WORLD CUP 2018

quarky

munckee said:

Now Ronaldinho on his way home too. Uruguay and France both look good should be a good quarter. Fancy france just, pretty pleased with my sweepstake draw. 

Was he there?

Uruguay looked good, but France are way better than Portugal, so should over-power them. France/Spain final? Or can Russia's home support do enough to get them past Spain? That could be a great game too.

crunchman

quarky said:

munckee said:

Now Ronaldinho on his way home too. Uruguay and France both look good should be a good quarter. Fancy france just, pretty pleased with my sweepstake draw. 

Was he there?

Uruguay looked good, but France are way better than Portugal, so should over-power them. France/Spain final? Or can Russia's home support do enough to get them past Spain? That could be a great game too.

Spain are an old side.  They will run out of gas in the later stages playing two matches a week.  I'm not sure how strong their group was either.  I know Portugal were helped by De Gea, but they made a  lot more chances against Spain than they did against Uruguay.

I think Spain may well make the semi-final, but I'm not sure they will get further than that.   If they do somehow get to the final, they will probably get walloped, especially with an old team having a day's less rest than whoever gets through from the first semifinal.  I think Belgium or Croatia have the best chance of actually winning it from England's half of the draw.   I'd like to think England have a chance, but that may just be wishful thinking.

scrumhalf

We need an addition to the laws of the game.

If Luis Suarez of Uruguay is found to have acted deviously or in attempt to deceive the referee into awarding a free-kick to his team then the referee wil notify the captain of the opposing team that they may tackle Luis Suarez in such a way that were it not for the provisions of this Law such a tackle would be deemed punishable by a red card.

I am so sick and tired of his dying swan act every time someone brushes past him. Give him something to roll about for, the cheating chomper.

IvanMC

Messi has said goodbye, Cristiano has said goodbye, Germany have said goodbye... weird -and kind of empty now- world cup, innit?
France v Uruguay will be a riveting game to watch: Uruguay are hugely better than Argentina today. But blimey, this French kid is majestic... and unstoppable. I'm really sorry for Lionel.
Will it be a walk in the park for the Spanish to beat the home team? I think so... but footie is fickle and unpredictable.

EricTheWeary

Watched most of Spain vs Russia so far. Bit of a weird game. Spain seem to think they can win on possession and the Russians need a group trip to Specsavers. No urgency and now we’ve got extra time to see who will drop down dead first in the heat. 

JerkMoans

¡Hasta la vista, baby!

Unbelievable scenes at the Kremlin.

BigBearKris

Quarterfinals and both Spain and Germany are home. I would believe if you've told me that couple weeks ago.

joeyowen

Must be mad to bet on these games

I have literally no idea on who is going to win

JerkMoans

BigBearKris said:

Quarterfinals and both Spain and Germany are home. I would believe if you've told me that couple weeks ago.

...and Argentina.... and Portugal...

EricTheWeary

Penalty shoot outs make me so tense! 

Wow for the result though. 

joeyowen

JerkMoans said:

BigBearKris said:

Quarterfinals and both Spain and Germany are home. I would believe if you've told me that couple weeks ago.

...and Argentina.... and Portugal...

Remember Italy and Netherlands didn't even travel! 

quarky

If the favourites are going out regularly, England will have to buck that trend against Columbia, where we will be favourites... You would expect them to, but who knows in this World Cup.

EricTheWeary

Not been watching Croatia vs Denmark, I was all football outed for today by the Russia game. I noticed it was 1-1 after about 8 minutes, just put it back on and still 1-1 halfway through extra time. Right, let’s see if it goes to penalties. 

Deadman

Schmeichel!!!!!!

Ex Darlington keeper

GoldenEraGuitars

Well. That little snippet I just caught of the World Cup confirms why I dislike football as much as I do. 

EricTheWeary

...and it went to penalties. Denmark on the mega bus back to Copenhagen. 

quarky

The Norsemen didn't deserve that, but that is football. Let's hope England at least get past the next game before we have to go through a shoot-out!

scrumhalf

The penalty kick was introduced in 1891. You'd think that by now every professional footballer would know which parts of the goal to aim for so that the keeper has very little chance of reaching it, let alone saving it.

MagicPigDetective

quarky said:

If the favourites are going out regularly, England will have to buck that trend against Columbia, where we will be favourites... You would expect them to, but who knows in this World Cup.

If England are favourites it’s not by much. Colombia are only three places lower in the world rankings. Over the last year they have drawn with Brazil and Spain and beaten a strong French team 3-2 in Paris, where France beat England 3-2. England have also drawn with Spain  + Brazil in the last year. Not much between them,could be a close game 

crunchman

MagicPigDetective said:

quarky said:

If the favourites are going out regularly, England will have to buck that trend against Columbia, where we will be favourites... You would expect them to, but who knows in this World Cup.

If England are favourites it’s not by much. Colombia are only three places lower in the world rankings. Over the last year they have drawn with Brazil and Spain and beaten a strong French team 3-2 in Paris, where France beat England 3-2. England have also drawn with Spain  + Brazil in the last year. Not much between them,could be a close game 

Colombia are likely to be missing Rodriguez.  That would be like England missing Kane.

England are favourites if Rodriguez doesn't play.  Then again, Spain were favourites against Russia.  You can't take anything for granted.