2018 FIFA World Cup XXI

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

. red card, no. B..h, maybe..
edit, WHAT A SHAME RIGHT KNOW FOR FOOTBALL

 

[sir fly]

Liking Croats or disliking Russians, what's the deal, Bot?

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

Excellent. A few thousands of Britons singing......

How many where Scotsmen

don't think many were watching.................those that were would have been gutted

after cheering on sweden...................LOL

Mark L

Ah, the classic Anglo/Saxon conquered English perception of the Scots and Welsh who still relish our unique Celtic Briton heritage. And btw I think you'll find at least 2 million Scots Rangers fans would have been right behind you. And well done by the way. Good luck against Croatia but no chance

I wasn’t hugely impressed with Croatia in that game. They certainly have the talent to create goals, but it was a scrappy game and they weren’t very organised. Should be a good semi-final. If England don’t win I’d like to see a new name on the trophy.

 

[Brullnux]

If England win it is technically a new name on the trophy, no? (England won the jules rimet)

 

[Jagartrott]

The winner should come from the France-Belgium half - the other half is not very exciting. England have not impressed one single game, have been very lucky with the draw and have scored the majority of their goals from free kicks, corners and penalties. Croatia scraped through twice now and must be exhausted.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

The winner should come from the France-Belgium half - the other half is not very exciting. England have not impressed one single game, have been very lucky with the draw and have scored the majority of their goals from free kicks, corners and penalties. Croatia scraped through twice now and must be exhausted.

I sort of agree with you, but I’m not really buying the ‘easy draw’ as an out. There have been so many occasions over the past 20 years where we have had the tough side of the draw, the hardest group in the 2014 World Cup, Germany in the last 16 in 2010. Brazil and Portugal in the QF’s before that.

As for the set-piece argument, i have no problem with that. Should we get to the final against France/Belgium it gives us a genuine chance to win. You can clearly see how well the coaches have worked on set-pieces, and they will give the opposition problems dealing with that.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

If England win it is technically a new name on the trophy, no? (England won the jules rimet)

If you want to be really picky yes

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Excellent. A few thousands of Britons singing......

How many where Scotsmen

don't think many were watching.................those that were would have been gutted

after cheering on sweden...................LOL

Mark L

Ah, the classic Anglo/Saxon conquered English perception of the Scots and Welsh who still relish our unique Celtic Briton heritage. And btw I think you'll find at least 2 million Scots Rangers fans would have been right behind you. And well done by the way. Good luck against Croatia but no chance

I don't mind Scots not supporting England (never understand the reaction to Andy Murray all those years ago) just like I am happy to laugh at Scots footballing misfortunes, I doubt many Rangers supporters will be cheering for England either, I have a soft spot for Rangers after Gazza played for them, such a great player for Newcastle but don't like the underlying implications of Celtic and Rangers rivalry - that's both sides to blame though

Scotsman a work says he supports anyone England playing, its a bit of fun, he just has lots of teams to support

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

Excellent. A few thousands of Britons singing......

How many where Scotsmen

don't think many were watching.................those that were would have been gutted

after cheering on sweden...................LOL

Mark L

Ah, the classic Anglo/Saxon conquered English perception of the Scots and Welsh who still relish our unique Celtic Briton heritage. And btw I think you'll find at least 2 million Scots Rangers fans would have been right behind you. And well done by the way. Good luck against Croatia but no chance

I don't mind Scots not supporting England (never understand the reaction to Andy Murray all those years ago) just like I am happy to laugh at Scots footballing misfortunes, I doubt many Rangers supporters will be cheering for England either, I have a soft spot for Rangers after Gazza played for them, such a great player for Newcastle but don't like the underlying implications of Celtic and Rangers rivalry - that's both sides to blame though

Scotsman a work says he supports anyone England playing, its a bit of fun, he just has lots of teams to support

My friend, you don't live here, can I respectively suggest you You Tube Rangers and Rule Britannia for a wee start. Every Rangers fan I know are all right behind England. I also think you would be genuinely surprised how many other Scots are behind England. I'm not one, but happy in the fact you have no chance against Croatia

 

[Laplaz]

...... and in the meantime CR7 goes to Juve

 

[Merckx index]

Congratulations to France, which just won the World Cup!

I think they're playing a friendly against some Euro also-ran Sunday?

 

[King Boonen]

Hubris can be a wonderful thing... from the other side.

 

[Merckx index]

Re:

Hubris can be a wonderful thing... from the other side.

Not hubris, generosity. France has agreed to let the winner of tomorrow's game appear on the same field with them. How prestigious is that? To be considered worthy of being on the same field as France?

 

[May0maniac]

Mbappé's antics were a bit annoying near the end, a bit like a young Christiano Ronaldo.
Other than that I really liked what I saw from France, fast combinations and counters, Giroud is such a workhorse, Griezmann is pure class, even when he disappears for a few minutes, Kanté is just relentles and Varane was just outstanding as a CB.
Belgium played well, Hazard was by far their best player (well, besides Courtois), but I the end France just showed a bit more urgency and they managed to win the match.

 

[Jagartrott]

France is very, very solid - and can play multiple styles. Yesterday they were determined not to give Belgium any space to counter, gave them the ball and waited. That was a bit boring, but they looked comfortable throughout. Unless they have another lapsus like in Euro 2016, they should win the final (and they would deserve to).

 

[Flamin]

Any sign yet of the leaky French defence? :razz: on a more serious note, I do enjoy those tactical chess games when there's so much quality on the pitch. France played like a machine. It's quite amazing to give away so little against this Belgian team.

 

[python]

if theresa may does NOT care to travel to her footballers, perhaps they should travel to theresa

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Any sign yet of the leaky French defence? :razz: on a more serious note, I do enjoy those tactical chess games when there's so much quality on the pitch. France played like a machine. It's quite amazing to give away so little against this Belgian team.

Yeah, I was really impressed with umtiti (sort of expected it from varane). Maybe France's defence is only leaky in an open game, not when they play like that - something which I did find entertaining and very good. If England get to the final and adopt the same tactics as the Belgians i.e. play into france's strengths, their incredible counters, they'll lose 4-0. It will be: Alli loses the ball to Kante, Kante runs towards Henderson, passes the ball to pogba who run a bit more at stones before realising mbappe on a one on one on loop

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Any sign yet of the leaky French defence? :razz: on a more serious note, I do enjoy those tactical chess games when there's so much quality on the pitch. France played like a machine. It's quite amazing to give away so little against this Belgian team.

Yeah, I was really impressed with umtiti (sort of expected it from varane). Maybe France's defence is only leaky in an open game, not when they play like that - something which I did find entertaining and very good. If England get to the final and adopt the same tactics as the Belgians i.e. play into france's strengths, their incredible counters, they'll lose 4-0. It will be: Alli loses the ball to Kante, Kante runs towards Henderson, passes the ball to pogba who run a bit more at stones before realising mbappe on a one on one on loop

In an open game, top quality attackers are always better than defenders hence every defence will appear leaky though. I mean, nobody can stop players like Hazard running towards goal 1v1.

Croatia-England is pretty entertaining but the difference quality-wise with France-Belgium is day and night. Whoever goes through will simply be humiliated by the French.

 

[python]

i dont share the simplistic sentiment 'the french will humiliate...'

i did watch their entire game with the belgians and will agree they looked very good, solid and felt like they could add if required....

re. the current game, unfortunately i missed both goals though i did see perhaps 70% of the main time. based on what i saw in the 1st half i though the english played better and ( i hate the word 'deserved') logically should have had the lead. when i saw 1:1 in the 2nd half the feeling did not change much. then, i should be frank , the Croatians clearly outplayed the english in the last 20 min of the main time. in every respect with the british defenders blundering several times as if they were tired...

now is the 2nd half of the additional time and and the croatians look fresher and faster, despite being older and, if am not mistaken, not having made any field changes yet.

great game, imo...

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

Croatia-England is pretty entertaining but the difference quality-wise with France-Belgium is day and night. Whoever goes through will simply be humiliated by the French.

But football is a game where logic doesn't always apply...
England are forgetting to play football after the first half. The Croats deserve to go through by now (first half was England).

 

[Hayabusa]

An an England fan, Croatia deserve to win this game. By far the better team since half time.

 

[yetiyeti]

I've been pulling for the Croatians in every game they've played for a while now - they leave it all out on the field, without the dramatic BS.

 

[python]

Re:

if theresa may does NOT care to travel to her footballers, perhaps they should travel to theresa

it was irony/joke, BUT turns out macron was either less busy or is less attached to the 'boycott Russia' nonsense.

and he can claim what i just speculated on his part.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Croatia-England is pretty entertaining but the difference quality-wise with France-Belgium is day and night. Whoever goes through will simply be humiliated by the French.

But football is a game where logic doesn't always apply...
England are forgetting to play football after the first half. The Croats deserve to go through by now (first half was England).

I know, but the difference in quality is really big imo. That and France should be a lot fresher as well.