I don't think they have the talent to get a result against England or Croatia. I could see them beating Ghana if the latter revert to the AFCON qaulifiers stage, though.
Deschamps will probably just do his usual thing and rest his starters for that last group game against Norway. But finishing second still puts France on a collision course with Brazil in the R16 instead. Would France consider this a more desirable outcome than having to face their old European nemesis again? We also have some strong possibilities for matchups like Brazil v Japan and Argentina v Uruguay in the R32, so at least a few pretty decent sides will probably be out even before the R16.
The group stage is now a final qualification round in my eyes. Knock out rounds are when the tournament proper begins. Anyone that gets knocked out in the group stage had no chance of advancing far anyway.
Yeah, considering that 32 used to be the entire field, I consider a R32 exit basically equivalent to a group stage exit in the old format. So not even making the R32 would be a quite poor performance indeed. When we compare to previous WCs, I think we should keep the R16 as the metric.
Yeah, pretty much. Though you can set yourself up for a somewhat easier R32 and maybe even R16 match with a good performance in the group stage, which wasn't true in qualifying for the 32-team WCs.
That's an understatement. I think people are making too much of Croatia's/Modric' age. Yeah "4 years older blah blah blah....". 4 years older than a team that got to the 16-team knockout stage though a group of death and played very well against Brazil. Its a long way from that level to not making the final 32. They still looked great in qualifying.
Interesting to note that if Canada finish 3rd in their group (a decent possibility given that they might end up with Switzerland and Italy), they could end up facing the USA in the R32.
So.....which four group will have 3rd place teams that don't advance? I'd put my odds on Groups G, H, and K, and maybe group J as the fourth.
Agree with H and J. I'd be very surprised if K's 3rd place team doesn't advance if Congo wins the playoff. I doubt G as I think all 4 teams can grab points in any of their matches.
I think Portugal/Colombia win both their matches against the bottom two teams in Group K, and Group G could see a lot of draws.
I saw this projection for qualification from the group stage. Expected number of UEFA teams in R32 is ~13,5 (84% success rate). For CONMEBOL ~5,4 (77%) For CAF - 4,9 (49%) For AFC - 4,5 (50%) For CONCACAF ~3,4 (42%) For OFC - 0,3 (15%) Similar to what 32 teams WC would have produced. I still think it is possible that all 16 UEFA teams qualify for the knockout stage.
Interesting matchups for the R32: Winner of Group F (Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, UEFA-Playoff B) vs Runner-up of Group C (Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland) Winner of Group C (Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland) vs Runner-up of Group F (Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, UEFA-Playoff B) Winner of Group J (Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan) vs Runner-up of Group H (Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay) Winner of Group H (Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay) vs Runner-up of Group J (Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan) Morocco was semifinalist in Qatar, Brazil and Netherlands went out in quarterfinals and Japan went out in the R16. Assuming that the four of those teams end up in 1st/2nd in their groups, only two of those teams will make it to the Round of 16 this world cup.
yah, get your logic. Just don't think Belgium won't give away points to the other 3 teams and 3 draws probably gets you one of the best 3rd-place positions. Maybe I'm thinking of it the wrong way, but the traits I'm looking for are groups with 2 teams far better than the bottom two, with the bottom two teams very equal in level to each other.
Agreed , but Croatia wasn't entirely about Modric. Perisic Kramaric and so on are now 34 Years old+ Top player must be Gvardiol
Only seeing this for now: The broadcast will be carried live across FIFA platforms, including FIFA.com and FIFA’s YouTube channel, ensuring that fans across the globe can follow the announcements in real time. A live broadcast feed will also be made available to broadcasters worldwide. Fox/FS1/FS2 all showing something else.
The big difference with qualifying is that it doesn't matter where you finish. All that matters is whether you qualify or not. As such, qualifying games quickly lose their importance as you expand the WC (for the better teams, at least).
Who do you guys having for potential pot 1 teams not winning their groups besides the host? I had Belgium as candidate before the tournament, but they got an extremely favorable draw
The worst seeded team (besides the hosts) got the easiest draw. I think they are now THE MOST LIKELY top seed to win their group. By quite some margin to be honest. I see all other groups with possibilities of other teams topping. Not this one.