Although nothing is certain as we've just witnessed, it looks like the Swiss are in a good position to win their group with (probably) Brazil as runners-up. If so, I guess England want to win their group which by my reckoning could deliver a quarter-final against Switzerland or Mexico if all goes well.  

You're welcome Mexico :P

1 hour ago, Krc-fan said:

f**k!

Just for you 

I loved everything about this goal. Gazza's run, his free kick, Platt's sublime volley , the celebrations, Linekar's face, Gazza and Bobby Robson. 

This is true as they rarely get tested playing for Bayern, only in the CL so I can see them being complacent

I feel they need to rethink their whole policy regarding Bayern calling dibs on the best German players. Only 7 out of 23 playing outside the Bundesliga, with 8 playing for Bayern who have won the league 6 times consecutively. Surely they need to encourage their players to test themselves outside the league.

I hope they take this better than they did in 1938.

6 hours ago, goose said:

The guy looks a mess. Does he really know what’s he’s doing and why. I took it that maybe he was getting a bit of stick and that was to the Nigerian fans but who knows what goes on in there. 

Hes a bit like Best, I hero on the football field but during some of his drunken antics I found him an embarrassment.

 

4 hours ago, charierre said:

Both incredibly skilled but ultimately flawed genius.

We can probably add Gazza to that list too. Probably the most skilled English player in my lifetime.

On 23/06/2018 at 21:06, ForeverCarefree said:

I know they just won but is Low paying for being too loyal players that have played for him in previous tournaments?

Boatang looks a shadow of his former self. Reus made less than 20 appearances this season, Gomez had only scored 9 goals this season. Not taking Sane seems so bizarre. 

Just coming back to this after Germany’s last game... seems to ring even more true.

Low didn’t even know what his best team was, the amount of rotation he went through in the three games was ridiculous.

The decision to not take Sane now just seems to smack of arogance more than anything.

As Gary Neville would say : UNBELIEVABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited June 27, 20188 yr by Londonisblue

5 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Just coming back to this after Germany’s last game... seems to ring even more true.

Low didn’t even know what his best team was, the amount of rotation he went through in the three games was ridiculous.

The decision to not take Sane now just seems to smack of arogance more than anything.

True. I think they are also missing a top quality striker who can put away all those chances they missed in this WC.

DON'T MENTION THE VAR..... I did earlier but I think I got away with it.... 

the hero of the WC so far : VAR.

24 minutes ago, dkw said:

DON'T MENTION THE VAR..... I did earlier but I think I got away with it.... 

When the Koreans scored the radio commentator said "the Germans want VAR"  

1 hour ago, charierre said:

Just for you 

I loved everything about this goal. Gazza's run, his free kick, Platt's sublime volley , the celebrations, Linekar's face, Gazza and Bobby Robson. 

Not deserved.

The saying is that world cup performances can add some 0's to a players price tag but I feel like more players values have gone down after it

Fagner is absolutely woeful - I'm surprised he's in the team ahead of Danilo.

Football really has gone downhill hasn't it. The quality no longer there. Once Messi and Ronaldo leave, god knows who will take the reins and become the elites. This is the problem with so much money at a young age, youth players have no desire to work harder and improve because they're already multi-millionaires after 6 months at 18/19. 

So Brazil top group E.

i still think finishing second will probably be an easier path to finishing first. As, we avoid the likes of Brazil, France, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, untill the semi finals.

 

I'm still struck by how many games feature past and present Chelsea players - even Felipe Luis tonight for Brazil. It just shows what a great club in international football Chelsea has been over the last decade and how fortunate we have all been as Chelsea supporters to witness this period in the club's history.   

So if Japan and Columbia win their afternoon games tomorrow, the winner of England v Belgium faces Columbia and then Brazil/Mexico, the loser faces Japan and then Sweden/Switzerland.

Abba got it wrong, the winner doesn't take it all.

 

Saw a fair bit of Serbia and Brazil, Brazil's first was a clever goal and Serbia at times played good football in pushing for an equaliser yet once Brazil got the second it appeared one-sided. 

In the 2nd half after the second Serbia looked exhausted and struggled to get enough up the pitch to support their forward players who lacked a bit of quality.

Willian played well.

 

I think all that should be on England’s mind is winning tomorrow without looking at different permutations of what ifs. I’d imagine that is what Southgate is telling his team as well. Make winning a habit.

Shocked to see Germany's only striker option off the bench is Gomez, thought he retired until I saw him in the Mexico game. We have seen it so many times in the league, a possession based team who doesn't have a good striker will suffer against a compact defensive team with fast players. Don't think Sane would have made the difference, they put in enough good crosses for someone to knock it into the net, just couldn't finish the chances off. I had no idea why they started with Ozil again, they played one of their better game without him last round.

3 hours ago, goose said:

I think all that should be on England’s mind is winning tomorrow without looking at different permutations of what ifs. I’d imagine that is what Southgate is telling his team as well. Make winning a habit.

I wouldn't mind if England lost tomorrow, or draw the game and get more yellow cards than Belgium so we finish 2nd in the group. Avoiding Portugal, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, France and Argentina at least gives us a realistic chance of playing in a semi final. 

Edited June 28, 20188 yr by Scott Harris

4 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Saw a fair bit of Serbia and Brazil, Brazil's first was a clever goal and Serbia at times played good football in pushing for an equaliser yet once Brazil got the second it appeared one-sided. 

In the 2nd half after the second Serbia looked exhausted and struggled to get enough up the pitch to support their forward players who lacked a bit of quality.

Willian played well.

 

Serbia didn't have the experience for that game, the backline Milenkovic from Fiorentina is only 20 years old and Veljkovic is 22 years old - compared to such an experienced duo of Thiago Silva and Miranda there is a big experience gap.
Then Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is also young, 23 years old and this tournament was his first ever for the first national team, IMO Matic that is a veteran didn't take any responsibility for the squad he only passed the ball back to the centre backs and left all responsibility for creating something on Sergej that had no prior experience for the national team at this stage.

Serbia played well considering all that and challenged Brazil that scored twice but didn't dominate the game, in the end the subs of Serbia, Zivkovic (21 years old) Jovic (20 years old) Radonjic (22 years old) are the players that represent the new generation.

In the end of the day Kolarov showed up as the captain and did well and honestly the opposition players were kicking the sh*t out of Mitrovic every single game, just this game against Brazil Miranda kicked him in the leg very hard and Silva almost kicked him in the head but he doesn't fake it and keeps playing, I prefer him playing fairly and like a man than that bread stick Neymar that acts out as if a hurricane hit him every time he's touched, they said that he is the most fouled player at this WC but no sh*t he is faking it half of the time...

3 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Then Sergej Milinkovic-Savic is also young, 23 years old and this tournament was his first ever for the first national team, 



 

Amazing player.

One of our best Genk youth player ever.