Germany Ukraine has been quite gripping so I am limiting CCS to half time only :-)

Guten Abend! I watched Hamilton win the F1 race, then switched to Germany Ukraine.

Oooohh, that hurt, right between the legs!

Oooohh, that hurt, right between the legs!>>

what did I miss?

My family are only letting me watch England matches, and then under sufferance.

Hi annhig, nice to see you! A Ukrainian player was hit unintentionally, his children to be were wondering if they would ever see the light.

My husband just left the room, not interested in football...

mmm - what in cricketing terms is called a hit in the box - poor chap!

perhaps your DH left out of a sense of fellow feeling.

LOL annhig! Always nice to have you on a thread!

I don't know why they make such a fuss tbh - it's not like there's a bone in there that can break or anything.

Ps Cross of the tournament at the end of that match

How about that last goal from Ozil to Schweinsteiger!

what was the Germany v Ukraine final score then?

you do realise that you're my football news feed, don't you?

two nil to germany

The first win with a two-goal-difference.

It's on our news - well the disgraceful behaviour of the English louts oops football fans and the Russians in Marseilles. What is it about that game that brings out that behaviour- here we have idiots setting off flares before and during matches .

Ann, glad you're getting your fix here but I would find not being able to watch the games torturous. Looks like my work productivity may take a hit tomorrow. ;)

If Schweinsteiger played like that for us, he wouldn't be oj his way out.

The BBC and newspaper coverage of the problems in Marseille, seem to have put the blame for the trouble on the shoulders of the Russians, who did all the provocation and aggression. Inside the stadium they breached segregation to attack the English fans. UEFA have charged Russia and not England!

Rubicund - but it is never "our fault" - there is always somebody else to blame.

I've been a football fan since childhood, I've been a season ticket holder at my supported club for 20 years and I go to games with a diverse bumch of people - but I've never understood English "Football Culture".

I was at the world cup in 2010 - and as a rule you could join in with the fans of all nations - Germans, French, Italian, Argentine , Dutch, American - even Algerian.

Everybody mingled, most were just fans of the game come together to celebrate and enjoy the tournament - but not the English who rarely left their own groups, and seemed to compete to be the most xenophobic. People who'd spent thousands of pounds to fly 6000 miles to follow their team seemed more intent on fighting than supporting.

As I say, I don't get it. Banning won't help because the morons don't care.

Ireland is playing Sweden tonight. My sister is there and is SO excited. The Irish fans are having a wonderful time :)

Maybe the England supporters rarely left their own groups because we are notoriously awful at languages? We do have a small proportion of fans whose brains if put together wouldn't fill apiece of toast, but I'd guess that most countries have them. Look at the Italian Ultras and their counterparts in Spain, they're equally as idiotic.

They are morons and no, they don't care but the fault doesn't always lie with the England fans, as popular as it is to heap blame upon them. In this case it was clearly the Russians at fault and the TV pictures of Russians leaping over barriers and seats to get at the England fans was very clear.

I've no doubt that some of the english fans were to blame for some of the trouble; they re no angels. But the Russians, about 150 of them, were reportedly so well organised, that the french could not arrest them:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36515213

I read somewhere that they had balaclavas with them - hardly normal headgear for Marseilles in June.

And now there are worries that they will turn up again in Lens for the England v Wales match as their match v Slovakia is on the day before in Lille - which idiot thought that bit of scheduling up?

I hope it doesn't end in tears.

Ann, the TV pictures of the marauding Russian fans clearly showed a number wearing balaclavas. They obviously came equipped to cause trouble:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7077756.html

well spotted, rubicund - I hadn't seen those.

>> If Schweinsteiger played like that for us, he wouldn't be oj his way out. <<

He was severely injured. He still is not fit enough to play full time but in the few minutes he played he showed what he can if the manager lets him do what he thinks is right.

Goal for Ireland!

Another goal of Ireland, however wrong side...

traveller, Van Gaal used him sparingly at first, but he still didn't show that he was a quality player. He was more concerned with passing sideways and back.

Maybe we didn't see the best of him, but I think we have seen the last of him.

traveller, Van Gaal used him sparingly at first, but he still didn't show that he was a quality player. He was more concerned with passing sideways and back.>>

was that just possibly the failure of the manager to get the best out of him, Rubicund?

though it must be difficult for a manager dealing with an injured star.

The manager failed in a number of ways Ann, this may have been just one of a litany of errors.

The major error is probably to have signed an injured player in the first place.

The major error is probably to have signed an injured player in the first place>>

was he injured when they bought him? I thought that they had to have medicals before they are formally signed.

Tonight I have no italian friend.

<<Tonight I have no italian friend.>>

Fie, What. Sport is supposed to cement foreign friendships, not rend them; look at what good friends the English and Russian fans are.

interestingly [to me at any rate] the BBC radio commentators [including Jens Lemen, only the best pundits for us] were saying that this is reputedly the worst representative side that the Italians have ever fielded. Even the Italian pundit agreed with this.

If I promise to cheer for Belgium, am I allowed to like the Italian national anthem?

they're not that bad then!

Not a great result for us and we should have won ��

However I am greatly enjoying the videos on line of the Irish and swedes drinking together, doing the conga and belting out ABBA songs ��

This is how it should be.

My sister is there. She is deflated, but says both sets of fans are cheering each other up. ' they are kissing and hugging each other ... And that's just the men'

During the game the RoI fans stood up and sang Stand with the Ulsterman in honour of the poor boy from NI who fell to his death a few days ago in Nice. Given our shared tragic history, this is massive and what sport should be about.

Ger - that's wonderful, and a great tribute to the irish [and the swedish] fans.

Not so one Russian football official who has apparently ben praising the Russian fans for "defending the motherland".

What price tickets for the World Cup in Russia now?

Sorry, Whathello, for tonight's result.

I do not like the Catenaccio, but somehow these Italian seniors always win.

It is remarkable that Immobile prepared the second goal - in Dortmund his performance was a desaster.

I love this thread.

Thank you, RM, for starting it.

I am thinking a lot about the fellow Fodorites who are currently vacationing in Paris and who want to climb the Eiffel Tower. How do they survive this strange European sport which seems to spoil their trips?

Will this thread break the record of 500 posts of this "Can't we be kinder"-thread that was finally deleted by the moderators?

Well, I started the evening with no Italian friend, I start the night with 60 M italian enemies.

(And I will never accept that they played better, ahd better tactics and a better control of the ball : the ground was heavy, not well maintained by the French, the judges were corrput, the ball was filled with nitrogen and our players ahve been given poisoned food.. these are the only factual explanations for our defeat).

>> the ground was heavy, not well maintained by the French, the judges were corrput, the ball was filled with nitrogen and our players ahve been given poisoned food.. these are the only factual explanations for our defeat <<

What else did you expect from the land of the Mafia?

(You forgot to mention that they Italians had sealed Kevin de Bruyne's feet in cement blocks, as they usual do.)

Glad to hear that some fans understand the true meaning of sport. Makes me want to root for them more.

Oh, how I wish on days like these that we're all in the same time zone. Would have loved to see Italy v Belgium game today.

TP - i hope that you noted from my first post about the match [before it happened] the great perspicacity of the pundits on our Radio - who to a man said that this was the worst Italian team ever. Ha. Sorry, What.

Perhaps if they'd had women on the programme they'd have been better able to appreciate the Italians' attributes!

annhig- mmm your last sentence !!! So true!! Hehe