I’m not sure Costa Rica will do it against Japan or Germany. Canada surely could against Croatia or Morocco if they can play again the way they played against Belgium. USA have an fairly decent chance against Iran. I am not sure Mexico will against Saudi Arabia.
I was thinking Canada, US and Mexico’s last games will be their best chances. All still challenging games that won’t be easy.
I disagree with people saying France would thrash us, we are a better side than Denmark who have either beaten them or run them close on several occasions recently. That said, I do think the gap is bigger than we thought and for that reason I wouldn't want to face them. I honestly feel that Spain would be a worse matchup given their style of play. France don't really press teams, they drop off when they lose possession in order to create space for Mbappe and Dembele when they win it back. For this reason, I think Bellingham and Rice would be able to get on the ball more and even if ultimately unsuccessful, I think we would at least be able to get our key players into the game. Spain on the other hand would just completely smother us and pass us off the pitch, isolate the front three and have us chasing shadows. If we thought Italy or Croatia were bad, this would be 10x worse.
Kyle walkers got a bit more pace than Gareth Barry. Not to mention we should have gone in at half time at 2-2.
That’s true. But it just feels like our eventual exit could be a implosion rather than a one goal difference exit.
On paper France look a million dollars even with all there injuries. But there defence looks like it can be got at. Australia scored a pretty straight forward goal against them. Remember they let a 3-1 lead slip in the Euros.
Croatia have been offended again. Their coach has said Herdman lacked respect for his team by saying his team would ‘F them up.’ Croatian tabloid 24sata has hit back at Canada coach John Herdman after he said, "We're going to go and 'F' Croatia...”The headline reads, “You have the mouth, but do you have the balls as well?”🍁 pic.twitter.com/kKqbydldBF— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) November 26, 2022 Headline of the tournament
Portugal's Danilo out of the rest of the group stage after fracturing three ribs in training on Saturday. That's Danilo definitely out and Otávio and Nuno Mendes doubtful for tomorrow's match v Uruguay https://t.co/sTW3h8IDcc— Tom Kundert (@PortuGoal1) November 27, 2022
Wow I certainly didn’t expect Costa Rica to beat Japan. Means Germany can’t be eliminated tonight even if they lose to Spain because if they then beat Costa Rica and Spain beat Japan it would come down to Goal difference.
2 - Costa Rica’s victory against Japan saw the fewest touches in the opposition box (2) for a winning side in a World Cup match on record (since 1966). Efficient. #JPNCRC pic.twitter.com/0ViqXmjVf5— OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 27, 2022
This is the value of xG in the short term I think. A lot of people just look at the final result but if you looked at the xG for Belgium's last game it showed that they got away with one so their failure here isn't much of a surprise.
Hazard’s dribbling and quick bursts were so important to Belgium in the last WC. Quite sad to watch him in this tournament.
For some reason the minute he left Cheslea he suddenly became injury prone and went into steep decline.
I watched an interview Joe Cole did about him. Said he was one of the best players he'd played with but was a terrible trainer. I wonder if this has come back to haunt him.