World Cup 2018 Qualifiers Discussion

Why is Depay playing this? Did he start?

He got subbed in after an injury

rincon wrote:https://streamable.com/xv26

Not a penalty, Excellent block. Agree it could be given but I've rarely seen these given. Already discussed im late ffs.

Nishankly wrote:I've GL jinxed them, Portugal already 2-0 up. Even the Faroe Islands isn't safe from the #GLjinx

How could you!

Still the Faroe Islands have considerably improved compared to earlier outings some years ago. Mind you, for the Euro qualifiers they even won against Greece home and away. Nordic power!

That pass by Pogba was amazing.

Griezmann should have scored on the follow up

Pogba is playing very well, Gameiro is impressing too

rwo power wrote:

Nishankly wrote:I've GL jinxed them, Portugal already 2-0 up. Even the Faroe Islands isn't safe from the #GLjinx

How could you!

Still the Faroe Islands have considerably improved compared to earlier outings some years ago. Mind you, for the Euro qualifiers they even won against Greece home and away. Nordic power!

Didn't you score 13 against them 3-4 years ago with Klose scoring 22 of those goals

Well, Germany is Germany ^^ But frankly, I'm pretty impressed how much they improved recently as they actually managed to collect points not only by parking the bus for a draw, but they even managed to win one or the other game now.

And as I write this, CR7 scores. The GL jinx is strong kungfu.

Wijnaldum

Yea it looks like a thigh strain/hamstring.

Van Dijk is a top defender

Depay needs to retire

seems legit

I hate when Deschamps goes PTB as soon as we score. It's annoying. One of these days, it's going to bite us in the arse.

We could have easily won this game easily.... but the manager is a pussy.

Gtfi Holland. Stage is set nicely for a France-Sweden thriller. We'll probably lose but France will witness pressing they have never experienced before. Can't wait tbh

While that is true, blame also goes to some of the players for making garbage decisions in the final third. Griezmann had a poor game by his standard. Martial looks so off-form as well.

But it was a convincing performance overall

Koscielny was my MOTM. Koscielny-Varane is the best partnership France have had since Desailly-Leboeuf

I hope you're trying to be funny hala

Gallas-Thuram was good too RG.

Wait hang on i thought the France game ended in a draw. I am officially deceived

Gallas-Thuram was good too RG.

halamadrid2 wrote:Wait hang on i thought the France game ended in a draw. I am officially deceived

Netherlands had exactly two chances... both on bad turnovers on the left in the French defensive zone. Other than that, literally nothing. lloris made 2 saves all game i think and only 1 of them was difficult.

sportsczy wrote:I hate when Deschamps goes PTB as soon as we score. It's annoying. One of these days, it's going to bite us in the arse.

We could have easily won this game easily.... but the manager is a pussy.

And yet you don't feel annoyed when Z does it?

RealGunner wrote:Van Dijk is a top defender

Van Dijk - Matip next season

van Dijk, Karsdorp and Janssen looked great. Unfortunately without Sneijder, Robben and with Promes going off 15 minutes into the game they were always going to struggle creatively.

Ultimately we're going to have to wait on the Nouri/Bergwijn generation to really become a top threat again. Missing out on Ziyech because of how the KNVB and coaches handled his situation is going to be one of the biggest blunders in decades. Sneijder is the only player we have that can really create from midfield.

Though to be honest France's goal was pretty shit. Steks should have saved that every day, and the Netherlands should have had a pen. Oh well.

rincon wrote:https://streamable.com/xv26

Anyone that doesn't think this is a penalty is braindead. It's about as clear a penalty as it can be. Completely alters the trajectory of the ball with his hands as a result of a position he put himself in. How this wasn't called is beyond me. Total ****ing crap.

If it were just his legs that ball could have easily traveled into the path of Propper or Klaassen for a follow up. It was a great block but stonewall penalty.

That's not the rule Curtinho  He makes the tackle and his arms are underneath him... they're not away from his body.  He stops the ball and the ball ends up under him.  He falls on it with his arms.  Never sees it.

If the ball was away from him and his arms were away from him in a an unnatural position, then it's a PK regardless of intent.

That's the rule.  

A similar incidence is if someone takes a shot and it hits your arm on its way to the goal.  If the shot is so close you that you can't react and your arm is on your body, it's not a PK.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

sportsczy wrote:I hate when Deschamps goes PTB as soon as we score.  It's annoying.  One of these days, it's going to bite us in the arse.

We could have easily won this game easily.... but the manager is a pussy.

And yet you don't feel annoyed when Z does it?

Deschamps literally pulls the team back into the final 1/3.  Zidane pulls the team back to Madrid's half...  far lower position for Deschamps.  And the wings weren't all that secure to boot.  Sidibe and especially Kurzawa were left in a lot of 1v1s regardless and weren't doing too well.  Varane and Koscielny were incredible to cover that.  Payet, Martial and Sissoko were awful defensively helping them.

I also don't mind it against teams that are offering a challenge.  But France were crushing Holland.  Complete domination.  There was no reason for it until the final 15 mins.  I can understand doing it for the last 15 mins.

Finally, France is highly highly athletic. Other than Payet, all those guys were athletic beasts. It's not like they have midfielders like Modric, Kroos, James and Isco who can't keep up the physical side of the game for a whole match and don't do well in duels. These aspects are among the strengths of players like Pogba, Matuidi, Sissoko and Kante.