Even 4th seems absurdly high. Spain, Holland, Portugal, Croatia and maybe Denmark all look stronger right now.
With England it's always the same thing. No matter what year, which manager or what their roster is, England will always fall against the first strong team they face. They navigated by Denmark at the last Euro's and also beat a weak Germany and a Croatia that wasn't at their best. So it looks good to say hey, they went to a SF and final in the last 2 major tournaments, but it's more of a illusion than anything else. They seemed destined for a QF exit this time. They have a good shot at landing Senegal for the rd of 16, which they could manage, but that's about it. SF, final, then QF sounds good and consistent but it only tells you when England played their first powerhouse or in form team.
Uhm, they won the second match too, but in reality it was the Belgian team dominating us (in a not so good match played rather slowly). Only after they got tired in the last 20 minutes we were able to create dangerous opportunities.
Well this time they could not face a “strong team” until the SF again. If you look at what happens if France do not win their group it could be Senegal (R16) and Mexico / Denmark (QF). All 3 opponents we should beat. I don’t think the media really has realised this, but if France do not win Group D I really see us in the SF, despite the terrible recent performances.
Come on... they had one fluke goal from a FK and had nothing else for 120 mins. Really we should have won by 3 or 4 if not for a great Schmeichel performance.
I don't recall Belgium dominating that game tbh. It looked fairly even. I needed to see the Dutch beating Belgium again and keeping for once some clean sheets along the way. I wouldn't label the Netherlands favourites for the World Cup but they made a case for me to be seen as the highest among the contenders now just behind my five favourites.
People have a weird understanding of the game if they think Belgium "dominated" in Amsterdam. It's plain wrong. Here are the stats. Fairly even game like I said. https://www.fotmob.com/match/3784586/matchfacts/netherlands-vs-belgium
My final four will probably consist of Brazil, 2 UEFA sides that had a rather good Nations League campaign (as I think good form such close to a major tournament shouldn't be discarded) and one UEFA side who disappointed in the Nations League. I'm looking at England or France to get things right once the tournament starts producing a decent showing. For now I lean towards England having another semi-final run. Somehow.
From the same site I found Louis van Gaal agrees with me: https://www.fotmob.com/news/kigitoc...in-nations-league-win-over-belgium-–-van-gaal
"I told the players that we played very badly, but we didn't give away many chances." If the Netherlands still get results when playing bad it's very good news for them and their prospects to go very far in Qatar. Yeah, it wasn't the best of performances. I agree. I didn't watch all games under Van Gaal. But I recall the 1-1 draw to Germany in a friendly in Amsterdam being also another rather weak performance. Yet the Netherlands stood unbeaten and could have won that game at the end. After this window I refuse to continue to sleep on the Netherlands. They are up there with the big boys and can aim for the highest.
At the same time it must be a worrying sign for Belgium if they can't get a result on a night where the Netherlands played badly. Add to that the Netherlands missed several players. I know Belgium missed Lukaku but still. It just shows that Belgium are not that good as they used to be a couple of years back.
I've noticed you constantly tend to downplay the Netherlands' chances. Until this month it worked. Now though I have the Dutch circled as a team who can absolutely return with a medal. The time of underestimating the Dutch is over. They must be evaluated properly by what they've shown on the pitch. Very few teams in the world did better than them in the last couple of months.
The Netherlands can't be ignored anymore. I don't let them entering Qatar flying under the radar and surprise me. I just want you guys to know that. I'm very much aware of the progress they've made under Van Gaal.
I think you are making the same mistake most humans make. You read a very negative comment from a poster that is notorious for trolling and then that means all Portuguese supporters are dismissive. From my conversation with other Portugal supporters, I think we all, including myself have the upmost respect for this Serbian team. Sure I and others feel none of this conversation would be happening if there was VAR in Belgrade, but we also know that isn't your fault and VAR is still relatively new to Football so sh*t happens. We still had it in our hands for the last game but it was Serbia that got the job done and not by fluke but deservedly so with some very good play. One thing that may come as dismissive but not intentionally, is we Portugal supporters are use to making a meal out of qualifying, so sometimes we focus on our own reputation instead of Congratulating the team that finished ahead because we feel it could have been many teams we would have dropped the ball against. Take no offense, Serbia's stock has risen fast for good reason.
You should be much rather happy I have you guys relatively high in my list of potential winners given my track record I enjoy at this competition. 2/2 Also the last international major tournament I predicted (AFCON 2021) finished with the winner I had predicted. Not everybody can boost such a decent record.
Will I be mad if I can't get it 3/3 come this winter? No. But then I hope to nail a couple of upsets and get at least 2-3 semi-finalists correct.
Van Gaal is a really good coach. Honestly if we look at Netherlands 2014, they weren't actually that good on paper. They were built around Sneijder, Robben, and Van Persie. The rest of the players were very mediocre at best. Some youngsters did look promising, but the team itself was just average outside of the front 3. In fact a fair amount of people were predicting the Netherlands to exit their group with Spain and Chile going through. I know a number of people doubted that Dutch team. However, I really think Netherlands 2014 was a masterclass by Van Gaal. They would not have gotten even half as far if it wasn't for the tactical masterclass that Van Gaal initiated with the team. And we can even tell because as soon as Van Gaal left and Hiddink replaced him, the team really faded and was below average. They didn't even qualify for Euro 2016. I don't think Hiddink was a bad manager at all. Hiddink was decent, but the team was just not great, and Van Gaal was just extraordinary. Therefore, I expect a very similar performance this time around with Van Gaal in charge.
Belgium is still a great team. They definitely aren't as good as before, but I think many people are forgetting something. KOMPANY was extremely key to Belgium's success in 2018. He was a world class defender. Their defense would've been all over the place without him. Belgium Euro 2021 was not as good but they were still decent. I mean they breezed through their group, and only lost to Italy the eventual champions. I wouldn't write of Belgium at all.
Very spot on comment. If Van Gaal can win bronze with the 2014 generation the sky is the limit in Qatar. Wijnaldum will miss the tournament. Van Dijk doesn't seem the exquisite defender he was one two years ago. Nevertheless the Dutch are probably one of the best three four functioning teams out there right now. Everbody performs to a certain level. The sum is greater than its parts.
Belgium in November 2022 will have declined also quite significantly compared to June 2021 where I found them already not as impressive as in Russia 2018.
You can’t say anything good about Belgium on this board or Kamtedrejt has a meltdown. I think a Belgian must have run off with his wife or something.