Brilliant game to watch. France were much better and you'd be foolish to think their defence is bad just off conceding 3. They're the most complete side in the tournament and have to be favourites.
France were poor throughout the group stage........but it doesn't matter. If you can 'play your way into the tournament' and hit the latter stage when you're flying, you've got every chance. They're not perfect but have enough really good players to beat anyone.
As the post-mortem begins in earnest, possibly literally if Sampaoli returns home without armed guards, one question has to be asked about where the quality throughout the team went Look at the 2006 squad: Crespo and Saviola up front with promising youngsters Messi and Tevez waiting in the wings, Riquelme and Aimar pulling the strings, maxi Rodriguez offering width on the right while Sorin marauding up from left back offered width on the left, Mascherano and Cambiasso holding down midfield, with Ayala, Coloccini and Heinze in defence and a ****e goalkeeper was a damn good squad and they were capable of playing some glorious football, notably their demolition of Serbia & Montenegro. Now look at their squad for this year's tournament. None of their centre backs are on a par with Ayala, Coloccini or Heinze, Mascherano's a fading force so couldn't hold down midfield like he did twelve years before and there wasn't any other option who could do so in the squad, Di Maria isn't the assist machine he was even a couple of seasons ago so isn't able to create something out of nothing, while Mercado and Rojo don't offer the width that Rodriguez and Sorin did - although their keeper's still ****e. Argentina need to do what Germany did back in 2006 and start from scratch. There's some damn good prospects in both the Primeira Division and abroad, notably Cristian Pavon, Lautaro Martinez, Matias Vargas, Santiago Ascacibar, Ezequiel Barco (and, dare I say it, Juan Foyth) and some of these plays need to be nurtured into a cohesive team, because the last two World Cups have shown Messi can't score and create everything and hope his teammates catch up
So far, it's not been a World Cup for 'seasoned internationals' and possession football. Maybe Portugal or Spain will prosper where Germany and Argentina have failed but I reckon that the younger, more dynamic, faster sides will do better. France attacked at such pace that Argentina suffered in the way that Germany did against Mexico. Gareth Southgate has gone for the right set up with Lingard, Sterling, Alli and Rashford and trying to inject real pace into the attacks rather than trying to keep the ball and build methodically from a midfield that we just don't have. The issue is whether our players are good enough to pull it off. If Sterling could shoot on target and Rose hadn't been so unfit, we might have had a shot at it, despite the decidedly iffy defence and goalkeeper.
They've had 2 players at the World Cup. Kouyate's gone home already. Little Pea[nis] has stayed in Russia for the knockout phase [just] and will probably do so after the tournament..........as he's no desire to return to 'Stratford' and Dildo Brothers FC. I'm going for a ""Non" to that one.
Just when I thought that feckin’ Portugal - and that twat Pepe - would get back into it, Cavani proves he’s a decent striker!
Nah, they will probably invite the Germans back under the guise of an EU 'wild-card' to punish the English for Brexit and allow Messi to guest as he has spent enough time living in Europe to qualify.
One problem with that loophole: Messi's lineage is Italian, and they failed to qualify so that closes the loophole
Interesting lip reading the oily one there, and his choice of which language to use (english). Obviously the ref didn't understand f#ck you, or the card may have been red.
