2018 World Cup fills me both with trepidation and with hope. In theory Africa has sent out a good set of teams that should be competitive. Whether or not they will perform is another matter with doubts lingering around each team. EGYPT Egypt possibly lucked out with the weakest World Cup group. Uruguay seems ripe for the taking and currently on a downward phase of their cycle. Russia is arguably the weakest host in World Cup history (including South Africa), while Saudi Arabia is Asia's weakest team. Enter Egypt with the first African player in years with a real claim to the Balon d'Or Mohamed Salah. Egypt isn't a one man team, but not far from it. With Hegazi, Fathy, El Mohamady Egypt should have a sturdy defence. El Neny and Sobhi make up for a physical, but pretty technical midfield. Trezeguet offers a counterpoint for Salah on the wings. But Kouka is closest thing Egypt has to decent striker and he's scored just 5 league goals this season. With Salah at best half fit vs Uruguay I expect Egypt to play for a draw or a counter. If the plan goes South they might introduce Salah in the second half. At best Egypt can now count on a draw. So the key game will be vs Russia on day 2. In theory Russia should be ripe for the taking and Russia knows they have to beat Egypt, because a draw means they will be at the mercy of Egypt when they play Saudi Arabia on day 3. How much help will Russia get? I somehow find it hard for Putin's Russia to not forcefeed them at least to the 1/8 final.... With Salah fit and no ref shenaanigans: 40% chance of progression Without Salah fit: 20% chance of progression
MOROCCO A team to be excited about. Qualified with flying colours and have really great players in the team. They lack a quality goalkeeper and can't seem to decide on the striker, but the midfield and defence is really impressive. With Eredivisie player of the season Hakim Ziyech leading the team and a host of naturalised Moroccan from back to front this is a team full of players good enough to play for Holland or France, but opted for Morocco. Herve Renard seems to know how to coach national teams. And this makes me confident he'll give the Euro powerhouses a few surprises, especially with the quality of players at his disposal. With Iran's preparations not going all too smoothly Morocco will like their chances to get three points in the first match. Then a couple of dropped points by Portugal or Spain opens up a window for their progression. I actually fancy Morocco's chances at progressing. I think one of Spain or Portugal mess up the opener and Morocco or Iran will be there to pick up the pieces. Chances of progressing: 40%
I wanted to do the rest, but somehow I can't seem to write up Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal. I don't know what to expect. Will Nigeria come good once the tournament starts? Hopefully. Senegal finally looked quality yesterday vs Croatia, even if they have glitches in their play. Tunisia meanwhile has flattered (to deceive?) in friendlies and might just give England and Belgium a run for their money. All in all I'm counted on a 5 for 5 progress But who knows?
I like Senegal's chances. The group is wide open and after Columbia, they are favorites to me. Nigeria are neck and neck with Croatia, both sides a nose ahead of Iceland for the second spot in Group D. Tunisia has actually looked excellent in qualifying but would need a major upset to steal the second spot in Group G from England. Egypt have a weak group but the weight of FIFA likely wanting Russia to progress and the Salah injury will be problematic. It's a real shame they don't have some past quality to help Salah. This is the weakest Egyptian team in ages but has a star like they haven't had since Abu Treika (though salah clearly now has higher global prominence). Finally Morocco has looked excellent but will need something special to steal a spot from Portugal oe Spain.
Senegal in my opinion looked good to get a win vs Poland. Poland's defence looked terrible, while Senegal was attacking with ease. Nigeria - I'm crossing my fingers, but they seem to be playing at a lower level than last year and the coach can't seem to get the optimal squad. Morocco's chances stem from playing Iran first. If they beat Iran, one of Portugal or Spain may be wounded. Who knows? Maybe a draw will be enough? Egypt is like you say. Tunisia - if they get a draw off someone who knows how this group ends? And Belgium and England are both likely chokers.
Any thoughts or not Tunisia after this? It's a real shame Ben Yedder wouldn't play for them. This time might have real potential. They also have a big injury the unfortunately..
I can see Tunisia getting draws against Belgium and England on the back of this display, maybe even stealing a win. And that means they will have their fate in their own hands in the last game vs Panama, knowing by how much they need to win to progress.
Tunisia will miss Msakni a lot. He's a great player. What a bad luck with that injury. I don't know why El-Arabi wasn't called to Morocco.
Disappointed in Morocco today. I had them as a potential dark horse in the tournament. I think Egypt played fine despite not having Salah. Unfortunately, their Achilles heel and Uruguay's strong point decided the game.
What can I say... I expected more. They had the flair, but lost steam in the second half. Iran't physical play took its toll obviously, but I'm starting to think ramadan played a significant role, given how all three muslim teams lost steam in the second half.
Unfortunately Egypt's coach seemed to have no intention of going for the win, he wanted to play for a draw and hope for wins against Russia and Saudi Arabia.
On the one hand I understand him resting Salah, on the other Egypt had no plan going forward and giving Uruguay something to think about in the back would have seriously impacted Uruguay's push forward.
Egypt were pretty good defensively and on the counterattack and they just lacked a finisher that Salah could have been. TBH I think the game was closer than he was expecting so he wanted Egypt to do damage control.
I thought Egypt were surprisingly good against strong opposition in Uruguay. Had Salah been playing they likely would have been favorites to win it. El neny was fantastic as was Warda (honestly a player I've never seen play before) Bad luck to them on the injury to Salah. Losing a player of that caliber is something you never live down easily. Morocco were actually quite good for long stretches of their game. They lacked a finisher as we already knew and it stung them in the end. Looking forward to Nigeria playing today in a huge match.
This World Cup is turning into quite a disappointment for Africa. Nigeria today really showed horribly. Much worse than both salahless Egypt and Morocco who at least played well. Nigeria should be so much better considering the players available to them. Let's hope Senegal and Tunisia have something hidden in reserve though I'd be surprised if either does anything special. Honestly perhaps the most talented team in Africa is Algeria and they are an organizational disaster right now and Ivory Coast and Ghana are rebuilding so perhaps expecting more was too much from this WC.
Egypt were unlucky - first with the Salah injury, then with the last minute goal. Morocco were unlucky. But they lacked the killer bite. In all honesty so was Nigeria. At least with that first goal. The second one was plain stupidity - I thought oyibo defenders were brought in to stop those kind of stupid penalties. (BTW The exact same thing happened to Odemwingie with Evra, but back then the crap US coach didn't whistle a penalty - that's especially why this hurt and had a sense of unfairness to it.) But the total lack of creativity in 5 straight games is worrying. Iheanacho showed why he's better than Ighalo though - in his short cameo he at least created real trouble in the box for Croatia. There is a team there, but the frontline needs to be more mobile, Iheanacho must start and Moses really needs to stop falling at the slightest touch. I get Nigeria were poor, but I don't get the excessive hate on the defensive. Yes, they were terrible on corners, but overall Croatia barely had a decent chance to score despite playing with four forwards. Honestly though - have no idea how Croatia only got two yellow cards. Modric, Rebic and Mandzukic all deserved yellows, if not for a specific foul at least for persistent fouling.
Croatia's dominance is overstated. Neither team really dominated offensively. Both goals were flukey, the penalty was garbage and the own goal was dumb luck. My real concern would be virtually no offensive threat. Iwobi was invisible, ndidi was invisible and had no influence on the game, moses spent more time tumbling rather than doing much more. Luckily the draw in the Argentina - Iceland match keeps this group open. Argentina did look beatable and the Iceland Cinderella story won't last forever.
Yes, it wasn't really like Croatia threatened. Maybe at the end when Nigeria looked dejected. That was essentially the main problem. This would have been an open contest if Nigeria had created an offensive threat more than they did. For whatever reason Nigeria's attack has gone flat since the beginning of the year. I hoped Mikel would fix this, but it didn't. Lately the only time Nigeria has looked threatening was under the 3-5-2 formation and with Iheanacho on the field with his almost magical tendency to create danger. I disagree with Ndidi. He wasn't invisible. He did exactly what he was supposed to do and did it superbly: 6 won headers, 5 won tackles, 3 successful interceptions, 3 clearances, 90% pass success rate, fouled 3 times, dispossessed 0 times, lost the ball 0 times, just the 1 foul and even had a successful dribble and a key pass to boot. Ndidi never was and never will be a creative threat. He's a DM, pure and simple. With the odd rocket of a shot or assist from time to time. In all honesty him and Etebo (fouled 8 times, 8 dribbles, earned Croatia 2 yellow cards, probably Modric and Rebic deserved one as well, 2 tackles, 2 key passes, 93% passing rate) were the best players on the pitch.
Ughh.. the less said the better from Africa's perspective for this world cup. Tunisia today really should have gotten out with a draw, but it was a well earned British win. Not sure why tunisia stopped playing at the half. Saw a picture of Salah where his trammatea were helping him put on his jersey. He won't be anywhere near 100% which would well explain why cuper didn't play him against Uruguay. So Senegal is the big hope. They also have a geoup that's open to win. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. They certainly have the personnel, but I'm unsure of their cohesiveness and have also heard many questions about Cisses tactical planning.
Egypt I feel the worst for. Because they couldn't do anything about Salah. They for one didn't show their full potential, because they simply couldn't.
Yes and given Egypt's group and the showing they had against Uruguay, I think with a healthy Salah they certainly get through the group, possibly winning it. Morocco is missing a striker and while they have a strong and complete team, they were never likely to qualify ahead of Spain or Portugal. I still have hoped for Nigeria to show up and play well against Iceland, so will reserve judgement though early signs were not encouraging.
1:2. First win, And just the second loss by UEFA. Japan and Senegal now on top of the group, Colombia, Poland bottom...