2018 FIFA World Cup Thread

why on earth would we want a belgium win?

we need to win the group in order to hopefully avoid Brazil in a potential QF.

I want england to go as far as we can! Then play the big countries inevitably late on.

The later on, the better.

Cracking game and just what we want from an England perspective - plenty of hard tackles and Tunisia pushing Belgium as hard as possible

Dave2l said:

why on earth would we want a belgium win?

we need to win the group in order to hopefully avoid Brazil in a potential QF.

I want england to go as far as we can! Then play the big countries inevitably late on.

The later on, the better.

A Belgium and England win this weekend will see both through, absolutely no reason we cant beat them ourselves as they're just another Premier League XI.

Doesnt matter if we win the Group or come second as we'll likely end up with Brazil or Germany in the Quarters

Callumcafc said:

Think it was probably outside as well but it was so marginal that the angles weren't good enough to overturn it, thus right to stay with the on field decision IMO.

i guess. the only thing they could of done is maybe freeze framed it but that probably would of been beyond them to work out how to pause the replay.

Laddick01 said:

Dave2l said:

why on earth would we want a belgium win?

we need to win the group in order to hopefully avoid Brazil in a potential QF.

I want england to go as far as we can! Then play the big countries inevitably late on.

The later on, the better.

I think if we come second Brazil are on the other side of the draw providing they win their group

Germany could also be on the other side if Mexico win all 3, so second would be very favourable

Another reason 2nd could be favourable is Columbia and Poland not looking likely to be group winners so likely to be Senegal or Japan in the 2nd round which is much more winnable.

Good game this

I’ve no idea whether 1st or 2nd in this group will be better, as it’s not obvious in which order most of the other groups will finish in

Would be interesting to know historically how many teams have lost their first group game and still gone on to win their group - can't be many.

Manicmania said:

Would be interesting to know historically how many teams have lost their first group game and still gone on to win their group - can't be many.

Am looking into it because I'm a geek and these things fascinate me yet already

Spain lost 1-0 to Switzerland in 2010 yet won their Group

BR3red said:

North Lower Neil said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

https://twitter.com/Peter_Shilton/status/1010088837622784001

He was a keeper and Maradona about 4'3", if he'd have done his job and jumped properly then Maradona would'nt got anywhere near it anyway.

Really ?

Did you watch it live?

Look at the picture, Shilts was going to punch the ball, fatty punched it about 3 feet in front of him! The ball was 2 feet above fattys head.

Very harsh on Shilton or naive....

Great ( unbelievable in spells) player that he was and 2nd goal proved that, Maradona blatenly cheated - end of. Nothing to do with Peter "doing his job" properly.

Must be a WUM comment imo or just stated this for no reason ?

Forget Var for a second.

The modern keepers play more as sweepers in most cases now and would've been off their line much quicker than Shilton was.
From memory I always thought Ray Clemence was quicker off his line than shilton.

1StevieG said:

Tunisia seem to be getting a lot more chances than they did against us.

Laddick01 said:

Tunisia causing Belgium far more problems than they did us

The fact that Tunisia will be pretty much out if they lose is probably helping

Can't see the Germans topping their group even if they do win both their last two games (I fancy a draw with Sweden tonight which proper puts them in the dog poo).

Mexico should be getting four points from Sweden and South Korea and end up on seven.

ForeverAddickted said:

Manicmania said:

Would be interesting to know historically how many teams have lost their first group game and still gone on to win their group - can't be many.

Am looking into it because I'm a geek and these things fascinate me yet already

Spain lost 1-0 to Switzerland in 2010 yet won their Group

it's happened 3 times ever as far as I can tell (also a geek lol) spain 2010 mexico 1994 germany 1982

edit what that tells us is it's highly unlikely to happen twice in one tournament so Poland/Columbia and Germany ain't both going to do it... are they!?

CharltonMadrid said:

Four now for Lukaku to make him joint top scorer with Ronaldo. Last three golden boot winners have only got five so this one should see the highest scorer since the other Ronaldo in 2002.

Just looked Lukaku now 15/8 to be top scorer, Ronaldo gone out to 5/2

CharltonMadrid said:

Four now for Lukaku to make him joint top scorer with Ronaldo. Last three golden boot winners have only got five so this one should see the highest scorer since the other Ronaldo in 2002.

feeling pretty good about my bet on Lukaku to be golden boot winner before the tourney - wouldn't put it past him to score again in the second half here and fancy Belgium to go further into the tourney than Portugal as well.

edit wonder if he will become their penalty taker for the rest of the tournament now that he is in with a shout as well although Hazard is pretty greedy so may do the old pulling rank as the captain.

Still shouldn't threaten Just Fontaine's 13 in 1958!