WC 2018 | Round of 16 | France vs Argentina

Pavon must have slammed 6 crosses right into the first defender in the second half. It was miraculous

I believe it was Pavon anyways

The shit corners were by Banega mostly, sometimes by Di Maria but still not good enough. The winger on the right with crap crosses was Pavon. Messi couldn't pass to the wings or in one twos at all. His passes were intercepted all the time.

S wrote:Just checked the schedule

France-Argentina followed by Uruguay-Portugal on the same day(this Saturday)

Damn, that would be one tense day

Both matches have the potential to cure insomnia.

Luca wrote:Pavon must have slammed 6 crosses right into the first defender in the second half. It was miraculous

I believe it was Pavon anyways

I like Pavon but more for his pace and dribbling ability and just being an out ball.

His crossing seems quite poor.

Babun wrote:In theory, France is superior in every way possible. Realisticaly, France is really suspect to an early goal. Deschamp's setup is not good for fast comebacks or scoring lots of goals. If Argentina scores early byt some brainfart or individual brilliance France would be in pain. In 7/10 games, France would win though.

We don't concede goals Babs... only one is that crazy Umtit handball. Heck, we don't concede many chances period.

That's the only good part about our tournament. We're solid as hell. But i think Deschamps is emphasizing defense way too much. Our midfield is too defensive and it leaves our forwards stranded. Without Mendy playing, our fullbacks aren't good offensive threats either.

Strangely, due to choices and tactics, we're a super defensive team. Ugly to watch.

I mean I wouldn't be that convinced by a defence which has faced Australia, Denmark and Peru.

They might not concede chances, who knows but until you face better competition we don't know that.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Luca wrote:Pavon must have slammed 6 crosses right into the first defender in the second half. It was miraculous

I believe it was Pavon anyways

I like Pavon but more for his pace and dribbling ability and just being an out ball.

His crossing seems quite poor.

He also comes in after the 60th minute so his pace looks even faster by comparison, wonder how he would do with a full 90 minutes.

Anyways much better than ADM

sportsczy wrote:

Babun wrote:In theory, France is superior in every way possible. Realisticaly, France is really suspect to an early goal. Deschamp's setup is not good for fast comebacks or scoring lots of goals. If Argentina scores early byt some brainfart or individual brilliance France would be in pain. In 7/10 games, France would win though.

We don't concede goals Babs... only one is that crazy Umtit handball. Heck, we don't concede many chances period.

That's the only good part about our tournament. We're solid as hell. But i think Deschamps is emphasizing defense way too much. Our midfield is too defensive and it leaves our forwards stranded. Without Mendy playing, our fullbacks aren't good offensive threats either.

Strangely, due to choices and tactics, we're a super defensive team. Ugly to watch.

That defence will face Messi + Di Maria & Co. + ........................



+Var team which gives soft pens

They have to get through our midfield first.... namely, Kante, Pogba and Matuidi. Not to mention we turn that around and counter with Griezmann and Mbappe.

It's so defensive, it makes me ill actually. Waste of offensive talent. I hate Deschamps.

Don't say get through Pogba and Matuidi like its a thing

Argentina worst team to make L16. They may even be the worst South American team in the cup, even if they make it the farthest.

Didn't deserve to win vs Nigeria

Didn't do shit against a half-strength Iceland

France will win this comfortably

It is.  They're committed on NT...  very different than club.  It's Matuidi's last WC and Pogba sees this as a way to re-establish himself.  They've both dropped all pretenses.  Pogba has been quite impressive actually.  Matuidi's been pretty good too (and I expected nothing given his season at Juve).

What has France shown that numpties like Iceland and Nigeria haven't?

Argentina 3-1 France, book it.

Get in

CBarca wrote:What has France shown that numpties like Iceland and Nigeria haven't?

Argentina 3-1 France, book it.

Get in

They don't really need more than Iceland though

Unless you think Argentina can win a shootout. Which obviously would be an absurd thing to believe.

France is better opponent for Argentina than Uruguay or Denmark. Because lesser teams park the bus and it was problem for Argentina in all their matches. In an open match Argentina's front line will show their true strength

Neither France or Argentina will make this an open match

zigra wrote:

CBarca wrote:What has France shown that numpties like Iceland and Nigeria haven't?

Argentina 3-1 France, book it.

Get in

They don't really need more than Iceland though

Unless you think Argentina can win a shootout. Which obviously would be an absurd thing to believe.

Nah that's a fair point tbh

Kebab wrote:France is better opponent for Argentina than Uruguay or Denmark. Because lesser teams park the bus and it was problem for Argentina in all their matches. In an open match Argentina's front line will show their true strength

Just no.

Croatia had 43% possession, on what planet is that parking the bus?
Only Iceland really parked it.

zigra wrote:

Kebab wrote:France is better opponent for Argentina than Uruguay or Denmark. Because lesser teams park the bus and it was problem for Argentina in all their matches. In an open match Argentina's front line will show their true strength

Just no.

Croatia had 43% possession, on what planet is that parking the bus?
Only Iceland really parked it.

I dont know about possession but Croatia always defended with 10 men when Argentina had the ball

CBarca wrote:What has France shown that numpties like Iceland and Nigeria haven't?

Argentina 3-1 France, book it.

Get in

We win? And we play Serie A type tactics of the past... namely, if the current result is to your advantage, focus on not conceding. That's just how Deschamps is.

So unless we need to score to get a result (which we will against Argentina; so I expect more attacking desire), you're going to see us play conservatively.

If you've watched France under Deschamps, you'd realize by now that the attack is very dependent on the offensive capabilities of the fullbacks. Enormously important. But with Hernandez and Pavard, our fullbacks are defensive... so we struggle with width.

Mendy not being completely fit was an early blow. Love Hernandez... but we need Mendy's threat on the attack. I don't necessarily like Sidibe better than Pavard however.

Argentina are going to turn this around.

The first 2 games Messi looked like a scared little boy; there was no joy on his face.

While it was probably more relief than anything else, he looked comfortable on the pitch today especially after the game.

I think win or go home they will be able to increase their level like they did today

Kebab wrote:

zigra wrote:

Kebab wrote:France is better opponent for Argentina than Uruguay or Denmark. Because lesser teams park the bus and it was problem for Argentina in all their matches. In an open match Argentina's front line will show their true strength

Just no.

Croatia had 43% possession, on what planet is that parking the bus?
Only Iceland really parked it.

I dont know about possession but Croatia always defended with 10 men when Argentina had the ball

You said they parked the bus when in reality they simply defended well. That's a massive difference. Really the only team that parked the bus against Argentina was Iceland.
Just because a team sits back a bit or plays somewhat defensive doesn't mean it parks the bus.

You just can't say a team with more than 40% possession (and more shouts than its opponent) parked the bus.

Kebab wrote:

zigra wrote:

Kebab wrote:France is better opponent for Argentina than Uruguay or Denmark. Because lesser teams park the bus and it was problem for Argentina in all their matches. In an open match Argentina's front line will show their true strength

Just no.

Croatia had 43% possession, on what planet is that parking the bus?
Only Iceland really parked it.

I dont know about possession but Croatia always defended with 10 men when Argentina had the ball

Organized team defending =/= parking the bus

Griezmann nailed it when asked whether he was disappointed with the performance:

"Frustrated? No, I am used to playing like that..." Griezmann told journalists in the mixed zone. "At club level, we play that way often. It is true that it was not very pretty to see at the stadium or on TV -- I am sorry for the people who expected lots of goals or nice moves, which was not the case here."

France does play like Atleti  Deschamps Maybe he's doing this because he feels it fits Griezmann the best and he's building around him. What a numpty.

There are no trophies for playing beautifully in the group stage of all places

Seems quite similar to Euro 2016... in fact, the group stage for France was nearly identical

Luca wrote:There are no trophies for playing beautifully in the group stage of all places

Seems quite similar to Euro 2016... in fact, the group stage for France was nearly identical

Only difference was that we were chasing the score until late in the game at the Euro in pool play.  So we often ended up attacking more and more and more.  Very different games.  In the WC, the only time where we were chasing a result for a while was against Australia... and they fouled the shit out of us.  Against Peru, we scored fairly early and then sat back.  With Denmark, 0-0 won the group so it was up to the Danes to attack us, which they didn't because 0-0 got them through as well.  

It's a results driven thing.  I just don't think playing like Atleti is a good fit for the talent that we have.  France could be far more ambitious than that.

But then again, under Jacquet, we played like this too and won the WC in 98.  We opened up once Jacquet left.

I don't have to like it.

THAT SAID, we opened it up big time in the Euro elimination rounds other than the German game (we played Atleti style).