Day 9: Cameroon vs Serbia | South Korea vs Ghana | Brazil vs Switzerland | Portugal vs Uruguay

FrankFoot

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I don't agree tbh. I think the players on their bench are fantastic. Maybe they're 3rd but it's close particularly between them and Brazil. In fact Brazil have quite a big weakness in the full back positions, whereas Portugal aren't really lacking in any position, so I think you could actually argue they have a better squad than Brazil.
Portugal will keep starting old washed Ronaldo until the man retires.

And he probably will extend his career until his early 50s if Haaland gets closer to Ronaldo CL goal record.
 

PoTMS

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I don't agree tbh. I think the players on their bench are fantastic. Maybe they're 3rd but it's close particularly between them and Brazil. In fact Brazil have quite a big weakness in the full back positions, whereas Portugal aren't really lacking in any position, so I think you could actually argue they have a better squad than Brazil.
Brazil, France and England all have much better well rounded squads than Portugal. Spain and Germany probably are equal but have far superior coaches who make their teams better than the sum of their parts.
 

cyberman

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It may come down to our man Ronaldo -Souness

Shows how pathetic it is to embed yourself into one side of the argument. He’s talked nothing but Ronaldo so far, it’s weirdly obsessive. Every conversation is steered back to Cristiano by him
 

giorno

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Because Tite likes to be conservative and prefers left footed right wingers.
He's not a wide forward and isn't that effective there, particularly on the right. And brazil don't have attscking wingbacks, so they need actual wide forwards
 

giorno

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Portugal should have the 3rd best starting XI in the world cup in theory, but they lack depth compared to the likes of England and Germany

Spain should not be at that level but are because they have the best manager in international football
 

RedDevilMachine

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I think Switzerland makes anyone look bad with their grinding style. I don’t think France would run them over either.
France was knocked out of the Euros by this Swiss team just only last year. They are incredibly hard to break down.
 

SportingCP96

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Anyone else thinking Uruguay upset?
I expect Uruguay to win so I would not even call it an upset.

Portugal fecking suck and have one of the worst coaches in the tournament.
 

antohan

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No matter what happens in Portugal-Uruguay, Ghana's now got what they wanted: a match against Uruguay with qualification at stake. They must be buzzing.
It's really not ideal for them. We will treat it as a game of football, they could very easily lose the plot.

Qualification being on the line should be enough motivation. Trying to draw motivation from that one time when you failed by missing a penalty on the last minute... You see the boomerang effect, right?
 

giorno

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Fede Valverde entering terminator mode should do it
 

antohan

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I expect Uruguay to win so I would not even call it an upset.

Portugal fecking suck and have one of the worst coaches in the tournament.
Well, you are sitting on three points while we couldn't score against Korea who just conceded three.

No de Arrascaeta again, we are broken and whatever isn't broken, Darwin will make sure he breaks up.
 

giorno

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France was knocked out of the Euros by this Swiss team just only last year. They are incredibly hard to break down.
In the 20 minutes they bothered to play, they fecking killed them. The problem was their refusal to play more than 20 minutes...
 

Darkhorsez

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Freaking sourness! Talking about Cruyff … I don’t remember playing him and I am sure he wouldn’t remember me too. Dude the legend is sadly not with us! What an idiot
 

Bobski

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He wanted a challenge

It's the first time I actually see someone saying that and going all in
Absolutely right, expected someone who had won it all and would not be inspired about picking up a below par team, but the dude is hungry, perfect character.
 

cyberman

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Rice just said there’s a lot of talk about him and Jude about price tags. Surely listening to that is a mistake when he isn’t leaving? Living up to a price tags is for when you move, not being under pressure from hypothetical fees
 

RoyH1

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They did literally beat France in the Euros...though in fairness France helped a lot with that. France are just generally a bad matchup for Switzerland though since they can play so fast and direct with Mbappé and Dembele, with a big dominant target man in Giroud winning aerial duels and laying the ball off for them

And Brazil were missing Neymar in this game. Ideally in the absence of Neymar they should start Gabriel Jesus and Rodrygo over Richarlison and Paqueta imo, along with Bruno Guimaraes in midfield. Ironically for Brazil they lack quality wingbacks
It's crazy, isn't it? The land of Cafú, Roberto Carlos, Dani Alves, Marcelo has to play a centreback at fullback
 

BorisManUtd

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Portugal getting out of WC (though it won't happen) would be good for different reasons: Bruno and Dalot getting back to United to prepare for 2nd part of the season and Piers Morgan crying.
 

antohan

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Rice just said there’s a lot of talk about him and Jude about price tags. Surely listening to that is a mistake when he isn’t leaving? Living up to a price tags is for when you move, not being under pressure from hypothetical fees
They are reading Redcafe comparing their 150m + 100m vs the US mids going for 30m tops.
 

Lee565

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What on earth is all this rubbish on itv for the past 20 odd minutes now