World Cup 2018 Qualifiers

SCP said:
I think we lack coordenation in our movements and passing, we don't create spaces, we just ask fullbacks or wingers to cross balls to the box, we must do better than this.

We have to play better than today at Andorra let alone Switzerland, Andorra will not only park 1 bus, it will be entire Andorra inside the box, and they will kick so much our players that they will make today match look a soft one.

I know you like Santos, and I find him a likeable and serious person, but as someone who grew up watching our NT play at Euro 96 or 2000, even 2004, no way this team plays the same sort of football, but 1 credit I give to him, he made us a hard team to beat even without playing atractive football.
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Agree with this but with the Euro win he got free pass for everything. Like Rehhagel in Greece, he has godlike status. Even the press who used to be very harsh with him, have noticeably lowered their tone. I also dislike the football quality but the fact is that he won and because of that we will have to get used to this for a while. Btw who knows perhaps we can win the WC as well :lol:
 
Blackwidow said:
Really? Coman is in good form right now. He struggled with injuries last season but now he is fine again. But he is more winger than an inside forward that Martial and others are when you play him on the wing. That is probably why he was chosen and not Martial. Squad building is not always about who is the best but about what you need for your tactics. Maybe in addition who best adapted to the team in the past - that at least is a big factor in Germany's squad building and that is not so wrong prior to a tournament in which all have to live together for weeks.
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I don't know who told you coman is in good form. He has just played 20 odd.minutes in bundesliga and is struggling to get game time. Martial in less minutes has made more impact than lacazatte, giroud and coman so not selecting him is a joke.

I would have agreed with your tactics point if Deschamps was a good tactical manager but he is one of the most tactically naive managers.
 
SCP said:
Andorra in our group managed to beat Hungary 1:0 and a draw with the Faroe Islands 0:0, Switzerland only won there 1:0, they play with ultra defensive tactics, and when we played them at home they kicked so much our players that they made today the Hungarian players look very soft.

As stupid it may look, it will be as hard as it was in Hungary to beat them, at least if we play like today, when we have to play in possesion we struggle to create spaces with 11 players behind the ball.
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I did not realize they improved this much, have not followed them and they have never been in a group with us. We got Armenia and Kazakhstan, both of whom used to be bad or terrible but are actually pretty fine now. Kazakhstan actually took points from us at home.
 
Sly said:
Agree with this but with the Euro win he got free pass for everything. Like Rehhagel in Greece, he has godlike status. Even the press who used to be very harsh with him, have noticeably lowered their tone. I also dislike the football quality but the fact is that he won and because of that we will have to get used to this for a while. Btw who knows perhaps we can win the WC as well :lol:
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:lol: It will be a total meltdown in World Football, the most hated team in history.

More seriously, don't expect the press to be soft on him if he doesn't play Bernardo on the starting 11, or if he doesn't pick some players from a certain club, just saying.
 
AshRK said:
I don't know who told you coman is in good form. He has just played 20 odd.minutes in bundesliga and is struggling to get game time. Martial in less minutes has made more impact than lacazatte, giroud and coman so not selecting him is a joke.

I would have agreed with your tactics point if Deschamps was a good tactical manager but he is one of the most tactically naive managers.
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Me who has seen all the Bayern preparation matches.

I bet with you Ribery, Robben and Müller would have kept Martial out of the team, too - especially as Ancelotti prefers older professionals...
 
Sarni said:
I did not realize they improved this much, have not followed them and they have never been in a group with us. We got Armenia and Kazakhstan, both of whom used to be bad or terrible but are actually pretty fine now. Kazakhstan actually took points from us at home.
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Yes we managed somehow to beat the Faroe Islands 6:0 and 5:1 but they already have 8 points in our group, with a draw against the Hungarians, like I said, it is easy to laugh, but the only teams very easy to beat today in Europe are San Marino or Gibraltar, Christ, even Liechenstein managed to pick a 2:2 draw after we were 4th placed in WC 2006.
 
Blackwidow said:
Me who has seen all the Bayern preparation matches.

I bet with you Ribery, Robben and Müller would have kept Martial out of the team, too - especially as Ancelotti prefers older professionals...
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Want an advice mate? Give up, it doesn't matter how rational you try to be with facts. :)
 
Blackwidow said:
Me who has seen all the Bayern preparation matches.

I bet with you Ribery, Robben and Müller would have kept Martial out of the team, too - especially as Ancelotti prefers older professionals...
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So then how can you say he is in form when he is not even playing. In 25 appearance last season he just scored 2 goals so and this season in the league he has not even played 20 mins and yet gets picked. It doesn't matter whether martial would have played ahead of robben and ribery , fact is martial has done more than coman and he should be selected.
 
SCP said:
Yes we managed somehow to beat the Faroe Islands 6:0 and 5:1 but they already have 8 points in our group, with a draw against the Hungarians, like I said, it is easy to laugh, but the only teams very easy to beat today in Europe are San Marino or Gibraltar, Christ, even Liechenstein managed to pick a 2:2 draw after we were 4th placed in WC 2006.
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I remember that game, ruined my (and probably thousands of others) accumulator back then. Liechtenstein are one of the teams that will lose pretty much every game but be competitive in a lot of them. Malta are the same, they hardly ever get any points but they often put up a half decent fight and Kosovo look like they are the same. San Marino and Gibraltar are in a tier of their own, they don't really threaten teams they play against.
 
SCP said:
Yes, everyone is laughing, but they do have some interesting results at this level, they are not San Marino or Gibraltar tbf.
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No but they're only a small step above them. 24th point ever in a WCQ against a team that we have a specific thread on being very talented.
 
Sarni said:
I remember that game, ruined my (and probably thousands of others) accumulator back then. Liechtenstein are one of the teams that will lose pretty much every game but be competitive in a lot of them. Malta are the same, they hardly ever get any points but they often put up a half decent fight and Kosovo look like they are the same. San Marino and Gibraltar are in a tier of their own, they don't really threaten teams they play against.
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This only reinforces the fact UEFA doesn't want to make preliminary rounds for those teams, because some of them develop their game playing against the stronger teams and players, 20 years ago we used to beat Liechenstein 7 or 8:0, today if we beat them 2 or 3:0 is a good result for us.
 
Snow said:
No but they're only a small step above them. 24th point ever in a WCQ against a team that we have a specific thread on being very talented.
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France are not good going forward collectively most of the time. The current Belgium team would beat Luxembourg easily 4, 5 or 6-0. They beat Gibraltar 9-0, i dont think France could manage that, even if Gibraltar is quite a step down to Luxembourg.
 
AshRK said:
So then how can you say he is in form when he is not even playing. In 25 appearance last season he just scored 2 goals so and this season in the league he has not even played 20 mins and yet gets picked. It doesn't matter whether martial would have played ahead of robben and ribery , fact is martial has done more than coman and he should be selected.
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Coman and Martial have nothing to do with each other, it was never one or the other in the last selection. Martial should have been selected instead of Thauvin or Corchia should have been selected with the idea of pushing Sidibé higher if needed like he sometimes does for Monaco.
 
Snow said:
No but they're only a small step above them. 24th point ever in a WCQ against a team that we have a specific thread on being very talented.
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I know what you mean, but you are looking from a statistical point of view, because if you look at some of their recent results not only the NT but also some of their clubs on preliminary rounds of Europa League or Champions League, you will understand what I mean.

Having said all that, of course is a embarassment to France, 11 years ago we also picked a 2:2 draw at Liechenstein with Scolari as our Head Coach, this is what they call football, the only colective sport where you can be statistically worse than your opponent and still manage to win, not handball, voleyball or basketball.
 
JPRouve said:
Coman and Martial have nothing to do with each other, it was never one or the other in the last selection. Martial should have been selected instead of Thauvin or Corchia should have been selected with the idea of pushing Sidibé higher if needed like he sometimes does for Monaco.
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:boring::boring::boring::boring::boring:
 
Am I the only one who doesn't think it's that big of a deal that France did not beat Luxembourg. One team defends well and the other team can't score. It happens to every top team every once in a while.
 
Fenomeno9 said:
Am I the only one who doesn't think it's that big of a deal that France did not beat Luxembourg. One team defends well and the other team can't score. It happens to every top team every once in a while.
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Yes, but imagine the reaction of the brasilian press if Brasil managed to get a 0:0 lets say against Surinam?
 
SCP said:
I know what you mean, but you are looking from a statistical point of view, because if you look at some of their recent results not only the NT but also some of their clubs on preliminary rounds of Europa League or Champions League, you will understand what I mean.

Having said all that, of course is a embarassment to France, 11 years ago we also picked a 2:2 draw at Liechenstein with Scolari as our Head Coach, this is what they call football, the only colective sport where you can be statistically worse than your opponent and still manage to win, not handball, voleyball or basketball.
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I'm not looking at a special point of view. This kind of result against Iceland 4 years ago would have been poor and by that time we'd already managed to reach the playoffs for the WC.

Being above Belarus is definitely a big step forward for Luxembourg no matter how Belarus has regressed and no matter how the rest of the games will go this will be a huge result in terms of seeding. A lot can happen when you make the climb out of that bottom seed and it's far from an impossible feat.
 
SCP said:
Yes, but imagine the reaction of the brasilian press if Brasil maged to get a 0:0 lets say against Surinam?
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Off the top of my head, I recall a couple times where we drew 0-0 against very inferior opposition and the press went off :lol:. As a fan, I was pissed too but it not always easy for superior team to break down 11 players camped in their own half.
 
Snow said:
This kind of result against Iceland 4 years ago would have been poor
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After being World Champions in 98 France got a draw at a Euro Qualifier on Iceland, and Germany after WC 2002 also got a draw at home with Iceland, ok it was a surprise at the time, but still in football is easier to be sitting and complaining about these type of results, but sometimes is really hard to break teams who play with 11 behind the ball.

I don't like the way we play with Santos, was moaning and depressed with the performance today, but still try to understand they are under pressure to pick 3 points, not everybody can/has the ability or solutions to play like Spain yesterday.
 
JPRouve said:
Coman and Martial have nothing to do with each other, it was never one or the other in the last selection. Martial should have been selected instead of Thauvin or Corchia should have been selected with the idea of pushing Sidibé higher if needed like he sometimes does for Monaco.
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That's a good point and which is why I said Deschamps is not doing a good job. Any other top manager would have done a remarkable job with this french side.
 
giorno said:
Really? Were you asked to make "authentic" or whatever? Because for me it was always pretty easy. Espresso+cream+baileys
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Why the feck would you not make it authentic. Baileys ffs... :p
 
SCP said:
After being World Champions in 98 France got a draw at a Euro Qualifier on Iceland, and Germany after WC 2002 also got a draw at home with Iceland, ok it was a surprise at the time, but still in football is easier to be sitting and complaining about these type of results, but sometimes is really hard to break teams who play with 11 behind the ball.

I don't like the way we play with Santos, was moaning and depressed with the performance today, but still try to understand they are under pressure to pick 3 points, not everybody can/has the ability or solutions to play like Spain yesterday.
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They could have lost against us in a friendly match before the EC 2000 if it wasn't for our bottle job mentality which we showed again a few months later vs Yugoslavia (3:0 up and still end up drawing the match)



I think some nations still underestimate the small teams and then you get these freak results. Portugal had trouble beating Luxembourg away a few years back aswell
 
SCP said:
After being World Champions in 98 France got a draw at a Euro Qualifier on Iceland, and Germany after WC 2002 also got a draw at home with Iceland, ok it was a surprise at the time, but still in football is easier to be sitting and complaining about these type of results, but sometimes is really hard to break teams who play with 11 behind the ball.

I don't like the way we play with Santos, was moaning and depressed with the performance today, but still try to understand they are under pressure to pick 3 points, not everybody can/has the ability or solutions to play like Spain yesterday.
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We've been tough to beat at home for a long time and a lot of it has to do with us always having been a physical side and the players actually play for their country unlike for example England (see the reaction to their goals against Malta). We stopped Lippi's many year unbeaten run with Italy and we've also beaten Spain at home all before becoming good but we never got these types of result away like Luxembourg did tonight.

Sure it's hard to play against a team that plays 11 men behind the ball, we just lost against Finland who did just that, but in France's case I imagine there was something more than it not being their day. It's not actually the mentally strongest side in football and generally hasn't been when things don't go their way.
 
GifLord said:
They could have lost against us in a friendly match before the EC 2000 if it wasn't for our bottle job mentality which we showed again a few months later vs Yugoslavia (3:0 up and still end up drawing the match)



I think some nations still underestimate the small teams and then you get these freak results. Portugal had trouble beating Luxembourg away a few years back aswell
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Luxembourg are not bad, they had some good results the last few years and are improving. They won against Greece and Albania at home for example in friendlies. They also only lost 1-0 against Sweden in the qualification last year and 4-3 against Bulgaria away. They have beaten Belarus 1-0 a few days ago with a decimated squad, i think France drew against Belarus away last year. I cant remember the last time they got a proper trashing, they nowadays only lose to a few goals at maximum. They are also building a new stadium and are looking to improve in the football department. Pity that some players decide to play for other national teams, especially from the Balkans and Cape Verde. imagine Pjanic lining up for Luxembourg instead of Bosnia.
 
izec said:
Luxembourg are not bad, they had some good results the last few years and are improving. They won against Greece and Albania at home for example in friendlies. They also only lost 1-0 against Sweden in the qualification last year and 4-3 against Bulgaria away. They have beaten Belarus 1-0 a few days ago with a decimated squad, i think France drew against Belarus away last year. I cant remember the last time they got a proper trashing, they nowadays only lose to a few goals at maximum. They are also building a new stadium and are looking to improve in the football department. Pity that some players decide to play for other national teams, especially from the Balkans and Cape Verde. imagine Pjanic lining up for Luxembourg instead of Bosnia.
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We only beat them with a 92nd minute free kick as well. Closest we've come to dropping points at home and we've played Holland and Sweden in Sofia :D Luxembourg can sneak up on you for sure
 
Sigma said:
I hope so! (I was born in Scotland, but to Syrian parents)

Just beat Iran, and hope South Korea slip up.
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The whole country is buzzing right now, Tuesday is going to be huge for us, hopefully we can at least make the playoffs.
 
I put down £1 on the draw between France and Luxembourg for fun and made myself £21! Shame I didn't have the foresight to put down more :)

What a fun game that was.
 
Luxemburg holding France was biggest surprise....

But biggest upset for me was, Republic of Ireland not beating Georgia...

This group is wide open going into last 3 games...

Republic of Ireland Versus Serbia in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, will be a must win game for them..
 
langster said:


:lol:
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I watched the game and didn't think he was that bad, he didn't get any closer than about 20 yards to the goal it just seemed like he was recycling possession. You have to remember, Luxembourg did not get forward that often and when they did it was with long balls on the counter when about 9 of the French team were in their half.
 
whatwha said:
Why the feck would you not make it authentic. Baileys ffs... :p
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'Cause a lot of italians when they're asking for an irish coffee, what they really want is coffee with alcohol in it. Not gonna wast good whiskey on people who don't care :lol:
 
How does France not beat Luxemburg, lose to Sweden yet thrash us 4-0. Bunch of fecking bottlers.
 
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