Yeah, and that was a year ago. Today, they lead France in qualifying. I tend to favor current results over those of a year ago. Even less relevant are the qualifying stages of the Euro. Sweden has players like Lindelof that have already developed considerably relative to a year ago. And that's showing now. Did you know Lindelof and other players made up a Sweden team that won the Euro U-21 2 years ago? Weird, it seems that they're starting to develop. But I'm sure you already knew that, right?
Yet, you just ignored the results from a year ago to point to Sweden being joint-top in the Euro qualifying stages. Iceland holds an equivalent position in their group I might add. But I'm sure you're going to go on about how France' group is so much tougher, as it includes the Dutch and Bulgarians. Unfortunately its not the 1990s so nobody will buy it. Well I know you're Portuguese so you want to make a big deal about youth tournament results, but unfortunately it involves alot of speculation. We already know that the Iceland NT is a close-knit group that plays well as a unit. We don't know yet how Sweden's young talent will gel as a group unless you're willing to make grand conclusions from one singular match result last weekend. PS...Iceland reached the final 8 of the U-21 Euros in 2011 and some of those guys are now absolute fixtures in the Iceland NT. Given that was 6 years ago, they're now in their prime.
You clearly didn't understand. I was discounting the fact that Euro qualifying happened years ago, not the fact that it happened in Europe Lolol. And France and the Netherlands are tougher than Croatia/Turkey/Ukraine. Your delusions to believe otherwise have no bearing on reality. lol okay. We don't know how Sweden's young talent will gel as a group, even though they seemed to gel well enough to win a U21 Euro. I'm Portuguese and drinking ginja so clearly I overestimate youth tournaments, P.S. here's some facts about Iceland in youth tournaments.
So all we have to compare teams is two matches (the grand total of competitive matches played by UEFA teams this year)? Or is March too long ago also? You've just taken the results of actual competitive football matches and thrown them out the window so that we can argue based on our feelings? Great... France, yes. Netherlands clearly No. I'd use results to prove why they're not but ... you know... facts = no good lol You're talking about 2 hugely different groups/. Or do you actually think that the entire U21 squad is just gonna be shifted to the full Sweden NT?
You are correct about the fact that Sweden is better than they were in Euro 2016 and last qualifying as well. They did improve as a team and developed some young players. However they still are not better than Iceland. And back on the matter of fact regarding France, you did realize that they couldn't even beat Belarus away right? If you cannot even beat a team like Belarus home or away, you are not top 5. Sweden is a growing team, but saying they are better than Iceland just after one game where they beat France? That is way too much. Iceland are a great team too. They beat Turkey, they beat Croatia, and they managed a draw vs Ukraine in Ukraine who are also a growing team. And no Sweden does NOT have a tougher group than Iceland. France = Croatia Netherlands < Turkey Bulgaria < Ukraine Belarus = Finland Luxembourg < Kosovo And if Sweden are that good of a team, why couldn't they beat Netherlands at home too who lost to France in their own home?
ELO ratings of today (14th of June) France 5th Croatia 17th FIFA current rating (June) France 6th Croatia 18th Both rating systems have over 10 spots of diference between them both. Francly I don't know which rating list you are using to even consider them anything close one to the other, as in both systems France's superiority is overwhelming over Croatia. Oh and btw, France reached quarters last WC, while Croatia was eliminated at group phase. And at the Euro, which you like so much, France was finalists, while Croatia got eliminated at round of 16. (Oh yes, they were probably, missing some players......)
OMG are you kidding me with FIFA Rankings? They have a particular calculation system based on last 4 years, and I am not even sure if that system is really the best way to calculate it. You really think Peru is better than Mexico, Croatia, and Uruguay? They are not even close. And before Euro 2016, France was rated 22 in FIFA Ranks with teams like Romania, and a few others better than them. That was never true. And before 2006 world cup, Italy was ranked #13. No way were they that low before, and no way were the USA and Czechs better than the Italians. In Euro 2016, Portugal knocked both Croatia and France out. Its just that they had to face Croatia first, and Portugal were the champions. When teams get knocked out by the champions, you cannot necessarily be sure that the team they knockout last is the second best, because its a matter of draw and how the format is setup.
where is this croatia top 5 team talk coming from? I rate croatia as one of those teams that could win a tournament and would not be as big of a shock as lets say Norway but are more likely to not win.
yea you did say that.. i believe your quote was "italy has no importance to anybody" lol i'm agreeing with you that we have sucked at the past two world cups after winning the one before i know you didn't mention the euros but i feel it should be mentioned. it gives a more accurate representation. Just like if i were to argue in favour of Italy..i can't leave out our dreadful world cup performances and say those dont matter.
That's a bit of a false equivalency. Only in 2016 did Italy really look impressive at the Euros. ITs not as though Italy in Euros were the exact opposite of Italy in WCs. They've been just "okay" at the past 3 Euros overall, nothing to write home about.
You got to learn how to read posts. In context, what I was talking about when I said "has no importance to anybody", I was talking about some of the friendly matches that Italy could have played. I wasn't talking about Italy in itself. Here's the whole parragraph of the refered post (I bolded in black, that sentence) : To the issue in itself, I recognize in other posts, Italy as an important team within Uefa, but what I do also say (my opinion that is), is that at present times there are about 4-6 teams better than them only in Uefa (if we also include other teams round the world, figures would be round 8 -10 teams better than them).
Regarding Sweden, people here do realize that the team we have now is completely different compared to the euros 2016? Our problem before was that we had a Zlatan who pretty much dominated our national team and the press focused more on Zlatan rather then what was Sweden’s former strong point, the collective. We also had one of Sweden’s worse coaches in our history who people had like to get sacked since the euros at 2012. People’s faith in him was rocket low at the euros 2016 people were just happy that we made it and knocked out our biggest rival Denmark in the playoff for the euros. Former players who also left was Kim Källström and Andreas Isaksson. At the moment our new coach has made Sweden play like we always used to as a strong collective. His rather famous in Sweden for doing a "Leicester" with the team IFK Norrköping making them take their first league title since the 80s and making them a top team in the league from a bottom one. We do have a few good players as well whose been mentioned before in Emil Forsberg who broke the record of most assist ever in the Bundesliga and Lindelöf who just signed a contract with Manchester united after a rather successful time in Benfica. We do have a solid defense at the moment, our weakest point is that we really do lack good strikers, my hope is that Alexander Isak 17 years old who's in Dortmund at the moment and was very good in the Swedish league at the age 16/17 will bloom out to be a good striker. If we played Iceland today I’m pretty sure we would be the better team. Iceland do also play quite a lot like we used to before since their tactics are set by a former coach of the Swedish national team. With that said we still might not make it to the world cup since we’re extremely unlucky with the draws since both France and the Netherlands are better teams on paper. That we even can fight for the first spot (with some luck) is a major achievement for a team that is being rebuilt
Yes I agree that Sweden is definitely better and has improved since Euro 2016 and are a team to be taken seriously now. However Iceland is too, and I think they are also growing and getting better, as they learn all the time, and keep growing on how to play as a team, and make less and less mistakes each game. As of now, I would still say Iceland is the superior team, but Sweden is not far behind though. If I would rank all the teams in Europe it would be this as of now: 1. Germany 2. Italy 3. Spain 4. Portugal 5. Croatia 6. France 7. Belgium 8. Poland 9. Switzerland 10. Iceland 11. England 12. Sweden 13. Republic of Ireland 14. Turkey 15. Serbia 16. Netherlands 17. Wales 18. Northern Ireland 19. Greece 20. Slovakia 21. Ukraine 22. Albania 23. Austria 24. Russia 25. Bosnia-Herzegovina 26. Slovenia 27. Denmark 28. Czech Republic 29. Romania 30. Hungary 31. Scotland 32. Norway 33. Montenegro 34. Bulgaria 35. Belarus 36. Finland 37. Israel 38. Armenia 39. Kazakhstan 40. Azerbaijan 41. Macedonia 42. Georgia 43. Moldova 44. Faroe Islands 45. Lithuania 46. Estonia 47. Latvia 48. Cyprus 49. Andorra 50. Malta 51. Kosovo 52. Luxembourg 53. Liechtenstein 54. Gibraltar 55. San Marino
I stand to my comment about Portugal having a mediocre defence. Theri defneders are highly overrated. If u watched hte match yesterday vs mexico ud understand.
Nevermind the defense, their whole team is overrated. Look above your post: even @Italy-Azzurri-Fan ranks them #4!
But literally though, who in Europe has a better defense than Portugal besides Germany, Italy, and Spain? I cannot think of any other team who can even defend that well.
Really? Who usually starts for Real Madrid, Pepe or Varane? Pepe They are very similar, but I don't think France's defense is superior. France have conceded in every world cup qualifier game except vs Belarus and Netherlands. Even conceded to Luxembourg. Portugal only conceded 3 in their group, and 2 were by Switzerland who is better than anyone else in France's group. I think both defenses could be comparable, and France could be better on their day, but overall they are about the same.
No, its inconclusive because both of them had many injuries last season. Looking ahead to next season, Varane will start regularly if healthy while Pepe is on the way out. Then Umtiti is Barca's best defender by a mile. N'Golo Kante is also a level above Carvalho imo.
Kante is a midfielder, LOL. Yes France has a great midfield, but we were talking about their defense. I am not sure Umtiti is better than Mascherano and Pique by the way in terms of being Barca's best defender. As for next season, Pepe is leaving, so yeah obviously Varane will start. However in 2015-16 Pepe always got the nod.
Well, yeah because Varane was still quite young. It's not 2015 anymore. I know Kante is a midfielder. We're talking about which team has the better defense, right? Well, Kante contributes to that. And I compared him to Carvalho so I'm comparing apples to apples
Yeah you are right, but I was looking at the back 4 specifically when I said that. Everyone contributes to defense in a way.
Guys forget about how much I was praising Portugal. I take that back, although I still believe that France is no better if you want me to tell you the truth. The two best European teams are Germany and Italy, with Spain as a close third, and Croatia right after. Portugal did beat Croatia at Euro 2016, but I suppose a lot of that was luck. I was not impressed with Portugal at all this tournament and I expected more from them.
Spain is ahead of Italy in the FIFA Rankings, ELO Ratings, and World Cup Qualifying standings on the goal differential tiebreaker. We'll see how they do in Spain on September 2.
Forget about FIFA and ELO Rankings, they are rubbish. Anyway that game in september will be an extremely key game. Spain will have the edge because it is in Spain, but I believe it will be quite a game to watch. Anyway just letting you know that Spain is only ahead of Italy in qualifying standings on goal difference. They are the same on points. Goal difference is not a fair way to judge teams. Teams have different playing styles which really affects the scoreline. Italy did beat Spain 2-0 in Euro 2016, and that was a game of life or death, meaning if you win you go to the next round, if you lose your out.