Can Brazil Or Germany Fail To Reach The Semi Finals?

I looked at the draw closely last night and the overbearing feeling I was left with is that both Brazil and Germany have been given pretty much a stroll alongside the sea shore right up to the semi finals.

Fans of some other teams would be gritting their teeth in irritation because their sides need to really slug it out from the word go.

Does anyone here feel differently? Anyone bold enough to predict that one of Brazil and Germany will not reach the semi finals???

Even without being given the stroll, it's highly unlikely ze Germans don't make at least the semi-final. I am slightly less sure about Brazil, but wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Yeah I feel like Germany will flop with a R16 or QF exit. There's no logical basis for that, just a random feeling that I hope works out so we get something new.

Brazil sure, they will likely have to play England in the quarter final and I can see an upset there but Germany? They will likely have to play Belgium or Poland in the worst case scenario, I find it very unlikely that any of these teams can knock out Germany but then it‘s the World Cup and everything can happen. I personally wouldn‘t put my money in the line against Germany.

Are you suggesting England is in the same leaque as Brasil????

Sounds like he's suggesting that England might just cause an upset against Brazil. Shouldn't happen, but it certainly could.

Brazil afaik are overrated. That Paulinho-Casemiro-Renato midfield will get exposed heavily by the first decent team.

i have a feeling Brazil is gonna nick this world Cup. the team is just right. Neymar has blossomed into the superstar he was supposed to become. the main man at PSG. the main at Brazil. Brazil oveerall has the best squad.

Ze Germans do no longer have the same hunger, just like Bayern, they will make the semifinals as usually though,

Valkyrja wrote:Brazil afaik are overrated. That Paulinho-Casemiro-Renato midfield will get exposed heavily by the first decent team.

maybe, but it certainly won't be against a Henderson-Alli-Delph midfield

Urby suggesting we could upset Brazil

state of our team

Brazil will likely face Mexico and that is not an easy team to play against. I can see Mexico pull off an upset

Germany are in this weird space right now where I really feel like they'll flop, but I can't say why. Even at the Euros it was mostly injuries that weakened them, not anything specific beyond that, they actually played good footy ever since 2010. They just feel like a team that's lost it's edge in a way that I cannot really put my finger on.

Brazil won't make the final for Brazil reasons, btw.

I say it's France against some surprise team.

I see no scenario in which these 2 do not make the semis.

I don't think France will reach the final. They have very talented players and others that are just overrated. Not to mention that I don't really rate Deschamps that high. There was no excuse for him to lose to a Ronaldo-less Portugal on French soil in front of their fans. None. Especially when you take into account the difference in talent between the two.

I think they'll reach the semi-final with insane ease and then crash out.

There's a dark horse in this competition that people are purposely ignoring as to not jinx them: Argentina. If Messi plays to his full potential, he'll murder everybody in Argentina's path.

It's between them, Spain and Germany in my opinion.

I see no scenario in which Argentina beat Spain in quarters either. You didn't watch us during qualifiers, we are awful.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I see no scenario in which Argentina beat Spain in quarters either. You didn't watch us during qualifiers, we are awful.

Qualifiers are meaningless, you didn't qualify till your last game under Maradona and still made the Quarter finals.

Before 06 Spain had decades of examples of destroying qualification and then flopping at the tournament.

It means absolutely nothing.

Firenze wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:Brazil afaik are overrated. That Paulinho-Casemiro-Renato midfield will get exposed heavily by the first decent team.

maybe, but it certainly won't be against a Henderson-Alli-Delph midfield

Urby suggesting we could upset Brazil

state of our team

Midfield means nothing when you can just hoof to Kaneba who can knock down to Delli Allipard tbh.

Football is coming home.

Absolute scenes if England oust Brazil.

I'm all for it though, already means WC banter would be high

futbol_bill wrote:Are you suggesting England is in the same leaque as Brasil????

There was a friendly against England where the starting 11 of Brazil started and they drew.

M99 wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:Are you suggesting England is in the same leaque as Brasil????

There was a friendly against England where the starting 11 of Brazil started and they drew.

There you go!

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I see no scenario in which Argentina beat Spain in quarters either. You didn't watch us during qualifiers, we are awful.

Qualifiers are meaningless, you didn't qualify till your last game under Maradona and still made the Quarter finals.

Before 06 Spain had decades of examples of destroying qualification and then flopping at the tournament.

It means absolutely nothing.

European qualifiers mean nothing, South American ones do because the games are actually challenging. And while you could blame our performance on having gone through 3 managers, Messi's injuries etc, I think the simpler explanation is to look at the players we have called up.

I have little doubt we will make quarters again, but think we will fail the first time we play against a good team. This is likely to be Spain in quarters if there are no surprises, so I think it will probably end there for us. And even if we do beat them the chances of us beating Germany in semis and Brazil in the final are even lower.

futbol_bill wrote:

M99 wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:Are you suggesting England is in the same leaque as Brasil????

There was a friendly against England where the starting 11 of Brazil started and they drew.

There you go!

Yet if Brazil won you'd use it as a reason to why England suck

Kane > Gabriel Jesus
Sterling > Coutinho
Neymar > Lingard
Alli > Paulinho
Henderson > Renato Augusto
Casemiro > Dier
Marcelo > Young
Stones > Miranda
Marquinhos > Maguire
Walker > Alves
Allison > Pickford

Renato is not guaranteed to start. Tite has recently went with the midfield trio of Paulinho-Casemiro-Fernandinho and Paulinho-Casemiro-Coutinho with Willian on the right wing.

urbaNRoots wrote:Kane > Gabriel Jesus
Sterling > Coutinho
Neymar > Lingard
Alli > Paulinho
Henderson > Renato Augusto
Casemiro > Dier
Marcelo > Young
Stones > Miranda
Marquinhos > Maguire
Walker > Alves
Allison > Pickford

Brazil's bench :
Douglas Costa
Willian
Firmino
Fred
etc

Who do England have on their bench ?

Valkyrja wrote:Brazil afaik are overrated. That Paulinho-Casemiro-Renato midfield will get exposed heavily by the first decent team.

I have the same midfield concern with Brazil. However they are well drilled (unlike some teams), have great attackers, a high quality goal keeper, are extremely motivated after what happened last time, have been getting great results in the last few months, are a traditional super power and if Neymar is fully then maybe he can show that he is ready to be crowned numero uno. When Brazil won the world cup in 1994 or 2002, did they have a great midfield? Which last top quality central midfielder from Brazil can we recall? So maybe Brazil can win in spite of that. If they try to go one on one with the best midfields in the tournament they could be doomed as you said but if they get their tactics right then they could find a way past it.