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Post by paulgilb on Nov 26, 2022 13:27:35 GMT 1
Wales had goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey sent off for a Schumacher-like challenge and must now get something against England in their final game to stand any chance of progressing. The third straight red card for Wales in their last 4 major championship (finals) matches.
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Post by paulgilb on Nov 26, 2022 13:25:38 GMT 1
Teams that have reached the final of the World Cup after drawing one of their group games: 1950 - Brazil, Sweden (final was a 4-team group) 1958 - Brazil, Sweden 1962 - Brazil, Czechoslovakia (drew with each other in the group stage) 1966 - England, West Germany 1970 - Italy (drew 2 group games) 1974 - Netherlands 1978 - Netherlands 1982 - Italy (drew all 3 group games) 1986 - Argentina, West Germany 1990 - West Germany, Argentina 1994 - Brazil, Italy 2002 - Germany 2006 - Italy, France (France drew first 2 games) 2014 - Germany 2018 - France And in 1954, 1998, and 2010, one of the finalists lost a group game (although the hell-of-a-beating that Brazil suffered in 1998 came after they had clinched top of their group). The 1930 final was between two teams that won both/all of their group games, and 1934 and 1938 were straight knock-outs. Italy's 2006 draw was in their second game, against the USA, with no USA player scoring, so there is hope.
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Post by paulgilb on Nov 5, 2022 23:41:02 GMT 1
17 & 27 please.
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Post by paulgilb on Jul 30, 2022 11:02:03 GMT 1
Fact of the day. When Alex Yee won Triathlon gold yesterday, England’s all time Commonwealth medals record was 715 golds, 715 silvers and 715 bronzes. Wikipedia differs slightly (claiming 716-717-713 before the start of these games), but still cool that they are so close.
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 26, 2022 11:46:27 GMT 1
Beyonce - Crazy In Love Kanye West - Gold Digger
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 26, 2022 11:44:34 GMT 1
Matthews Southern Comfort - Woodstock Celine Dion - Think Twice Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - That's What I Like Heather Small - Proud Charlene - I've Never Been To Me
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Post by paulgilb on Apr 9, 2022 23:28:04 GMT 1
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Post by paulgilb on Apr 5, 2022 22:55:18 GMT 1
18 and 32 please.
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Post by paulgilb on Jan 5, 2022 0:10:12 GMT 1
3 and 19 please.
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Post by paulgilb on Dec 19, 2021 23:37:07 GMT 1
This is the third year in a row that there has been an all-English top 3 (2019 was the first such year since 2005).
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Post by paulgilb on Jul 11, 2021 23:46:25 GMT 1
Congratulations to Italy - a perfect way to bounce back from not qualifying for the last World Cup!
Italy's victory does mean that Greece (in 2004) are still the most recent European champions not to require a penalty shoot-out in any of their knock-out games.
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Post by paulgilb on Jul 8, 2021 23:22:14 GMT 1
Random fact: the last 4 men's Euros tournaments that England have qualified for have seen them come from behind to win a match (vs Croatia in 2004, Sweden in 2012, Wales in 2016, and Denmark in 2020/2021). For the last time England managed this in a (men's) World Cup, I believe you have to go as far back as Cameroon in 1990. There have also been 2 occasions (vs Argentina in 1998 and Romania in 2000) where England came from behind to lead, but did not ultimately win.
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 29, 2021 23:35:05 GMT 1
Quarter-finalists by group: Group A: Italy, Switzerland Group B: Belgium, Denmark Group C: Ukraine Group D: England, Czech Republic Group E: Spain Group F: no-one Now we know why they called Group F the Group Of Death!
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 24, 2021 23:25:16 GMT 1
The latest Elo rankings have England as the highest-rated team in their half of the knockout draw (albeit only 1 point ahead of the Netherlands), with 5 of the teams in the other half of the draw (Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) ranked higher.
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 21, 2021 23:34:49 GMT 1
Tonight's results mean England are through to the last 16, as are Switzerland, Czech Republic, Sweden and France. England and Sweden have both got through to the last 16 despite only having so far scored 1 goal apiece.
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Post by paulgilb on Jun 11, 2021 23:39:41 GMT 1
19 please.
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Post by paulgilb on Apr 5, 2021 22:58:22 GMT 1
20 & 35 please.
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Post by paulgilb on Feb 15, 2021 23:59:51 GMT 1
Looking back at this thread, it seems I was too harsh on the Glastonbury organisers - I definitely had a feeling of 'do people want 2021 to be better than 2020 or not?'. Apologies to them (in the unlikely event that they are reading!) and to anybody else who I may have upset or offended.
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Post by paulgilb on Jan 23, 2021 1:44:49 GMT 1
Let's look at a few facts here: 3. Holding a festival can be seen as an 'up yours' gesture to the virus, in a similar way to how One Love Manchester was to Islamic extremism. 4. Many musicians and fans are known to be openly anti-Government. The cancellation suggests one of two things: 1. They want to go bust. 2. Boris Johnson has threatened them with a fate worse than death. Make of that what you will. PS: you may think that COVID-19 is way worse than swine flu, however this only appears to be the case due to governments and the media counting all deaths from anybody who recently tested positive, regardless of whether or not the death was actually caused by the virus. I can't recall ever reading anything as stupid or ignorant at Haven before. paulgilb obviously doesn't understand that viruses are not conscious creatures who read newspapers and social media, and therefore are biologically different from Islamic fundamentalists. There aren't many musicians and fans who are anarchists (i.e. anti-Government). People of every political persuasion recognise the fact that the virus is spread rapidly amongst large gatherings of people in close proximity. The cancellation suggests that the Eavis family is a couple of orders of magnitude smarter and more responsible than paulgilb . Twitter bans people who peddle dangerous misinformation about COVD-19. Haven should not be a refuge for these people. Obviously I wasn't comparing viruses to Islamists, I was trying to make the point that One Love Manchester took place despite the very real threat of a further terrorist attack (and such things don't just affect those injured but also their families), yet it was well-attended, and sent a message of solidarity. Clearly, a virus cannot hear such a message, but people's spirits could easily be boosted, which would improve people's general health and wellbeing. As for the claim that hosting a festival would be irresponsible, cast your mind back to April 2010. Back then a volcano in Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull) erupted, creating a cloud of ash that (supposedly) covered most of Europe, resulting in airspace being shut for several days. Throughout this time, NATS (the UK air traffic controller) issued statements such as 'UK airspace will be closed until XX:XX on DD/04/2010'. Predictably they kept putting this deadline back further and further. People were stranded all over the world, and airlines lost a load of money every single day. Eventually, some airlines cried 'Enough!' and decided to let flights travel to the UK anyway. Imagine if one of these planes had crashed. The consequences would have been absolutely horrendous (payouts to the victims' families, numerous lawsuits, loss of trust in the airline industry). However, the airlines still felt this was a risk worth taking. As a result of this, UK airspace was quickly re-opened (ostensibly 'after a reassessment of the risk to aircraft' but clearly under pressure from the airlines as the re-opening time was earlier than the time that they had stated airspace would be closed until at least). As for 'dangerous misinformation', I certainly agree that it can have serious consequences. This is why I have kept an open mind about this situation rather than blindly believing what the media tells me. I seriously recommend reading www.amazon.co.uk/Corona-False-Alarm-Facts-Figures/dp/1645020576 ( note: I have no connection with the authors whatsoever - this is a purely personal recommendation). This is the sort of stuff that is easily dismissed as pseudo-scientific b******s, however there is a lot of stuff that is very hard to argue against. There are even some claims that would be libellous if they were false. The review from 'Benji' (who I also have no connection with) on www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55370694-corona-false-alarm summarises it well. Obviously it would be VERY wrong to take everything written in this book as gospel, but it definitely highlights misleading the media can be (not just here but in general). You guys are of course entitled to your own opinions on this, but I leave one question for you to think about: If Governments and the media had kept quiet about this all along, would you have any reason to suspect that there was such a cover-up? You may know somebody who has been ill (or even been ill yourself), but would you have simply passed it off as 'one of those things'?
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Post by paulgilb on Jan 22, 2021 0:54:03 GMT 1
Let's look at a few facts here:
1. Glastonbury (and other festivals) did take place during a pandemic in 2009. 2. There is clearly demand for festivals this year. 3. Holding a festival can be seen as an 'up yours' gesture to the virus, in a similar way to how One Love Manchester was to Islamic extremism. 4. Many musicians and fans are known to be openly anti-Government. 5. Nobody is forced to attend a festival if they do not feel safe for whatever reason (viruses, drugs, robbery etc).
The cancellation suggests one of two things:
1. They want to go bust. 2. Boris Johnson has threatened them with a fate worse than death.
Make of that what you will.
PS: you may think that COVID-19 is way worse than swine flu, however this only appears to be the case due to governments and the media counting all deaths from anybody who recently tested positive, regardless of whether or not the death was actually caused by the virus.
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