World Cup 2018

England are going to have to play well to beat Croatia, and they're going to have to beat them before penalties. Croatia have now played and won 2 consecutive penalty shootouts. Croatia have also scored in every match this WC, so England need at least 2 goals. If Harry Kane can dominate though, Croatia have no chance. When flying, his team; whether it's the national team or Tottenham, are unbeatable unless the defense falls apart.

Croatia have also faced tougher teams. Argentina, Nigeria, Iceland, Denmark, & Russia to be exact. Meanwhile England have had Belgium, Tunisia, Panama, Colombia, & Sweden. People are getting lost in the results and especially British people, are believing the hype too much. Looking back as a neutral supporter, realistically this is a 50/50 game, yet England are given a 41% chance of victory compared to Croatia's 29% (in the 90 minutes).

I totally agree with you Matt, the Engalnd supporters are a bit dillusional in my opinion. Who have England beat convincingly in this tournament who was a threat to win the World Cup in 2018? Answer: Nobody. Look who they have beat to get where they are, Tunisa, Panama, Uruguay, Sweden. The one team England played who was good enough to win the World Cup was Belgium and they beat England without playing their top players. Croatia on the other hand have been playing against stiffer opposition and have looked good doing it apart from that luckluster performance against Russia. I just hope those Croations are still tired from that game against Russia otherwise England are going to struggle to get a result tonight. I expect England to do so, but it won't be easy and they'll get exposed against France who will win 3-1.

England are out of the World Cup, they had their chances last night but simply unravelled after some sloppy marking in defense but to be fair it was a great first goal by Croatia. If only Harry Kane had of squared the ball to Sterling who was unmarked in front of goal instead of trying to score from an impossible angle there's no telling what would have happened in that game.

France against Croatia is an interesting game, unfortunately there's about three old war horses in the Croatian team that are struggling with their fitness and two games one after the other that have gone into extra time has not helped them. I still think France wins this game easily by the score of 3-1. The Croation defense looks vulnerable to me, I see what Sterling did with his speed so you have to assume Griesman who is a level above him and just as fast will run amok.

I didn't realise that happened. It's sad that basically every superstar soccer player has an ego the size of the planet and are in love with themselves (cough Ronaldo cough). It's like when Kane got mad because his teammate scored a goal and he thought it deflected off him instead. If he didn't have an ego, he would've done the team thing instead of believing he was good enough to score an impossible goal.

After this exciting WC with upsets galore, it's really fizzled out now. In the end France, who many believed would win it, will win this WC easily. If they managed to beat Belgium while having only 36% of possession, imagine what they'll do if they win that stat.

Well it was a close match.. I think England were unlucky to not have scored a second. But they show promise at least. maybe the next few years will be better ones for the england side in general.

Hopefully this will kill 2 birds with 1 stone. It will shut up these 'It's coming home' bogans, and it will take the pressure off the national team next WC because they finally exceeded the media's ridiculous expectations.

Really, if the English players just slowly keep gaining experience in the Premier League or any other European competition, they will be more mature next WC and can possibly outclass several teams. It helps that they get to play 50ish matches every year. The poor Australian team have 3 EPL players (will become 2 when our captain retires) and one of them is the goalkeeper, so for the remainder of the team they get some small amount of games (I don't even know) in Aus's A-League.

Sadly there is a downside for England. Next WC the media will expect England to win the WC and if they don't it will be a total failure. They may not get lucky with an easy group either. Just remember if England had of won the joke of a game against Belgium they would've gone and beaten Japan before being demolished by Brazil.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 12th 2018 »

Well it at least means that we wont have to go through the usual months of blaming and ridicule in the press . Everyone is pretty happy with the performance.

Bit of a relief i think for an electrical shop chain over here that apparently offered a full refund on all TV's bought recently if England won the World Cup. I think they were getting nervous.

Unfortunately Matt you are correct, the English public will expect the national team to win the tournament and anything less will be deemed a failure. Let's be honest the only reason they reached the semi-finals this year is because they were fortunate to have an easy schedule in Tunisia, Panama, and Colombia who they only just managed to sneak past.

Harry Kane is now hailed as some kind of god in English football but from what I have seen he can be shut down like he was yesterday by Croatia and half of those goals he scored to get the Golden Boot trophy were penalties where a top flight striker is expected to bury the ball with ease. Like you say Matt if England had of beaten Belguim to win the group they would have got outclassed by the samba boys of Brazil, I'm not totally convinced they would have beaten Japan either.

Mark, that compnay would have gone bust if England had of won the World Cup. It was never going to happen but because of the weak oppositon they got closer than anyone expected.

As predicted from the start France win the World Cup although I haven't been convinced by a lot of their performances and the final was no different. Granted they scored a couple of great goals but two of their four goals were gifts and Croatia dominated the time of possession from beginning to end.

Had to laugh at England getting beat by Belguim again, no excuses this time Belguim are clearly a cut above England. What happened to Harry Kane in the last couple of games? He's great at taking penalties and against inferior competition like Tunisia and Panama but put him in a game against world class defenders he disappears. It's not entirely his problem though, England don't have a dominant midfielder who controls the game for their country such as Kevin de Bruyne, Toni Kroos, Isco, N'Golo Kant� and Luka Modric.

Sounds like you summed it up well.

Have to hope that it's been a growth experience for england and they can build on it.

Yeah, Belgium are much better. Even if Kane didn't miss that sitter it would've been a 1-2 loss. I think the problem is the easy schedule made the team think they were better than they were and when the tough opposition arrived they weren't used to it. And about Kane, he plays for Tottenham in the EPL as part of the 'Big 6', so 10 matches a season are difficult and 30 matches are against easy opposition. It's also interesting because Tottenham cant't reach any tournament finals either. They get to a semi final with huge ramifications and always flop. Maybe Kane just can't handle the pressure, since someone of his caliber should be able to help his team succeed.

And Dennis I don't think having an A-Grade midfielder really matters that much. Croatia dominated France in the time of possession, and yet they lost 2-4. Belgium dominated it too, and lost 0-1 to France. It matters how you finish in front of goal, and France were just so much more dangerous.

If England are going to make it back to the semis next world cup they need to find someone to help Kane out. It's clear he can't do it on his own. Jamie Vardy just isn't good enough.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 16th 2018 »