GENERAL World Cup Thread

Opta have been busy working on the permutations

The typical GD of -1 brings the 3 point team's chances down to 84%, meaning that Sweden really shot themselves in the foot by not digging in and keeping the score down. Scotland need to keep it tight against Brazil, knowing that a 1-0 loss would not be the end of the world. A 2-0 defeat pushes their chances back to 64%.

As it stands, with eight of the 12 groups completing "Day 2", those two sides occupy the top "third team" positions.

That confuses me. If you have 3 points you have 66% chance but 2 points only has 4%?

But not impossible as some are claiming. If it was like GAA where draws weren't possible and every game has to have a winner then yes 3 points would be a minimum but when draws are possible if enough draws happen of course 2pts would be enough when only 4/12 3rd place teams get eliminated.

What GAA are you watching ?

Its awful and it's not the Young Offenders lads it's two of the recurring support cast.

The advertisement breaks during games are making a mess of it.

The Americans love it no doubt. 45 mins is too long to concentrate it seems.

Fifa drowning in money also. These breaks are worth $250m in the US alone, 1 billion globally.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cp3xqn9zxdgo

Might be a bit controversial, but I think Messi might have looked after himself a bit better than Maradona… 🙄

Can’t help looking at Messi wondering where Maradona would have taken football if he had the same mindset.

Even in 86 he was hacked up and down the field, the English team on that game with the 2 goals was an absolute disgrace. The only thing that prevented him from getting hurt was because the likes of Butcher,Reid,Fenwick et al were as slow as cart horses and couldn't catch him properly.

It's hard to compare across different eras, the game is completely different -both the game and how we consume it. From what we saw of Diego on Serie A highlights and stuff he was a great player,but we didn't typically see him having quiet games of repeated live games in league and champions League like we did with Messi. We didn't see him getting a chasing at anfield like Messi did,or Robertson kicking his shins and rubbing his head😉, or Messi didn't have to face the Butcher of Bilbao.

I was 14 watching Diego in 86,and that world cup campaign IMHO was the greatest by any one player, he was out of this world amazing. We can appreciate both though, we've been lucky to live through some great players and great world Cup campaigns; for others younger than I the Ronaldo Nosario campaign of 2002 of some of Zidane's performances in 98 or indeed 2006 will mean as much to them.

Good game between Norway and Senegal and nice to hear Drury and Smith on the comms. Any side with Haaland and Odegaard will be a threat going forward. Can't dismiss a good run from them.

There is a high probability of them facing Ivory Coast in the KO

There was a great bit I just saw at the end of the Norway v Senegal game Drum on pitch players hitting it and Norwegian fans doing hand clap in time with it.
Will be interesting to see how far Haaland can carry them.

The sensible thing for Argentina/Scaloni to do would be to put out the B team for the last group game against Jordan, leave Messi and Co have a good rest before the Ro32. Nothing game for either side with Argentina guaranteed top spot and Jordan unsurprisingly eliminated.

However, it’s too good of an opportunity for Messi to fill his boots again and nudge closer to the golden boot and increase his WC goals count. Given Mbappe is breathing down his neck and the fact that this is surely Messi’s last WC (Mbappe would have at least one more in him you’d imagine, maybe two - he’s currently 27), Messi would need to give himself as big a buffer as he can and you’d put the mortgage on him getting at least one or two against Jordan so he’ll have to play.

I think you're right. Messi already has a golden boot doesn't he?

Mind you he doesn't do much off the ball and looks after himself so as long as he doesn't get injured I don't think playing the game will have any impact on the games after