. I'd take a win on pens!