All countries at the World Cup are decent (bar Saudi Arabia). Tunisia are definitely not shoddy, and Belgium should have had 7 or 8 goals today against them. Brazil struggled to beat Costa Rica. Puts Belgium's performances into perspective.
Fair comment, but even when they played badly they still put 3 in. After today i'd say they are favourites. Or at least 2nd favourites after Germany. No one else seems to be setting the world alight.
Fair comment, but even when they played badly they still put 3 in. After today i'd say they are favourites. Or at least 2nd favourites after Germany. No one else seems to be setting the world alight. I'd absolutely love that. Just scarred from previous tournaments.
Only if it's Germany 1st & Brazil 2nd (which is somewhat unlikely). If it's Germany 2nd & Brazil 1st (which is the much more likely way round), then the winner of our group has that match-up to potentially look forward to in the QFs. Given that we're the last group to play our final round of matches, we'll know whether resting our entire XI against Belgium is worthwhile.
I'd expect it from Belgium (and, indeed, I believe Martinez has even said that - not that that necessarily means anything). But I'm in two minds as to whether expect it from us. Belgium's depth is better than ours, and I wonder if Southgate might want to try and put a marker down by winning all the group games and winning the group. (But if coming second means avoiding Brazil AND Germany, then hopefully we would indeed play that reserve match. In all honestly, I'm not going to get fussed about which team we would play in the final group in the last 16.)
Yeah, if things finish as they are, the Round of 16 would look like: Top half: Russia vs. Portugal France vs. Nigeria (but possibly Argentina) Brazil vs. Germany Belgium vs. Senegal Bottom half: Uruguay vs. Spain Denmark vs. Croatia Switzerland vs. Mexico England vs. Japan All due deference to the team in the bottom half, but I know where I'd want to be.
Ignoring the sides in group H (it's too early to get a feeling for what order they will finish in - and besides, as I say, I don't see any of them as a threat anyway), the only changes I can see from those potential match-ups are the sides in groups A and B. You could very easily switch around Russia and Uruguay, and/or Portugal and Spain. Quite which two I would rather see in our half, assuming we are in the bottom half, I'm not too sure - especially given that a QF match-up for them against Denmark or Croatia would given them a great opportunity to make the SF.
People always look ahead in these tournaments....that's why they issue nice charts to fill in. Incidentally this will the first World Cup in living memory that I haven't had a chart on the wall....perhaps it's a sign that we will win.
IIRC you said this World Cup would be made even better by VAR. Oh no, sorry, you said it would be ruined.
I guess to put it simplistically, the two big names who are struggling the most - Germany and Argentina - are two of the big boys who are "meant" to be in the bottom half. Dropping them into the top half, or out of the competition altogether, totally transforms the bottom half into, well somewhere you want to be.
