2018 FIFA World Cup - Russia

[Red Ranger 1]

5 hours ago, pembie said:

Oh yes England and Colombia  I got mixed up This Tuesday coming? I checked my guide but Corrie is on then but I guess that will change 

According to my guide, Corrie's on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as usual, with ITV showing the England/Colombia game on Tuesday.

[pembie]

Probably just my topsy-turvy guide then thanks 

[Slade]

Quite a bit has happened since I last posted.  Germany losing 2-0 to South Korea.  TBH, I was shocked and completely wrong in my prediction.  I know Germany haven't played that well but after beating Sweden with ten men I would have expected them to beat South Korea quite comfortably.  Whilst I did think Sweden could beat Mexico, I wasn't expecting them to win so emphatically.

 

I would imagine a lot of people will say that it was England's second team and that they would have preferred to lose to Belgium to land in the 'easier' half of the draw but I was very unimpressed with them.  And sadly I found them quite boring to watch.  Hopefully when the first team plays against Columbia it will be a better match.  I do think it's going to be a hard game for them but believe they can beat the Colombians although the game might go to extra time and penalties.  The question is, will James Rodriguez be fit enough to play?

 

Onto yesterday's games - very entertaining with France and Argentina - 4-3.  Wow.  I did think that because they struggled in the group they might up their game but they were just so poor defensively in the end it was no surprise they conceded four goals (And that's a total 9 goals in 4 games).  Some of the goals were brilliant though, especially Di Maria's and Pavard's.  The Argentinians could have equalised with the last shot of the match but I think the right team won and don't think the Argentinians deserved to go through.  I will be surprised if the coach doesn't get sacked as the formation didn't seem to work and he didn't seem very close with the players.  It's a shame because he was really good when he managed Chile in the last world cup.  It's also a shame it has to end for Messi like this but his team weren't good enough.

 

I'm soooooooo glad Portugal are out.  We don't have to see Ronaldo any more.  Yay!  Uruguay were excellent.  Apart from the goal Pepe conceded I thought defensively they were sound and in stark contrast to Argentina have only conceded one goal so far.  Cavani was brilliant especially the finish on the second goal.  I really hope he's not injured and fully fit for the quarter final against France.  I suspect France will find it very difficult and won't get too many clear cut chances so believe the winner will depend on who's the most clinical.

 

I think the Spain game with Russia will be good and whilst I expect Spain to win, despite Uruguay beating them quite easily I think the Russian's will give them a good game.  Given how good Croatia have been going forwards I think the Danes will keep things very tight and think this is one that could go to extra time/penalties.

 

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

So, second round. France knock out Argentina. Uruguay knock out Portugal.(Don't you just love that the TV guys knew exactly what we all wanted to see at that moment: Ronaldo walking off the pitch, jaw clenched, thinking "B*gg*r.") Russia beat Spain on penalties. Croatia beat Denmark on penalties. Brazil, Belgium and Sweden all through.And then...

A scrappy game against a rather highly-strung team, Harry Kane scores another penalty (Six! Harry Kane has six! Take that, Ronaldo, wherever you are...), and it looks like we're going to be through, until in injury time Trippier doesn't have a clue what to do at a corner except get in Pickford's way and Colombia get an equaliser. Extra-time and you know what comes next. I tried to be positive, then Henderson missed the third penalty and I just thought "Here we go..." And then Colombia miss two and Dier puts in the last penalty (with Trippier having levelled it, so fair play to him) and...England have won 4-3 on penalties.Quarter-final against Sweden on Saturday.Crikey.

Should have placed that bet really, but if I had they wouldn't have done it. Almost tempted to place a bet on Sweden reaching the semi-finals, thus guaranteeing it doesn't happen, but that'd be a bit silly even for me. And as it stands, the only past winners left in the tournament are Brazil, Uruguay, France...and us.And France and Uruguay are up on Friday, so it'll be down to three soon.

[Slade]

I was very disappointed with the Spain/Russia match.  It was obvious from when Russia equalised they were playing for penalties.  I don't think it was good football and wasn't fun to watch.  There was a debate with the pundits afterwards whether Russia actually deserved to win.  Most people would say no because they weren't trying to score a winning goal but from a defensive point of view you could argue yes.  The main point is that Spain weren't as good as they were before.  Through 2008-2012 teams would often park the bus but Spain would always find a way to score.  Their style of football just doesn't seem to work anymore.

Thought the Belgium/Japan game was one of the best games of the tournament.  The second half was brilliant.  Well done Japan for giving the Belgians such a good match.  Thought Belgium came back magnificently.  One of the issues was that the Japanese struggled in the air due to lack of height.  I think they made a big mistake going for it in injury time (where they should have just waited it out for the extra time period) and Belgium finished them off with a brilliant counter attacking goal.  I think Japan's attitude typifies exactly how the game should be played.  Trying to win, no play acting or cheating.  Even their fans staying to clear up the stadium after the game was over.  Wonderful.

It was very difficult trying to ascertain just how good England really are as their first two games were against relatively weak opposition and they fielded a second team against Belgium.  But against Colombia it showed how lacking they were in the final third despite having Harry Kane.  You can't really blame him because he's pretty much done everything right but he's not getting the service.  Throughout that match I kept thinking to myself how are England going to score a goal from open play.   Full credit to Kane for the quality of his penalties.  I think England overcame the omens from all the previous world cups by finally winning a penalty shootout.  And I think it was the right result purely because of the underhand tactics employed by the Colombians to try and get a reaction from England players or to try and get them sent off.  I'm actually surprised there were still 22 players on the pitch after the end of extra time.  The referee did quite well considering.  Can't believe Maradonna said England cheated.  Irony alert!  With regards to the quarter final with England and Sweden, I think it's going to be a very tight game.  Might even go the penalties again.  Although they beat Sweden in the Euros a few years ago, England's record against them isn't very good.  I honestly don't know who's going to win that one.  Hopefully England will just edge it.  I can't believe people think England can actually win the world cup based on their previous performances.  The #itscominghome seems to be trending at the moment.

Onto yesterday's quarter final matches.  It was a big disappointment the Uruguayans not having Cavani and it showed at certain times in the match.  They were the better side until France scored from a set piece and after that for me France looked comfortable.  The goal keeper made a real hash of Griezmann's shot and even he was embarrassed to celebrate.  But in the end a fairly comfortable 2-0 victory.  Thought Belgium were magnificent in the first half against the Brazilian's.  De Bruyne was impressive but so was Lukaku.  He can score goals but his work ethic is second to none.  A very unselfish player.  He's big, he's strong, he's fast he doesn't dive and his assist for their second goal was wonderful.  I thought Belgium were a bit lucky in the second half as Brazil squandered a flurry of chances that really should have been put away and TBH should have had a penalty.  However I guess it's a case of crying wolf - Not that I'm even sure that had anything to do with it not being awarded.  Neymar dived in the area at least twice in the match not to mention his antics in the previous games and I'm surprised he wasn't booked.  I was glad Belgium were able to hang on although really Brazil created enough chances to be able to win the game.  And the Belgians were really tiring and felt they would have lost had it gone to extra time.

So we are now guaranteed European teams in all four semi final places (Like 1982 and 2006) and a European winner.  And it will be the 4th world cup in a row won by a European team.  You would imagine the winner will come from the Belgium/France semi final but you can't be sure.  This will also be the first semi final that doesn't have one of the big four (Italy/Brazil/Germany/Argentina).  I'm not expecting any of the games today to be entertaining at all.  This has pretty much been the theme of that half of the draw.  Three of the four second round matches going to penalties.  But out of all the teams I think Croatia would have the best chance of winning if they got to the final.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, quarter-finals. France beat Uruguay: That one could have gone either way, and it helps if the Uruguay keeper thinks he's playing volleyball and punches an easy save into his own net. Brazil out, that's the real shock: Now down to two past winners left in the tournament.Guess all the crowing about Belgium making a mistake topping the group and ending up in the same half of the knockout-stage as Brazil was misplaced.Also means us losing to them doesn't seem too bad...

And England in the semis for the first time since 1990! Fairly comfortable as well and we had a solid defence.We know we can head in corners, and it was nice to get one from open play as well.Croatia up next on Wednesday, after they need a second penalty shoot-out to get past Russia.They're going to be no mugs though. Still England could win this: When you're one of the last four left in the tournament, the odds aren't at all bad. France, Belgium, England or Croatia. Too close to call really, although if pushed I'm tempted to tip Belgium...

[Slade]

Forgot to mention that Brazil last six World Cup loses have been to European opposition.

Thought that was England's best performance of the world cup so far.  Better than the 6-1 thrashing of Panama.  Looked very comfortable throughout most of that match and Pickford made 3 great saves.  Whilst Sterling gave the Swedish defence problems his finishing could have been a lot better but Dele Alli's goal made up for it.  I was a little surprised how easy it was for England given how Sweden beat Mexico and contained Switzerland.  Apparently an estimated 30 million viewers watched the game.  Wow.  Rush hour on Wednesday's going to be interesting.

Whilst it wasn't the most exciting game I actually quite enjoyed the Russia/Croatia match.  Unlike Spain the Russian's did have a go at it and whilst they weren't as good as the Croatians I did think if they had won on penalties it would have been well deserved.  Sadly though it wasn't meant to be.  I actually wanted to see a Russia/England semi final as it would have been a great atmosphere especially with all the political stuff that's been going on (re Salisbury).

I can already see online, people are getting complacent and over confident about England already.  Claiming that Croatia aren't a threat and that England will definitely beat them.  Modric and Rakitic are going to be a problem so it will be interesting to see what Southgate does about them, if at all he decides to change his tactics.  With regards to the semi finals I would like to see Belgium beat France (as for me they've been the most entertaining team scoring 14 goals in 5 games) however I can actually see France winning because they are better defensively IMO.  I think Croatia will beat England purely because the team that knocks out the hosts usually gets to the final and that's an omen.

[pembie]

Not being a football fan I have to say I have enjoyed the knockout matches and  going down the pub to watch them

[Red Ranger 1]

So it's France and Croatia in the final. Dream start for England but sadly they couldn't keep it up and went out 2-1. Still, they've done us proud. Statistic of the day was us being informed that only three men have scored for England in a World Cup semi-final: Sir Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and...Kieran Trippier. But England are off for a reunion with Belgium in the third-place play-off on Saturday, while we'll be watching the final on Sunday as neutrals.

[Slade]

Was disappointed with Belgium against France and found myself extremely frustrated at the French tactics as after the goal they effectively closed the game out.  TBF Belgium weren't good enough anyway.  I was expecting Croatia to beat England but when England went a goal up they had a couple of chances where they should have put the game beyond reach in the first half.  I've seen a lot of people blame Harry Kane for not squaring it to Sterling but I'm not sure it's realistic to expect him to do that in that scenario.  In the second half you could see the Croatian goal coming and once they equalised there was only going to be one winner for me.  I thought they were the better side over the course of the 120 minutes and deserved to win.

I think this tournament should be looked upon as success for England.  If you told the players at the start they would have gotten to the semi-finals they would have taken it.  I always thought there was a possibility they would play Belgium again but hoped it would have been in the final but third place play off it is.  Can England improve on 1990?

With regards to the final I would prefer if Croatia won because I don't like the French's negative tactics.  However I believe the France will win pretty comfortably.