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ENGLAND WERE KNOCKED out of the World Cup last night.
The team were beaten 2-1 by Croatia after extra-time despite taking an early lead in the game.
Reaching the second-last stage was the team’s best performance in football’s biggest competition for 28 years but English fans remain disappointed today.
So what have the papers made of it all?
In years gone by, English papers have often been quick to find a villain when England exit a tournament and have been seen as more of a hindrance than a help to the team’s chances.
But this year the tone around the team has been more positive and that has extended to today’s headlines.
Such as in The Mirror
Both The Guardian and The Times referenced Baddiel and Skinner
Manager Gareth Southgate and his waistcoat were front and centre in the Daily Express
Metro might have won the best pun award for its effort
The Daily Telegraph gave the team pride of place above Trump
The Daily Mail claimed the team had ‘brought the whole nation together’. There were a lot of similar sentiments in these Brexity times
The Telegraph’s celebrated cartoonist Matt Pritchett was on the ball with the Brexit comparisons
And of the course there were the ‘what might have been’ angles. Sunday Times executive editor Ben Preston tweeted a picture of what would have been the cover of a special supplement had England reached the final this weekend.
In fairness they exceeded initial expectations so respect to them
@Dave Malon: yes exceeded. But the draw they got had a big part of that
@Dave Malon: But look at the teams they played.
@Dave Malon: That’s because they never played a team of substance until last night. Ohh wait…. They did play a decent team, they played Belgium in the group stages…………
@Sean Murnin: Belgium B team
@Crpytoalchol: of course yes, but that’s the luck of the draw :)
@Crpytoalchol: they “took” the easy side of the draw and still couldn’t make the final
@Dave Malon: they beat minnows of football
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: So many people here keep putting out reminders that it was Belgium’s B-team yet oddly enough fail to point out England were also fielding their B-team. Funny that…
@F. Wood: they beat what was put in front of them and got to the semifinals as a team ranked outside the top 10.
@F. Wood: yes we ran Croatia clos who hammered Argentina 3-0, we beat Sweden comfortably who should’ve beaten Germany and topped their group and beat Mexico 3-0 we beat Colombia who beat Poland 3-0 and most thought they played best football of tournament, our run should’ve been, Colombia/Germany/Spain they were beaten by teams we played and went out not our fault and obviously doesn’t mean they are great???
@Dave Malon: Reminds me of Leicester winning the premier. They took advantage of the traditional big teams being in transition and got themselves a medal. England nearly did the same. You can bet that some of Germany Italy Holland Brazil Argentina Spain will be back with a bang in 4 years. Normal service will be restored….
@Harry Whitehead: To hell with the begrudges Harry. Some people just want to take pleasure in England’s defeat as they must have very little else in their empty lives. Had England taken their opportunities in the first half these sad people would be even sadder today.
@Fineen MacCarthy: must make France atrocious then. Struggled with Austria and Peru, drew with Denmark, conceded three against the worst ever Argentina side and beat a Uruguay team missing their best player by a mile
@F. Wood: ah is that why Ireland got nowhere, we are all very good at slagging off the teams that got to the world cup, because obviously ‘Ireland has the greatest football team’
@Fineen MacCarthy: ah yeah, when you can’t counter it try an insult, always works
@Dave Malon: two hard games and they lost both.
Today should be about the heroic Croatian performance in reaching the finals for the first time.
@Mr Phil Officer: in the British press?
@Paul Fahey: this is the Irish press, the Croatians are the real hero’s.
@Mr Phil Officer: In fairness now, it is an article about what the British press made of it
@Mr Phil Officer:
To be fair, for a young team they showed great character and that will stand to them in the next Euros.
Hats off to Croatia a small nation like ourselves. Will be a big ask to beat France but I hope they do.
@Tweed Cap: if we’re being fair the Croats deserve the plaudits.
@Tweed Cap: No it won’t they have no chance in the Euros because they can’t beat good teams and the likes of Germany and Italy will come back really strong by then so no trophies for engerland anytime soon :)
@Mr Phil Officer: They are Croats, not Croatians.
@Ciaran O’Mara: thanks for the lesson.
@Ciaran O’Mara: Croat is an ethnic group… Croatian is someone who is a citizen of Croatia
Ahhh it’s sad, would have liked to see one of the Muslim nations succeed but England was the last one to go.
@Trevor Hayden: Moron.
@Trevor Hayden: haha love it
@MK76: what’s sadder is that so many people “agree” with him..
@MK76: Oh lighten up.
Too many in the political correscness brigage
@John Madden: Funny though
@Barry Zuckerkorn: You would, mein Fuhrer.
@Harry Whitehead: hahaha you’re a woman obsessed Harry, and an ugly woman at that
@Trevor Hayden: France has around 8.8% muslims compared to the UK’s 6.3%.. Do your homework.
@yvan buggy: As I said in an earlier post, its a joke, statistics tend to kill the punchline.
@Barry Zuckerkorn: Beauty is all relative Bazza. Although seeing as you yourself are a munter not just in looks but personality, that doesn’t exactly leave you in a place to judge others.
@Trevor Hayden: statistics usually kill your posts anyway and here again you try to pretend they’re irrelevant. I’ll leave you with this https://youtu.be/P55XYp2KD2Y
@Harry Whitehead: you hurt my feelings harry :( hahahaha #harrysgoinghome #suckmyfatone #onelove
@Trevor Hayden: ka-boom
@Dave O Keeffe: Why did the chicken cross the road?
@Trevor Hayden: I taught this comment was a dig at the xenophobes apparently not :/ but at least England are going home :)
@Barry Zuckerkorn: Merely a joke barry, but god love the little “snowflakes” and poor oversensitive little souls.
@Trevor Hayden: fair enough
They didnt actually beat any good teams. Only drew with Colombia and were lucky to go through on penalties. They were beaten by the first good team they met.
@F. Wood: And Belgium in the group.
@Ian Heaton: Belgium B and they still lost haha
@F. Wood: Right, so by that logic Croatia barely scraped through on their previous two matches, given they also won on penalties. Right?
@Harry Whitehead: they also beat Argentina 3-0 though
@Sam Harms: You can see the point I was making though? There is no pleasing these morons. Pre-match England are going to be slaughtered by Team X…unless England win, in which case Team X are immediately downgraded to minnow status. In 2014 England fans and pundits were a disgrace because they had no respect for their team…while in 2018 England fans and pundits are a disgrace because they love their team. People are sick of hearing England fans singing ‘Three Lions’ because it’s an arrogant song about winning before they’ve won anything…and yet their spectacular misinterpretation of what the song is about (seriously, read the sodding lyrics!) makes me doubt they’ve even heard it once.
@Harry Whitehead: my point stands. They didnt beat any good teams.
In fairness the word ‘Hero’ is used a little to often these days……..
@Sean Higgins: well said, the Croatians are the real hero’s.
@Sean Higgins: in fairness, the words “to” and “too” are used incorrectly way too often these days..
@Alan Clarke: yawn……
@Alan Clarke: especially if they are used two times.
@Mr Phil Officer: Seeing as we’re at it, it’s “Croats”, not “Croatians” and it’s “heroes”, not “hero’s” and certainly not “hero’s”
@Cathal: you forgot to add a full stop at the end there.
@Alan Clarke: and hero’s instead of heroes. Why do so many people think that adding “‘s” makes a noun plural?
@Seamus Gallen: It’s most likely their idea of what a pluralist society is, judging by the level of anti English spleen demonstrated here.
@Collitov: “anti English” cop on you, I got Croatia in the sweeps but even if I didn’t I’d still be happy they were beat, the better team won, suck it up.
@Mr Phil Officer: Bully for you. I don’t disagree that Croatian were the better team. That does not account for the theme of the comments here. It’s time we grew up and stopped getting our rocks off at England’s misfortune.
It would have been a travesty if such a boring team got to the finals. England mania also overtook the guys on RTÉ who seemed to temporarily lose sight of reality. Croatia were always favourites for that game. England got there by luck more than anything. The only question was whether tiredness might have been Croatia’s undoing. I think the final should be competitive now at least. Although it’s hard to see France losing.
@Toomasu Sumitsu: most embarrassing moment was Richard Dunne, from working class Dublin, say “I hope we win it” at half time in the England Columbia match.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: This’d be Richard Dunne who spent his entire playing career in England and, presumably, has many close friends who are English.
@Cian Nolan: I lost a lot of respect for Richard Dunne during this world cup
@Cian Nolan: It still doesn’t make him English.
@Cian Nolan: that’s like a mayo man living in Dublin for twenty years shouting for the Dublin footballers. It wouldn’t happen… everrrrr
@Barry Zuckerkorn: Yeah, I’m sure he’s devastated to have lost the respect of a bigoted nobody.
@Harry Whitehead: stop following me around Harry #obsessed #englandgoinghome #heartbrokenharry
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: really
@Barry Zuckerkorn: You must lead a very lonely life if you think a few comments on the Journal means I’m obsessed with you. #getoveryourself
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: As opposed to when working class Dubliners use the term ‘we’ when describing Manchester United or Liverpool. They’re not from there either. So isn’t it the same thing?
@Philip Farrell: with your own reasoning you just implied Richard Dunne supports England.
Forget an average English team-where was Kane last night?And Sterling?And Ali?
Blotted out by a fine defensive performance.
Great credit to Croatia-look at their recent history and only 4 million!
The last time such a lowly-populated country got to a World Cup final was Uruguay-in 1950!
Oh I’m in such a good mood today!!!! Thank you Croatia!!!! :D
@Barry Zuckerkorn: What a very empty life you must lead.
They have learned. Lambasting team & manager gets you no where.
Adopt the Irish approach and praise spirited performance .. which gets you .. no where !
@Mairtin Cathbhar: ah well, at least we didn’t go batsh!t mad that time we drew 4 matches and made the quarters.
Predictable. Played two good teams in the tournament and lost to both. Belgium and Croatia.
Croatia exposed how weak England are
England fluffed their way to the semis
Despite fatigue Croatia dominated the extra time,crisp passing and superb pace.
Could have been third goal in the extra time for Perisic had he been given the ball during an open attack.
@Quentin Moriarty: Croatian resilience and determination won out in the end.
They should have listened to Roy Keane. Focus and stop talking about “final final final”
Sneering Irish fans. Not that it will ever happen because we are absolute muck, but could you imagine the delirium if Ireland got to a WC semi final.
Sneer away lads, but don’t forget how bad our team is.
@MK76: what do you think of the spirited Croatian performance.
@MK76: I bet you were one of the clowns who went out and bought a waistcoat in the last week!
@Jason Higgins: they might let him change the coat if he didn’t take the tag off.
@Mr Phil Officer: Probably one from Penneys!
@MK76: But we don’t act like we’re amazing. And wouldn’t carry on like we were gonna win the whole thing after our first group match against Tunisia!
@MK76: we can aspire to be more like Croatia. Great to see such a small country in the final……and not the auld enemy
Hahaha there hero’s alright got the lucky side of the draw and they still messed it up hahaha England are going home!!
@Barry Zuckerkorn: ranked outside the top ten finished fourth at worst. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Why are they being called heroes? They kicked a ball around a field and obviously didn’t do it very well because the Croatians proved themselves better at getting it into the Goal at one end of the field. What’s heroic about that? They’re just football players who lost their match. Not heroes. Not warriors coming back from battle. Just pampered millionaires. The British Press needs to get real.
any truth in the rumour that Boris Johnson will be their new ambassador to Croatia ? :-)
Life Isabic !!
@Shoot Thepiano: no life is a bić!,,,! You forget the “fada”!!!! England had no chance. What with facing the likes of Bigić ( the guy who kept scratching himself in the back four), Strećić (the goalie with the longest reach in the tournament), Hederić ( speaks for itself), the most up to date player on the field (Modrić), the most expensive player (Superić). Croatia to go ahead and beat a mediocre French team featuring the likes of De Ja Vou, Cest Ca Sey and the hello guy Bonjour all managed by Dechamp de Lyssay.
They never mentioned it was like watching Wimbledon football club every opportunity hoofed it long ball and hoped somebody ran onto it deserved to lose. Croatia shows what a small nation of only 4 million people can achieve with proper football coaches
I have no sympathy they were talking about the final before they even played Croatia they had no competition in group besides Belgium B team and then penalties against a poor Columbia team and a Swedish team who had no household name SAME OLD STORY WELL OVERATED
It was amazing to see the difference in the fitness of the two teams. Croatia had far better fitness and played better football despite going to extra time for the 3rd time in the tournament. I guess the English Premiership isn’t the best league in the world? :O well when it comes to fitness and technical ability but Irish people love crappy English football for some strange reason
Forget England.
Where were Kane and Sterling and Ali last night?-blotted out by a fine defensive performance.
And the great Croatians?-a population of 4 million and only in modern existence since the 1990’s.
The last time such a thinly-populated country -Uruguay,reached a World Cup final was in 1950!
Hope they win on Sunday.
I would be a hurler on the ditch type of soccer observer but full credit to England, leaving aside the technical analysts, for providing superb sporting tv for the last few weeks. Southgate is an amazing man manager and could hone his skills in any management role. Nice to see a bit of education coming to the fore!
@Brendan T. M. P. Bur: not so hot when he led middlesborough to the basement on a 14 match winless streak. will be remembered for the waistcoat, nowt else
Ironic almost on here gloating Keane included who couldn’t even b bothered to play for his country in a World Cup! Keane coached Ireland who comfortably play the worst football in the know world and who got sparked 5-1 at home by the Danes?? Gloating after we got beat in World Cup semi final with one of the youngest teams in it?
@Philip Mckenna: in fairness using your logic if England had our resources they wouldn’t over achieve like we do all the time, even when compared to the resources available to Croatia they should have won handedly, when you look at it like that England failed miserably.
@Philip Mckenna: no one cares… England’s going home!!!!
@Mr Phil Officer: That’s prob because we play more than football and tennis?? Bringing population into it is irrelevant? If not China Russian or India would be world champions? Not belittling Croatia just ironic everyone here mocks us when you play horrendous football and got spanked at home tryin to get there?
@Philip Mckenna: get over it, if you hurry Penny’s are doing a money back guarantee for folk who fell for the hype and bought the waistcoats.
@Mr Phil Officer: No waistcoats here but i hear tescos have an offer on danish bacon but 1 get 5 free??
Croatia One of the smallest countries In Europe a country with approx 4 mill people have gotten into the world cup final for the first time ever and all Irish media can do is obsess over the English loss this is embarrassing the headlines today across European countries should be full of Croatian articles silly little pixey heads
A little sorry for them but for a betting man they were a non-runner. Their odds far too low because at semi final stage 45% of the money was on them to win overall. Only 12% backed Croatia – they were very good value!!!
I guess we’ll just have to settle for listening about ’66 for a while longer!
The rescue teams who tried to find and save the 12 teen footballers and their coach are heroes, not a bunch of adult, overpaid footballers who -as always- thought they were the only worthy winners of the world cup.
@Ireland, MS & Me: totally agree
What a nonsensical title for a front page – what did they do !?
Look to the firefighters who died on 9/11 as heroes
The team are great but unfortunately some English fans let themselves down again as witnessed outside Clonskeagh House after they lost last night. Smashing bottles shouting etc.
F*#kall’s coming home.
The antics of pickford Ali and mouthing in the face of the Croatians during the game at every corner or challenge showed a huge amount of arrogance and zero respect. The Inability to concentrate on their own game cost them. Player for player at club level the English were better last season. No composure. A great game but certain players embarresed themselves. The English media want loud mouths and egos. They got that and that’s what they call heros.
It’s like an episode of South Park with the Saxon press.
Come on Croatia, do it for yourselves and your Irish brothers, Una fascia, Una rascia.
Ustasha!
Typical Spurs, bottled it.
Coming second is best for a good happy life … but to come third !! Well that’s a 3some
Exceeded expectations? Where have you been for the past 3 weeks
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