WC Quarter Final | Russian Federation vs. Croatia

Huge for me. I have football coming home or one of my fav teams Croatia in the final. If Croatia wins I'll make $70 as well

juvealbanian wrote:

Robespierre wrote:BROZOOOOOOO

BEST INTER PLAYER

Go away with these frauds.

Perisic was terrible and lost an amazing opportunity and so did Brozoscrub when Mandzugod set him up.

If all that wasn't enough another ex-inter Kovacic missed the penalty.

If it wasn't for Mandzugod Croatia would have no chance led by these inter scrubs.

ok

Doc wants me dead after I wrote I would never spend 40 mln for Kovacic ( " bargain" )
Can you talk me about Kovadona pls

Jay29 wrote:Considering Russians thought they'd crash out in the group stages and be an embarrassment, this has been a colossal effort. Knocking out Spain was a great achievement.

Croatia looked dead during extra-time but they're nailing these shootouts. They must be buzzing by now, if not completely fit.

Russia have won their World Cup.
Impressive run , they have just  taken  root in the hearts and minds  with tough performance  
Nobody considered them, underdogs since the beginning, everyone expected their got knocked out after group stage but reached  quarter final penalties.
And it was got without the usual home favours in  WC.
I never could imagine him ,even taking Spain and Croatia to penalty kicks

Modrić turns into a marshmallow when he steps up to a penalty lol, great player but he wouldnt be my choice for taking crucial pens in knockout stages

If i was Russian i'd be pissed off at that shootout though, what the *bleep* was the bloke who took the first penalty thinking

Just hit it normally and you score.

Myesyats wrote:Modrić turns into a marshmallow when he steps up to a penalty lol, great player but he wouldnt be my choice for taking crucial pens in knockout stages

agreed, he reminds me of messi so much

Robespierre wrote:

Jay29 wrote:Considering Russians thought they'd crash out in the group stages and be an embarrassment, this has been a colossal effort. Knocking out Spain was a great achievement.

Croatia looked dead during extra-time but they're nailing these shootouts. They must be buzzing by now, if not completely fit.

Russia have won their World Cup.
Impressive run , they have just  taken  root in the hearts and minds  with tough performance  
Nobody considered them, underdogs since the beginning, everyone expected their got knocked out after group stage but reached  quarter final penalties.
And it was got without the usual home favours in  WC.
I never could imagine him ,even  taking Spain and Croatia to penalty kicks

I was at the match vs Spain. I've never seen such a celebration like in Moscow after that game. They partied like they won the cup. Everyone was going crazy, people who didn't even cared about football all went to the centre to see it.

None of them expected it. This tournament was a historic win for them.

Myesyats wrote:Modrić turns into a marshmallow when he steps up to a penalty lol, great player but he wouldnt be my choice for taking crucial pens in knockout stages

Besides if you have Rakitic who is insanely cold to shot them

Kovacic did nothing as usual

Warrior wrote:Kovacic did nothing as usual

Yes, useless as he was for Inter.

Rude, he looked gassed in the 30 odd minutes he played. Good cameo against the ever running Russians because that's all Croatia could do post 75 mins.

Robespierre wrote:

Myesyats wrote:Modrić turns into a marshmallow when he steps up to a penalty lol, great player but he wouldnt be my choice for taking crucial pens in knockout stages

Besides if you have Rakitic who is insanely cold to shot them

Even at braca that guy always steps up in big matches. He's been exceptional in every el clasico for example.

Modric really is in excellent shape for a 33 year old ffs

Casciavit wrote:Modric really is in excellent shape for a 33 year old ffs

I completely agree. He is 32+ and can run continuously for 120 minutes. Incredible!!!

Image BC posted not too surprising.

Croatia is also doping or insanely fit too. Both Russia and Croatia were incredible for teams going 120 minutes. Those two teams were running hard the whole game too.

Nah Croatia was visibly exhausted and they had like 3 or 4 injuries by the end. Russia on the other hand is definitely doping.

That's true, forgot about how the team was collapsing with injuries at the end.

The players who weren't hurt were still pretty active though I thought. Clearly second in the table. Perhaps they're just very fit.

Modric was insane

This is from AET of Russia-Spain match.....Russian players dead on their feet, while Spaniards looking fresh as daisy. maybe Spain is doping too  ?



The distance isn’t the important part here. They key advantage is in how many high speed metres they can cover in comparison to what’s normal...High speed in football is >20kph
Russia covered 11432m of high speed distance v Croatia. The most of any team at this World Cup. But, they had 74min with ball in play. Pretty much all high speed running is done with ball in play, who’s sprinting to take a corner?!...
In comparison, England covered 10101m of high speed distance v Colombia.... during 69 mins of ball in play time. So Russia 14m per min high speed per player..England 13.3m per min per player
For context Liverpool ave 14.9m per min of high speed running last season...Yea I guess Klopp is doping the team too then ?!
Also, Cherchesov is known as a boot-camp manager. He was Legia Warsaw's manager before (I follow them after having lived there) and he was known for very hard physical training and emphasis on stamina and running. It's no surprise that this Russian team is built on that too, compared to the limp and low-energy side managed by Slutsky in Euro 2016. Also, the "doping scandal" goes back a few years ago...I wonder why the Russian team didn't dope for WC 2014 or Euro 2016 when the "doping scandal" was under the radar and other stuff was happening?
So they didn't dope their football team when they were supposedly doping other athletes of other sports, but after it blew open and they were banned from Olympics (even all their clean athletes and even the impaired ones) and all the huge media scruitiny and focus on their own tournament ... they decide to finally get the magical dope to the football team in 2018 ? Yea,  you must be very naive to buy into that or simply believe Russians are complete retards.
A combination of crazy home support, a boot-camp manager with emphasis on work-rate and physical play and aderline...and as I explained above, their high speed distance on average based on minutes played (ball in play) isn't too different from England team and lower than Klopp's Liverpool. But then again, there is this programmed mentality by media now that nothing good ever happens in Russia, and if something is positive, then there must be a murky reason behind it. Reminds me so much of Iran regime's propaganda against USA and Israel, where on state TV nothing positive about those 2 countries, portrays that everyone in US lives in wastelands of Detroit, and all the country's problems is blamed on them (They say Israel is stealing Iran's clouds now, hence the water problem in Iran ).

On another note..this is Dzuiba before the shoot-outs yesterday.

Прям колотит и мурашки от этого видео! Дзюба настоящий лидер и мотор команды! На повторе видео… pic.twitter.com/bw0CEQHnKj

— Василий Конов (42+) (@VasilyKonov) July 7, 2018

If i understand correctly, he says: "I'm proud of you, I love you. Cherish the moment...If you're not sure, just hit it down the center." Looks like Smolov took the advise way too literally, and Fernandes didn't understand.

Also this one has to be the gif of the tournament so far...after Vida made it 2-1. Croatian president celebrates and that Medvedev and Infantino reaction

I think most people are mainly skeptical because of the age of the Russian players.

We are a really young team and obviously playing for the clubs we do we get the best in terms training, preparation etc etc.

Not to mention we keep the ball a lot better than Russia do allowing our players to rest more during the game.

I can't really complain. I wanted both Uruguay and Russia to be ended before the semis and that's exactly what happened.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I think most people are mainly skeptical because of the age of the Russian players.

We are a really young team and obviously playing for the clubs we do we get the best in terms training, preparation etc etc.

Not to mention we keep the ball a lot better than Russia do allowing our players to rest more during the game.

I just double-checked for accuracy.

Midfield and fullback positions is where majority of the running happens.

Here was Russia's starting midfielders and fullbacks for most matches:
Cheryshev (27)
Golovin (22)
Zobnin (24)
Kuzyayev (25)
Fernandes (27)
Kudreshayev (31)

The majority in mid 20s at peak of their physical shape. I'd agree with your notion if someone like Ignashevich or Zhirkov were running around as hard as those. Ignashevich barely had to move in the last 2 games as Russia were camped into their penalty box mostly.

Also, if they were doping, they did a horrible job of not giving enough dope to their best players like Cheryshev and Golovin and Dzyuba. All of them were knackered AF and had to be substituted yesterday. Surely if you're to dope, you dope your best players first? Who knows, they could have won the penalties if Cheryshev, Golovin and Dzyuba were on the pitch.

Again , I think this is just because it's Russia and this pre-conceived image some people have of them. They played great, with passion and cheered on by ruthlessly energetic and supporting fans...must be doping!! Also, Russia has so far played the most of any other team in the tournament with 2 extra time matches (Croatia rested nearly the whole side vs. Iceland), so in terms of pure running statistic, they'd of course be top. Again it's all about context, but we live in an era that people just want to get a tweet viral, or get a reactionary and shallow message across with no depth to their message. I mean, this thread alone Viva predicted one of the all-time scandals to happen in this game and the Argentinian guy's posts are all passive-aggressive negative. As I said, some people are just programmed now to think like that. Russia, like any other country has garbage human beings and controversies and societal problems and like any other country most of the pop are actually just normal people. Nobody can honestly say they don't have problems.

The issue is when they are made like the evil incarnate, which is hilarious. Why can't anyone say that some things are exaggerated without it meaning that nothing is true. As always. the truth is in the middle yet it's uncool to be realistic about it all. Most of the most firm believers in the horrible stuff (that Russia is a mafia police state, cold and racist people, everyone cheats, players are gonna be sent to gulags, the ref had balls of a steel not calling the penalty for russia, etc) have never set foot in the country, have their info from the usual sources, yet are as convinced as anybody.

Any other team and no one would make any of these accusations. Just watch for one the semi-finals to go to extra time and you'll see Henderson sprinting in the pure rush of adrenaline to clear a ball to ensure that it's coming home. I guess we'll find out this week during the matches

btw: Felip from N-O was in Russia for the games too. Tough luck for him with Brazil. Great guy!

Hold on you're Sepi lol? I never knew....

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Hold on you're Sepi lol? I never knew....

Came out of closet last week

http://www.goallegacy.net/t41484-my-world-cup-experience-in-russia