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Second Round Day 1 - SWI-POL, WAL-NIR, CRO-POR

werty

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2005
25,074
26,310
They've not won in 90 minutes and are in the quarters.

They deserve to be out
They dominated the first two games they played and played in one of the most exciting games in the other.

Neither team tonight deserved to go through.
 

DEFchenkOE

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2006
10,527
8,052
Feel a bit for Croatia but in truth that didn't do enough in 90 minutes. They're a much better TEAM than Portugal imo but they were too cautious. Rakitic has been played too high up I think and has pretty much been ineffectual.
 

easley91

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
18,721
53,768
Now to take Modders and Corluka out of my FF team.

Corluka was immense tonight, got injured and still played the majority of 120 minutes.
 

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
39,885
62,563
Croatia choked offensively IMO. They should've won this but were far too careful.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Football is a cruel bitch sometimes. Three games today and none of the teams that won you could really say deserved it. I know all the losing teams weren't exactly scintillating creatively either but still.,
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
I wanna buy Pjaca

First I've seen of him in that little cameo, and although you have to caveat it that he was up against a tired defence I was impressed with his ability to run with the ball at pace and his balance whilst doing so. You don't see players with that ability that much these days. I'll be interested to see how he does in the coming years.
 

LSUY

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2005
24,010
66,826
Croatia must be kicking themselves. Easy side of the draw, no decent teams to face until Belgium in the semis and they go and get knocked out by an average Portugal team.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Croatia absolutely bottled that. Why aren't teams going for the win? Too much 'trying not to lose' in the tournament.

It invariably gets like this in the knockout stage. For a start you've generally got better quality, better matched teams and you have more to lose as it's all on one game, whereas in the groups you're either playing the first game knowing you've got two more or you're playing the next two knowing you've got to get a result.

Croatia didn't bottle it, but these were two pretty decent sides, largely cancelling each other out but Croatia at least tried to control the ball for large chunks but with the attacking players Portugal have they knew they couldn't just throw caution to the wind.

I think tactically they should have gone 433, get Modric and Rakatic pivoting forwards off a central anchor, instead Modric was stifled by having way too much defensive responsibility and Rakatic was stifled by put in a congested area where Portugal had a numerical advantage.
 
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DEFchenkOE

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2006
10,527
8,052
First I've seen of him in that little cameo, and although you have to caveat it that he was up against a tired defence I was impressed with his ability to run with the ball at pace and his balance whilst doing so. You don't see players with that ability that much these days. I'll be interested to see how he does in the coming years.

He played really well against Spain, first time i've seen him but thought he was unlucky not to keep his place as Brozovic hasn't been all that imo.
 

DIEHARD

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
4,659
5,443
First I've seen of him in that little cameo, and although you have to caveat it that he was up against a tired defence I was impressed with his ability to run with the ball at pace and his balance whilst doing so. You don't see players with that ability that much these days. I'll be interested to see how he does in the coming years.

I know nothing on him but I like how direct he was... he had the pace, tools and skill.

I'll like to see how he does in the coming years wearing our shirt.

Yes, Love at first sight
 

Grey Fox

Well-Known Member
Jul 10, 2008
5,126
31,089
Once again the officiating was a disgrace Portugal should have had 3 players sent off for stamping. Croatia got kicked out
 

Gilzeanking

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2005
6,093
5,019
Once again the officiating was a disgrace Portugal should have had 3 players sent off for stamping. Croatia got kicked out

I thought the ref allowed a lot of professional fouls . If any player (mainly Croatian) started to run into space with the ball ,with the possibility of launching an attack , he was fouled . When a defender does that deep into his own half with the attacker having a run in on goal , its a red .If its not quite a run in on goal its a yellow . But (usually )Portugal were doing it even deeper and not picking up yellows . Ref slow with yellows imo .

I agree with the above quote in the sense that the ref contributed to a dreadful bitty match by allowing professional fouls , tho deep, to go unpunished . I regret wasting 2 hours on an utter shit match..no shots on target til 118th minute WTF ?

Is that a record for nowt on target shitness ?
 

sparx100

Well-Known Member
Jan 8, 2007
4,612
6,646
My major football competition debut and I get to the see the shite fest of Portugal v croatia. The fans were great but the game was awful :) onto Germany v Slovakia today in Lille.

Have to say there was good banter between the fans. A lot of belgIan yesterday charing about courtois randomly.
 

Monkey boy

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2011
6,381
17,040
Croatia must be kicking themselves. Easy side of the draw, no decent teams to face until Belgium in the semis and they go and get knocked out by an average Portugal team.

I think Wales will have something to say about that. Any team that contains Gareth Bale should be considered at the very least to be "decent".

For what it's worth I think Wales will beat Belgium if the Belgians can get past Hungary. Never underestimate a team that plays as a team.
 

hughy

I'm SUPER cereal.
Nov 18, 2007
31,842
56,935
I think Wales will have something to say about that. Any team that contains Gareth Bale should be considered at the very least to be "decent".

For what it's worth I think Wales will beat Belgium if the Belgians can get past Hungary. Never underestimate a team that plays as a team.

If we're being honest Belgium haven't really impressed in any of their games. Wilmots tactically dropped a bollock against Italy as we know in a match which should have been far closer than it actually was. If the penalty for Toby's high-boot on Long in the Bel/Ire game had been given it could have been a completely different result (even if they had missed the penalty, it would have meant Belgium wouldn't have got their first goal which was scored 30 seconds after the incident), and despite having the lions share of the chances against Sweden it took a late goal to eventually assure their position in the last 16.

If I was Wales, I wouldn't go in to that match fearing the Belgians (if they overcome Hungary) at all.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Once again the officiating was a disgrace Portugal should have had 3 players sent off for stamping. Croatia got kicked out

Agree, said the same during the match, it started with Ronaldo getting off scot free for a studs up stamp on Syrna and just carried on letting persistent fouls and 3 or 4 other stamps slide.

It was a tough tight game but if the ref had got a grip and punished the persistent fouling at least Portugal wouldn't have been able to keep stopping the flow quite so easily and it may just made for a better game. An example of why refereeing leniency doesn't actually help a game to flow.
 

Jamturk

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2008
9,871
22,934
Agree, said the same during the match, it started with Ronaldo getting off scot free for a studs up stamp on Syrna and just carried on letting persistent fouls and 3 or 4 other stamps slide.

It was a tough tight game but if the ref had got a grip and punished the persistent fouling at least Portugal wouldn't have been able to keep stopping the flow quite so easily and it may just made for a better game. An example of why refereeing leniency doesn't actually help a game to flow.


It has been like this for the whole tournament, clearly a directive from above.

Nobody seems to have commented how it has lowered diving etc.
 
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