FIFA World Cup 2018 - GROUP G [Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England - 18/23/24/28 June] **spoilers**

Scoring 6 is one thing but conceding to that lot is an embarrassment.... especially when I had England to win BTTS - no. :mad::mad:

It was actually nice to see us put a team to the sword rather than the usual scrape 1-0 win against the duffers. Also nice to see the ref finally doing his job on corners. **** Panama, filthy cheating *****.
 
thor said:
It's not about who England will face in Group H. It's the teams that sit beyond that. If England top their group, you're probably looking at Brazil or Germany in the quarters, then France or Spain/Portugal in the semis.

If they finish second, then you're looking at the quarters being Mexico, Serbia or Switzerland. Semis would probably by Croatia or Spain/Portugal.
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Why would anyone would want to win the World Cup by taking an easy path though? I'd rather us win it by beating the best instead of giving critics the argument that we only beat one good team in the final and otherwise had an easy run in. A top team worthy of winnng the World Cup shouldn't be trying to avoid other teams through fear.

It reminds me of Marion Bartoli winning Wimbledon a few years back, she basically had an easy route to the final and Kerber who knocked out all of the best players was either too tired or bottled the final. Bartoli quickly retired because she knew it was a fluke.
 
FrankJH said:
I cant see England even drawing with Belgium, the chances we gave away yesterday were unforgivable. A 1/2 better team would have been 3-0 up before half time.

It doesn't matter how good England's forwards are if the defence and midfield are so ponderous and full of errors.

Must have left Pickford totally exposed about 1/2 a dozen times yesterday.

Saying that we were playing with 10 men given how atrocious Sterling was
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When your defence isn't being tested they make mistakes.
mmj_uk said:
Why would anyone would want to win the World Cup by taking an easy path though? I'd rather us win it by beating the best instead of giving critics the argument that we only beat one good team in the final and otherwise had an easy run in. A top team worthy of winnng the World Cup shouldn't be trying to avoid other teams through fear.

It reminds me of Marion Bartoli winning Wimbledon a few years back, she basically had an easy route to the final and Kerber who knocked out all of the best players was either too tired or bottled the final. Bartoli quickly retired because she knew it was a fluke.
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I can guarantee it never even crosses the Germans minds. Always the English mentality. We lost to Brazil in 2002 quaters which was basically the final. Germans had a much easier route to the final and got battered. We lost to the brilliance of Ronaldhino and gave them a good fight.
 
People acting like our defence is our downfall? We've conceded the same amount of goals as Belgium, against the exact same 2 teams... Just people looking for negatives, yet again.
 
Southgate has a big call to make for the final game, rest some players and risk getting beat (and knowing Belgium may rest some of theirs as well) and maybe losing some confidence, or go out to win with a mind for the side of the draw it puts them in later. Though I've seen an argument that the losing side of the draw may actually offer an easier path to the final the way things are shaping up.
 
Jokester said:
Southgate has a big call to make for the final game, rest some players and risk getting beat (and knowing Belgium may rest some of theirs as well) and maybe losing some confidence, or go out to win with a mind for the side of the draw it puts them in later. Though I've seen an argument that the losing side of the draw may actually offer an easier path to the final the way things are shaping up.
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Sport is all about momentum. In a cup competition you should go out to win every game. Don't think there are any easy sides of the draw. Mexico are the form team of the tournament so far.
 
I'm not a fan of this idea that we should lose against Belgium to get on the 'easy' side of the draw.

I'd prefer it if our inevitable defeat was to one of the bigger teams
 
"FIFA have said that England may be punished if the fans sing Anti-EU songs during their match with Belgium"

They probably hadn't even given it a thought, but you can bet there'll be a few people busy composing some now
 
adam cool dude said:
When your defence isn't being tested they make mistakes.
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Every defence should start every game wanting to keep a clean sheet no matter who they face - whether they are tested or not.

They started badly (and Panama had two decent chances early on) , and they ended badly as well - there cant be any excuses at all at this level IF they want to go far.
 
I think the game vs Belgium will give us a better idea about where we are at this tournament. We have to be realistic and say that Panama and Tunisia are two of the worst teams in the competition. I know that we are quite capable of losing or drawing to anyone once we actually need a win in a comp like the Euros or WC but neither of them has put up a good fight. We should have blown away Tunisia in our first game and Panama are not a good side and we should have scored more in the second half.

Belgium are a top side and they seem to actually be getting their **** together this tournament. I think they could win the WC with many of the other top teams misfiring.That being said, its really hard to say because the likes of Spain, Germany, Brazil etc all have the ability to pull an amazing performance out of the bag when it matters regardless of form.
 
Also have to be realistic in the sense that is also the one 2 teams Belgium have played.

I find it grossly unfair the people saying England are crap and Belgium are looking great when we have exactly the same record against the same 2 teams.

Yea Belgium might thrash us, but at the current moment in time, the teams have an equal record? Don't get me wrong, I don't think we'll win it, but some of the stick they get whilst other teams are given credit is absurd.
 
Sui said:
Also have to be realistic in the sense that is also the one 2 teams Belgium have played.

I find it grossly unfair the people saying England are crap and Belgium are looking great when we have exactly the same record against the same 2 teams.

Yea Belgium might thrash us, but at the current moment in time, the teams have an equal record? Don't get me wrong, I don't think we'll win it, but some of the stick they get whilst other teams are given credit is absurd.
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I agree but I have watched England and Belgium play and there is a fairly big difference between the two. We are capable of beating them but Belgium have always been a team full of top players performing at about 50% of their ability. England have always been a good set of players performing at 70% of their ability.

Belgium could have won their last game 10 - 2 if they put away a number of really easy chances. Batshuayi missed 3 taps ins before his goal.

I think in general we are super unfair on our national team and we make it really hard for them to do well. Other teams thrive on their support yet we are always one bad game away from people calling the current team the worst ever and asking for players to never see the England shirt again. Beat a team and that team was ****, lose or draw and we are ****.

Spain and Portugal scraped through in their group through what can only be described as awful refereeing. Ronaldo should have seen ref, Pique should have seen red and Spain got so many decisions last night it was a joke.
 
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