I have France beating either Germany or Argentina in the final. I see them beating Brazil in the semi's. If not France I think Argentina. I can see Messi and Argentina atoning for the 2014 loss to Germany and Messi, particularly what happened at the 2016 Coppa when he retired briefly ending his career on a high note. France beats Brazil in the semis. Germany plays Argentina in the other one. France will crush Germany as good as they are if they meet in the final. They will win anyway.
Argentia is my hope. The GOAT Messi finally gets the WC trophy he deserves, plus Argentina is basically Italian anyway.
When you struggle to make world cups until 2002 and haven't won one, and won their first trophy two years ago what do you expect. Even then they won one game in 90 minutes lol.
I still can't believe Italy isn't in this World Cup. The more I think about it, the more depressing it gets. Italy should be in line to win this tournament every four years. Who would have thought this 12 years ago? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIOcwfPIaE
He ruined us. But I also blame the federation for failing to take action a lot sooner. He should have been fired when we drew at home to ********ing Macedonia.
And when Insigne was rumoured not to be starting against Sweden, he should have gone also. I don't care if we only had a day or two with a different manager. I said we wouldn;t qualify before the playoff and certainly could foresee it after losing in Stockholm. Any coach would have been better than him. The players without him would have been ok.
Our rep is ********ed regardless. At least until we qualify for a major tournament again and do well, which is what we did only 2 years ago with Conte. Ventura and the federation destroyed us at least short term. Mancini is a good manager though and is fitting for the job. And on Sweden, they'll be lucky to get out of the group and the very slim chance that they do, they're going out 2nd round.
This is something I never remembered in my lifetime. No doubt Ventura has had his share of the blame but I don’t see how you can’t fault the FIGC and the rest of the Serie A clubs for this failed qualification. When you have 2 or 3 Italians playing on the top clubs like Juve , Roma , Napoli, Lazio and none on Inter , I don’t see how you can form a solid national team. The way it is currently, you can’t even round up 18 potential starters who play in the Champions League. The national team players who are playing are either non starters for their clubs or are way over their World Cup age. Most wouldn’t even have been considered for selection in 2006. Unless you pick players from the bottom half of the league or even the Serie B, Italy can’t even field a top squad of 23 players that you need in a World Cup. Remember the days of Baggio , Zola , DelPiero , Totti , Schillaci, Vialli, Inzaghi or Vieri? Where are the #9’s & 10’s? Heck we can't even muster up a Vincenzo Iaquinta! For that matter, what about the great defenders that Italy is best known for? What happened to guys like Tassotti, Vierchowod, Ferri, Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini, Nesta? Where are the great midfielder's like Donadoni, DiBiaggio, Giannini, Pirlo or Gattuso or going back further, Bruno Conti? Why can’t these types of players emerge once again? In the past I could rattle off at least 4/5 players who could be picked for each position but now I can’t even name 1 or 2 top Italian players under the age of 30. You can blame Ventura all you want but the fault here mostly belongs on the FIGC’s doorstep and especially the clubs. They should all be held accountable. I for one do not forgive any of them and they all should be ashamed of themselves! Unless something changes soon, I foresee more failed qualifications for future WC tournaments.
I dont think we are going to advance. We only have Forsberg and a great team spirit. I have no hope for this swedish team. The only thing this swedish team gonna be remember for is that we kicked you out. I hope you guys are back to the next World Cup.
I know he is old but was it Ibrahimovic who didn’t want to play or was it the manager who didn’t want him? I’m asking because I kept reading conflicting information both that he would and wouldn’t play ever since Sweden beat Italy.
Ibra didnt want to play. And the coach Janne Andersson said he is not going to ask Ibra either becauce he retired from the national team. So the whole thing was like if Ibra wanted to play again it was up to Ibra to call the coach. Janne Andersson was never going to ask players to comeback from retirement. But i think that annoyed ibra a litte bit, that Janne didnt asked him to comeback
Honestly, I really don't think he would have done much or been a major factor. He is slowing it up playing for LA too.
I agree with you. He is not the same Zlatan anymore, i think its hard for him to accept that. And i hope he stop with this lion thing. When i watched Sweden-Italy. i remember for a second i was hoping you guys should win, and i was like" wtf am i thinking" My second team has always been Italy, but of course i wanted Sweden to win but this swedish team has nothing to do in world cup. Iam 100 % sure the Italy team could make a deeper run in the tournament. Well maybe not with Ventura. But also for the public all over the world, people want to see Italy instead of Sweden. But for a small country like Sweden i think we have a nice history in world cup.
Good posts thank you. I also agree Ibra should stay retired. It's not fair on the players that got you there if he were to come back. I also don't think he would be a factor either. You guys deserved to go to the world cup instead of us. Us not scoring over two legs proves that. I would have loved for us to go and it's different with the world cup approaching that we're not going to be there. It's not the same. But I remind myself that if you can't score a single goal in 180 minutes of play, you have no business being there.