Day 5: Sweden vs South Korea, Belgium vs Panama and Tunisia vs England (19H00)

abdo99 said:
Why is KDB playing in a 2 man midfield? Should that not be Dembele and KDB plays number 10? Or even 4-3-3 like the Man City formation with Dembele playing the Silva role and Witsel holding?
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jungledrums said:
@Aboutreika18 @bosnian_red cheers guys. Presumably dembele would come in against a better team, perhaps at the expense of Mertens/Carrasco? Any news on Kompany’s fitness?
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I can't remember the last time I saw Belgium play with a midfield three, tbh.
 
King7Eric said:
Mate you gotta take into account the fact that an average European team will be far better than the average African team. In terms of purely quality you can't begrudge Europe getting the number of spots that they do, in fact you could argue in terms of quality only, Europe and South America deserve more spots. But in a WC there are other factors that dictate how many teams from each region qualify and its fair enough in my opinion as they bring a different color and joy to the occasion.
People on here seem to underrate the 2nd tier European sides for some reason. Last week when I said I'd back Croatia and Serbia to go through their groups I had been called out for underestimating Nigeria and Costa Rica and how they would beat the aforementioned teams. I don't know what these assumptions were based on but Nigeria were miles below Croatia in quality and same for Costa Rica as well. I know Egypt were missing their best player but they hardly threatened against an off the pace Uruguay side. Morocco lost to Iran in a piss poor game. Its not been a great advertisement for the merits of African teams so far.
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I'm not saying Europe should get less seats in World Cup than they have. I'm saying they shouldn't be looking at taking more seats from other continents in which playing in World Cup is a dream on its own, to add more European teams who are definitely not going to compete either.
 
If you’re a neutral and you’re not cheering for Panamá, you’ve either got a Belgian girlfriend or have a small Euro-centric heart.
Belgium is going to beat them good though.
 
izec said:
Probably want to give him more responsibility and try to elevate his performances. He is also pretty extrovert and funny and liked by everyone.
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True. I guess the likes of Vertonghen, Kompany, etc will be leaders on the pitch regardless of having a arm-band to confirm it or not. Hope we see the best of Hazard this tournament, one of the best players at the world cup on his day.
 
crossy1686 said:
Like a slightly camp bloke from Sunderland. Which isn't Geordie but almost is, a bit softer.
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Classical Mechanic said:
He sounds like a character from a Charles Dickens TV adaptation, a slightly odd Geordie inflection.
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Annihilate Now! said:
Like a very softly spoken, slightly nasal Geordie/Mackem (I can never tell the difference)

I've actually found him quite endearing on his little ITV bits.
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OK now i'm very curious to hear him :lol:
 
Raoul said:
I forgot Axel Witsel even existed.
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Such a wierd career. He’s quite good, but seemingly never gave twi fecks about achieving something in a big competition. I still mostly associate him with that horrible tackle at the start of his career.
 
Aboutreika18 said:
Don't mean to be rude, Paul but it always amuses me how your posts are always full of cliches. :D
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Now that you mention it reading the post it does seem like a computer generated take on what Hansen and Lawrenson would say in a football studio :lol:
 
el3mel said:
I'm not saying Europe should get less seats in World Cup than they have. I'm saying they shouldn't be looking at taking more seats from other continents in which playing in World Cup is a dream on its own, to add more European teams who are definitely not going to compete either.
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I agree about the dream bit. That's what I mean when I say that non- European teams bring a joy to the occasion that European teams just can't. But the fact of the matter is European sides tend to be more competitive as they are better disciplined and well drilled, even 2nd tier European sides.
But anyway I don't think there's any chance FIFA will create a political storm by reducing the spots from other confederations to increase European ones, so its nothing to worry about.
 
Panama can boast exotic names such as Adolfo Machado, Valentin Pimentel, Abdiel Arroyo and Harold Cummings.
 
Lol panama qualified for World Cup with a minus goal difference?
 
Come on Belgium! I can't stand Panama - having to go through qualifying against them is just the worst. They're the worst kind of team that both flops like crazy and plays dirty. Hoping for a good outing from Lukaku today.
 
KirkDuyt said:
I find it wierd that they don’t apply this geographical fairness for CL qualifications. You’d think Europe consists of only 5 countries when watching the CL.
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Yeah that’s true. The current distribution of CL places has basically killed all minor leagues.
 
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