Cristiano Ronaldo heads straight down the tunnel while his Portugal teammates celebrate their win on the pitch. Cristiano Ronaldo heads straight down the tunnel while his Portugal teammates celebrate their win on the pitch. 🎥 @adriandelmonte pic.twitter.com/CPIkT84O2I— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) December 6, 2022
Very surprised they finally did it and dropped him, I was thinking they'd at least wait till the end of the tournament to do it. It's not even so much him as a player, as much as it is their entire side is so incredibly subserviant to him when he plays and he simply doesn't have the quality these days to be the one man superhero. Without him they play as a team, with him they play to serve Ronaldo who's more of a mythical figurehead.
Brazil, Portugal and France rested a lot of players for their final group stage game, the 3 lost but they had a great physical advantage, particularly South Korea and Switzeland today really felt it, I didn't felt the defeat against South Korea was terrible as I don't see this game today as a sign of breaking down Morocco. Hopefully unlike the Spanish beside having the ball we must try something with it, the only thing some Spaniards on the Forum have is to enjoy Ronaldo in the bench. Long live Tiki Taka, the Lord saviours of Iberian Football, the World has never seen anything like that. By the way, is Enrique going to make a living doing Lives on Twitch? He looked better than on the bench. Sorry guys, I know it's the England part of the Forum but couldn't resist this one. Hey, look there's a lot of Moroccans inviting Spaniards to the party in Ceuta and Melilla, must be nice to be there.
Congrats on the win Santos. Didn't expect that. Didn't also expect Switzerland to be that bad, but you made them bad and good on Ramos! Morocco will be very tasty. Still expect a comfortable Portugal win but Morocco haven't conceded a single goal by the opposition all tournament AND are barely even giving shots away. Should be a fair old challenge. Fully expect Brazil vs Croatia to be penalties. Croatia in 10/11 games in world cup knockouts have gone to extra time or pens when they get to the latter stages, only outlier was the world cup final so I expect brazil will find this really hard going. Very hard going if they don't score early.
I'd be surprised if Croatia can handle Brazil to be honest, I think Croatia has been by far the least convincing team of those left in the tournament. Rather fortunate to have made it this far. A near miracle they didn't lose to Belgium and the beneficiary of some of the worst penalties you'll ever see from Japan (till Spain today anyway...). The short turnaround time between their game won't do much for them given what a walk in the park Brazil had compared to how hard they had to work either.
Seems they are four contenders to replace Luis Enrique who the Spanish press don’t expect to continue. Former Athletic Bilbao manager Marcelino Garcia Toral is the favourite with Roberto Martinez, Rafa Benitez and their current under 21 manager Luis de la Fuente other contenders.
Oh I don’t disagree Scrubs but you know what Croatia are like. 2018 were outplayed by Russia, go through on Pens. Same with Spain, death by a thousand cuts but go through on pens. Wrestle the game back 2nd half against England… through in extra time. But they were never convincing, they just didn’t know when to die. 2022 - Japan better the majority of the game, had chances to win… goes to penalties… Croatia win. Don’t be surprised if Croatia cling on all game and somehow freakishly Nick it in extra time or win on penalties. It’s ridiculous how hard they are to kill off.
So fixtures and the dates for everyone. Fri 9th 3pm - Brazil vs Croatia Fri 9th 7pm - Netherlands vs Argentina Sat 10th 3pm - Morocco vs Portugal Sat 10th 7pm - England vs France
I have zero idea who wins this competition ! Any out of the last 8 other than Croatia I’d say … Holland and Morocco are real dark horses as well . The other five all have an equal chance .. guess it’s gonna come down to a bit of luck judging by Spain hitting the post with the last kick of extra time .. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I don't see Morocco as dark horses. They've got through with minimal xG and rely on not conceding. I don't see that lasting through three more rounds against the best teams. We're not in a Euro 04 situation here.
Yeah, it can happen but it likely won't. If you were a rational gambler you'd back Portugal to beat them but tournament football can throw up Euro 04 situations ever once in a while, although it's harder in the World Cup than the Euros. There are Brazil and Argentina in the World Cup and other dangerous teams whilst Euro 2004 had no round of 16 so one less game for Greece to defend for their lives in.
Paddy Power bookies just on the radio and confirmed that two punters won big .. correctly betting on a 6:1 Portugal victory over Morocco at odds of 200:1 !!
He’s been a nonentity for about 4 years at least .. He’s not even been the best Hazard for the last 2 seasons
🚨💣| Spanish NT coach Luis Enrique will LEAVE in the next 24-48 hours and the number 1 option to replace him is U21 coach Luis De la Fuente. @ellarguero #rmalive— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) December 7, 2022
Official statement from Portuguese FA 🚨🇵🇹 #Qatar2022“Reports claiming Cristiano Ronaldo threatened to leave the national team during a conversation with Fernando Santos are not true — FPF clarifies that at no time did Cristiano threaten to leave the national team in Qatar”. pic.twitter.com/xEJO98ZaXM— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 8, 2022