That's some (more) interesting criteria you have going there after repeating your mantra the past few months that whoever dismisses Spain will be in for a rude awakening. Next up: "Fill in the blank" will be your World Cup favorite because the only reason they failed to win their Nations League group was because they were 100% focused on the World Cup so everyone had better look out for their revenge!
I have a lot of criteria. That CL/World Cup stat is only a very trivial one. I plan to give soon some predictions for the Nations League. In fact I don't have France winning their NL group. But I could very well have France to win in it all Qatar. England's case though is different. Their only way to become World Champs is via a very strong showing against Germany and Italy and finishing at the very least 2nd in that group.
Of course you do. Because they're focused 100% on the World Cup. I know what you're thinking before you say it.
I believe the odds of a CONMEBOL team winning the World Cup is quite good. Of the past three times when the defending Euro champion has failed to qualify for the next World Cup, a South American team has won the Mundial two of those three occasions. 1976 Czechoslovakia failed to qualify for 1978... Argentina won. 1992 Denmark failed to qualify for 1994... Brazil won. 2004 Greece failed to qualify for 2006... France won. 2020 Italy failed to qualify for 2022... the odds favor CONMEBOL. Unfortunately, this also means the World Cup final will not only go to extra-time, it will likely be decided on penalty kicks.
France is a big nation. They can turn up a notch at any moment. They have an incredible record at World Cups lately. Since 1998, the rebirth of the French NT they are 12:2 on knockout stage games at the World Cup. It seems that they will have a good mix of players from 2018 and new youngsters. If they are united inside the squad they will be very difficult to beat.
Nice trivia but 3 occasions is not enough to conclude anything from it. Stats and patterns are imo interesting and can be telling but only if there's a decent sample size.
I stand by it. Spain will be a team to watch in Qatar. I think they will showcase their talent and entertain. They will be better than most people give them credit right now. But that doesn't mean they will go all the way. A thinkable scenario could be e.g. that they win their group with 9 points but lose at some point to a powerhouse on penalties.
I saw some people picking Denmark to top the group over France for the World Cup. Well, I think Denmark will topple France once in the next months. I personally went with the Nations League. Having won the last edition means France might take the NL a bit less seriously this time. I noticed also a pattern where France tends to struggle in the summer off-season window. Denmark have been in tremendous form. So, we could see Denmark getting first in the group. However I believe France will be damn serious about repeating in Qatar. The World Cup holders curse is not happening to them. That is as long as the camp is united and no frictions are allowed.
That record is a bit skewed since they didn't get past the group stage twice since 98. But yeah, France have a strong squad and have as good a chance as any recently to repeat. At the very least, they will break the defending champion curse of not making out of the group stage (since 2010)
I have dozens of parameters. Do you really think that I exclude Spain from my favourites list just because Real Madrid won the CL? Spain was always a joker. A team that if certain things click in the next months could exceed many guys' expectations.
Only Germany 2018 had on paper a decent chance to repeat but they fell victim to locker room issues. Personally I didn't expect Germany to do very well back then but I was shocked at how poorly they did eventually. France 2002, Brazil 2006, Italy 2010 and Spain 2014 made all the same mistake to rely too much on the same players again. All these teams came with ageing squads to the World Cup and failed miserably. France 2018 was the youngest World Cup Champs ever. Some players declined, some are not part of the team anymore but the bulk of the 2018 squad is still around and in their prime. New talents found their way into the squad. I would say since the 32 team format no reigning champions had as much of a chance for a repeat than this French team.
Kamtedrejt and fellow Eurosnobs: "mimimimimi, Conmebol teams don't stand a chance at the World Cup, they aren't being tested against mighty Europe, mimimimi..." In the real world, Argentina beats UEFA champions Italy 3x0 in the Finalíssima, in Italian soil.
And the result doesnt even reflect the game. Their gk saved them from total debacle, but Argentina completely dominated and rolled over Italy every second of the game
The statement in bold actually isn't correct. I thought Italy had aound 15 minutes where they started to grow into the game after Agentina had the better start. Argentina's first goal came basically out of nothing. But from then on it was all Argentina.
I knew that right after the final whistle I would see posts like this. If you think that Italy stands for European royalty in their current state then I'm afraid you're wrong. There is a reason they failed to qualify. I don't want to downplay Argentina's perfomance. But nothing has changed. UEFA is in a good position to make it five in a row.
Did Italy conquer London ? Let’s calm down here . Italy played hard , but this is like the Confed Cup (or not even) …. We all know how that hasn’t exactly translates into WC success . Having said that, Argentina looks like a legit contender.
This is correct, the 10/15 minutes before the goal Italy controlled the game. But, must be said, without making any serious threat on Argentina's goal.
Brazil is the favorite to me. With the brazilians from Real Madrid that broke through Militao Vinicius Rodrygo they have even more depth this team will be a nightmare for everybody.
According to certain experts in this forum, CONMEBOL teams could not be considered favourites for this WC since they hadn't played an european team. Now that we played them and won against the UEFA champion by 3-0, it seems like we are the absolute favourites to win the WC - if we were to follow this same rationale. Come on folks, this is 2022. Majority of CONMEBOL players play every single week of the season against europeans in the top world leagues. It's not like they never face each other. This is a short-term knockout tournament - 1 bad luck in 1 corner kick can decide a game and your team is out. Top contenders are: France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, England. Then you have Belgium, Uruguay, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark a bit behind. The CONMEBOL folks here are not asking for you all to think that our top 2 teams should be the top 2 favourites - we are just asking for some respect to the federation that brought the trophy back home 9 out of 21 times.
No no no you don't get it, doesn't matter if your players are in Liverpool, PSG or Real Madrid, you have to play Switzerland three times a year in order to be a contender
To me the match from Yesterday doesn't mean shit. North Macedonia kicked Italia out in a play off...didn't make them do the same to Portugal 3 days later. Brazil is the favorite to me cause there are World class players all over the pitch, a mix of expérience and youth and a New Vibe, desire to show that the country Can be the best again. Everybody is scared of Mbappe Benzema Griezmann etc but underrate thé fact that some of their midfielders center backs were better 4 years ago and that also Benzema being better than Giroud doesn't mean that his French team will do the efforts for him to win liké they did in 2018. Griezmann was their main player going forward in 2018 he was thé Guy either scoring or giving assists from round 16 to final. I don't see him with thé same motivation since Benzema came back.