World Cup 2018

[Brum Royal]

Asian groups are going as per the norm (aus, japan etc) as is South America.

Two friends of mine who are travelling through Uzbekistan at the moment went to the Uzbekistan v Syria qualifier the other day, a 1-0 win for the home side I think.

[double d]

Absolutely cracking goal from the Georgian game.

[Winston Smith]

Asian groups are going as per the norm (aus, japan etc) as is South America.

Two friends of mine who are travelling through Uzbekistan at the moment went to the Uzbekistan v Syria qualifier the other day, a 1-0 win for the home side I think.

Interesting time to be in Uzbekistan!

[Stranded]

Ended up watching 2nd half of Bulgaria v Luxembourg tonight. Cracking last 30 mins. Lux turn around a 1-0 ht score with 2 goals in 3 mins only for Bulgaria to go 3-2 up.

Lux equalise in the 90th minute only to see Bulgaria snatch it with an even later 4th.

[double d]

Ended up watching 2nd half of Bulgaria v Luxembourg tonight. Cracking last 30 mins. Lux turn around a 1-0 ht score with 2 goals in 3 mins only for Bulgaria to go 3-2 up.

Lux equalise in the 90th minute only to see Bulgaria snatch it with an even later 4th.

Curse BT and their lack of Red Button on Sky Sports.

Side note.... in the last few years it has seemed to me a lot of minnows (bar San Marino but even they drew a few years back) have started to up their game. Norn Ireland, Iceland, Albania, Armenia are now winning games regularly. Luxembourg seem to score a few goals and actually seem to start winning games now. Faroe Islands drew today, and last qualifying pretty sure they beat a big team. Even bloody Gibraltar scored again!
Let alone the fact that Kosovo (or Switzerland reserves as my mate called them) actually drew their first proper game. I know these teams will never be on par with even the likes of R.O.I, Sweden etc but its nice to see.

[Brum Royal]

Watched the second half of Sweden v Netherlands on ITV4 last night. Decent game, the Dutch having to go for it having been 1-0 down at HT and got a well deserved equaliser and had another harshly chalked off in injury time for a (non existant imo) push on the defender.

[stealthpapes]

Asian groups are going as per the norm (aus, japan etc) as is South America.

Two friends of mine who are travelling through Uzbekistan at the moment went to the Uzbekistan v Syria qualifier the other day, a 1-0 win for the home side I think.

Nice.

[Ascotexgunner]

Gunter having a stinker in Austria. We are 2-1 up but I reckon if they target him they will be back in this.

[Ascotexgunner]

FFS Gunter.

[Sutekh]

So, then, how long will it take England to break down a Malta team effective playing a 7-3-0 formation.

They are going to get crucified in the media if they don't win by a minimum of 4 goals.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Maltas' best player being their GK (31 yo and worthy of a contract in Championship/L1/L2?) thus far......can only see an England win 6+

[Sutekh]

Question. How the **** is Lingard in the team and ahead of Rashford?

All in all pretty turgid 2nd half. Guess it's going to be even worse in Slovenia.

[AthleticoSpizz]

"Messi of Malta" Michael Mifsud comes on.....aged 35

Only 2-0 after 80 minutes, this all a bit disappointing...in an England way.

[Ascotexgunner]

Same old same old. What does Rooney offer now?
If they can't score against Malta, teams like Iceland must always fancy their chances

[bobby1413]

For ages now I've been baffled by Rooney being captain.

Evening he scored a hattrick ever game is he really captain material?

I said to my m8 a captain should have something about them. Charisma, intelligence, an ability to speak naturally and inspire.

Can only imagine Rooney's pep talks "alright lads, so errrrr, this is a big game yea ... We've got to win it. Be passionate and mmmmm give it your all".

Henderson or Hart are two more natural leaders IMO (them two just spring to mind. There's other better options probably)

[AthleticoSpizz]

As bad as Malta were, we matched them in virtually every position on occasions. Two or three decent moves squandered by p1ss poor final balls/execution.

We have paid our way into this situation in the PL....and the long-term future aint looking too good

[Muskrat]

At least it was a victory and at least we won...

[AthleticoSpizz]

massive

[Ascotexgunner]

For ages now I've been baffled by Rooney being captain.

Evening he scored a hattrick ever game is he really captain material?

I said to my m8 a captain should have something about them. Charisma, intelligence, an ability to speak naturally and inspire.

Can only imagine Rooney's pep talks "alright lads, so errrrr, this is a big game yea ... We've got to win it. Be passionate and mmmmm give it your all".

Henderson or Hart are two more natural leaders IMO (them two just spring to mind. There's other better options probably)

For me it should be newish face. I have to say I like Eric Dier. I think he has a lot to offer. As far as Rooney goes they should wave goodbye and move on. I don't know what it is with England but they constantly pick players on reputation who never deliver and always try and shoehorn them in the team or system and it always ends in tears.

[Royal Rother]

Nothing changes.