Called it. From the start of the tournament. No one is winning anything with a midfield that Adrien Rabiot starts in. Spain kept Mbappe central and Dembele wide, completely neutered them.

Anyway @just you might want to pick up some fireworks for yourself for Sunday. This Spain team will not beat Tuchel-ball. Get ready for the most dour, unsatisfactory WC final.

2 minutes ago, El regreso said:

France lost the battle in the midfield and never recovered at all.

No one is beating this Spain team.

That’s what everyone has been saying about France for three weeks. They might do a France in the final and go to bits.

Incidentally, how come the Spain team aren’t doing a karaoke Y Viva Espana with their supporters?

13 minutes ago, El regreso said:

We sold the best left back in the world and possible world cup winner.

Not the best, but nowhere near what some people on this forum made him out to be.

I'm half expecting Hato to be the next Ashley Cole this season because of it.

1 minute ago, strider6004 said:

A master clusterfxxk from France.

Spain looked decent though France's forwards were so poor.

Yamal could have gone for 3 yellows by my count.

Noticed in the first half Spain's defenders went narrow to close down the through ball yet France never went round the outside, brain dead when things don't go their way.

The French teams are well known for having fall outs amongst each other. Wonder if there was a bit of scrap pre match

10 minutes ago, just said:

Shame about the date.

23 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

A master clusterfxxk from France.

Spain looked decent though France's forwards were so poor.

Yamal could have gone for 3 yellows by my count.

Noticed in the first half Spain's defenders went narrow to close down the through ball yet France never went round the outside, brain dead when things don't go their way.

France went wide. Spain shut them down.

34 minutes ago, bluedave said:

So England will meet France in the third place playoff.

Argentina are in for a rude awakening tomorrow.

They’ve faced piss poor sides all tournament and struggled to get through. They were lucky to get past the likes of Egypt and Cape Verde.

We’re going to thump them and send them packing with their tails between their legs, and I will LOVE every minute of it.

Be ready for it. It’s going to be fantastic.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

@bluelightening

Take your licks.

Fair...

Not sure what France turned up today. Dramatically off the boil, was hoping for a bit of an epic tbh, Spain looked like they play at a snails pace probably ly peaking for the final. See what happens tomrrow.. pray for rooney injuring his foot to not to be a pundit.

Edited Tuesday at 22:561 day by bluelightening

8 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Very petulant and stop start game of football. Hopefully whoever goes through takes a few injuries and red cards with them

🤭🤭🤭

One of the secret of Spain n Pep's ball.

8 hours ago, just said:

We should all be eternally grateful to Pep for leaving Rodri out of his starting lineup for the 2021 Champions League Final.

It's been discussed before, tuchel messed him up.. rodri played in 3 games prior to that final and all 3 ended up in a defeat.

8 hours ago, El regreso said:

We sold the best left back in the world and possible world cup winner.

The bizarre thing is why sold him in such a hasty manner? I reckon Chelsea could have an additional 7-10 millions after word cup.. It's not like there were lack of suitors, he's already a euro winner.

9 hours ago, dermott said:

Shame about the date.

Indeed Dermott. Well spotted.

The General Belgrano was actually sunk on 2nd of May 1982.

45 minutes ago, just said:

Indeed Dermott. Well spotted.

The General Belgrano was actually sunk on 2nd of May 1982.

I'm only surprised that @Boyne didn't beat me to it.

1 hour ago, BolaBall said:

The bizarre thing is why sold him in such a hasty manner? I reckon Chelsea could have an additional 7-10 millions after word cup.. It's not like there were lack of suitors, he's already a euro winner.

We could have easily gotten £60 million for him after the world cup

Straight into them tonight, leg breaker on Lionel in the first 5 then they have nothing left.

32 minutes ago, dermott said:

I'm only surprised that @Boyne didn't beat me to it.

I missed the posts about the shirt, the Belgrano and the date. Indeed, the date is wrong. I could post a lot about the Falklands Conflict. Maybe in the History Thread.

For purely selfish reasons, a shame that France lost last night as I had them in a sweepstake and if they had gone on to win the World Cup I would have won £480. Lots of books or roughly half the cost of my season ticket.

Well, there's possession and so called " control" that we saw with Maresca at Chelsea..

And then there's Spain, moving the ball in and out amongst the opposition, constant movement and when out of possession a fierce work rate from the start of the game to the last minute.

.

Egnatia Rrogozhinë v Petrocub at 20:00 tonight in the first qualifying round of the Champions League.

Something to watch, thank goodness.

1 hour ago, Boyne said:

I missed the posts about the shirt, the Belgrano and the date. Indeed, the date is wrong. I could post a lot about the Falklands Conflict. Maybe in the History Thread.

For purely selfish reasons, a shame that France lost last night as I had them in a sweepstake and if they had gone on to win the World Cup I would have won £480. Lots of books or roughly half the cost of my season ticket.

Or getting rat-arsed at the pub.

36 minutes ago, dermott said:

Egnatia Rrogozhinë v Petrocub at 20:00 tonight in the first qualifying round of the Champions League.

Something to watch, thank goodness.

There will be dancing in the streets of Petroclub if they win tonight.

3 hours ago, dermott said:

France went wide. Spain shut them down.

Spain's tactics conceded the width in order to clog the middle. They had a really hardworking front four that pressured hard to disrupt the counter, didn't mind fouling, and while France reset they formed a back five between Laporte, Cubarsi, Cucurella and Rodri with the spare midfielder in front. It's more Brentford than Barcelona tbh.

France couldn't/didn't exploit it. They should have got Olise and Mbappe out wide opposite to each other to create at the back post. I think that was the first time this tournament that neither were allowed their favourite pocket of space, and that deadly rotation where Dembele plays 9, Mbappe plays in from the left, Olise plays right just never happened. Instead they had Mbappe moving from in to out, dealing with 3 defenders, Olise couldn't do much with the overlap or through the middle, and Dembele was pushed out wide instead of attacking the back post. France played too fast in attack and too slowly to break the press.

Harsh but this loss is hugely on Deschamps, Rabiot and Kone were never going to win this midfield battle and he had Kante on the bench FFS. If he even got 20 minutes on him shutting down Ruiz it would have done them a lot of good.

Spain won't have these luxuries against England. England's back four is excellent on the ball, as are Anderson and Rice. O'Reilly and James aren't going to give a sh*t about mid-tier La Liga pluggers. Other than Yamal they don't have players capable of exploiting big gaps on the counter. Their weakness is going to be aerial crosses and set pieces, which are Kane and Bellingham's bread and butter.

It's England's best chance to win a World Cup ever.

14 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

There will be dancing in the streets of Petroclub if they win tonight.

In the streets of Hîncești, their home city. Street looks wide enough to accommodate a jig or two.

Don't think we should go overboard with Cucurella lol. He did what he was supposed to do.

Edited 20 hours ago20 hr by SydneyChelsea

2 hours ago, Boyne said:

I missed the posts about the shirt, the Belgrano and the date. Indeed, the date is wrong. I could post a lot about the Falklands Conflict. Maybe in the History Thread.

For purely selfish reasons, a shame that France lost last night as I had them in a sweepstake and if they had gone on to win the World Cup I would have won £480. Lots of books or roughly half the cost of my season ticket.

Im amazed at what turned up against Spain. Someone must have laced the food like they do greyhounds.