Blog | The Day After

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Croatia 2-1 England (after extra time)

It was all a little too predictable in the end, wasn't it? The first genuinely good side the England first team had played and they lost. Much like the second string lost to Belgium's second string in the group stages, the Three Lions didn't have the quality to match their opponents.

Just think, the list of teams that England beat without needing penalties reads as follows: Tunisia, Panama, Sweden. Hardly inspiring is it? You have to wonder what the result in the Colombia game would've been if James Rodriguez had been playing.

This isn't meant to disrespect England really - you can only beat the teams in front of you after all, and they beat the countries they had to in order to get to the semi-final. But it's important people don't get carried away with that last bit. Semi-finalists? Yes they were. Does that mean England were one of the best four teams in the competition? Definitely not.

I genuinely don't think England will ever have this chance again. Will we ever see another tournament where so many of the 'top' countries all have such poor tournaments again? Or fail to qualify like Italy and the Netherlands? This was England's chance to repeat on an international level what Leicester did in the Premier League, but they blew it.

England got as far as they should've done with the side of the draw they ended up on and should be applauded for achieving par, but that's really about it.

This Weekend

Incredibles 2 and Skyscraper are both released in the UK this week and tickets for both are already booked, so reviews of the two films will be following as soon as possible. Both of these will be extra posts as a review of Pixar's Inside Out is scheduled for Monday.

So the schedule for the next week or so will be the next episode of Tales from the Borderlands tomorrow, Skyscraper on Saturday, a World Cup round-up on Sunday, and a double-bill of Pixar movies in Inside Out and Incredibles 2 on Monday and Tuesday, rounded out by a look at the first season of iZombie on Wednesday.

A busy week of writing ahead for me!

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Currently playing

God of War (2018) - I've given up on Muspelheim as the trials are too frustrating for to really bother with, so I've moved on to mopping up as many of the side-missions as possible before finishing it off.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - the Sith Warrior is up to level 21 and going light-sided with the Force, preferring to manipulate those trying to control her rather than being as murderous as you would imagine a dark side user to be. An MMO with character choice - thank you, BioWare!

Currently reading

Marvel Platinum Definitive Thor Redux - Thor is still stuck in stasis mid-story and going unread - a situation that will hopefully be remedied this weekend too.

Currently watching

iZombie Season 1 - as stated above, a review of this season will be coming next Wednesday as I should finish the season off tomorrow.

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