I think there are caveats though: Euro 2012: Spain 4-0 Italy WC 2014: Germany 1-0 Argentina Euro 2016: France 0-1 Portugal WC 2018: France 4-2 Croatia Euro 2020: Italy 1-1 England (ITA win on pens) WC 2022: Argentina 3-3 France (ARG win on pens) Euro 2024: Spain 2-1 England There are arguably only two truly decisive results out of seven there. You can very much argue that Portugal and Germany won while being second best in those finals (Portugal for sure did), while two of the others were decided by shootouts that could've gone either way. Our final against Spain was an expected result that was consistent with how we'd performed (below par) throughout the tournament, but even then we still could've taken that to extra time if Rice had sunk that free header at the end. I've no doubt that an extra days rest is an advantage, but I think the results of recent finals are inflating how big of an advantage it is.
Not sure why group E is classed as weak. I mean Germany, Ivory Coast and Ecuador is a tough contest and not straight forward I would have thought. Also think the US group is a potential banana skin especially if Turkey get through which I expect and Paraguay are no pushovers these days either.
I am English and live in England. Although I do have family in Canada and have spent a lot of time over there. But I fully identify as British/English.
Fair enough, I've never seen an English person spell rumour without a 'u', but there's always a first!
I think every group poses relative challenges to the teams in them, but the US's group is one of the easiest imo. Paraguay are one of the tougher sides from Pot three, but Pot 3 was just really weak outside of Norway. Australia are an absolute gift from pot 2 and were by far and away the easiest draw there. I also don't think Turkey are as challenging as they often look on paper. They're incredibly hit and miss at tournaments and are often much less than the sum of their parts. I'm 50/50 on whether they'll even be the ones to qualify from that play-off bracket. Canada could end up with Switzerland and Italy which, all in all, would probably be tougher than the US's opponents. Group A might be the weakest though, given how Mexico have been performing recently.
People focus more on the team names rather than how the teams might approach their opponents. Paraguay conceded the joint second least goals in South American qualifying and will probably play counter attack football against USA. Same with Australia. I don’t think America are the most creative team and they might have issues stylistically.
I think it also can depend on how many times teams have to play ET and Penalties in the run up. When Watkins scored that 90th minute winner against Holland, I was so relieved, because we'd had ET in both the last 16 and QF's. I thought it could give us an edge against Spain in the final. But in the end, it probably didn't matter, because we lost the final anyway.
Pretty happy with that draw. Think we’ll batter all those team tbh with the quality we have. Surprised Croatia are still ranked 10 in the world even if they did breeze through their group, Modric is still their star player and he’ll be nearing 41 next summer. Ghana have decent wingers but the rest of their team looks mediocre. Panama obviously the weakest in the group. We should win the group comfortably.
You look at the draw in full and wonder how are they going to sell out some of these games? Probably the first World Cup where I’m not going to be too interested in a big bulk of the group games.
I remember many years ago on Saint and Greavsie, Trump made the draw for the Rumbelows cup games . He picked out leeds v Man utd.. then Greavsie say "oooh you dont know what you've done there , Donald"
They got massive crowds in 1994 for matches like Saudi Arabia v Morocco so on paper that shouldn’t be an issue.
I have a feeling that might be middle of the night UK time so it’s early morning in Iran and middle of the afternoon in New Zealand.
I missed the draw ( thank god). But it looks like a middle of the road group for us. Wierd that we keep getting Croatia in tournaments.
Haven't had time to study it with a magnifying glass, but quite disappointed overall The thought of Mexico away in the Azteca in front of 80000 screaming Mexicans in the last 16 followed by Brazil in Miami in the quarters isn't exactly ideal