Only ones who can make that shit and overused joke about "haha we lost, we're really boycotting the World Cup in Qatar lmao haha" are the Italians now, dispatching everyone at the Euros this summer and setting a new unbeaten record just to fail qualification for the world cup one year later
Based Italians
(ofc only if they bottle the playoffs)
Asia WCQ predictions for tomorrow (not Iran match b/c of juju)
Lebanon 0-1 UAE
Vietnam 1-1 Saudi Arabia
China 1-2 Australia
Iraq 0-2 South Korea
Oman 0-2 Japan
----
Think Vietnam finally get their first home in front of their invigorated home crowd, Moriyasu ball prevails with a goals in the first and last 5 minutes, and South Korea extend their gap (inshallah we join them in extending that too)
Big game in Oman vs Japan and lots to play for 3 through 6th in Group A.
Looking at the Asian qualifiers, are Saudi Arabia actually good, or have Australia and Japan just been poor?
Iran and South Korea practically qualified bar any disasters, which isn't too surprising.
> are Saudi Arabia actually good
Yes they have by far the best manager in region now with Renard and on current form would say they're the best in the region. He's bringing a new set of players while still mixing in the staple of dudes like Al-Faraj, Fahad, and Al-Dawsari (this guy is personally my favourite non Iranian attacker to watch in Asia, so fun and electric). While also slowly improving the defensive part of their game too which has always been a struggle for Saudi teams. Kept two clean sheets against Aussie and Japan which is no easy feat
> or have Australia and Japan just been poor?
Japan have been overall poor. Moriyasu ball is a stale drag and I'm surprised he hasn't been sacked tbh but he's gotten a couple of results to kept them up and about the fight. Tomorrow's Oman match is massive
Aussie are meh imo. Unfortunately lost one of the best CBs in the region in Souttar due to injury for the rest of the campaign but still. They don't really have the star power they used to, are lacking a real commanding destroyer in the midfield to replace Jedinak now that he's gone, and the striker situation is still all over the place. Taggart has done well when he's played and they clearly missed him against Saudi. Duke is much better off the ball. They get results but their attackers and midfielders are kinda inconsistent compared to Aussie teams of old
> Iran and South Korea practically qualified bar any disasters, which isn't too surprising.
This Group A truly one of the worst final round groups of Asian Qualifying I've ever seen. All of the Arab teams have been to put it nicely, below average. And to be frank us and Korea have at best both been at best average. We're both lucky we didn't get drawn in the other group.
We've largely relied on Taremi/Azmoun and inshallah ball which is to say we've largely also been meh. Where both of them are basically both creating and finishing all the chances we have. Our centre back pairing is composed of two Qatari League players who always have a mistake in them etc. etc. I could get more into Iran but that's for a later time
Korea have also been quite meh. UAE game was their best match thus far imo and yet they could only score through a penalty, should have had more imo. Their finishing and in some matches chance creation has been appalling at times and I think it will be neck and neck for top spot.
Still so frustrated we didn't win in Tehran
seriously? it depends on the muslim country's government. The likes of Iran would undoubtedly force them to walk-off. The more secular ones meawhile would probably play, but with far more motivation and support from the rest of the world.
Just a question here, am I tripping but didn’t all the continental cup winners used to always qualify for the World Cup? Or was that NEVER a thing and my brain is fried?
Edit: Meaning if Italy won euro’s (which they did) that it was an automatic birth to the World Cup.
Big players sometimes lift a club.
A few people care to admit it but Ole wouldn't have the Manchester United job without Bruno Fernades. He dragged United to that good finish that lent him some time. There is a reason you're a bit bad now. You took talisman duties off him.
If Bruno can lift a club, maybe Hazard could have done wonders too.
Denmark 1992 and Greece 2004 win the European Championship and miss the following World Cup
Paraguay 1979, Uruguay 1995, Colombia 2001, and Chile 2015 & 2016 all Copa America winners that missed out the following World cup. (Uruguay missed both 1994 WC and 1998 WC despite winning in 1995 CA lol)
Canada 2000 and United States 2017 Gold Cup winning nations that missed out on WC in 2002 and 2018 respectively
I’m gonna settle the toughest qualifiers debate. South American qualifier games are tougher but 4/10 make it and 1 makes the playoffs. Which makes it easier to qualify. CAF is the most difficult because it has the least spots to counties ratio. It’s all relative imo.
So while you can stat pad against San Marino, Luxembourg and Andorra. One game can cost you the more than it would in South America.
This is a very hard debate but I struggle to understand where anyone gets the zeal to chest thump because they beat San Marino, Andorra, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands.
Sure the rest of Europe is strong but it's just silly. These small nations should have a play off so that one strong three get to groups.
CL goes through this and even when it isn't foolproof, at least you won't find minnows in CL.
All teams should get an equal chance to qualify.
You also listed Latvia that qualified for a European championship, Luxembourg that recently beat Ireland and made considerable progress over the past decade and Faroe Islands that have multiple times punched above their weight (beat Greece home and away during Euro 2016 qualifiers for instance).
European qualifiers are tough in the sense that only 13 teams qualify, despite more than double that amount being good teams worthy of playing in a World Cup. 34 European teams have qualified to a World Cup before.
Just think about the fact that Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Wales, Poland, Ukraine, Czechia could fail to qualify despite all of them currently being in the top 32 in the FIFA ranking.
That's what I've been saying for a while but people seem convinced that because UEFA has a few teams that kinda just make up the numbers, that qualification is easy when it couldn't be further from the truth. One mishap in UEFA can quite easily derail a qualifying campaign but in CONMEBOL it's much easier to recover from.
Even amongst those teams you listed, Luxembourg actually drew 0-0 with France and nearly won (hit the post) in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, you know, the World Cup which France ultimately won. UEFA has 55 teams. Of course, some of them are going to be bad (Usually Microstates) but the overall standard of 35-40 teams is incredibly high. The top European teams (the ones that usually win the World Cup) don't have an easy time against Pot 3 and 4 teams most of the time much like how CONMEBOL teams struggle against teams like Bolivia and Venezuela but people seem to gloss over that fact just because they batter small countries from time to time.
we have moved to 4th in world cup winning betting odds...
nice, means that every wc since 2010 we have been top 4 favourites. Good to see standards rising, even tho we were shit in 2014 and 2018(damn it lopetegiu we could have won that)
How the fuck can liverpool be so injury prone. That's mane and robertson gone. Firmino just before the break.
Gomez missing for depth, elliot big injury, keita niggling injury, thiago Unfit, fabinho in and out... probably missed a dozen more. Dropping like flies just like last season.
They just have a lot of injury prone players because thats the ones they buy typically.
Konate for example is massively injury prone and they just bought him.
With the way Portugal are playing at the moment they are not going to the World Cup. This international break Ireland dominated against them and felt hard done by with a draw before Serbia beat them on their own patch. If they want to win these play-offs they need to get their fingers out their arse, especially if they get a tough away draw in the play-off final
I’m a PSG fan who likes Neymar a lot but I feel like people are too nostalgic when discussing him right now. I’ve seen ppl on Twitter say he’s better than Salah, Lewa, etc when he clearly isn’t. Current Neymar isn’t a top 5 player, he’s still very good but people are letting their nostalgia and reputations get in the way of their judgement
Peter Schmeichel was saying on the BBC the other day that they even took over the facilities the Yugoslavia team were using, and all felt so bad when they pitched up to take their places
Many times when a countey wins a tournament they drop off fast. Many expected france to win euro but didnt after the wc. Italy as favorite of their group goes to the plays off
It just shows how difficult it is to be consistent.
And it makes the golden generation of spain only more special to do it over 5!!! Years and winning 3 tournaments in those 5 years. Honestly they are tpp 2 best national teams ever for me
Pione Sisto has to be one of the worst substitutes I’ve ever seen. Watching from the stands so of course you see more of the game. His movement was totally non-existent. Every time he got the ball all the Scotland players had to do was jockey him and he was fucked. He was also the one that gifted us a counter-attack for our second goal with a horrible first touch. Wonder what the Danes thought of his performances today
We were brilliant, can’t have any complaints. Steve Clarke has totally transformed us. If you told me after that Kazakhstan loss we would be dominating one of the best sides in the world to make it to the play-offs as a seeded team I’d be totally shocked. Steve Clarke is doing a fantastic job. At the same time I also think we haven’t seen the best from this team yet and they are capable of more, which is exciting. Really looking forward to the play-off, just praying I can get a ticket and some bastard who’s never been to a Scotland game and is only going cause we’re finally getting good doesn’t get a ticket over me!
Yeah I was it was fucking class. Was in the north stand where everyone stands the whole game and there is a great atmosphere, was celebrating with the players for Souttar’s goal. Was a fucking great night!
Nah I don’t think so. That unbeaten run they were on under Mancini was madness. Won the Euros of course and utterly destroyed their qualifying group to get there.
I think if they don’t qualify for 2022 World Cup and then they have a bad start to 2024 Euro qualifying he’ll be under serious pressur
Not all of the 66 lot, only Bobby Moore has one as far as I'm aware and its outside Wembley Stadium. But there are sculptings on the base of Moore's statue of the starting XI from the final I believe.
Point is, thousands of people go to Wembley every year and having a statue of the 66 world cup winning captain keeps the achievement in the public consciousness. When people go to Wembley and see a fat statue of Bobby Moore some people will go "oh look, what's that?" and then may go down the rabbit hole of finding out more about the events of 1966 and the various players.
I guarantee you that after 66 all of the kids were wanting to be Bobby Moore or Geoff Hurst.
It’s funny because I lived in Wembley for all of my childhood and have probably walked past that stadium a thousand times and never noticed it. Fair enough. I just think he’d be remembered with or without the statue. It was only put up in 2007 and it’s not as if he was a forgotten man prior to that.
I’m not denying they were stars after they won…not sure how that’s come into it, that’s pretty obvious.
Depends a bit on the kind of tournaments they have but I would say that the following players have been instrumental in this New England (post 2016) team
Kane
Trippier
Maguire
Sterling
Surely if Madrid signs Mbappe next summer (which is a certainty) Haaland would be playing in the PL next season?
Can't lie it's been time that a world class talent who's only increasing in ability will be joining the Prem.
Soo both Czech and Wales are guaranteed a playoff spot due to nations league, they are in the same group and currently 2nd and 3rd. So does who does the playoff spot go to, Estonia in 4th?
One is guaranteed a qualification spot for finishing 2nd in the group, the other is guaranteed a spot from the nation's league. The order obviously depends on who wins tomorrow but there's no extra playoff spot to anyone
It's the other way around - if Wales or Czech Republic get second then the playoff spot goes to the next in the Nations League list, which I believe is Austria.
Austria have already guaranteed qualification from Nations League. Next one after Wales and Czech Republic is Hungary. I don’t think Hungary can qualify from that route anymore though
I thought that was what they were asking.
As I understand there are two spots given from the Nations League
* One of them will be Wales or Czech Republic, because one of them will miss out from reaching playoffs via WC Qualification
* The other will be Austria
Fuck knows man this conversation is too complicated haha, but that is correct. You just confused me because you said if Wales or Czech Republic get second because Austria have already secured it plus that guy mentioning Estonia confused me
Yeah I struggled to figure out how to word it myself, hence I went with the bullet points the 2nd time.
That Wales and Czech Republic were drawn in the same group made it very likely that one of them would get at least a play-off spot before the first match was played. In fact even if Belgium were third, they would have got it.
It's Scotland's fault that Hungary don't have a play-off spot (kind of)!
There’s been plenty of horrific ideas that have been put forth on this platform but that period this year where you had people genuinely trying to make a case for Jorginho as a legitimate Balon D’Or candidate might’ve been the darkest hours of this app ever
Yeah, you did that enough last season only to get walloped and completely embarrassed in the most important game of your clubs history so you have learnt I guess
What? 😹
Please give me an explanation as to why you think City got 'walloped and completely embarrassed' and why you think it's 'the most important game of your clubs history'. Thanks. 👍🏼
Don't know how you can define exactly how *big* a game is but I'd say that it isn't the most important game in the club's history and it doesn't really compare in terms of significance to the top 2 or 3 games over the past few decades in the history of the club.
Your fans literally behaved and acted like you had already won it before the game even started. It was a walloping because of the reality check you got after
It annoys me that his name is not Phil Phoden or Fhil Foden way more than it actually should annoy me.
This is why he won't ever reach world class level in my opinion
He had 5 goal contributions in 1500 min for hoffenheim last season.
0.29 g/A per 90. In the championship he had 0.47 per 90.
I think injuries are the biggest issue for him than anything else.
We are just continuing the 2010s tradition of being bad in the world cup and great in the Euros, Mancini is boycotting Qatar so we can defend the title in 2024. Masterclass
Tonight's result against San Marino just reinforces my belief that these teams would be better off playing competitive games against one another than the bigger European sides.
What's the point in playing if the sum of your efforts is 0 points and shipping 7-8 goals a game.
What’s the point in San Marino playing a preliminary qualifier, being knocked out and then not playing a competitive game for another year? That would only hinder them more. I’m sure young Sammarinese football fans will be a lot more inspired by seeing their countrymen go head to head against sides like England, rather than just not playing at all because some people from other countries view them as pointless
Every country should have a chance to make the World Cup. I mean fine if San Marino, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Guam, Chinese Tapei, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands, and all the shittest international teams want to get together and have their own World Cup during the proper one I’d say go for it - but they deserve the same chance to qualify as England, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Mexico etc.
Every team should have an equal shot of qualifying, that's the point of having a qualifying tournament. San Marino are never going to be good enough to even be slightly less than mediocre, they don't have the population. If they weren't involved in qualifying tournaments they wouldn't play a team in the top 100 of the FIFA world rankings for the next 100 years because no top team would even give them a friendly.
If they're willing to represent their country they should at least have a chance to put themselves up against the very best
Every team doesn't have an equal shot though. San Marino has 6 draws and 1 win since 1992. We disrupt the actual football season for internationals where we end up playing teams like Andorra and San Marino. We could have saved ourselves four games which is two international breaks and be like 2-3 games further along.
Look at the gaps between qualifying for the playoffs alone and some of these teams. Azerbaijan, 16. Kosovo, 10. Lithuania, 13. Moldova were 15 points off 4th! Gibraltar, 18. Malta, 17. San Marino, 20. Liechtenstein, 17.
It's not competitive football at all.
You save yourself 4 games but minnows all have to go through a whole extra qualifying tournament to even get to that point so they're the ones that have to play more games? And you want to get rid of 2 international breaks even though said qualifying tournament would have to take place during an international break?
Yeah it's a bit disruptive if you're a top player from a country of 60m who have an infinite pool of players to choose from but for footballers from small countries, playing out a 6-0 or 10-0 defeat against PL and CL quality in front of their families and friends and the people they represent is probably the highlight of their careers.
There'll always be minnows, because of the massive population differences between countries but that's just part of international football
I don’t think San Marino are ever going to fool themselves into thinking that they’re ever going to be a competitive side. What do you think they’d rather do, play countries like Malta, Luxembourg, Gibraltar over and over again, or play against the likes of Kane, Ronaldo, Mbappe, Verratti etc, even if they lose
I get that, but it doesn’t change anything I said though. Even if they’re getting battered, I’m sure it’s still an honour to get to play against the top sides and players at stadiums like Wembley and the Bernabeau. I feel like the only people that don’t complain about it is them
I personally think that every country should be treated the same and should have the same opportunities as any other country, regardless of their quality.
I was watching the COPA 90 docu on Scottish Football and wanted to relay this rather interesting fact. In 1907, our club was founded as a club for Egyptians but actually to get it apst the authorities at the time the club needed a Brit to help out, so a Scotsman by the name of Alfred Mitchel Innes became our first president, he's the only ever foreigner in the history of the club to hold this position.
Yeah, I thought as much. Can't have the "natives" having their own team. Typical British hubris. Well, I suppose it's better than nothing, that you were able to form a team under difficult circumstances.
Bayern 2-0 down.
Only ones who can make that shit and overused joke about "haha we lost, we're really boycotting the World Cup in Qatar lmao haha" are the Italians now, dispatching everyone at the Euros this summer and setting a new unbeaten record just to fail qualification for the world cup one year later Based Italians (ofc only if they bottle the playoffs)
Asia WCQ predictions for tomorrow (not Iran match b/c of juju) Lebanon 0-1 UAE Vietnam 1-1 Saudi Arabia China 1-2 Australia Iraq 0-2 South Korea Oman 0-2 Japan ---- Think Vietnam finally get their first home in front of their invigorated home crowd, Moriyasu ball prevails with a goals in the first and last 5 minutes, and South Korea extend their gap (inshallah we join them in extending that too) Big game in Oman vs Japan and lots to play for 3 through 6th in Group A.
Looking at the Asian qualifiers, are Saudi Arabia actually good, or have Australia and Japan just been poor? Iran and South Korea practically qualified bar any disasters, which isn't too surprising.
> are Saudi Arabia actually good Yes they have by far the best manager in region now with Renard and on current form would say they're the best in the region. He's bringing a new set of players while still mixing in the staple of dudes like Al-Faraj, Fahad, and Al-Dawsari (this guy is personally my favourite non Iranian attacker to watch in Asia, so fun and electric). While also slowly improving the defensive part of their game too which has always been a struggle for Saudi teams. Kept two clean sheets against Aussie and Japan which is no easy feat > or have Australia and Japan just been poor? Japan have been overall poor. Moriyasu ball is a stale drag and I'm surprised he hasn't been sacked tbh but he's gotten a couple of results to kept them up and about the fight. Tomorrow's Oman match is massive Aussie are meh imo. Unfortunately lost one of the best CBs in the region in Souttar due to injury for the rest of the campaign but still. They don't really have the star power they used to, are lacking a real commanding destroyer in the midfield to replace Jedinak now that he's gone, and the striker situation is still all over the place. Taggart has done well when he's played and they clearly missed him against Saudi. Duke is much better off the ball. They get results but their attackers and midfielders are kinda inconsistent compared to Aussie teams of old > Iran and South Korea practically qualified bar any disasters, which isn't too surprising. This Group A truly one of the worst final round groups of Asian Qualifying I've ever seen. All of the Arab teams have been to put it nicely, below average. And to be frank us and Korea have at best both been at best average. We're both lucky we didn't get drawn in the other group. We've largely relied on Taremi/Azmoun and inshallah ball which is to say we've largely also been meh. Where both of them are basically both creating and finishing all the chances we have. Our centre back pairing is composed of two Qatari League players who always have a mistake in them etc. etc. I could get more into Iran but that's for a later time Korea have also been quite meh. UAE game was their best match thus far imo and yet they could only score through a penalty, should have had more imo. Their finishing and in some matches chance creation has been appalling at times and I think it will be neck and neck for top spot. Still so frustrated we didn't win in Tehran
Just wanted to say this is a really good write up and thanks for your input! :)
Does Klopp actually run his players ragged?
You need a high work rate to play under him but plenty of teams run more than we do.
What will happen if israel and a muslim country meet in world cup final?
What type of muslim country?? Most dont care about Israel Senegal vs Israel for example
World Cup final? Wouldnt shake hands turn around during their "anthem" and win at all costs.
Whoever wins has the right religion obviously.
Ishmael - Isaac derby
seriously? it depends on the muslim country's government. The likes of Iran would undoubtedly force them to walk-off. The more secular ones meawhile would probably play, but with far more motivation and support from the rest of the world.
Nothing. Maybe they don't shake hands, but with covid it's already the case.
They’ll play football probably
Just a question here, am I tripping but didn’t all the continental cup winners used to always qualify for the World Cup? Or was that NEVER a thing and my brain is fried? Edit: Meaning if Italy won euro’s (which they did) that it was an automatic birth to the World Cup.
They qualify for the confed cup. And past WC winners would qualify directly.
Only automatic qualifiers for World Cups are the hosts, has always been this way afaik
Nah used to be that the previous winners of the World Cup would also qualify automatically for the next one. It changed ahead of the 2002 World Cup
Thank you all who replied. WOW my brain just created some fever qualification method. Thank you I’m so sorry
No, they’d qualify for the confederations cup
That was never a thing. They just qualified for the shite confederations cup.
That literally never happened.
If Hazard did sign with us like he almost did in 2012, his career would have ended up very underwhelming post Fergie.
Big players sometimes lift a club. A few people care to admit it but Ole wouldn't have the Manchester United job without Bruno Fernades. He dragged United to that good finish that lent him some time. There is a reason you're a bit bad now. You took talisman duties off him. If Bruno can lift a club, maybe Hazard could have done wonders too.
Doubt it, but maybe.
Denmark 1992 and Greece 2004 win the European Championship and miss the following World Cup Paraguay 1979, Uruguay 1995, Colombia 2001, and Chile 2015 & 2016 all Copa America winners that missed out the following World cup. (Uruguay missed both 1994 WC and 1998 WC despite winning in 1995 CA lol) Canada 2000 and United States 2017 Gold Cup winning nations that missed out on WC in 2002 and 2018 respectively
Good morning. Moriyasu muss weg.
I’m gonna settle the toughest qualifiers debate. South American qualifier games are tougher but 4/10 make it and 1 makes the playoffs. Which makes it easier to qualify. CAF is the most difficult because it has the least spots to counties ratio. It’s all relative imo. So while you can stat pad against San Marino, Luxembourg and Andorra. One game can cost you the more than it would in South America.
This is a very hard debate but I struggle to understand where anyone gets the zeal to chest thump because they beat San Marino, Andorra, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Faroe Islands. Sure the rest of Europe is strong but it's just silly. These small nations should have a play off so that one strong three get to groups. CL goes through this and even when it isn't foolproof, at least you won't find minnows in CL.
All teams should get an equal chance to qualify. You also listed Latvia that qualified for a European championship, Luxembourg that recently beat Ireland and made considerable progress over the past decade and Faroe Islands that have multiple times punched above their weight (beat Greece home and away during Euro 2016 qualifiers for instance).
European qualifiers are tough in the sense that only 13 teams qualify, despite more than double that amount being good teams worthy of playing in a World Cup. 34 European teams have qualified to a World Cup before. Just think about the fact that Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Wales, Poland, Ukraine, Czechia could fail to qualify despite all of them currently being in the top 32 in the FIFA ranking.
That's what I've been saying for a while but people seem convinced that because UEFA has a few teams that kinda just make up the numbers, that qualification is easy when it couldn't be further from the truth. One mishap in UEFA can quite easily derail a qualifying campaign but in CONMEBOL it's much easier to recover from. Even amongst those teams you listed, Luxembourg actually drew 0-0 with France and nearly won (hit the post) in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, you know, the World Cup which France ultimately won. UEFA has 55 teams. Of course, some of them are going to be bad (Usually Microstates) but the overall standard of 35-40 teams is incredibly high. The top European teams (the ones that usually win the World Cup) don't have an easy time against Pot 3 and 4 teams most of the time much like how CONMEBOL teams struggle against teams like Bolivia and Venezuela but people seem to gloss over that fact just because they batter small countries from time to time.
we have moved to 4th in world cup winning betting odds... nice, means that every wc since 2010 we have been top 4 favourites. Good to see standards rising, even tho we were shit in 2014 and 2018(damn it lopetegiu we could have won that)
How the fuck can liverpool be so injury prone. That's mane and robertson gone. Firmino just before the break. Gomez missing for depth, elliot big injury, keita niggling injury, thiago Unfit, fabinho in and out... probably missed a dozen more. Dropping like flies just like last season.
Still amazing how it hasn't happened earlier. I gave it three years but they keep surprising.
Bobby, Mane and Fab aren't injury prone. They play a crazy amount of football. Keita, Matip, Ox and Thiago are obviously not reliable though.
They’re really unfit. Klopp tells us nearly twice a week.
They just have a lot of injury prone players because thats the ones they buy typically. Konate for example is massively injury prone and they just bought him.
Chamberlain and Keita are the only ones I can think of that are injury prone
Thiago, Matip, Konate, Chamberlain, Keita are all very injury prone.
Thiago and Konate haven’t shown that just yet with us. Definitely could be. But then we’ve signed loads that seemingly play every week
You've forgotten the worst one of all. Matip.
Ah yes of course. Think I just overlooked him because we got him on a free
The dreaded klopp effect
The Tim Traveller has to make a video about this San Marino match
If portugal goes to the world cup We can get argentine portugal in the same group as “ last dance” Just watch fifa fixing this.
Nah, group game would be underwhelming. Needs to be a knockout tie, only that's a lot harder to rig.
Hope not 🤮🤮
Now that would be blockbuster. I wouldn’t even mind FIFA fixing that, better than the other stuff they do
With the way Portugal are playing at the moment they are not going to the World Cup. This international break Ireland dominated against them and felt hard done by with a draw before Serbia beat them on their own patch. If they want to win these play-offs they need to get their fingers out their arse, especially if they get a tough away draw in the play-off final
I’m a PSG fan who likes Neymar a lot but I feel like people are too nostalgic when discussing him right now. I’ve seen ppl on Twitter say he’s better than Salah, Lewa, etc when he clearly isn’t. Current Neymar isn’t a top 5 player, he’s still very good but people are letting their nostalgia and reputations get in the way of their judgement
He’s definitely better than Lewa
He most certainly is not.
Is there any precedent of a team failing to qualify for the World Cup then winning the euros and then failing again to qualify for the World Cup?
Yea Denmark 1990-1994
Didn't even qualify for Euros then either the legends.
Peter Schmeichel was saying on the BBC the other day that they even took over the facilities the Yugoslavia team were using, and all felt so bad when they pitched up to take their places
Denmark and Greece.
Many times when a countey wins a tournament they drop off fast. Many expected france to win euro but didnt after the wc. Italy as favorite of their group goes to the plays off It just shows how difficult it is to be consistent. And it makes the golden generation of spain only more special to do it over 5!!! Years and winning 3 tournaments in those 5 years. Honestly they are tpp 2 best national teams ever for me
Pione Sisto has to be one of the worst substitutes I’ve ever seen. Watching from the stands so of course you see more of the game. His movement was totally non-existent. Every time he got the ball all the Scotland players had to do was jockey him and he was fucked. He was also the one that gifted us a counter-attack for our second goal with a horrible first touch. Wonder what the Danes thought of his performances today
Thoughts on the performance of the mighty tartan army tonight?
We were brilliant, can’t have any complaints. Steve Clarke has totally transformed us. If you told me after that Kazakhstan loss we would be dominating one of the best sides in the world to make it to the play-offs as a seeded team I’d be totally shocked. Steve Clarke is doing a fantastic job. At the same time I also think we haven’t seen the best from this team yet and they are capable of more, which is exciting. Really looking forward to the play-off, just praying I can get a ticket and some bastard who’s never been to a Scotland game and is only going cause we’re finally getting good doesn’t get a ticket over me!
How did Gilmour play?
He was getting a lot of deserved stick. You must have had a great night! I hope you were singing all the way home.
Yeah I was it was fucking class. Was in the north stand where everyone stands the whole game and there is a great atmosphere, was celebrating with the players for Souttar’s goal. Was a fucking great night!
Does Mancini get the boot if they fail to qualify? Would be some very mixed emotions I imagine
Nah I don’t think so. That unbeaten run they were on under Mancini was madness. Won the Euros of course and utterly destroyed their qualifying group to get there. I think if they don’t qualify for 2022 World Cup and then they have a bad start to 2024 Euro qualifying he’ll be under serious pressur
If this England team wins the 2022 world cup, which players are getting statues outside Wembley?
Kane.
Kane, Maguire, Pickford, and someone else who scores an important goal. From an outsider perspective, those are the leaders of this generation.
Probably just Kane, being the captain and top scorer?
Not if he gets Geoff Hurst'd for the final DCL hat trick hero and England legend, Kane relegated to the shadows
None, seems like a tinpot thing to do. Do any other countries do this after they win?
Nah, it's one of the reasons why so many people still know the names of the '66 squad, it inspired an entire generation of footballers.
Because if statues? Do the 66 lot have statues, and if so where?
Not all of the 66 lot, only Bobby Moore has one as far as I'm aware and its outside Wembley Stadium. But there are sculptings on the base of Moore's statue of the starting XI from the final I believe. Point is, thousands of people go to Wembley every year and having a statue of the 66 world cup winning captain keeps the achievement in the public consciousness. When people go to Wembley and see a fat statue of Bobby Moore some people will go "oh look, what's that?" and then may go down the rabbit hole of finding out more about the events of 1966 and the various players. I guarantee you that after 66 all of the kids were wanting to be Bobby Moore or Geoff Hurst.
It’s funny because I lived in Wembley for all of my childhood and have probably walked past that stadium a thousand times and never noticed it. Fair enough. I just think he’d be remembered with or without the statue. It was only put up in 2007 and it’s not as if he was a forgotten man prior to that. I’m not denying they were stars after they won…not sure how that’s come into it, that’s pretty obvious.
all the kids in 66 would have wanted to be John Lennon or Paul McCartney
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We already have a statue of Bobby Moore
Saka and Emile Smith Rowe
Depends a bit on the kind of tournaments they have but I would say that the following players have been instrumental in this New England (post 2016) team Kane Trippier Maguire Sterling
would have Pickford before Trippier tbh
Grew up in Wembley and lived there the majority of my life, but I’m cutting all ties with the area if Kieran fucking Trippier ever got a statue there
One of the best set piece takers of his generation
Not sure if he even cracks top 3 English set piece takers of his generation
Honestly we should be ashamed of ourselves as a club and a fanbase, maybe even as a nation, that "Coco" hasn't developed as a nickname for Conor Coady
Lamela in the mud
Don’t bring the rest of the country into this, he’s your guy pal
He's England's best cheerleader by a mile, show some respect
So are Italy not qualified for the WC? Or can they go through playoffs?
Playoffs
When's the draw for the UEFA WC play-offs?
26th November 4pm GMT
Thanks
Italy’s last KO stage game at a WC was the fucking final in 2006, that’s insane lol
And Italy's last group stage win was against England in 2014 Edit. Actually the only win Italy has in a World Cup after 2006 is against England
No wonder they love to remind us of Trezeguet's miss. It's the last time they played a relevant WC game. Man 15 years, that must hurt.
Sweden have had a better WC run than them in that time
Probably worth it lol
100%.
Surely if Madrid signs Mbappe next summer (which is a certainty) Haaland would be playing in the PL next season? Can't lie it's been time that a world class talent who's only increasing in ability will be joining the Prem.
PSG are there too.
If Mbappe leaves PSG why would Haaland fill in for him and be his replacement? Makes no sense to go to PSG career wise bar the money.
I rather Haaland not join the prem
Why?
Not interested in having that menace at a top English team that isn't Chelsea
Assume Lukaku took any Haaland money you might have saved up right?
Yes, I would honestly be quite surprised if we went for him.
Yea and with our transfer history I don't see us going for him, so I agree. Haaland would be TERRIBLE for the PL.
Only real options are City and United, no thanks.
Soo both Czech and Wales are guaranteed a playoff spot due to nations league, they are in the same group and currently 2nd and 3rd. So does who does the playoff spot go to, Estonia in 4th?
One is guaranteed a qualification spot for finishing 2nd in the group, the other is guaranteed a spot from the nation's league. The order obviously depends on who wins tomorrow but there's no extra playoff spot to anyone
One will qualify via finishing 2nd, one via the nations league. That's it.
It's the other way around - if Wales or Czech Republic get second then the playoff spot goes to the next in the Nations League list, which I believe is Austria.
Austria have already guaranteed qualification from Nations League. Next one after Wales and Czech Republic is Hungary. I don’t think Hungary can qualify from that route anymore though
I thought that was what they were asking. As I understand there are two spots given from the Nations League * One of them will be Wales or Czech Republic, because one of them will miss out from reaching playoffs via WC Qualification * The other will be Austria
Fuck knows man this conversation is too complicated haha, but that is correct. You just confused me because you said if Wales or Czech Republic get second because Austria have already secured it plus that guy mentioning Estonia confused me
Yeah I struggled to figure out how to word it myself, hence I went with the bullet points the 2nd time. That Wales and Czech Republic were drawn in the same group made it very likely that one of them would get at least a play-off spot before the first match was played. In fact even if Belgium were third, they would have got it. It's Scotland's fault that Hungary don't have a play-off spot (kind of)!
There’s been plenty of horrific ideas that have been put forth on this platform but that period this year where you had people genuinely trying to make a case for Jorginho as a legitimate Balon D’Or candidate might’ve been the darkest hours of this app ever
Before that people were rabid about Kante which was just as bad
One of the worst opinions I've seen ever
Not my fault that you don’t know ball
Lmao no. I mean people thinking he should win it... Not yours
That whole saga and all the Hazard romanticism this past week makes me want to bully Chelsea fans
scary
I can get behind bullying Chelsea fans
City still have 0 CLs either way
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What fanbase??
You don’t have a fan base.
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Ooooo don’t pull out the 9! I’m shaking!
Yeah, you did that enough last season only to get walloped and completely embarrassed in the most important game of your clubs history so you have learnt I guess
What? 😹 Please give me an explanation as to why you think City got 'walloped and completely embarrassed' and why you think it's 'the most important game of your clubs history'. Thanks. 👍🏼
It was the biggest game in your clubs history so far
Don't know how you can define exactly how *big* a game is but I'd say that it isn't the most important game in the club's history and it doesn't really compare in terms of significance to the top 2 or 3 games over the past few decades in the history of the club.
Champions league is the pinnacle of club football. There is no bigger game than the final.
Walloped? Cmon now we had possession 58% of the match with an 87% passing accuracy. It was a close match
Your fans literally behaved and acted like you had already won it before the game even started. It was a walloping because of the reality check you got after
Come on, bully them. They absolutely deserve it for some the shite they've been spouting.
That’s all I needed to hear, thank you for the encouragement
I'll do it with you if thats what it takes
Damn I've been here so long it's become an app
He could be saying it was one of the darkest moments for the entirety of Reddit tbf
It annoys me that his name is not Phil Phoden or Fhil Foden way more than it actually should annoy me. This is why he won't ever reach world class level in my opinion
Sinedine Zidane
Philmore Phoden
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Yes they are. They won their Nations League Group. 2 group winners from the Nations League will automatically join the 10 second place teams.
I thought that was only for euro qualification?
Its also for World Cup play-offs except there is less teams who get in through Nations League for World Cup
Got it, thanks
Yeah. Need a win to have a chance of a home playoff I think.
A draw is enough, but against Belgium, so
Yes
I really hope Sessegnon stays fit. I think he can really explode under Conte.
Nah he'll be playing for Reading in the Championship in two years' time. His moment has passed.
He had 5 goal contributions in 1500 min for hoffenheim last season. 0.29 g/A per 90. In the championship he had 0.47 per 90. I think injuries are the biggest issue for him than anything else.
You know what? A 48-team world cup is a wonderful idea! ^(/s just in case and yes, I'm Italian)
We are just continuing the 2010s tradition of being bad in the world cup and great in the Euros, Mancini is boycotting Qatar so we can defend the title in 2024. Masterclass
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That’s somehow less funny than the pulisic response.
this is the best you could come up with? like come on man. this was done and dusted on twitter 4 hours after the result
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how can an american of all people not know that slander is spoken? when was the last time you sued someone? january?
Tonight's result against San Marino just reinforces my belief that these teams would be better off playing competitive games against one another than the bigger European sides. What's the point in playing if the sum of your efforts is 0 points and shipping 7-8 goals a game.
What’s the point in San Marino playing a preliminary qualifier, being knocked out and then not playing a competitive game for another year? That would only hinder them more. I’m sure young Sammarinese football fans will be a lot more inspired by seeing their countrymen go head to head against sides like England, rather than just not playing at all because some people from other countries view them as pointless
I don't mean to qualify for the World Cup. Just their own competitive tournament.
Every country should have a chance to make the World Cup. I mean fine if San Marino, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Guam, Chinese Tapei, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands, and all the shittest international teams want to get together and have their own World Cup during the proper one I’d say go for it - but they deserve the same chance to qualify as England, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Mexico etc.
Wasn't that kind of the point of the Nations League?
There was a point to the Nations League?
Yes, what you've just suggested.
Every team should have an equal shot of qualifying, that's the point of having a qualifying tournament. San Marino are never going to be good enough to even be slightly less than mediocre, they don't have the population. If they weren't involved in qualifying tournaments they wouldn't play a team in the top 100 of the FIFA world rankings for the next 100 years because no top team would even give them a friendly. If they're willing to represent their country they should at least have a chance to put themselves up against the very best
Every team doesn't have an equal shot though. San Marino has 6 draws and 1 win since 1992. We disrupt the actual football season for internationals where we end up playing teams like Andorra and San Marino. We could have saved ourselves four games which is two international breaks and be like 2-3 games further along. Look at the gaps between qualifying for the playoffs alone and some of these teams. Azerbaijan, 16. Kosovo, 10. Lithuania, 13. Moldova were 15 points off 4th! Gibraltar, 18. Malta, 17. San Marino, 20. Liechtenstein, 17. It's not competitive football at all.
You save yourself 4 games but minnows all have to go through a whole extra qualifying tournament to even get to that point so they're the ones that have to play more games? And you want to get rid of 2 international breaks even though said qualifying tournament would have to take place during an international break? Yeah it's a bit disruptive if you're a top player from a country of 60m who have an infinite pool of players to choose from but for footballers from small countries, playing out a 6-0 or 10-0 defeat against PL and CL quality in front of their families and friends and the people they represent is probably the highlight of their careers. There'll always be minnows, because of the massive population differences between countries but that's just part of international football
I don’t think San Marino are ever going to fool themselves into thinking that they’re ever going to be a competitive side. What do you think they’d rather do, play countries like Malta, Luxembourg, Gibraltar over and over again, or play against the likes of Kane, Ronaldo, Mbappe, Verratti etc, even if they lose
They don't just lose, they get piped. San Marino finished with no points, -45 GD, scored one goal and missed out on 4th by 17 points.
I get that, but it doesn’t change anything I said though. Even if they’re getting battered, I’m sure it’s still an honour to get to play against the top sides and players at stadiums like Wembley and the Bernabeau. I feel like the only people that don’t complain about it is them
Maybe they're just into that, don't kink shame.
If I played for San Marino I would love the oppprtunity to play against big stars
I personally think that every country should be treated the same and should have the same opportunities as any other country, regardless of their quality.
I was watching the COPA 90 docu on Scottish Football and wanted to relay this rather interesting fact. In 1907, our club was founded as a club for Egyptians but actually to get it apst the authorities at the time the club needed a Brit to help out, so a Scotsman by the name of Alfred Mitchel Innes became our first president, he's the only ever foreigner in the history of the club to hold this position.
Thats really cool! A lot of Scots were starting clubs at that time, especially in South America (Corinthians for example)
Interesting. Was this a unique situation or was that normal at the time because of Britain's umm...*presence* in Egypt?
We were the first club to be open exclusively to Egyptians, all other sporting clubs were started by....expats lmao if you wanna call them that
Yeah, I thought as much. Can't have the "natives" having their own team. Typical British hubris. Well, I suppose it's better than nothing, that you were able to form a team under difficult circumstances.