World Cup 2018

Uruguay defeated Portugal 2-1, while France won 4-3 over Argentina. Messi & Ronaldo didn't even score. Looks like it's Kane v Lukaku for golden boot.

More uspsets! Russia beat Spain 1(4)-1(3) on penalties after trailing, with Own Goal scoring once again, this time for Spain. Croatia also conceded in the first minute, but responded 3 later and they won their clash with Denmark 1(3)-1(2) on penalties. Spain had almost 80% of possession with 90% accuracy, yet never scored!

Uruguay v France
Russia v Croatia

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 2nd 2018 »

Spain being beaten by Russia was a bit of a shock. Russia were ranked 24th in the world and didn't have to qualify for the World Cup as they are the hosts. I always felt it should have been Italy or Holland in the competition instead of them but now after showing their resolve in beating Spain they they deserve to be there.

Croatia against Denmark turned out to be another enjoyable game to watch if you were a neutral which like the Spain Vs Russia game earlier went down to penalties. This is Croatia's golden generation with players like Modric, Rakitic, and Mandzukic who play their club football for the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona and if they are going to win the World Cup it has to be this one.

With these shock wins and top teams like Germany, Argentina and Spain out of the competition it's thrown things wide open for a team not expected to win to go all the way. I still fancy a Belgium Vs France final though as both squads have plenty of elite talent. What a great World Cup so far though, carries on like this it will be one of the best I have ever seen and I have been watching them religiously since 1978 when the tournament was held in Argentina and the hosts won it beating Holland.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 2nd 2018 »

Yeah, I agree with that final prediction. Google gave me incorrect information since I thought they were both on the same side of the draw. Since my info was wrong, England are in big big trouble, since Belgium are on their side of the draw.

Gee, I didn't realise Russia got a free pass into the world cup. This means in 2022 Qatar will be part of it too...

Lol, Qatar, you're right, they get a free pass as hosts. I hope they improve in the next four years as currently as of April 20th 2018 they are ranked 85th by FIFA. Teams will be clamouring to be in the same group as them. It still shocks me that people are still impressed with Englands 6-1 demolition of Panama who are currently ranked 55. In comparison Belgium are ranked 3 by FIFA.

Here's the current FIFA rankings

1: Germany
2: Brazil
3: Belgium
4: Portugal
5: Argentina
6: Switzeralnd
7: France
8: Poland
9: Chile
10: Spain
11: Peru
12: Engalnd and Denmark
14: Uraguay
15: Mexico
16: Columbia
17: Holland
18: Wales
19: Italy
20: Croatia

36: Australia
70: Russia

Wait, Russia at 70? You just said they are 24th?

What happened to Chile, Netherlands, Wales, & Italy? If they're that good how did they lose in qualifying? The likes of Senegal, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Tunisia, Australia, Japan, Egypt, & South Korea qualified.

Whoa, Switzerland at 6th?!?! They'll have a half decent chance to win it all since they play Sweden and then England/Japan. And Poland at 8th?!?! They have been woeful this world cup. They only got points from their last match against Japan, and lost to Colombia & Senegal!

Arrgh Penalties. I hate it when it goes to penalties.
REally surprised and disappointed for Spain. Not sure though if they just weren't trying hard enough to score in the game or Russia were just too good at locking them out.

Wait, Russia at 70? You just said they are 24th?

Good call Matt, you're right. The commentator said yesterday during the game Russia were ranked 24th in the world yet on the 18th April 2018 they were 24th. It's amazing what hosting the World Cup will do to your FIFA Ranking.

I quite like the penalties myself if I have no interest in either team, it's better than the 'Golden Goal' rule FIFA had a fews back where both teams kept playing until one scored. The I look at it 140 minutes is plenty long enough to win a game and I'd rather see penalties than a draw from a hat.

Qualifying is all about continents, if you are in Europe for example you will find it a lot more difficult to qualify than if you are an asian team. In Europe for example Spain and Italy were drawn together in the same qualifying group.

Switzerland are a good team, they've got Granit Xhaka the Arsenal midfielder and striker Xherdan Shaqiri who Liverpool are reportedly after. Even though the Swiss have no household names their main strength is that they play as a team.

As for Spain being beaten by Russia and Spanish players looking as if they were not trying hard enough and looking scared, you have to remember the tournament is held in Russia and people have been known to mysteriously dissappear if they upset Putin.


« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 2nd 2018 »

ha.. bbc pundits comment on brazil v mexico game:
"The only prediction I'll make for Brazil v Mexico is that, at some point, Neymar will go down. Holding his face."

Gee, that's an ordinary way of qualifying particular teams for a world cup. Maybe Italy should reestablish their country in Oceania so they play weak teams in qualifying like Aus, NZ, Japan, South Korea, India etc lol.

I don't really follow players, but this Neymar you speak of has put Brazil 1-0 up with not long to go.

So, they won 2-0 in the end. They look dangerous now. Belgium scraped past Japan of all teams 3-2 after trailing 0-2 late in the contest! Looks to me like they'll be losing to Brazil 2-4. Good offense, but bad defense.

Uruguay v France
Russia v Croatia

Brazil v Belgium

And haha Mark what a great call. Did you see his Oscars nomination?

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 3rd 2018 »

Neymar Jr is one of the most annoying players in the tournament. Luis Saurez is another player who will start acting if you so much as bump into him.

Not sure why Belguim made such hard work of Japan, that won't happen again. Brazi will get beat 3-1 when they face Belguim, the Belguim team were nearly embarrassed and will use the Japan game as a wake up call. It took them until the middle of the second half for the team to wake up and they only scored the first of their goals because the Japanese goalkeeper is vertically challenged and couldn't reach the ball.

Columbia will beat England tonight 2-1, Colombia are considerably better than Tunisia and Panama and Kane will go from hero to zero in the British tabloids.

Japan played very well. I was impressed. especially how when they were 2-0 up they still kept attacking instead of just stalling the game. Although maybe that was a mistake in the end.
Belgiums first goal was more luck than judgement i think and it swung the momentum back to them and they turned on the heat.

England / columbia is going to be a tense match. While I kind of agree with your pessimistic prediction there I do have hope that England can pull something out. Just as long as it's not penalties.

I actually feel sorry for the England players, they each know as soon as they put on that white shirt with the three lions they are expected to get to at least the semi's in every major tournament when the grim reality is England football team has been left behind and is just not on the same level as the top teams. A lot of it is the English players not being given an opportunity in their own country at club level. I wish they'd bring back the old 'only two foreign players' rule to give them a chance.

I must admit though the current batch have a chance at doing well in Quatar in the next World Cup when they are a bit more mature and have the experience from the current campaign under their belt.

England have a chance against Columbia, the only problem is from what I see is the team relies to much on Kane. Jamie Vardy is hopeless, I can't figure out how he made the squad, I've seen strikers who play in the Vauxhall Conference that are better than him.

Jamie Vardy hopeless? Has he suddenly digressed or something, cause isn't he the same guy who was instrumental to Leicester winning the premier league? And also isn't he a bench player too since Kane starts?

I'm not sure why everyone always rates England. They drew a soft group with Tunisia & Panama almost guaranteed victories meaning the R16 was handed to them on a plate. Against England, Panama scored their first ever world cup goal. That tells you the quality of that outfit. I mean, the Kane-less England squad couldn't even beat a Belgian team without at least 3 stars playing. Not to mention that their almost guaranteed Tunisia victory was very nearly a draw.

Just because the English team has EPL players doesn't mean they're that good. The team I support (they used to be in the EPL) is Swansea & their squad is woeful, yet all of those players were EPL players. In reality England are a 7/10 side imo. Capable of getting up to 8, but can dwell down towards a 6. They're decent, but NOT world cup-winning material.

Just imagine if England had been drawn Group C which Australia got. Aus had to face France (currently tournament favourites), Denmark (solid team) and Peru (also solid). In that group the largest winning margin in a game was 2. Scores of 2-1, 1-0, 1-0, 1-1, 0-0, & 2-0 show what a tough group it was. Meanwhile England got the soft one, which had scores of 2-1, 3-0, 6-1, 5-2, 1-0, & 2-1.

My point is, how would our teams have gone if they were switched groups? Australia could've beaten Panama and possibly Tunisia, while losing to Belgium. That's 4 or 6 points. England could've drawn Denmark and possibly beat Peru, while losing to France. But the Peru game could've been a draw, same with the Denmark game being a loss. That's 2 or 4 points. Australia would've progressed to face Colombia, while England would've had to have a better differential than Denmark to move on.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 3rd 2018 »

Hello,

Croatia - Denmark 1:1 (3:2) on penaltys.

I know i'm late, but these are players of my country

They gona play on sunday in finals ))

Go croatia go!!!!

Croatia are pretty good. I hope they thrash Russia and send Putin into a tailspin lol.

Sweden got an unlikely 1-0 win against Switzerland, while England got lucky in a 1(4)-1(3) win over Colombia. Colombia scored at 90+3 and in penalties, they were ahead 3-2 and had a shot, which they missed. England then reeled off 2 to snag a victory.

Actually, I got it wrong again with who was on what side of the draw. It is:

Uruguay v France
Brazil v Belgium

Russia v Croatia
Sweden v England

Gee, I have to agree with you Headshoot. Croatia should easily make the final.

England Vs. Columbia was a game of two halves, the first half nearly had me falling asleep but the second half after the penalty for climbing all over Kane was compelling viewing, the penalty shootout at the end had me on the edge of my seat.

Sweden are slowly drifting towards the final unnoticed with everyone writing them off. They've had a couple of good wins against Mexico and Switzerland and now face England in the quarter finals, a team that has not beaten them in 26 years!!!

I'm going for a 2-0 England win this Saturday and a semi-final against Croatia mid-week. Engalnd Vs. Croatia is a tough one to predict as it could go either way but I find myself leaning towards the experience of Croatia which has the likes of Modric, Rakitic, and Mandzukic in the team.

In answer to your question Matt about Jamie Vardy, in my opinion he is a one season wonder. He came on yesterday evening in the Columbia game and looked out of his depth. He didn't even take a penalty and he is supposed to be a striker. And yes, if Australia had the same draw as England there's a good possibility they would be in the position England are in now. Australia and Columbia have played against each other four times and the series is split 2-2.

The first half of the draw looks like the group of death with Brazil, France, and Belgium in it. As things stand now I think wer're looking at a France Vs. Croatia final.


« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 4th 2018 »

Well i never thought i'd see the day. A penalty shoot out win!
Pretty even match, although i do think england deserved it with some of the antics the columbians were up to (not that england were without fault though)

I think whichever team scores in stoppage time deserves to lose since it's essentially a miracle they even scored. In that case it was Colombia. Personally I hate stoppage time. In my short time following the premier league and championship I've seen countless heartbreaking finishes due to stoppage time. Instead they should simply stop the clock at every stoppage like they do in Aus's AFL. Then everyone knows when a match will finish and it's not a matter of pick and choose how much longer a match will go for. Or, perhaps players should stop faking injuries or pretending to be pushed every minute. Then stoppage time wouldn't add 10-20 mins combined onto a 90-minute match.

Brazil v Croatia for me. France are deceptively average this world cup.

This year world cup is going quite nuts, I watched the highlights to see the endings and most of them were dramatic as hell, some events like Maradonna with the middle fingers, neymar being too fragile.

You're quite right. I've been tempted recently to attempt sitting down and making it through my first entire game of soccer, but that temptation likely won't be fulfilled now that Wimbledon is on. Still, one of Russia, Croatia, Sweden, & England will feature in the final!