Day 18: Russia-Spain, Croatia-Denmark

[Loublaze]

Just go to De Gea's left, he always dives to his right.

Aye. Too easy

 

[kouroux]

7 shots on target for 6 goals conceded against DDG for Spain. Not really solid

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

Extremely negative from Spain. Very slow build up, even when Russia pushed up to press them. Little to no penetration.

Yeah, just happy to have the ball but no urgency. Hope it changes second half because I’m getting a bad feeling about Spain here.

 

[K2K]

The Russian fans won’t take the own goal lightly, if they get knocked out now Ignashevich best keep out of the public eye for a while, for his own safety.

I love some of the stereotyping you read on here during games.

 

[Dyslexic Untied]

Don't really see how anyone can have issues with the penalty. Clear as they come.

 

[Inter Yer Nan]

7 shots on target for 6 goals conceded against DDG for Spain. Not really solid

2 of them penalties, the other a world class free kick from Ronaldo. He’s really only been at fault on one goal.

 

[Carolina Red]

McDonald’s just had a commercial with a guy saying “Pique... and Pique stands for what exactly? Penalty kick?”

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

I think Denmark are the worst team left in the competition. Expect Croatia to beat them comfortably.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Bepi]

He jumps with his arms, which alone is fine. He then makes a second movement to put his arm in a position clearly intended to obscure or block the ball. There's absolutely zero defending your man, here. You should be thoroughly pissed off with him, not coming to his rescue.

It will take a couple of VAR years to get uefadrid & uefalona back on the fair side of playing but they will get there eventually pretty soon, there is no way anyone can escape such a detailed scrutiny from a number of cameras and all the angles

 

[Don Alfredo]

Pique has always been an idiot regarding the movement of his arms/hands in the area, you could do a youtube video longer than Messi skills just with the amount of handballs he's done in his career, case in point, watch the 2009 Chelsea vs Barça.

He's been lucky he plays for Barcelona, he never gets called on those situations, with the VAR implementation I think the amount of penalties he gives away will skyrocket if he doesn't fix that.

Wow that coming from a Barcelona fan

Nice to see someone looking beyond club bias

 

[JPRouve]

Umtiti and Piqué do ridiculous handballs, coincidence?

 

[Kearnkoff69]

I think Denmark are the worst team left in the competition. Expect Croatia to beat them comfortably.

Agreed. This has been an unpredictable cup, though, so I don't want to feel overconfident about Croatia's chances.

 

[Rafaeldagold]

I agree, Spain lacks ambition and incisiveness. But at least they still want to play football.

What Spain is playing is utterly tedious. What they were doing at 1-0 was barely football. And let’s remember it was only 1-0.

Yes you can blame Russia for not being as good as Spain and coming out to them but this is Spain’s way, and they will continue to play this way throughout the tournament against everyone.

Effective? Yes, technically good? Yes.

Boring as hell and the least exciting way to play football? Yes.

 

[Javi]

Wouldn't exactly be the first time a player fecked up. Things happen fast and old habits die hard. What other explanation do you have for him re-raising his arm?

As I stated earlier I think it's also a possibility that he unconciously moved it. Clearly unnatural though.

 

[carvajal]

You are a better poster than this.

I also need my moments of rebellion and stubbornness

 

[K2K]

7 shots on target for 6 goals conceded against DDG for Spain. Not really solid

Spain do not concede many chances is what I'm taking from that.

And two of those were penalties. One was an unstable freekick.

 

[Slevs]

Pique is stupid, claiming it hit his head

It's like they don't know VAR is available.

 

[Kapardin]

Accomplishment? Think I'm having PTSD from it and after watching this first 45 minutes.

It's still amazing how LvG got away (and Jose is still getting away) with that tumescent crap at a top European club like ours for so long. Don't think any top club has played such crap football and tolerated it for as long as we did/are doing.

 

[Rajma]

7 shots on target for 6 goals conceded against DDG for Spain. Not really solid

What an awful stat

 

[NikkiCFC]

Extremely negative from Spain. Very slow build up, even when Russia pushed up to press them. Little to no penetration.

You can't have fast build up with Isco in the team. Pique - what a amateur reaction.

 

[Brophs]

This post will only apply to Irish watchers, but Peter Collins is an awful presenter. RTE have so many better than him. Give Jacqui Hurley a go if the best you can come up with is that Formula 1 twat.

 

[ivaldo]

What Spain is playing is utterly tedious. What they were doing at 1-0 was barely football. And let’s remember it was only 1-0.

Yes you can blame Russia for not being as good as Spain and coming out to them but this is Spain’s way, and they will continue to play this way throughout the tournament against everyone.

Effective? Yes, technically good? Yes.

Boring as hell and the least exciting way to play football? Yes.

Correct. Its just another form of containment, like defending on the edge of the box.

 

[Gross Domestic Peasant]

It's like they don't know VAR is available.

Putin is on VAR duties today though

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

You people sayin it was penalty, jeez, you don't know much about football, do you?
It wasn't intentional, ffs.
Just like Henry's handball agains Ireland wasn't, years ago

 

[Javi]

Are you trying to tell us he is perfection personified? Players make mistakes, even great ones. He knew his man had peeled off and he wasn't getting to it, so moved his arm in the way to potentially block, with the hope the ambiguity of the law saves him. This isn't a hard one to call.

Not at all. He was covering space there not an opponent, too. You must have completely missed my point, I'm not at all claiming that it wasn't a penalty, in fact, I stated it was clearly a pen. I deemed it more plausible to be an unconscious movement from him.

 

[Bastian]

I also need my moments of rebellion and stubbornness

This is basically a match day thread for you. I'm pretty sure half the Caf have gone off the boil in the United match day threads (myself included numerous times). It's quite rare for someone to concede they were in the wrong so quickly. Top poster. Always rate you

 

[kouroux]

It's like they don't know VAR is available.

When cheating and lying is engrained into your game

 

[Adisa]

Pique and Ramos have had a disastrous world cup.

 

[sullydnl]

This post will only apply to Irish watchers, but Peter Collins is an awful presenter. RTE have so many better than him. Give Jacqui Hurley a go if the best you can come up with is that Formula 1 twat.

Agree. Remarkably he hasn't gotten any better at covering football despite doing it for years.

 

[Ishdalar]

Umtiti and Piqué do ridiculous handballs, coincidence?

Pique, Umtiti and Mascherano have costed my hearth months defending corners.

 

[The Firestarter]

Alba

 

[kouroux]

Alba needed to do a diving header there

 

[Massive Spanner]

This post will only apply to Irish watchers, but Peter Collins is an awful presenter. RTE have so many better than him. Give Jacqui Hurley a go if the best you can come up with is that Formula 1 twat.

I think the worst evening was the one with him and that wan who scored some great goal once and clearly had tonsillitis yet kept getting asked questions and choking up.

 

[Carolina Red]

It certainely looks odd and is a definite pen, no question there. I cannot see however how that is supposed to be an intentional block. The way I see it he couldn't be sure who is going to be meeting the ball behind him. So to me it looks like you are saying he took a shot in the dark with a blatant keeper imitation gesture to save a possible attempt which just is a bit much. But the hand movement is really odd, I agree. Can't see inside his brain though. I get where you're coming from.

A bit much? His arm is going down, then he throws it back up again.

At least you can see it’s a clear penalty.

 

[whatwha]

Spain do not concede many chances is what I'm taking from that.

And two of those were penalties. One was an unstable freekick.

An unstable freekick

 

[jungledrums]

You people sayin it was penalty, jeez, you don't know much about football, do you?
It wasn't intentional, ffs.
Just like Henry's handball agains Ireland wasn't, years ago

You cheeky fecker

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

It's like they don't know VAR is available.

Or about 30 cameras around the pitch, with at least 5 slow motion replays. They are used to doing it in Spain, and getting away with it.

 

[K2K]

An unstable freekick

Lol..

Bloody autocorrect.

Unsavable

 

[Slevs]

Or about 30 cameras around the pitch, with at least 5 slow motion replays. They are used to doing it in Spain, and getting away with it.

Jaw dropping. So many CBs will get exposed when VAR is in place in all leagues.

 

[Sky1981]

Penalty was given for what happened. Not what the player intended to happen

Doesnt mean anything if pique does or doesnt mean to. If it's a penalty it is a penalty