You're downplaying them imo, it's the strongest Nigeria team i've seen in a very long time. The coach is just shocking.
Internationals October (World Cup Qualifiers + Nations League Finals)
- Thread starter Samid
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I agree but theres a difference between a player being a poor version of KB9 (Firmino) and another player being a totally different profile (Cavani). I don't see a 2 strikers offense working properly with Ronaldo and Cavani, they're just not complementary.
Agreed, the fact that Benzema is 33 and is still playing at such a high level is credit to his talent. One of the best strikers over the last 10 years 100%, his name doesn't get mentioned enough with the Suarezs, Agueros and Lewas.
One of the most remarkable things about Benzema for me is that he went from an entire decade of essentially being a foil (In very crude terms) for Ronaldo to being the main man himself. To make that transition and still be playing at such a high level, at an age where a lot of strikers start slowing down, is really impressive.
Can only go by what they called up this time...Leon Balogun, Troost-Ekong of Watford, Kenneth Omeuro playing in Spanish segunda and Ola Aina of Torino so low range of CBs.
Only 3 midfielders listed...Joe Airbo of Rangers, Frank Oneyka who apparently plays for Brentford and the wonderfully named Bonke Innocent....of course Ndidi injured and he's obviously a very good prem midfielder.
Loads of strikers and likes of Chukuweze still injured so strong in final third as always.
Likes of Algeria and Morocco I think are strongest all around 11s and squads in Africa currently so hopefully those two will get reasonably groups at next world cup and we'll see them in the knock outs as African football certainly needs one to break through again and get to quarters.
I think people are sleeping on Senegal as well. Morocco manager is beefing with Ziyech and Mazraoui and hasn't called them up for a while. Algeria and Senegal favourites for me.
Well he was always capable of that level just doing what he did for Ronaldo got him more trophies than if he was the out and out goalscorer. The best thing about him is he is all rounded that he can do nearly everything.
Look back at Rooney goal scoring record after Ronaldo left us and it was insane as he became the main man instead of playing out of position and doing the dirty work when Ronaldo was here. But as my point above we still weren’t as good as we were when Rooney sacrificed himself.
Senegal with Koulibaly-Gana-Mane should be knockouts aswell....but they were in a decent group to get out of in 2018 and didn't although it went down to fair play in the end IIRC.
After their overachievement in 2002 they've underachieved since and just making world cup seems a success now.
Two cracking games in the Nations League! Humble pie / pastasciutta for Bonucci, this time, he actually ruined our chances against a brilliant Spain. I hope Mancini fields the reserves against Belgium, it’s a nothing game. Having a close look at Switzerland vs Northern Ireland tomorrow for the direct WC pass and our two final games in November.
It was some run for yous wasn’t it.
Even against Spain you won the 2nd half with 10 men. The side is talented but the level of toughness and pure fight is huge
Fine margins, really, but they are emotionally gassed and a bit overworked these days. Mancini absolutely needs to qualify for the WC next month, then start building a different unit without relying too much upon gratitude.
You can see how these games are really different from real football, and premier league.
Too slow games, looks like they are playing in slow motion if you compare these games to the premier league football
Too slow games, looks like they are playing in slow motion if you compare these games to the premier league football
Also Edouard Mendy, Diallo (PSG) and Ismaila Sarr, they have a very talented team and were unfortunate in the last world cup. Also lost to Algeria in the last African nations in the final in a really tight game.
I think Chile made a big mistake by playing the 2017 Confederations Cup with their first team.
Because of that, players were fatigued when the rest of the 2018 World Cup qualyfing games were played. Didn't qualify, and lost motivation as a result.
They are at serious risk of not playing in the World Cup in back to back editions and with their best ever generation of players...
Because of that, players were fatigued when the rest of the 2018 World Cup qualyfing games were played. Didn't qualify, and lost motivation as a result.
They are at serious risk of not playing in the World Cup in back to back editions and with their best ever generation of players...
Its because Benzema has scored a bit less than those 3 you mentioned, but at the same time he won 4 Champions League in 5 years, which is more CL trophies than what Suarez,Aguero, and Lewandowski has won combined...so it's not like he didn't get anything in return for sacrificing himself to accommodate Cristiano.
I still rate Benzema as better player than Aguero and Lewandowski overall, when looking at natural talent, and not jut goalscoring.
Mexico and Canada getting a little heated. Ref just paused the game due to chants coming from the spectators.
Do you think Martinez will start coming under pressure. This golden generation of yours is getting older and you would have expected them to win something.Because we are king of the friendlies
Belgium. 
They don’t get as ridiculed as they should compared to someone like England. Vastly better first 11 and have feck all to show for it. A really poor Euros and disastrous result yesterday.
They don’t get as ridiculed as they should compared to someone like England. Vastly better first 11 and have feck all to show for it. A really poor Euros and disastrous result yesterday.We don't get ridiculed because we're simply irrelevant.Belgium.
We'll go away soon, back to years in the wilderness, where we belong.For me personally no because I like his brand of football. I have lived through our worst national sides so for me these last few years have been great, trophy or not. Think the general public will look fond upon these years when all turns to shit again eventually. My father still looks fond upon our great 80s side who never won a trophy aswell.
In the Belgian press the pressure is starting to mount yeah but the Belgian FA wil definitely not sack him. There is no better manager around who would take the job. I think hes gone anyway after next wc.
it’s a real shame for you lot. Every tournament since 16 has been a massive missed opportunity.We don't get ridiculed because we're simply irrelevant.
Not really.
They lost to the champions in close games. Do not think Belgium or England deserves ridicule.Belgium.
I guess if you only look at the winners, but then again Spain and Germany have done worse.
Maybe, but I'm not surprised as there's simply no winning culture over here in football. The media were all talking about "revenge", ridiculous. The French beat us fair and square last time around, there was no need for any revenge talk. It's symptomatic of our small time mentality. Our one-sided rivalry with the Dutch is the same. I'm sure the Dutch don't give a shit.
In 16 they got dicked on by Wales.
That was before Martinez right? I think Martinez done a good job. Same as Southgate. They are not loved, but expectations are pretty insane.
I think a good job is overstating it. He didn't do a bad job, but not a good one either. In golfing terms, pretty much a par. Winning international tournaments is fecking hard, but not reaching a single final with the players at his disposal is the real issue here. Something Southgate was able to do, by the way.
The squad defensivly is not that good though. It is mainly a great attack. I guess in the world cup they had a better defensive side. Still did really well in that one.
This Euro they played well, but Italy had a great half against them and Insigne scored a world class goal.
Nah, we really didn't play well at any point during the Euros. Denmark played us off the park and should've won, we grinded out a result against Portugal but really didn't play better than them and had our routine capitulation against a vastly superior Italy. That leaves us with unremarkable victories against mediocre opponents Finland and Russia.
Yeah, but i am not talking about Martinez. Im talking about Belgium. They should have reached a final. In 16 they should have gone further. In 18 they let themselves down at the almost final hurdle. In the Euros they were really poor for most of the tournament compared to someone like Denmark who have a worse squad but play really good football and completely destroyed them (compared to England who beat Denmark for example).
last night isn’t acceptable either. For a team rated no.1 in the rankings (yes, we know these rankings are shite) you shouldn’t be leading 2-0 and then losing 3-2. Not winning a tournament at all, even if it is the Nations League is still failure for this generation of players.
Yeah Belgium had a poor Euro 2016. They got a bit lucky against us Sweden as well.
Wales though had a great tournament.
I think in 2018 they had a great tournament just that France had a better one.
2020 they did alright, but Italy had a better day. Poor first half vs Denmark, but bossed it second half.
Nations league I do not take that serious,but they could have easily won if not for Lukaku close offside.
TBF last euros Hazard basically became irrelevant in the build up and De Bruyne wasn't really fit in build up and then got injured during the tournament.
If KDB had been in god mode with Lukaku they could've got to the final as I'd have fancied them to beat Spain in SF, bit unlucky to run into Italy in quarters.
I guess that will be strategy for Qatar, hope those two are still at good level.
I assume they have no great young CBs coming through given they're still playing Toby and Vertonghen at the back, both well past their best now.
Think their chance was 2018 world cup, they would've comfortably made the final if they'd been on England/Croatia side of the draw.
If KDB had been in god mode with Lukaku they could've got to the final as I'd have fancied them to beat Spain in SF, bit unlucky to run into Italy in quarters.
I guess that will be strategy for Qatar, hope those two are still at good level.
I assume they have no great young CBs coming through given they're still playing Toby and Vertonghen at the back, both well past their best now.
Think their chance was 2018 world cup, they would've comfortably made the final if they'd been on England/Croatia side of the draw.
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There's countless of examples where talented players became washed up in their 30s. You don't give Benzema any credit whatsoever for taking care of his body extremely well.
Not all trophies are created equally. You've remember the context. Benzema's 4 UCL-titles is almost meaningsless for his individual legacy. Most people don't think he's top 6-7 key contributors and Real Madrid heavily relied on Cristiano's goals. For comparision, Lewandowski's 2020 UCL-title as the best player for Bayern is much more
Strikers are judged how good they're based on goalscoring stats. Do you think Benzema is better than Pele, Puskas, Gerd Muller, Lewandowski, Romario etc?
Messi easily blows Benzema out of the water in the role as False 9 and it's not even debetable.
The idea of Benzema "sacrificed himself for the team" is revisionist history. Real Madrid tried to replace Benzema on several occastions for years. Hell, Benzema almost got shipped off in 2013 until Ancelotti veoted it. Benzema used to be treated as a meme player in most people's eyes due to his underwhelming numbers during Cristiano era (only two 20+ league goals in 8 years). Whenever people discussing Messi's & Cristiano's respective level of help, Benzema gets ridiculed for not being as good as Eto'o or Suarez.
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"Most people" are stupid.
Also, putting Pele and Lewandowski in the same sentence doesn't make sense, but Lewandowski being better than Benzema is VERY debattable,.
Good luck finding anyone who thinks Benzema was more important than Cristiano/Kroos/Modric/Casemiro/Carvajal/Marcelo/Ramos
Lewandowski has better goal-per-game averages than Pele despite playing for fecking Poland. Also, Lewandowski has scored tons of goals in Champions League (where the level of competition is much higher than World Cup), Bundesliga & achieved goalscoring records. It's not crazy to put their name in the same sentence.
There's little to no tangibles to make a case for why Benzema is better than Lewandowski.
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It is absolutely crazy to put Pele and Lewandoski in the same sentence, no-one in its right mind would pick Lewa as a GOAT contender. He's a great player and did score a lot of goals in th CL, but failed to show up far too often when it really mattered. Stats can't explain everything.
As for Benzema, we're talking about a player who's a starter for Real Madrid for almost a decade, who managed to put on the bench players like Higuain, who was smart enough to realize he had to be Ronaldo's golden assistant since Ronaldo was the best CL scorer ever, and was able to re-invent himself at 31 when CR left Real Madrid to carry his team to a Liga title. If by "tangible" you mean "scoring stats" maybe not. If you take what you can observe on the pitch, I'd say there's obviously a way to make a case. And since you like stats, Lewa has 77 goals in the CL when Benzema has 72 WHILE playing alongside Ronaldo. The difference isn't that colossal.
Werner doing what he does best, diving. VAR should take it back.
Cakir tried his best to give the penalty anyway.
VAR takes it back. Awesome. This kind of contact should never be a pen.