France U21 v England U21

[Sir Puntalot]

10pts Lay France U21 @ 2.22 Betfair I think this is a short price as this team, although very good at keeping the ball and passing, doesn't penetrate enough for me. England have the better attacking players and I see them very much on a par overall with an edge up front that France don't have. This match will be very close in my opinion, but my gut feeling tells me England are going to pinch it. It's going to be a cracking match anyway. :)

[Tulenos]

Re: France U21 v England U21 When is it on, Paul? Just hope you've seen some of the English side as if this is last year's U20, God bless you;)

[si1965]

Re: France U21 v England U21 You can still get odds of 4 for a straight England win (I got 4.3 earlier) which is a great price for a game against two very evenly matched sides. France have two injuries - defender Gael Clichy and Jeremy Toulalan while England welcome back midfielder Gary O'Neil from injury. This is key as he will perform more of a defensive role allowing Kieran Richardson to move out wide. After the weekend just gone (Argentina, Australia and NZ) whos to say France cannot be added to the list followed by Pakistan tomorrow :ok

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: France U21 v England U21

When is it on, Paul? Just hope you've seen some of the English side as if this is last year's U20, God bless you;)

It's tonight at 7:30pm, so about 2 hours from now. We've nicked a couple of players from the senior squad, so basically we have the likes of Kieran Richardson, Carlton Cole, Darren Bent, Darren Ambrose and as si has already mentioned, Gary O'Neill is back. ;)

[Tulenos]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Doesn't sound too bad now.

[eirebhoy]

Re: France U21 v England U21 ive just lumped a big lump of money on england, i think 3/1 is good value for a match that could be decided by agoal, i didnt see the game last friday but wathched the highlights, england seemed to have a lot of chances. does anyone have any views or info on this game.

[spreadman]

Re: France U21 v England U21 FRANCE v ENGLAND, U 21's, Sky Sports 1, 8pm K.O. An evenly matched game, with potential goals from both sides in the form of Le Tallec, Cole and Bent. Previous fixtures involving England have usually seen goals scored : 2,5,3,5,2. Previous England match corners : 12,13,10,7,12. Last match, England v France, 1-1, shirt numbers,19, corners,12, bookings,50. Good luck if you are betting or trading on the match tonight. :ok :hope

[edtkh]

Re: France U21 v England U21 10pts France to beat England (2.40 @ Betfair) I'm afraid I'd go with France for this one - quite simply, my reasoning stems from my belief England won't score first. With the away goals rule working in France's favour at the moment, I feel the free-flowing football by the French(esp the attack led by Ribery down the flanks) will help their counter-attacking(if that's what they choose to play) game big time as they seek to exploit England's desperation. I still see the French being a technically superior outfit if they choose to play an open game and build on what they amassed in the first leg. I certainly don't see France losing this however they choose to play - and they're certainly available at a cracking price to boot... :ok

[eirebhoy]

Re: France U21 v England U21 i think this game will be a lot closer than u think, i watched france against a poor ireland u21 team and they struggled to break them down, england and france have a lot of quality players in their squads. I can see it being a very close game, and we all know the favourites dont always win.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: France U21 v England U21 England cheated yet again, yes Ribery is class but that pen decision was a disgrace and the way Ribery went down with a supposed challenge from behind, when cameras showed he was never touched pisses me off too. At least english players don't roll around all over the pitch, but maybe it's time we should. :@

[ray]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Hi Paul; Understand your frustration and you have a fair shout. However,over the 2 games the better team went through and I was interested that out of the last 9 major U21 championships England have only qualified for 2. That is a horrendous record and England are miles above any other British team. There is something fundamentally wrong at grass roots level and British coaches breed robots able to run all day and physically compete with the technical side of the game a poor second. I believe it is one of the reasons the English and Scottish Leagues are full of Non British players. With regard to the full England side there are for me 2 naturally talented players. One is obviously Rooney and the other Joe Cole but the number of pundits who don`t want Cole to play is indicative of where priorities lie. Any foreign country would build round these 2 players but unfortunately England have a Nordic coach who play exactly the British type of game. Enough of my little rant. Cheers.

[ray]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Hi; When I say Nordic I mean Scandinavian but the edit function would not work fully. Sentiments are the same though.

[Sir Puntalot]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Better technically Ray, but there wasn't much in them overall in my opinion. Too many people judge teams on how they can keep posession of the ball (not saying you are) etc...which is bollox basically. Anyway, I don't like all the fcukin diving about, it sucks and that french U21 coach wants a ****in slap too - coming on the pitch to have a go at our player when he won the ball fair and square! Sit down you old fart. :@ You may have a point about the set up tho. ;)

[kevshat]

Re: France U21 v England U21

Better technically Ray, but there wasn't much in them overall in my opinion. Too many people judge teams on how they can keep posession of the ball (not saying you are) etc...which is bollox basically. Anyway, I don't like all the fcukin diving about, it sucks and that french U21 coach wants a ****in slap too - coming on the pitch to have a go at our player when he won the ball fair and square! Sit down you old fart. :@ You may have a point about the set up tho. ;)

I think we were unlucky not to have gone through, over the 2 games we created loads more chances, and were unlucky that we didn't score more than we did. And then to be cheated by a disgraceful penatly decision just took the piss. Surely the ref should have wisened up to their diving antics? Rubery was doing it all night and then for the penalty Diarra's dive was so blatant he was in Nancy when he started and Paris when he landed! Have to agree with you Paul, their coach did need sorting out. Quick to have a go at Richardson's tackle but didn't move a muscle when their guy was late and very high on Cole in the 1st half.

[eirebhoy]

Re: France U21 v England U21 i thought my bet was looking good last night, but can anyone tell me why richardson wasnt hauled off at half time, he was disgraceful, evrytime he got the ball he gave it away, if he wasnt giving the ball away he was giving away frees and penaltys.

[ray]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Hi; I think the Continentals have a completely different mental attitude to Football in terms of what we Brits describe as cheating which in fact it is. They see this as winning a penalty and congratulate the player warmly and leave the ref to make a judgement and try to influence him non stop even squealing like stuck pigs and going down off the ball when nobody has touched them. The French coaches actions were very theatrical I agree but in keeping with the French style of play and the way they see the game. Looking at the 2 games whatever you think of Rubery he was still easily the most talented footballer on the Park and I thought Kieran Richardson typified the England team performance in the middle of the park.( A good work ethic but technically not very good). Incidentally Rubery has had 6 clubs in 5 years so perhaps carries a temperament warning. No good moaning about cheating as this attitude won`t change. Lastly,in terms of possession I do like teams to be able to keep the ball as the opposition get tired chasing the ball and most times will eventually make mistakes. However,in British football we go at such a pace that this is very difficult and of course there must be an end product. Cheers.

[edtkh]

Re: France U21 v England U21 Given the circumstances, France certainly didn't deserve to win - not with the penalty right at the death anyway. However, as someone bothered to remind me, favourites don't always win - and even for those that do, they need not necessarily deserve the victory, although I'll take it all the same. Quite frankly, there was little seperating the sides over the 2 legs and I tipped France to triumph last night simply because I felt anything at 2.40 had to be value for what was effectively a 1/2 chance(I'd ruled out an England win from the outset). More importantly, I'd much rather have France than England(and no, I'm not speaking as a patriot here ;) ) at the U21 Euro 2006 - not for the diving, but I genuinely believe they're a technically superior side to England. For one reason or other, I feel England youth teams(in general, not just the U21 in particular) still have quite some way to go before they match the continent's finest as I thought they were still prone to a couple of tactically naive errors - perhaps, getting a foreign coach like Sven for the national team would improve them somewhat. And it's utter bollocks to suggest the team that creates more chances deserve to win - football is a game of sticking the ball in the net, not a game of creating chances because if that was the case, Italy would never have qualified for a single World Cup(nevermind win 3)...