FA Cup Vinyl Reviews... England's Euro 2012 Performance

The picture sums it up really, dismay, dejection, disillusioned. What's that, Wimbledon's on?

Yes England fans, it's deja vu for the umpteenth time, England go out on penalties, again.

Just when you thought it was going to turn around and we were going to win Euro 2012 because of that team spirit they had, they go and make a complete h-ASH of it. (Get it? Because ASH-ley Young and ASH-ley Cole missed their penalties? Oh god we're surprised that isn't a headline from 'The Sun'.) (P.S. We also hope that no-one genuinely thought England were going to win purely because of team spirit).

Anyway in all seriousness, England probably deserved to lose against the Italians, we say probably, they did deserve to lose because they were simply the worst team, and because no-one closed down Pirlo! We were shouting it at our T.V screen every time he had space, but obviously they can't hear us in Ukraine from our living room. While it may be heartache for some, but to others like us who have grown up watching England lose to so and so on penalties, it's become an all too familiar. But let's focus on the positives.

6 weeks before the tournament had started, a certain Roy Hodgson was appointed not Harry Redknapp, who was the firm favourite by fans, journalists and even players. Many doubted the FA about the decision to appoint the former West Brom boss as the manager of the 'Three Lions' but even the sceptics out there (those miserable Roy Keane types) can't deny that England exceeded your expectations.

We started very well against a France side that were unbeaten before going into the tournament on a stupidly good run of games, we took the lead with Joleon Lescott before Samir Nasri equalised by in his words, 'deceiving' Joe Hart with a low aimed strike. Alright Samir you had a good shot it's not Die Hard. Yes we did just relate that to Die Hard.

Followed by a rather impressive showing by England against Sweden where we managed to go in front with a great set up by Gerrard followed by an even better header by Andy Carroll. oh and when we say impressive we mean we took the lead, conceded two soft goals by Mellberg, yes the dodgy former Aston Villa defender before actually managing to win inspired by a bizarre brilliant performance by Theo Walcott who scored a fantastic if not lucky goal and also assisted to a marvellous back heel by Danny Welbeck. 

I know we were shocked too. It gave us hope that every England fan has when we do alright, 'This isn't atrocious, oh we might do well!' then we'll lose to a team who have far less better players than us and then it's 'oh it happens every time, I told you we weren't going to do well.' C'mon you know you've said that at some point if you are England fan, FA Cup Vinyl even may have ushered those words themselves. May have.

But Ukraine was our final game, the co-hosts, we only needed to avoid defeat and we were through, so being typical England what happens when it comes down to the crunch... We win. Unexpected right? We delivered, didn't play well, but we got the result and that's what matters. Yes how intense. Plus the match marked a return for Wayne Rooney, who also bagged the winner, albiet one of the most easy tap in headers we've ever seen. Oh and this happened.

 See didn't cross the line... No England were lucky not to concede this as the match official who is stood on the end of the pitch to see if the ball crosses the line, didn't see it. WHAT IS THE POINT OF HIM BEING THERE THEN? *cough* Goal-line technology *cough*

Then we played the Italians in the quarter finals, well you know what happened. Surprisingly it managed to stay 0-0 for England over 120 minutes in a game of which they were dominated by Italy who had a number of chances to win the match but somehow failed to grasp any of them. Despite having a disallowed goal in the second half of extra time it was clear the Italians should have won the game, plus we would have never beaten Germany. Good luck Italy.

So overall FA Cup Vinyl think that it was a good performance from Roy's Boys and who knows with a bit of improvement and a bit more attacking mentality we might be able to beat a Germany or Spain one day. But until then, we'll have to celebrate defeating minnows like Andorra.

Let's hope the next major tournament we fare a bit better, that's of course if we qualify.