World Cup 2018

[bobby1413]

Did anyone else see the tension and passive anger between Bilic and O'Neill at the end of the game?

[genome]

Admittedly I only watched it on my phone in my folks' garden but if Spain were awful wtf were Russia?

What could they realistically do though? Penalties were probably their only option with the squad they have. Spain should easily have beaten that Russian team but insisted on playing their dull brand of football rather than being direct and running at an aging and unfit Russian defence.

Baffled with their tactics - Russians looked scared whenever Spain ran at them, but they only did it about twice in the whole match. The Russian backline has an average age of about 57 - use your physical advantage!

[Old Man Andrews]

Admittedly I only watched it on my phone in my folks' garden but if Spain were awful wtf were Russia?

What could they realistically do though? Penalties were probably their only option with the squad they have. Spain should easily have beaten that Russian team but insisted on playing their dull brand of football rather than being direct and running at an aging and unfit Russian defence.

Baffled with their tactics - Russians looked scared whenever Spain ran at them, but they only did it about twice in the whole match. The Russian backline has an average age of about 57 - use your physical advantage!

Their bloody centre back retired in April and is now in a World Cup quarter final! Baffling.

Spain deserved all they got imo. For them to not at least make the semi finals in that half of the draw is unforgivable.

[tulip]

Admittedly I only watched it on my phone in my folks' garden but if Spain were awful wtf were Russia?

What could they realistically do though? Penalties were probably their only option with the squad they have. Spain should easily have beaten that Russian team but insisted on playing their dull brand of football rather than being direct and running at an aging and unfit Russian defence.

Baffled with their tactics - Russians looked scared whenever Spain ran at them, but they only did it about twice in the whole match. The Russian backline has an average age of about 57 - use your physical advantage!

I have seen it suggested that they didn't try to win on purpose by Spanish friends (Russian money).

[tulip]

Anyway I hate penalty shoot outs, can't watch them!

[Hoop Blah]

Their bloody centre back retired in April and is now in a World Cup quarter final! Baffling.

Spain deserved all they got imo. For them to not at least make the semi finals in that half of the draw is unforgivable.

This is a good example of why I've always maintained that England have had enough quality in their squads to make a good challenge at most tournaments.

Yeah you need a good slice of good fortune and momentum, but more importantly you need to play as a team and within an effective setup. Southgate seems to have gone someway to creating that environment.

[biff]

Anywhere decent to watch the Brazil game in town? Wondering if Walkabout will have a bit of atmos in the middle of the day

[6ft Kerplunk]

Love how we've all forgotten what a shambles we'd been led to believe this tournament was going to be. We've not even people moaning about how shite the ball is for once. Best World Cup for yonks. This is the most open World Cup I can remember. The big teams not being all that and others finding a bit of form means we've still got no real idea who will win*.

*obvs us or Brazil

[Old Man Andrews]

Anywhere decent to watch the Brazil game in town? Wondering if Walkabout will have a bit of atmos in the middle of the day

I reckon you'd have more of a crowd in one of the old man pubs tbh.

[bcubed]

Did anyone else see the tension and passive anger between Bilic and O'Neill at the end of the game?

Yes and Bilic was seriously pissed off that after the game they showed his reactions during the game. "Why did you show that?" he said over the clips. Any suggestion he was joking was quickly dismissed when the camera panned over to him!

[Maneki Neko]

Love how we've all forgotten what a shambles we'd been led to believe this tournament was going to be. We've not even people moaning about how shite the ball is for once. Best World Cup for yonks. This is the most open World Cup I can remember. The big teams not being all that and others finding a bit of form means we've still got no real idea who will win*.

*obvs us or Brazil

yep- this^^^


potential to be the best ever

thought that putin would have the hooligans on a tight leash for their big showpiece tournament, and its looks like that was correct

[Silver Fox]

Love how we've all forgotten what a shambles we'd been led to believe this tournament was going to be. We've not even people moaning about how shite the ball is for once. Best World Cup for yonks. This is the most open World Cup I can remember. The big teams not being all that and others finding a bit of form means we've still got no real idea who will win*.

*obvs us

Corrected for you

[Winston Biscuit]

So why are the so called big teams no longer doing it?

Just a freak world cup? smaller teams closed the gap on them?

[Sanguine]

So why are the so called big teams no longer doing it?

Just a freak world cup? smaller teams closed the gap on them?

Just a bit of a freak I think. Stats aren't everything but, for example, Germany exited the tournament having had more shots on goal than anyone. Spain's performance yesterday was the ultimate in passing football with no end result - a barely fathomable 1,114 passes, but ultimately of you replayed the game you'd expect them to win. Then you've got the draw itself, which has pitted France against Argentina and Uruguay with Portugal, at the same stage as Croatia play Denmark.

That's not that the smaller teams don't deserve credit - but for the most part I don't think they have been that much better.

Stat of the day. Not verified, but it's from the Telegraph - David De Gea made one save in the entire tournament.

[Old Man Andrews]

The fraud Neymar puts Brazil 1-0 up. Shame.

[Silver Fox]

Nice one junior! Who doesn't like to see a Brazil team flowing?

[6ft Kerplunk]

Neymar's twattishness does take a bit of the enjoyment away for me.

[Silver Fox]

That was pcunt's move by Layun, whatever your opinion on Neymar, who is obviously very fragile

[bcubed]

Presumably the view waS nothing happened of any note so why no action against Neymar?

[10539.4 Miles Away]

That was pcunt's move by Layun, whatever your opinion on Neymar, who is obviously very fragile

Agreed on Layun but also, seriously, have a look at yourself Neymar.