WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

Actually we did concede a goal to Equatorial Guinea before the group phase of the WCQ.

ps : thank you for your support

 

Dude, we are going into 2018, how does time traveling to a different team help any sort of argument anywhere? I guess Italy has officially taken themselves out of world football altogether by not making it this time? The thing we all know is that things never change

 

Their games in 2017

Iran :
18/03 Iran 0 - 1 Irak (friendly)
23/03 Qatar 0 - 1 Iran (WCQ)
28/03 Iran 1 - 0 China (WCQ)
04/06 Montenegro 1 - 2 Iran (friendly)
12/06 Iran 2 - 0 Uzbekistan (WCQ)
31/08 South Korea 0 - 0 Iran (WCQ, Iran was already qualified)
05/09 Iran 2 - 2 Syria (WCQ, Iran was already qualified)
05/10 Iran 2 - 0 Togo (friendly)
10/10 Russie 1 - 1 Iran (friendly)
09/11 Iran 2 - 1 Panama (friendly)
13/11 Venezuela 0 - 1 Iran (friendlyl)

1 defeat (friendly), 3 draws and 7 wins

Portugal :
25/03 Portugal 3 - 0 Hungary (WCQ)
28/03 Portugal 2 - 3 Sweden (friendly)
03/06 Portugal 4 - 0 Chyprus (friendly)
09/06 Latvia 0 - 3 Portugal (WCQ)
18/06 Portugal 2 - 2 Mexico (confederations cup)
21/06 Russia 0 - 1 Portugal(confederations cup)
24/06 New Zeland 0 - 4 Portugal(confederations cup)
28/06 Portugal 0 - 0 Chili (confederations cup, lost on PK)
02/07 Portugal 2 - 1 Mexico (confederations cup, extra time victory)
31/08 Portugal 5 - 1 Faroe Islands (WCQ)
03/09 Hungary 0 - 1 Portugal (WCQ)
07/10 Andorra 0 - 2 Portugal (WCQ)
10/10 Portugal 2 - 0 Switzerland (WCQ)
10/11 Portugal 3 - 0 Saudi Arabia (friendly)
14/11 Portugal 1 - 1 USA (friendly)

1 friendly defeat, 3 draws and 11 wins (4 draws and 10 wins if we exclude extra times)

Spain :
24/03 Spain 4 - 1 Israel (WCQ)
28/03 France 0 - 2 Spain (friendly)
07/06 Spain 2 - 2 Colombia (friendly)
11/06 Macedonia 1 - 2 Spain (WCQ)
02/09 Spain 3 - 0 Italy (WCQ)
05/09 Lichtenstein 0 - 8 Spain (WCQ)
06/10 Spain 3 - 0 Albania (WCQ)
09/10 Israel 0 - 1 Spain (WCQ)
11/11 Spain 5 - 0 Costa Rica (friendly)
14/11 Russia 3 - 3 Spain (friendly)

0 defeat, 2 draws and 8 wins (didn't play many friendlies, I guess they were trying to get in pot 1 because of the fifa ranking calculation)

Morocco :
09/01 Morocco 0 - 1 Finland (friendly)
16/01 Congo DR 1 - 0 Morocco (Africa Cup of Nations)
20/01 Morocco 3 - 1 Togo (Africa Cup of Nations)
24/01 Ivory Coast 0 - 1 Morocco (Africa Cup of Nations)
29/01 Egypt 1 - 0 Morocco (Africa Cup of Nations)
24/03 Morocco 2 - 0 Burkina Faso (friendly)
28/03 Morocco 1 - 0 Tunisia (friendly)
31/05 Morocco 1 - 2 Netherlands (friendly)
10/06 Cameroon 1 - 0 Morocco (Africa Cup of Nation 2019 qualifier)
01/09 Morocco 6 - 0 Mali (WCQ)
05/09 Mali 0 - 0 Morocco (WCQ)
07/10 Morocco 3 - 0 Gabon (WCQ)
10/10 South Korea 1 - 3 Morocco (friendly)
11/11 Ivory Coast 0 - 2 Morocco (WCQ)

4 defeats, 1 draw and 8 wins

 

Different also because CR7 isn’t as good as he was then i.e. 2010&2012

 

Agreed.

 

Damn, such a defensive response just from me saying Spain should have less trouble in this group than Portugal.

 

Spain survived Euro 2012 when the squad was said to be at odds during Mourinho's coaching spell at Madrid when he appeared to be doing everything he could to get Madrid and Barca players against each other. Casillas even admitted that in 2011 things were, indeed, very tense during Spanish training sessions. The air had cleared by the time the Euros kicked off.
That's all gone now and the Catalunya controversy hasn't spread to the players while on the pitch. Ramos and Pique always talk crap at club level but when they're with Spain they've put aside any differences for the good of the team.
If Spain crash out early in Russia egos and politics won't be the reason (although the media will try and bring it up).

 

Not yet, but Catalonian elections in a couple of weeks in a political climate that is the worst between Catalonia and Castile in decades. If the situation gets worse and it does not translate into the Spanish team, then I would be very surprised (would it be even psychologically possible?). One thing is a Portuguese manager sowing seeds of discontent for his and his countries advancement, the other is a real political situation.

 

As recently as the November friendlies every Catalunya player in the Spanish squad has respectfully observed the Spanish national anthem during pre-match ceremonies.
After winning Euros and the World Cup the past ten years cliques of players gathered together with their regional flags for photo ops. Even Javi Martinez and Fernando Llorente posed with the Basque flag. There were no complaints.
I acknowledge you probably hope something transpires off the pitch that will doom Spain, but I have no worries. No one blamed 2014 on anything political.

 

this is the world cup thread, but has you brought up 2016, go and blame spain and england for ********ing up their groups coz if they had won their groups they would of been in the same side of the bracket with Portugal belgium croatia poland and even if we had come 1st in the group we would of been still in the same side of the bracket, so go cry a river some wear else

 

How many Catalan players will even be part of the Spain squad? Busquets, Pique, Alba, Cesc Maybe Bartra. That’s 5 out of 23. Three of them lifted the world cup for Spain.

Meh



.

 

Here are reports and highlights of the 5 friendly games we played against non-Asian teams in 2017.

Montenegro v Iran 1:2 (in Montenegro)
ESPN match report, lineups, and stats
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/match?gameId=478875
Highlights:


Iran v Togo 2:0 (in Iran)
ESPN match report, lineups, and stats
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/match?gameId=496974
Highlights:


Russia v Iran 1:1 (in Russia)
ESPN match report, lineups, and stats
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/lineups?gameId=496970
Highlights
http://www.goalsarena.org/en/video/friendly/10-10-2017-russia-iran-friendly.html

Iran v Panama 2:1 (in Austria)
ESPN match report, lineups, and stats
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/match?gameId=498008
Highlights


Iran v Venezuela 1:0 (in Holland)
ESPN match report, lineups, and stats
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/match?gameId=498048
Highlights

 

we were by far the better team in the group stage, but the fvking ball was not hitting the back of the net, just get pissed with comments that our victory was undeserved

 

Nice finally a sub forum that is semi active. I believe both Morocco and Iran can squeeze through to the next round as this group reminds me of Portugal group in 2014. IMO Germany in 2014 was better than current Spain team and Portugal was more or less the same, I rate morroco higher or at least level with the ghana of 2014 and current Iran team higher than the USA team of 2014, so if USA could go through in that tournament so can Morroco and Iran, all they need to hope for is for either Spain or Portugal to trash the other side in the first game n get a few red cards and injuries while morroco and Iran game produce a winner I personally unfortunately rate our so called enemies (Iran) chances more than our brothers(Morocco) but hope I'm wrong. I personally want Spain to win this group and Morocco 2nd that way we can meet Spain in next round and avenge our narrow 1-0 loss in 06

 

Portugal is definitely not the same as 2014. That team had a horrible manager and Ronaldo was out of form because of an injury. He played but you can tell he was not right. They didnt have their best LB due to an injury and Pepe (best CB) was suspended for the US match as well after getting a red card in the 32nd minute of the Germany game.

Portugal have a much better manager who has balls like a bull and the team is playing a style that wins games. Plus this team has way more talent than 2014.

 

LOL you have quit the imagination. The objective for Saudi Arabia should be to get 1 point and leave the group stage with no worse then a -4 GD. You have about a 10% chance of getting out of that weak group let alone defeating Spain.

 

I've never seen Saudi as brothers to us despite the panarab media's effort to say so. Spain and Portugal are closer to Morocco. I'd like to return the kind words but I'll be rather hoping Egypt to qualify in group A rather than Saudi Arabia and I think they have higher chances to do so.

 

Sure. First thing lets remember that Bento, who was the manager during that time caused Ricardo Carvalho to quit the team in 2011. Carvalho at the time was considered one of the best CB in the world and played for Real Madrid. He did end up coming back and still played well when Fernando Santos took over after the 2014 WC.

Lets look at the positions going from GK to Striker.

GK - Patricio - Same starter as now but got hurt in game vs Germany - Beto came in and is a decent back up but not as good Patricio - Beto played the rest of the WC.

Defense - Joao Pereira - played RB the whole tournament. Currently Cedric Soares is the starter about even in skill and style of play

Pepe - did play CB until he got red carded in the game vs Germany and missed the next game against the USA. He was filled in by Ricardo Costa who is not good what so ever... infact he should have never been on the team

Bruno Alves - was the other CB who started. He is currently on the bench with Fonte starter along Pepe. Fonte is a better player than Alves.

Coentrao - was the starting LB until he got hurt in the Germany game and missed the rest of the WC. He was a great play maker and linked up well with Ronaldo and played defense pretty well. He has been dealing with injuries since and has been replaced as the starter by Guerreiro who is a very similar style of player but younger with maybe a little more upside. Coentrao will most likely be on the bench come WC 2018

Midfield - OK here is were the current squad is much stronger than the one in 2014.

The Starters in the WC 2014 was Moutinho (current starter as well), Veloso and Meireles. Seriously... Meireles and Veloso..... Those guys were horrible. Ok maybe Veloso wasn't horrible but he was not great. William who is the current DMF was on the bench then because he was young. William is a defensive beast.

Now the starters are Moutinho, Joao Mario, Bernardo Silva, and William. All great skilled players. Both Mario and Silva are great play makers.

So you see the Midfield was a joke in 2014.

Forwards - Because the played a 4-3-3 in 2014 the starting forwards then Nani, Postiga, and Ronaldo.

Now that Portugal have changed to a 4-4-2 Nani is now on the bench and comes on as a super sub as an outside mid fielder along with Queresma. 22 year old Andre Silva is the new young and very promising forward who scored 9 goals during qualifying. SO much better than Postiga its not even funny. Ronaldo and Silva have great chemistry together and you can see Ronaldo enjoys playing along side him. Takes a lot of pressure off him to score goals.

As you can see, if you read everything, this team is much better as well as deeper at the bench compared to the 2014 team.

The only weakness they really have is lack of depth at CB. But as long as Fonte and Pepe are healthy they should be fine.