Nations League & Friendlies

[Zip]

Lovely stuff from Wales tonight. Dan James outstanding. So promotion to the top League and a very good chance of a World Cup play off place if we mess up the WC qualifiers

[Ascotexgunner]

Phew, glad that's over. Thought Finland would be a bigger problem after they humiliated France a few days ago. Brilliant for the first hour, no danger sending off helped......then the sh*t management and complacency came in.
Took Bale off for some reason, Finland score 1 minute later and lost shape and the 10 men for 20 mins looked like levelling it.
Credit where credits due, love Kieffer More, always gives his all and pops up when you need him.
James and Lawrence were excellent but the right hand side of the defence and in particular Roberts just looked such a liability. We are gonna struggle in the Euros. Joe Allen always provided good cover for Gunter but we just look a mess over that side and so exposed. Roberts worst games for Wales I've seen.

[Zip]

Phew, glad that's over. Thought Finland would be a bigger problem after they humiliated France a few days ago. Brilliant for the first hour, no danger sending off helped......then the sh*t management and complacency came in.
Took Bale off for some reason, Finland score 1 minute later and lost shape and the 10 men for 20 mins looked like levelling it.
Credit where credits due, love Kieffer More, always gives his all and pops up when you need him.
James and Lawrence were excellent but the right hand side of the defence and in particular Roberts just looked such a liability. We are gonna struggle in the Euros. Joe Allen always provided good cover for Gunter but we just look a mess over that side and so exposed. Roberts worst games for Wales I've seen.

That’s harsh on Roberts. Besides we have Neco Williams who is going to be terrific. Joe Rodon was the worry tonight. He had a torrid twenty minutes against Pukki.
Overall very encouraging given we had no Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Ben Davies, David Brooks, Wayne Hennessey, Keiffer Moore or Neco William starting.

If it weren’t for their keeper we would have scored six or seven. I’m very positive about the Euros. Joe Allen should be back soon but I don’t think he will get in the side.

[Ascotexgunner]

Phew, glad that's over. Thought Finland would be a bigger problem after they humiliated France a few days ago. Brilliant for the first hour, no danger sending off helped......then the sh*t management and complacency came in.
Took Bale off for some reason, Finland score 1 minute later and lost shape and the 10 men for 20 mins looked like levelling it.
Credit where credits due, love Kieffer More, always gives his all and pops up when you need him.
James and Lawrence were excellent but the right hand side of the defence and in particular Roberts just looked such a liability. We are gonna struggle in the Euros. Joe Allen always provided good cover for Gunter but we just look a mess over that side and so exposed. Roberts worst games for Wales I've seen.

That’s harsh on Roberts. Besides we have Neco Williams who is going to be terrific. Joe Rodon was the worry tonight. He had a torrid twenty minutes against Pukki.
Overall very encouraging given we had no Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen, Ben Davies, David Brooks, Wayne Hennessey, Keiffer Moore or Neco William starting.

If it weren’t for their keeper we would have scored six or seven. I’m very positive about the Euros. Joe Allen should be back soon but I don’t think he will get in the side.

I worry and Allen on the injury front, and the fact Ramsay wasn't getting any game time. Ramsay's move to Juve was great financially but footballwise a disaster, though now that old bore Sarri has been fired Pirlo seems to be starting to get the best out of him again. Agree about Rodon, for someone so highly rated he seems to switch off at times.

[URZZZZ]

Phew, glad that's over. Thought Finland would be a bigger problem after they humiliated France a few days ago. Brilliant for the first hour, no danger sending off helped......then the sh*t management and complacency came in.
Took Bale off for some reason, Finland score 1 minute later and lost shape and the 10 men for 20 mins looked like levelling it.
Credit where credits due, love Kieffer More, always gives his all and pops up when you need him.
James and Lawrence were excellent but the right hand side of the defence and in particular Roberts just looked such a liability. We are gonna struggle in the Euros. Joe Allen always provided good cover for Gunter but we just look a mess over that side and so exposed. Roberts worst games for Wales I've seen.

Think Bale was taken off because of a certain Jose if I’m being honest

[Sanguine]

Lukaku now has 46 goals in his last 47 games for Belgium dating back to the start of 2016.
He is only 27, and has 57 international goals - will surely threaten whatever record Ronaldo ends up setting.

[Stranded]

Lovely stuff from Wales tonight. Dan James outstanding. So promotion to the top League and a very good chance of a World Cup play off place if we mess up the WC qualifiers

Unless 2 of France, Belgium, Italy and Spain screw up qualifying so badly they finish 3rd or lower in their group then Wales are guaranteed a WC play-off place.

Am liking the new play-off format as well - 12 teams in 2 straight knock-out rounds so that 3 teams qualify.

[Zip]

Lovely stuff from Wales tonight. Dan James outstanding. So promotion to the top League and a very good chance of a World Cup play off place if we mess up the WC qualifiers

Unless 2 of France, Belgium, Italy and Spain screw up qualifying so badly they finish 3rd or lower in their group then Wales are guaranteed a WC play-off place.

Am liking the new play-off format as well - 12 teams in 2 straight knock-out rounds so that 3 teams qualify.

Yep and whilst the Nations League receives plenty of criticism there was at least something riding on last night’s game. It’s a big deal for Wales to qualify for a World Cup Finals So last night’s win and a likely play off spot is worthwhile.

[Simmops]

Lukaku now has 46 goals in his last 47 games for Belgium dating back to the start of 2016.
He is only 27, and has 57 international goals - will surely threaten whatever record Ronaldo ends up setting.

Ronaldo scores against joke teams though

[Sanguine]

Lukaku now has 46 goals in his last 47 games for Belgium dating back to the start of 2016.
He is only 27, and has 57 international goals - will surely threaten whatever record Ronaldo ends up setting.

Ronaldo scores against joke teams though

Every international striker gets goals against 'joke teams'. Lukaku has five against Iceland, and three against each of Cyprus, Luxembourg and Gibraltar, and two against San Marino. Hasn't scored against France, Germany, Italy or Spain (total seven games).

[Winston Biscuit]

Lukaku now has 46 goals in his last 47 games for Belgium dating back to the start of 2016.
He is only 27, and has 57 international goals - will surely threaten whatever record Ronaldo ends up setting.

Ronaldo scores against joke teams though

Was about to dispute this, but looking at his international goals there really is a whole load of sh*t opponents in there https://www.uefa.com/european-qualifiers/news/0257-0e001aafb4e9-7c6ad3889ce0-1000--all-ronaldo-s-portugal-goals/

Maybe everyone's records are mostly made up of sh*t opponents though, because there are more of them than good opponents. Still, everyone else plays sh*t teams too so you could ask why their numbers are not as good as his?

53 in 53 for him since 2013 in competitive games

[Sanguine]

That's the crux of it - everyone plays crap teams, and in the last 20 years there have been more competitive games (i.e. in competition, not necessarily against great opponents) than ever before. Gary Lineker's 49 England goals stood as a record for a long time - it included 25 goals in friendlies, and his total included 4 against Malaysia and 6 against Turkey (when they were shite). That's not to denigrate Lineker's record, but it's the nature of international football that goalscorers score goals against sub-standard teams.

[Sanguine]

I've taken to looking at goalscoring records backwards - how many games has Ronaldo played against the better sides, and how many goals has he scored? List below of games against the traditional 'better' sides, and goals scored. His record in that respect is surprisingly poor. In fact, it's pretty awful.

Spain 6 (3)
France 5
Germany 4
Brazil 4
Belgium 4 (3)
Netherlands 4 (2)
England 4
Italy 3
Argentina 2 (1)

A combined 36 caps against the traditional 'big 8', plus Belgium, who I added owing to their emergence as a competitive team in the last decade - and Ronaldo has just 9 goals in those 36 games, of which 3 were his World Cup group-stage hat-trick against Spain. He is yet to score in a combined 16 games against France, Germany, England and Italy, and that Spain match in 2018 is the only game in 22 against major European opposition in which he has scored. Remarkable really.

This is interesting too.
https://soccernet.ng/2019/11/ronaldos-9 ... ssive.html

Now whilst players of course can't choose which teams they face, and Messi's opponents will broadly be 'better' as he'll play more games against South American sides, the distinction between their records is striking. 26% of Messi's 70 international goals (at the time this was written) have come against sides in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings, and 80% against teams in the top 50. For Ronaldo, the numbers are just 8% vs. the top 10, and 28% against the top 50. So 70 of Ronaldo's international goals have come against low-ranked sides.

[Sanguine]

As an immediate comparison, Rooney's record (replacing England with Portugal) is equally poor.

France 4 (1)
Portugal 3
Netherlands 2
Brazil 3 (2)
Germany 2
Spain 2
Argentina 1 (1)
Belgium 1
Italy 3

21 caps, 4 goals against those sides. I find this interesting - might spend some time looking for players with good records against the better teams.

[Hendo]

As an immediate comparison, Rooney's record (replacing England with Portugal) is equally poor.

France 4 (1)
Portugal 3
Netherlands 2
Brazil 3 (2)
Germany 2
Spain 2
Argentina 1 (1)
Belgium 1
Italy 3

21 caps, 4 goals against those sides. I find this interesting - might spend some time looking for players with good records against the better teams.

Think someone like Owen would have a decent record against scoring against the better sides.

[Sanguine]

Funnily enough he was second on my list. First hunch was Zlatan, but he's barely scored a goal against anyone worthy bar Denmark.

Owen played 22 times against those opposition, scoring just 5 goals, of which three of course came in Germany, and one that famous strike against Argentina when he was 11 years old.

[6ft Kerplunk]

The way the European teams qualify for World Cup and European Champs mean you can go two years without playing against a decent team. When you met a decent team its generally in the knock out stages when free flowing goal scoring matches aren't that common.

[Winston Biscuit]

Sky have been showing Kazakhstan Vs Moldova live this afternoon.

Highlights were:

Commentator pronouncing Kazakstan by emphasising the 2nd syllable which made it sound weird

It went to a penalty shoot out and the Kazakh keeper pulled off a stunningly brilliant save

After a Moldova miss the Kazakh keeper clearly thought they were through and jumped around celebrating, only to realise there was another one to go and he quickly stopped and looked all serious again

[fartdad]

Glad to see England show support for Ukraine can’t wait to see them in Qatar

[Sanguine]

5 (FIVE!) goals for Messi as Argentina thrash Estonia 5-0. Takes him to 86 international goals and past Puskas (84) into 4th on the all-time list.

Argentina closing in on three years unbeaten - since losing 2-0 to Brazil at the 2019 Copa America, they have gone 33 games without defeat. Italy's record, set last year, is 37 games unbeaten.