Do you really think Russia is any (if much) better than lets say Austria, that Denmark recently beat 4-0 on the road in the World cup qualifiers ? All the foreign "experts" also believed that the Austria vs. Denmark game would be very tight and that Austria would stand a very good chance of finishing on top of this WC qualifying group.
Seaman was the better of the two, but James holds the EPL record for the most penalty saves. He wasn't a slouch. Also, Banks was named FIFA goalkeeper of the year a record 6 times. He won the World Cup in 1966. When I said he was the last great, that's why. Shilton and Seaman were very good keepers, and you can argue great if you want, but I don't think they were truly great in the way Banks was. Banks was a true great of the game who could be held in almost the same regard as Lev Yashin, who was indisputably the greatest because he more than any other keeper refashioned how keepers played the game. Germany have had Neuer. Spain had Casillas. Chances are any team that wins a major finals will need a keeper of that quality. Even Rui Patricio was excellent for Portugal in 2016. I can't imagine Croatia reaching the 2018 final without Subasic and they look like trash now without him. One of the reasons why I have Belgium winning Euro 2020 is Courtois. He's the tallest player at the finals. He won the golden gloves in the 2018 World Cup. If Belgium win the Euros, a lot their success will come down to him, especially given some of the frailties in Belgium's backline.
I just am not sure he'll play a prominent role, he was poor for Valencia this year and I like Golovin and Miranchuk better in the system they play IMO.
Fair enough, as purely a neutral. I watch a tonne of Serie A and Gosens is legit great in the wingback system, in a back four he won't be great fit agreed. If it were me choosing the midfield I think I'd go with Goretzka and Neuhaus. I'd play Gosens and Kimmich as the wingbacks with Can as the central of a back 3 . Rudiger and Hummel next to him. Will be a possession heavy system and from there I would consider Muller and Havertz behind Werner (I know he is in poor form), but I think he opens up a lot of possibilities for the players around him. This is as neutral seeing them pour forward. Don't for a second imagine this is how it will be.
Thanks, I wasn't sure at this stage. I thought Pepe was sensational in the 2nd leg against us, but wasn't sure if that was a one-off. Watch a bit of Ligue 1 and thought Fonte was immense. Having Ruben Dias means there are some really good options available.
Austria is not that great at all. I never really thought they were that good of a team. They've been lucky a few times with easy groups. If Russia vs Austria happened, I would fancy a comfortable win for Russia, and I never thought that Denmark vs Austria would be close at all. Austria really only has David Alaba and Dragovic. I hardly know any other players from the team too well (Janko and Fuchs but I am not sure if they are even in the Euro Squad). Remember this is NOT the Euro 2016 Russia. This Russia is 10 times better. Euro 2016 Russia under Capello was terrible and that is the Russia that Austria beat 1-0 both times in qualifying. But this Russia is MUCH BETTER. Austria in Euro 2016 finished bottom of their group as well.
No problem! Yeah Fonte is a good serviceable back up for Portugal but Pepe and Dias are far better. Fernando Santos decided to only bring 3 CBs to the tournament so hopefully for Portugal they don't have any injuries or suspensions to Pepe or Dias or they are screwed. Danilo Pereira is emergency back up CB.
Well, so long that you also understand that this Denmark team is vastly stronger than that of WC-18. Except for Belgium, then Denmark has not lost to any of the teams above them in the ranking since October 2015 (and beat England on the road in the recent 2020-21 UEFA Nations League) https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/
I'm old enough to remember Shilton (I was a kid admittedly), I can certainly remember Seaman, and I mean their club performances not just the odd England games, I'm English so obviously I can remember their club performances well, believe me Shilton and Seaman were head and shoulders above James, they were world class. James was obviously a good keeper but nowhere near at the level as the other two (in fact Clemence was also a much better keeper and he would have had even more England caps if he wasn't unfortunate enough to play at the same time as Shilton).
Slovakia worries me a bit. They have arguably the best central defender in the group in Skriniar. Sweden will also go up against the best striker in the group in Lewandowski. Not to mention the best midfield in the group in Thiago/Koke/Rodri... Predicting international tournaments is so difficult, there's always things that you never could've anticipated. On the other hand, you get surprisingly lucky sometimes. For instance, I did a very detailed prediction for the entire 2018 World Cup here at Bigsoccer before the start, and got it right for some very specific facts. Putting in spoiler tag because it's off-topic. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler *A Russian player (with a surname starting with G) scoring the first goal of the opening game in the 12th minute. *Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and Youssuf Poulsen being the first players to score in the tournament for their respective nations. Not super surprising, admittedly. *An own goal conceded by Nigeria in the 3xth minute against Croatia *Romelu Lukaku scoring in the 69th minute vs Panama *The winning team between Colombia-Japan scoring in the 6th and 72nd minute (in reality, 73rd minute, so off by a mere minute) *Spain scoring in the 54th minute against Iran *The winner of Argentina-Croatia scoring in the 53rd minute, and 3 goals in total *Nigeria scoring in the 40-something minute and 70-something minute against Iceland *Panama getting their first ever WC goal against England *A goal scored in the 81st minute between Spain-Morocco *Argentina getting the match-winning goal against Nigeria only in the last circa 5-10 min of the game *Penalty scored in Croatia-Iceland, and that Croatia would score the match-winning goal in the 90th minute *James Rodriguez injured during game against Senegal and missing the rest of the tournament *Harry Kane to score a penalty in the R16 and game to go penalties (made all predictions beforehand, so didn't know who England would meet) *Kylian Mbappé getting a brace, Griezmann scoring once in R16 in a high-scoring game between France and its opponent *A Croatian player scoring in the 4th minute in the R16 *Neymar scoring in the 50th minute in R16 (it was in the 51st minute, so off by a minute)
You got that right, Dejan Kulusevski has just been tested positive for Covid-19 and is out for the first game against Spain. They do not expect that he has infected any of the other Swedish players at their training camp, but the whole squad is now being tested.
This Covid-19 thing is BS. Seriously. I hope Kulusevski gets back. He is probably a very key player up front for Sweden, but Sweden can probably get by without him at first. I mean I don't believe Kulusevski was at 2018 World Cup, was he?
I doubt that Denmark now is vastly stronger than World Cup 2018 Denmark. What key players have they added? How much did the team change? I mean Denmark 2018 was pretty strong. They beat Peru, got unlucky against Australia but should've won. They drew with France as well (the eventual champion). They also drew with Croatia (runners up) and held them to penalties.
You're right that James was absolutely nowhere near them - he wasn't known as Calamity James for no reason. After Seaman peaked in 96, England have had real problems finding anyone of a similar standard. I'm not sure either Shilton or Seaman were quite world class, but they were extremely good.
I'm not sure if you're old enough to remember Shilts but Peter Shilton is one of the greatest goalkeepers the world has ever seen:- http://www.goalkeepersaredifferent....ped player with,of career to Stanley Matthews. Honestly the guy was immense.
You should go look at who have been scoring most of the many goals for Denmark in the WC-22 qualifiers, and that will answer most of your questions. Of the strikers/wingers who have recently been promoted from the U-21's are : Andreas Skov Olsen, Bologna (3 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 2 goal vs. Austria and 2 assist vs. Moldova), Jonas Wind, FC København (2 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal and 1 assist vs. Israel), Mikkel Damsgaard, Sampdoria (1 game in the WC-22 qualifiers = 2 goals, 2 assists vs Moldova) Midfielders and defenders who were not in the squad for the WC-18 : Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Tottenham (2 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal, 1 assist vs Austria) Joakim Mæhle, Atalanta (2 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal vs Austria) Daniel Wass, Valencia (was highly successful back in 2017/18, scoring 4 goals and making 9 assist in La Liga for Celta Vigo before then being sold to Valencia, but the former NT coach clearly did not like him and so he was neither picked for the qualifiers or the WC-18 squad, 2 games in the WC-22 qualifiers vs Israel and Austria) Joachim Andersen, Lyon/Fulham (3 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 assist vs Moldova) Robert Skov, Hoffenheim (1 game in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal vs Moldova) Mathias Jensen, Brentford (1 game in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal vs Moldova) Marcus Ingvartsen, Union Berlin (1 game in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 goal vs Moldova) Nicolai Boilesen, FC københavn (1 game in the WC-22 qualifiers = 1 assist vs Moldova) Christian Nørgaard, Brentford (3 games, 152 minutes in the WC-22 qualifiers) Anders "AC" Christiansen, Malmö FF (Not selected for the WC-22 qualifiers) ------ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Denmark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_national_football_team#Current_squad Then of cause there is also Kasper Dolberg, who was only 20 back in 2018 but was selected for the WC-18 squad, not really to play at the finals, but just for the learning experience from being at a big tournament. He did get to play the last 15 minutes against France, but that was it (2 games in the WC-22 qualifiers = 2 goals vs Moldova) Who then is "missing" from the WC18 and is not in the 2020-21 squad ? Well, Michael Krohn-Dehli (Sevilla, now retired, played the last 22 minutes vs. Croatia) was already 35 back then and is obviously out, the same you can say about William Kvist (FC københavn, now retired, played 36 minutes vs Peru and got injured) who was 33 and Lasse Schöne (Ajax back then, now NEC Nijmegen, played in 3 games at the WC-18, made 1 assist in the qualifiers vs Armenia) who was 32. Then otherwise, Pione Sisto (Celta Vigo back then, now Midtjylland, played in all 4 games, 231 minutes at the WC-18, made 2 assists in the qualifiers vs Ireland), Henrik Dalsgaard (Brentford back then, now FC Midtjylland, played all minutes in all 4 games at the WC-18, made two assists in the qualifiers), Nicolai Jørgensen (Feyenoord played in 3 games at the WC-18, made one assist vs Australia, and 2 goals and 2 assists in the qualifiers) Jonas Knudsen (Ipswich back then, now Malmö, played all 120 minutes vs Croatia), Viktor Fischer (FC københavn, played 30 minutes vs France), Lukas Lerager (Bordeaux back then, now FC København, played 1 minute vs. France). Non of the "missing" players scored any goals at the WC-18
Dejan Kulusevski is only 21, but he played in 2 of their WC-22 qualifiers and has scored 1 goal for Sweden in the UEFA Nations League vs. Croatia.
Sabitzer is the next big star from Austria, but even beyond him Laimer, Baumgartner, Kaladjzic, Scahgler are some really good young players with top Bundesliga clubs playing a lot and well.
Yes I remember even Zlatan was clamoring for more Kulusevski time with Sweden. Forsberg is the key to their attack in my opinion and Isak may develop to be a good option in attack. After that I just think they have a solid experienced core and Lindelof to keep them relevant.
He is still developing for the national team but I know him well because he plays for Juventus. He really is a very talented player who is hard working and has very high potential. I wonder if he'll be the next Zlatan. Still too early to tell.
Again you have no idea what your talking about when it comes to Croatia and there goalie. Subasic was a good goalie Livakovic is just as good if not better. Croatia problem is there back line which is old and injured. Lovren and Vida are getting up there in age plus lovren is constantly injured lately. Vrsaljko has had three knee operations and is not the same player anymore but will play as they don’t have anyone better at rightback. Croatia other problem is they have nobody to replace mandzukic. The guy was a bull great in the air unbelievable work rate and a good poacher. Croatia is a small country we don’t have nearly the depth England has. We still manage to have a good team and some top class midfielders despite being a small country with a very small budget for football.
your midfield even with Rakitic retired from INTL is still much much better than England and i can see you taking point(s) from them on Sunday. ps. Mandzukic's heart / grinta cannot be replaced.. special special footballer and will always be loved by Juventini.