2018 FIFA World Cup - Russia

[pembie]

2 minutes ago, Jezz said:

Spain would be the most difficult. Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo is always a threat, so Iran would be the easiest out of the three.

Lets hope you get Iran then

[Jezz]

1 minute ago, pembie said:

Lets hope you get Iran then

A lot would need to go Australia's way.

We have to beat Peru in our last group match, and rely on France beating Denmark. Then a string of upsets would need to occur in Group B for us to get Iran.

It's likely we'll play Spain or Portugal if we can reach the knockout stages. Time will tell how it unfolds.

[Slade]

Argentina were dreadful last night.  Can't remember the last time I've seen them play this bad.  It's a shame for Messi because he's so good for Barcelona but doesn't have the same players around him.  I guess winning a world cup just isn't meant to be for him.  I did agree with the Pundits in that Croatia should have been down to ten men.  It probably would have been a different game if Rebic had been sent off but it was a wonderful finish and also hats off to Luka Modric for scoring a brilliant goal.

Ronaldo maintains his position as top goal-scorer who I imagine is a very good candidate for the golden boot.  Costa has a good chance as well.  It's interesting with Portugal and Spain as they could actually end up on the same number of points, same goal difference, same goals scored where it could come down to drawing lots.

The penalty decision with Australia shows how at times the VR has been ineffective.  Even with the facility to review the footage the referees still can't get it right IMO.  Although I did think the referee in the Brazil/Costa Rica match was pretty good.  He tried his very best to let the game flow and even had the bottle to accept he could be wrong and review the footage.

Entertainment from all 3 games today.  Brazil scraped past Costa Rica, really enjoyed the comeback from Switzerland against Serbia and enjoyed Nigeria's play against Iceland.  Looks as though they've done Argentina a massive favour.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, currently through: Russia, Uruguay, France and Croatia. Spain and Portugal pick up narrow wins, Brazil and Germany scrape three points with injury time winners, and Argentina surprisingly get thumped by Croatia, although a win against Nigeria will probably see them through. And Belgium hammer Tunisia to the point that I'm actually quite worried what England are going to do against them, although it does mean a win against Panama tomorrow will send England into the knock-out stage.

If England do get through, they'll play someone from Group H (Poland, Colombia, Senegal and Japan) and at the moment it could be any of them.Not sure if I've got a preference.My Polish work colleagues seem to be oddly in favour of an England v Poland clash, preferably in the second round, although after that shock defeat to Senegal they're in danger of going out.

[Slade]

Germany..brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.  They weren't convincing throughout of a lot of that game and Sweden had chances to go 2-0 up after taking a one goal lead.  But despite being down to ten men the Germans never gave up and it was a wonderful shot to curl the ball into the back of the net and win 2-1 right in the last minute of stoppage time.  I think the saying "Never count out the Germans" was so true in this case.  Thoroughly deserved to win if only because the Swedes didn't really try to take the game to Germany in the second half and were even defending when they had advantage of having an extra man.  The ITV presenter summed it up perfectly "That's why they're the world champions".  If Mexico avoid defeat against Sweden and Brazil top the group (You would imagine Germany would beat South Korea) then then we would have a Brazil/Germany second round match.  Not actually sure if that would be good for the tournament as it's best for the better teams to meet each other in the later rounds IMO.

 

So England inflict their heaviest defeat on an opponent in World cup (or European championship) match and qualify for the second round.  I thought the performance in the first half was very good.  They did seem to actually take their chances unlike the first game.  I don't think they were that great in the second half but given how they started there was no way they were going to maintain that.  I still wonder despite the fact they won 6-1 as there are questions over the defence where a couple of times they fell asleep and didn't have much going forward either.  Although to be fair it was almost 30 degrees.  You do wonder against better opposition.  I'm not sure if they're going to be fully tested in the Belgium match as the manager was saying he was going to change the squad (The idea being that Belgium have already qualified so they can rest the key players).  I honestly don't know whether it's best to finish first or second in that group.  We have a similar situation to Spain/Portugal - Both teams on same number of points, same goal difference, same goals scored, same head to head.  Although they don't just go straight to drawing lots.  I didn't realise there's a fair play score which is governed by the number of yellow cards each team has in the tournament and at the moment England have less than Belgium but that could change.  The drawing of lots did happen before - 1990 between the Dutch and Republic of Ireland.

[Red Ranger 1]

Wow. I was hopeful of a win but did not expect that. Harry Kane on track for the Golden Boot?It'd be nice to laugh at Ronaldo over that one, although I'm still anticipating Portugal staying in longer than England... So, the last game will decide first or second.Would have been nice to avoid that Panama goal and get superior goal difference but I can't really begrudge them it, even if it did have my dad yelling in fury for about five minutes...

And Poland are out, after a second defeat, meaning our possible opponents for the second round are down to Japan, Colombia and Senegal.Curiously, the last Group H games are a few hours before the last Group G ones, so we'll know which two have gone through by the time we play.

[Sunny Girl]

Loving the World Cup.

[pembie]

Thanks all you are helping me stay updated

Do they knockouts start next week? I know England play Thursday night

[Red Ranger 1]

5 hours ago, pembie said:

Do they knockouts start next week? I know England play Thursday night

The knockouts start on Saturday. Final group games are on Thursday, with England in the last batch.

[pembie]

4 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

The knockouts start on Saturday. Final group games are on Thursday, with England in the last batch.

Thank you Red