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2018 FIFA World Cup Thread
Comments
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Yes, that is what I think. Possibly even Poland beating Japan! I'm not saying England can't beat Columbia - I expect them to if they have to - but they will have a far greater chance against Japan. Although they are well organised!ValleyGary said:
I think they will beat Senegal and Japan will draw with PolandMuttleyCAFC said:I hope Columbia win their group - it will make it less of a clear cut advantage!
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Significantly tougher than a draw of say Colombia then Brazil, which is what England could still get?Callumcafc said:
They do have a tough draw though... Argentina then Uruguay or Portugal...Exiled_Addick said:
Bookies covering themselves. France, unimpressive as they have looked, are more likely to win than England.Callumcafc said:England are in to fourth favourites for the trophy behind Brazil, Spain and Belgium.
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Try and aim for wherever Colombia finish earlier in the day.
They would beat us so avoid them in the round of 16.0 -
Uruguay are an ugly team who may pose a bigger risk. They defend well and have two excellent forwards - very very hard to beat even though nobody wants to watch them!0
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It's pretty clear that the bottom half of the draw looks easier on paper but who knows what will happen.
Let's not forget that Iceland looked 'easy' in the Euro's and also Belgium probably thought they had an easy route to the final.........then got turned over by Wales in the quarters.2 -
SELR_addicks said:
Try and aim for wherever Colombia finish earlier in the day.
They would beat us so avoid them in the round of 16.
Columbia aren’t even better than us, you can’t say they’d beat us
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Bottom line is, whoever wins it will almost certainly have to beat some very good sides at some point so it's pointless worrying too much about who is next and trying to engineer a certain path - Mexico might beat Brazil and then it's all changed again anyway. Try and win each game and worry about the next one once you know for sure what it is.
I think it could be better for England to be playing sides they're not so expected to beat comfortably. Too much of a minnow will sit back and try to frustrate - and the Tunisia game is a lesson in how that can go, very dangerous in the knock-out phase when teams can play for penalties. Protects a bit against complacency as well.
Not saying we want to play Brazils and Spains etc. more than we have to, but someone like Colombia who will show some ambition may not be the worst thing that could happen. Senegal could be threat - they would likely sit back but are mighty fast on the break.
Japan we should have too much for.3 -
Good point but I'm sure they're just hedging against us finishing 2nd and getting the easier route.Exiled_Addick said:
Significantly tougher than a draw of say Colombia then Brazil, which is what England could still get?Callumcafc said:
They do have a tough draw though... Argentina then Uruguay or Portugal...Exiled_Addick said:
Bookies covering themselves. France, unimpressive as they have looked, are more likely to win than England.Callumcafc said:England are in to fourth favourites for the trophy behind Brazil, Spain and Belgium.
If we finish runners up tomorrow, expect every bloke and his dog to have a bet on England to win the whole thing.0 -
And to be honest - Argentina has a fear factor to it, but they have been crap. I think we would over-power them. Portugal have a great player and two or three good players, but are not that good. A team I'd like to avoid is a full strength Belgium - so that is good!0
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Depends a bit on whether Colombia win their group, would want to avoid them in the last 16.Callumcafc said:Anyone still want to put down a marker and beat Belgium?
There's a very real chance that the runner up of our group could get to the semi final.0 - Sponsored links:
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England seem to be the most dangerous team on set pieces. The Tunisia game was great for us as it forced FIFA to get hot on fouls in the box from set pieces and that has to be a great help for us!2
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Spain look favourites to get to the final in the weaker half.
England will not beat Brazil if we play them in the quarters.
Belgium will be thinking the same as England about the two halves of the draw. We could see a late own goal or two.1 -
Top half of the draw has 10 World Cups and 13 continental titles between them.
Bottom half of the draw has 1 World Cup and 5 continental titles between them.0 -
Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.4
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It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.MuttleyCAFC said:Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
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Maybe Sweden too. They could potentially handle out set pieces pretty well.Exiled_Addick said:
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.MuttleyCAFC said:Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
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So maybe these are the teams we need to avoid as you say.0
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Hate to say but this could make it a very one sided and rubbish World Cup Final if Spain struggle to get into gear as they certainly didnt in the GroupsCallumcafc said:0 -
Germany are on the plane home
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2nd place will also mean the 2nd round and semi would be in Moscow, which you’d think would result in a much bigger support.0
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They will be if we win the groupExiled_Addick said:
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.MuttleyCAFC said:Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
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Yeah meant to say we can't play them until at least the semis and it definitely pointless worrying about who we might get in the semis - if we can't beat whoever we play there then we wouldn't deserve to win the world cup anyway.paulie8290 said:
They will be if we win the groupExiled_Addick said:
It's an obvious way that teams can restrict us too. The good news is, of the teams left, the only truly dogged defensive team left is probably Uruguay and they are not in our half of the draw.MuttleyCAFC said:Following on from my point about set pieces - this chart shows why England have a decent chance. you have to praise Southgate for the work he has done here.
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I think what it comes down to is, yes we can beat anyone on our day, but we will have to be on our mythical "day" four times if we want to win this from the top half of the draw - which is a tough ask in what, 14 days of football?
Japan, Sweden, Spain then Brazil is a gradual step up in quality each time. In plotting potential progress and opponents pre-tournament on my wall chart like I did as a kid I don't think I could have come up with a better scenario if I tried. Can't believe this is even a debate really. We HAVE to get into the bottom half of that draw.2 -
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I honestly think its bullshit about not caring who we want to play in the knockouts when its got everything to do with how we win it
Portugal when they won Euro 2016 had a piss easy route which meant they didnt have to play at the top of their game till the Final which meant they were fresher against France.
Same will happen here; Spain should barely need to get out of first gear to reach the Final and should be relatively fresh, on the other hand nearly every game in the other half of the draw will be played at a higher intensity meaning there will be more chance of tiredness come the Final.6 -
SO this.ForeverAddickted said:I honestly think its bullshit about not caring who we want to play in the knockouts when its got everything to do with how we win it
Portugal when they won Euro 2016 had a piss easy route which meant they didnt have to play at the top of their game till the Final which meant they were fresher against France.
Same will happen here; Spain should barely need to get out of first gear to reach the Final and should be relatively fresh, on the other hand nearly every game in the other half of the draw will be played at a higher intensity meaning there will be more chance of tiredness come the Final.
I don't care if we are the best team in the tournament beating every single one of the top 6 in the world or whatever... I just want to bloody win it by any means possible in my lifetime.
p.s I feel the same about Charlton and the FA cup - i wouldn't care if we didn't play a single PL team on the way to winning it give me a charlton/scunthorpe cup final win and i'd be over the moon.5 -
Still dont rate Belgium so if they end up in the easier half I'll be tempted to put £10 on Spain to win the Tournament0
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Can’t wait to finish second and get knocked out on pens by Japan10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxtPR-cnlzk
