Charlie was treated as an equal by the heavyweights of Europe. Enda had his hair rubbed like a mascot. If ever evidence was needed of our decline into a nation of lickspittles
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Best wishes to any German contributors on the forum. There’s very few match ups in international sport that can compare to this Clash of the Titans. Enjoy the game and may the best team win. I suspect that will be our Three Lions.
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That’s a very Anglo centric view. The Germans wouldn’t think of England as a proper rival
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Two world wars and one World Cup !
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For most Irish soccer fans the tournament starts in earnest tonight. Be they pro or anti England
You’re very wrong on that. Germany have many rivals in football but very few can compare to England in the intensity of the rivalry. What creates rivalry is tradition in a football sense and historical context outside of football.
Only perhaps Germany-Holland can compare to it from a German point of view. Germany have won the majority of major clashes against Holland - Holland’s only real major victories over Germany are the Euro '88 semi-final and a group match at Euro '92 which turned out to be a dead rubber, but that doesn’t mean the rivalry is not extremely intense.
Similarly Italy have a superb record against Germany, with Germany’s victory on penalties at Euro 2016 their sole notable success against the Italians, but that’s one of football’s great rivalries too. However it doesn’t have the historical edge of England v Germany.
Actual Germans disagree
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They say that in public to try and wind up the English, and because to admit there is a historical edge to the rivalry would be to bring back memories of World War II, which they sort of want to put into a dark room.
But it’s there and it is very real. The rivalry with England is box office as far as German supporters are concerned.
Long running club rivalries and the history of big European club clashes between English and German teams also feed into it.
Soccer hipsters like @the_man_himself and English Premier League fanboys/England national team haters like @Perez2017 are just seething.
Who’s Raphael Honigstein?
You know more than Germans about what Germans think then. Fair enough
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A hipster football journalist who lives in London. Often to be found on Guardian Football Weekly, The Totally Football Show, Second Captains, Off The Ball and the like.
I doubt Rafa would ever admit England are Germany’s biggest rivals.
a hero to lads new to the game like @the_man_himself
England v Germany wets the whistle like any of the major clashes in World football. One of those clashes that doesn’t depend on the players. It’s just huge
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The little Englanders are reeling from the facts that Germans don’t care about them that much
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Time to get behind our gallant allies in Europe.
The Jerries that seemingly don’t care about England, couldn’t even come up with their own song. They’re obsessed with us. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say.
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you’ve more posts about England and the EPL than most lads on the forum, you’re actually obsessed with them.
I’d like to see Germany win today from a footballing perspective - they’ve got real class and would offer up better games than England going forward.
Southgate and his negativity don’t deserve to be rewarded
I’m one of the few football fans on here not obsessed with England. You see it after the match last night everyone coming in talking about England straight away
it’s the next match in a major European competition and one of the biggest on the World stage. They’re rent free in your head
You’re the one who immediately steered the discussion on the ‘German Backers Thread’ this morning to England.