European Championship 2016

[Master]

I would have taken Townsend at the expense of Barkley.

Euro 2016: Marcus Rashford in England squad - Townsend and Drinkwater miss out

Manchester United's teenage striker Marcus Rashford has been named in Roy Hodgson's 23-man England squad for the 2016 European Championship in France.

Rashford, 18, scored on his international debut in the 2-1 friendly victory over Australia on Friday.

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is also included, but Newcastle United's Andros Townsend and Leicester City's Danny Drinkwater both miss out.

England face Portugal in their last Euro 2016 warm-up match on Thursday.

Hodgson's side begin their campaign in France by playing Russia on 11 June, before meeting Wales on 16 June and Slovakia on 20 June.

Rashford, who signed a new four-year contract with Manchester United on Monday, only made his first-team debut on 25 February, but scored eight goals in 18 club games to earn an international call-up.

Sturridge, 26, missed England's last two friendly matches but did take part in a training session on Monday.

He also trained at Watford's training ground on Tuesday, along with Liverpool team-mate Jordan Henderson and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere, with all three considered fully fit.

Southampton full-back Ryan Bertrand, 26, is carrying an unspecified injury but even if he does not play against Portugal at Wembley, he is not regarded as a fitness concern for the tournament.

Drinkwater helped Leicester claim a shock Premier League title, while Townsend - included in the preliminary squad predominantly as cover - was a member of the Newcastle team relegated from the top flight.

The pair were told of their omissions by Hodgson on an individual basis in the manager's hotel room following training.

BBC Sport understands both took the news in a respectful, professional way and wished Hodgson and the team well.

The rest of the squad were informed of Hodgson's selections at a team meeting shortly afterwards.

Drinkwater and Townsend said goodbye to everyone involved before leaving the England camp and will not be on standby for the tournament.

Drinkwater said later he was "disappointed" not to make the final 23 but described the season as a "huge positive".

Former England winger Trevor Sinclair told BBC Radio 5 live: "For me Drinkwater has had such a good season and played such a pivotal part in Leicester's success, he deserves to be in the squad.

"I think he's had an absolutely outstanding season. He's shown what he can do at international level. What he does on the pitch a lot of the time goes unnoticed. He works so unselfishly for the team, I think he may be a big miss for the England squad.

"Townsend will feel unlucky because he's had a great finish to the season, despite Newcastle getting relegated.

"What I will say is, at least he's getting looked at. While he was at Tottenham he wasn't even getting the opportunity because he wasn't playing."

Hodgson initially named a 26-man squad after the final round of Premier League games, having intended to reveal his final selection on 12 May until injury concerns prompted a delay.

That was cut to 25 when Manchester City midfielder Fabian Delph was moved to the standby list after picking up an injury.

Hodgson's squad is the youngest to represent England at a European Championship, with an average age of 25.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Tom Heaton (Burnley).

Defenders: Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Everton), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool).

Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Ross Barkley (Everton), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), James Milner (Liverpool), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Strikers: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United).

Euro 2016: Marcus Rashford in England squad - Townsend and Drinkwater miss out - BBC Sport

[superheavyrhun]

I do think that Danny Drinkwater should have been in there, and also Mark Noble. Taking a persistent cripple such as Jack Wilshere is too much of a risk, while I'm not convinced that Henderson should be in there either.

Equally, my same instincts go roughly the same for Joe Ledley in the Wales squad, I just don't see that taking players who miss the end of the season with injury works out well. Emyr Huws has proved to be a really creative influence for us in midfield, and I'd have him in there instead of Ledley. Flying out to France a week Friday!

[Master]

Drinkwater and Noble are too defence minded when Milner, Dier and Henderson can do all that. Wilshire is an attacking and creative midfielder who was on fire this time last year and Roy wants a glimpse of that quality in France.

[X]

France will win it this time.

They've got loads of strikers this year




Badum-tish

[Master]

France v Romania on in 30 minutes, at last!

I got France and Belgium in the sweep stakes.

I will stick with football stories only.

[Master]

Spain goalkeeper David de Gea denies forced sex party claim



Spain and Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has denied a claim reported in a Spanish newspaper that he organised a sex party with prostitutes for teammates in which a woman was made to take part against her will.
"It's all false," de Gea said.
The claims are contained in court papers in a trial against a pornography baron seen by El Diario newspaper.
A witness claims the defendant forced her and another girl into sex with two Under-21 internationals in 2012.
"I am the first one to be surprised by this report. I deny it, it is false and nothing more, it is a lie and false," de Gea told a press conference at Spain's Euro 2016 training base.
"It is false what is coming out in the press and it will be in the hands of my lawyers," he added.
The claims are part of a continuing case against pornographer Ignacio Allende Fernández, known as Torbe, who is accused of being the head of a prostitution network that abused Spanish and foreign women, some of them underage.
Torbe was remanded in custody in April charged with offences including sex attacks, sexual exploitation and child pornography.
The protected witness, who claims she was forced into the prostitution ring, said she was taken to a Madrid hotel and introduced to another girl and two footballers.
Once in a room with the other girl, the witness - known in police interview papers as TP3 - said that she was told by Torbe that she had to comply with the sexual demands of the two Under-21 internationals.
When she said she did not wish to take part, she claimed to police that Torbe "grabbed her forcefully by the arm".
The witness said she had told Torbe in front of the footballers that she did not want to take part in the sexual encounter, El Diario reported.
El Diario claimed the players said they did not want any recordings of the encounter to be made in case their playing careers were affected.
The witness claimed the encounter had been arranged by de Gea, according to the police report published by El Diario.

Spain goalkeeper David de Gea denies forced sex party claim - BBC News

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

Payets goal though.... Fuck me that was a spanker!

[Master]

Punch in the stomach yesterday letting that goal in the last minute.

We need to hack Bale early and the welsh will be a walkover Thursday.

[Master]

Russians are nutters.

Germany are a force and favourites.

[Memphis]

For the first time in as long as I can remember I enjoyed watching England play football. OK the result should have been different but in terms of the way we played I was pleased. Still things to work on of course, like millions of others I sat and wondered what the fuck our 6 foot plus striker was doing aking corners, I wondered how Raheem Sterling manages to play football at International level, I also couldnt understand why you would take Rooney off with 10 minutes to go. Rooney is and has been for as long as I can remember our best protector of a football, his passing and vision are miles better than anyone else in the team.

If we'd have taken our chances we might have rolled them over 4 or 5 and certain people would have been talking like we'd already won it so maybe for the best that we didnt.

The fan situation is obviously concerning, I say fan, what I mean is the mornic twats who fancy themselves as hard men ruining it for others.

Note to these 'hard men'. I've known a few genuinely hard men over the years, not one of them have I ever heard tell someone how hard they are or recount fights they'd had and won, and not ever have I seen one of them launch a plastic patio chair at someone as a weapon. Giving it legs whilst their mates are getting their heads stamped on, proper hard

[Memphis]

I got France in our office sweepstakes. They didn't look great but with cash for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place I reckon I'm nailed on for some dough.

[Master]

I got France in our office sweepstakes. They didn't look great but with cash for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place I reckon I'm nailed on for some dough.

I got Belgium and wife got France.

Sterling final distribution was poor but worth keeping the same team.

[Memphis]

The problem I have with Sterling is that it's a tournement and you might not get a lot of time to do your thing. Over the course of a season sure he can show flashes or real quality, but thats not good enough in a format where you might only get 3 games. I said at the time his feet move at least twice as fast as his brain can cope with, we seem to be brilliant at producing these kind of players and then giving them international caps. A hark back to the old days of bigger faster I guess. But surely someone should have clocked by now that technically, the bloke just doesnt have the goods?

[El Kabong]

his feet move at least twice as fast as his brain can cope with

That's what that hippie crack will do for you

[Beanz]

For the first time in as long as I can remember I enjoyed watching England play football. OK the result should have been different but in terms of the way we played I was pleased. Still things to work on of course, like millions of others I sat and wondered what the fuck our 6 foot plus striker was doing aking corners, I wondered how Raheem Sterling manages to play football at International level, I also couldnt understand why you would take Rooney off with 10 minutes to go. Rooney is and has been for as long as I can remember our best protector of a football, his passing and vision are miles better than anyone else in the team.

If we'd have taken our chances we might have rolled them over 4 or 5 and certain people would have been talking like we'd already won it so maybe for the best that we didnt.

The fan situation is obviously concerning, I say fan, what I mean is the mornic twats who fancy themselves as hard men ruining it for others.

Note to these 'hard men'. I've known a few genuinely hard men over the years, not one of them have I ever heard tell someone how hard they are or recount fights they'd had and won, and not ever have I seen one of them launch a plastic patio chair at someone as a weapon. Giving it legs whilst their mates are getting their heads stamped on, proper hard

I didn't even know who half the team were having not watched Premiership football for a couple years but I also really enjoyed the first half. Best we have played in a long time. I can see why Hoddle was purring as it was how he liked his teams to play and some of it was nearly sublime. The Rooney substitution did seem a bit bonkers too. You are right about the wannabe hard men too. Now we are threatened with being thrown out despite the fact that Russian Ultras, French Nutters and a local 'pen them in and fire some tear gas' happy police force are equally, if not more to blame for most of the trouble.