World cup fever - few predictions!?

Winner = Can see no further than Brazil. Look a class apart this time.

Surprise packages =

I think a few will surprise people / maybe go better than thought -
* Croatia's midfield looks very good. Can see them winning their group which involves Argentina.
* Peru - wouldn't be at all surprised if they made at least the quarters.
* Tunisia - yep, gone and said it. I can see them causing problems to us / Belgium. Will they qualify? Perhaps not. But nowhere near in my mind as bad as people say.....
* Colombia to a degree - although ranked highly by many. Lack of a striker killed them in Brazil last time. Falcao back amongst it and Bacca playing well. Could do very nicely.

Flops =
* Spain. Change of manager will prove fatal.
* Belgium. All that talent and and absolute melt incharge. Play 3 CBs and sooooo open defensively. A waste.
* France - I don't think Deschamps knows his best side at all. Plenty of talent..... can see internal issues from Les Blues. Probably won't happen but I wouldn't be at all shocked if Denmark + Peru sent Les Blues out in the group.

Should be a good tournament!

 

France or the mighty Germans for me!

 

Winner: France. Nailed on.

Surprise package: Croatia to make the final.

Also fancy: England and Belgium.

Flops: Germany, Argentina.

England: Harry Kane to win the Golden boot and the team to just miss out on the top prize but to return as heroes.

 

My prediction is France to win the whole thing..

I will also predict:
Mexico being a surprise package, maybe even pushing Germany to top the group & making the QF at very least.
Portugal not making out of their group
Peru being everyone second favourite side and making the Quarters

 

I'm hearing a lot of talk about Peru, not just on here, but in real life too - do people know something that i don't?

I've said all along, this is the most open WC i've known in ages, so many teams can genuinely win it.
Uruguay are my outside tip to go far (maybe not win it, but can see them getting to semis).
Argentina would be my tip to win, but only if everything goes their way - if not, they lose the plot easily (but you can never write any team off with Messi and Aguero and Higuain).
In saying all that, i really hope we have an outsider win, someone who's never won it before, would make it so much more interesting other than the usual suspects.
As for England - couldn't give a monkeys if they win it or come last, they bore me to sleep every game

 

England to Win........

 

Against Tunisia? Who do you think will lift the trophy Weighty?

 

I must admit to enjoying the fact that Italy won't be there.. It's always fun to watch when some of the big names don't qualify.

Would have been hilarious if Argentina hadn't scraped through.. A world cup without Italy, Holland and Argentina would have been quite something.

 

England

 

https://au.soccerway.com/teams/peru/peru/1645/

Unbeaten since 2016, conceded 1 in last 5 and defensively a bloody pain to play. Have a few nippy flair players at the other end. Absolute defensive masterclass away at Argentina in a crunch game which pushed the massively overrated and all over the shop Argies to the brink of exit.

* Disclaimer - Argentina, like Portugal make a mountain out of a molehill with qualification. They seem to come alive at will.

 

I predict Saudi Arabia to go out at the Group stage...

 

Cannot wait for Portugal v Spain tomorrow. Has the ingredients to be quality.

Sidenote - who is more sly in the tackle!? Pepe or Ramos. Least there's a couple of non wet cb's left....

 

I didn't see Peru v Denmark - great result for Denmark that.

France were horrific vs Aus - they should improve though.

Been a good world cup so far. Far better than South Africa, more goals than Brazil. Dare I say, the best since France 98.

 

You could say Peru were desperately unlucky or you could say Denmark have the best defence we have seen so far.. both would be true.

Some wonderful moments from Peru, they were relentless in the second half but couldn't get past Schmeichel. Both of these teams are capable of getting to the latter stages of the tournament.

I really enjoyed 2010. 2014 was the most disappointing World Cup to date. 1994, 1998, 2002 were all thrilling World Cups and so far I would agree this is looking good. This is the strongest World Cup I think there has ever been in terms of the middle and even some of the supposedly weaker teams being competitive.

 

And isn't it great that all the big boys are stuttering (ok, only one game played), and id love to see teams like Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica ...teams that go for the win, get far in the tournament . I've always cheered on the underdog ..probably why I'm a tractor boy!

 

It's been a pretty good tournament so far. Somewhat disappointingly, I missed the Portugal vs Spain six-goal thriller as I was flying back from Athens, but I've been impressed by the standard of football in most of the games, despite the lack of goals. Mexico's 1-0 win over Germany was encouraging, and following draws for both Argentina and Brazil in games they were heavily tipped to win, it's good to see there is still the potential for upsets despite the perception that there is a massive gap between the heavyweights and minnows in the international game.

I think England will sneak a narrow 2-0 win over Tunisia tonight. After our exit to Iceland in EURO 2016, and our fairly poor record in international competitions over the last decade, I don't think we can expect to walk the match against Tunisia, they'll be tough opponents to break down who will be happy with a draw.

 

Great result, poor game.
Thought we played well up until the goal but the 'keeper going down injured shortly after really stopped all the momentum we had and it was pretty flat after that. Sterling was poor and doesn't warrant inclusion in the starting eleven.
Walker is wasted at the back as I consider him to be our best attacking full back and I miss seeing him driving down the flank, he's even more direct than Trippier.
Second half we tried to play too many passes in the final third instead of just bloody shooting.

Should've had more goals in the first half and two penalties on Kane that weren't given. Thought Loftus-Cheek was good and I wish Oxlade-Chamberlain was fit.

A win is a win but it wasn't very convincing

 

I don't like to criticise the officials, as I'm aware they have a difficult job, but last night's referee was shockingly bad. The penalty decision against Kyle Walker was debatable, but swinging your elbow around like that in the area is not wise so no complaints there. The fact the referee avoided two clear fouls on Harry Kane in the area was disappointing, particularly with VAR in place to supposedly highlight and eradicate these oversights.

Regarding England, I thought we played relatively well but lacked composure in front of goal and in the second half we played rather sterile possession football. I do enjoy the more continental style of football that Southgate is encouraging this team to play, as we actually have several technically proficient players in the squad who usually look comfortable with the ball at their feet. Not so much last night though as we had several brilliant opportunities that players were guilty of missing. I thought Trippier, Henderson, and Kane all put in our best performances. Sterling had a poor game, but I think he is a confidence player and I'd start him against Panama in the hope of seeing an improved performance, as he has arguably been one of the best players in the Premier League last season. Lingard looked troublesome and Alli was creating chances, I just feel the way we are set up means that we can only accommodate one good finisher (Kane), who fortunately on this occasion had two chances and took them both.

 

Nuggets... I thought the ref generally had a really poor game last night - he was turning a blind eye to everything. There was an incident when Trippier was trying to take a free kick deep into the second half and was being harassed by his opponent who should have been booked.

On balance I thought everyone was excellent. It's impossible to be objective when watching an England World Cup game unfold because we all have that fear factor. There were a few things that I felt Gareth needs to work on though:

* Harry Kane was wandering wide and deep so he wasn't on the end of the majority of our chances.
* Young was smothered down the left too easily, when we are playing a high energy game we need Rose's pace down the left and ability to put crosses in.
* Young should never take our free kicks when we have many better options.
* Yes we missed chances but I'm sure it was first game nerves - we don't want to lose opportunities by taking an extra touch.
* Substitutions were much too late Mick McCarthy style, Gareth needs to be more decisive - all top managers make changes around 60 minutes if momentum is against them.

There is a strange trend in this tournament of playing the exact amount of stoppage time on the board, which means if you want to run the clock down managers can make any unused substitutions after 90 minutes.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed the Argentina v Croatia match last night.Despite some slightly dodgy moments at the back I thought Croatia looked one of the strongest sides in the tournament so far,but Argentina were woeful despite the wealth of talent available to them.Modric and Rakitic were especially impressive.