Thread to discuss the football itself.
This is not a thread to discuss the hosting of the competition in Quatar.
You can discuss the hosting in the relevant thread.
Japan and Spain have brought penalty taking into disrepute over the past two days.
England could potentially face a semi-final of Morocco or Switzerland if they get past France.
RTE boys going close with the Fez hats home no one objects to it
It's like a mental virus; when the first guy misses they all fall apart
Bono ' Such a Perfect Day''
Spain even tried to pass their penalties! They won’t do anything until they get away from possession for possessions sake. Absolutely no cutting edge to them.
Dropping the manager while giving him the bumps lol :)
I reckon Morocco could give Portugal or Switzerland a tough game tbh, very impressed by them
Got to love a good underdog story
Almost looks like Simon threw that FFS
Moved way too early
Same as - they won't fear either of them
How often do you see teams score 0 in a pen shoot out? And Spain supposed to have technical players!
He was fcukin dreadin it!
What is it with people on about Senegal's white faces and now this? Surely the world has not gone that 'awoke'?
On the penalties, if I was a coach I'm not sure I could handle players with these ridiculous short/stuttering run-ups.
The fans are great as well. I’ll be shouting for them anyway.
Hard to feel sorry for Spain. They just can't break teams down passing it about. If it was working for them, fine, but it's boring as **** to watch when it gets nowhere. The inability/refusal for a Plan B is what stops this team from going further.
The game today was exactly like the second half against Japan. They must have known Morocco were going to play the same way and still they stuck to their approach. Isn't there a quote along the lines of: "The definition of madness is trying the same thing again and expecting different results"?
It is really frustrating to watch as they could be a very good team, just need to be more pragmatic and move on from their tiki-taka obsession. Excuses were already being prepared, claiming that all Morocco did was foul and weren't getting booked for it. They'll soon pivot to indignation at Morocco simply not letting Spain play through them. I don't know if it's arrogance or delusion but until Spain change that approach, they're going to continue struggling.
Alhamdulillah
Well no aliens phoned in back in 1990 when Dunphy called Bill - ‘Alf’.
Yeah if you're going to practice 1000 penalties blast it into the top corner every time until it becomes an automatic reflex
There might not be a worse 'good' keep in the world at pens than De Gea though..
All the best penalties scored over the years have been from players running up and hitting the ball hard into the net. The ridiculous stuttering/ shaping, standing close to tbe ball etc is insane.
Even one of the new golden boys, Pedri, seems to be a recycler of possession and an assister of the assist. They haven't produced a top class goalscorer since Villa, a decade ago now. It could be argued that England are developing better technical attacking players than Spain right now.
Remember LVG changed keeper for a pen shootout Holland was in. I never saw a manager do that before or since.
..
A handful of specialists like Jorginho would probably have as good/slightly better record with the tricksy run-up but the vast majority of players would have a better chance by just blasting it.
Yeah, I think they are trying to wait for the goalie to move. But they just end up hitting a pen like a toddler.
The irony is Jorginho’s pen misses cost Italy qualification.
I was not been serious it was a joke
Ronaldo dropped to bench tonight, could be a long night they want him for latter stages of game
Sarri, Kepa and Cabellero incident at Wembley?
Spain also didn't pick Kepa either who has been in decent form for Chelsea.
