FIFA World Cup 2018 - GROUP D [Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria - 16/21/22/26 June] **spoilers**

In the end is it that surprising? How many top players are in this Nigeria team? They have a Watford reject who is now playing in China up front.

The only way they look like scoring is Moses successfully cheats and wins a penalty.
 
Shamikebab said:
In the end is it that surprising? How many top players are in this Nigeria team? They have a Watford reject who is now playing in China up front.
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Did you see them against Argentina?

They look like a completely different team today. It almost seems like they're short on confidence or told to not lose rather than go for the win.
 
explicit4u said:
Did you see them against Argentina?

They look like a completely different team today. It almost seems like they're short on confidence or told to not lose rather than go for the win.
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Even against England the other day they had more about them. That was just so poor.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
I'd fancy Croatia to beat Argentina on that performance and Nigeria spanked them a few months ago, might not even qualify from the group and they wouldn't be missed.

Feel sorry for Messi, the pressure on him is so much higher than any other footballer and he missed the penalty. The Argentinians expect to win every tournament and they simply don't have the team capable of winning without Messi performing at the very highest level.
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Any other footballer? Ronaldo scored 2 for the team, got them the lead and had the team trailing 3-2 and scored a cracker. Messi got a IMO strange penalty, both players really just running for the spot, neither had the ball, either way he took a rubbish penalty. I don't see how he has more pressure.

Ronaldo is the big name of the moment and imo the Portuguese side has far far far less talent in it than Argentina does.

Personally I felt like Barcelona have more balance and don't play purely for Messi while Argentina seem set up to give Messi as much of the ball as they can. He slowed down so many attacks by spending ages trying to find an angle to shoot before resorting to a pass rather than making the pass and keeping the flowing movement that Barcelona has. As said I think there are far better players in the Argentina side and they are limiting themselves too much by playing for Messi and letting him do anything he wants. Barca while he's by far and away their best player he grew up alongside other great players who were huge names so Barca never became solely focused on Messi.

I think Portugal play similarly but have much less quality, particularly in offence, so they have to rely on Ronaldo where as Argentina could play less focused on Messi and they just don't.

Even the actual chances, Messi had a penalty, a relatively very easy chance and fairly early in the game so it wasn't make or break. Ronaldo at 3-2 down with a freekick having been meh at them for a very long time and late in the game where it's utterly critical he scores or they'll lose?
 
Argentina's team is so stacked that Serie A top scorer Icardi doesn't even make the squad! Ronaldo has far more pressure on him imo and he's achieved a lot more with a much weaker team.
 
One of the issues with argentina is tbe setup to cater for Messi does not get the best out of others. With the attacking talent they have, should be carving teams apart.
Of course not saying to drop messi, more team focus/mentality piece
 
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