Japan's victory against Spain was quite controversial because many think that the second goal from Japan should not have happened. But regardless of the situation, Japan still has the potential to beat Croatia. Their performance does not look special but they has a very tough effort and spirit, and I think that's an advantage they have, so that they seem to gain strength in the pursuit of victory.
There were many controversial moment in this World Cup including the one happened with Japan vs Spain but I have to agree with you that Japan is still one of the best Asian team ever. They deserve to be on this current stage because they have great spirit, proven that they could make great come back twice in the group stage against big teams. Odds for Japan is almost doubled compared to the odds for Croatia, means that Croatia is the favorite in this match. It will be a tough match imo, maybe the match will have to be done until penalty shootout to get the winner. Maybe betting on double chance Japan or Draw is a good choice with odds 1.8. I think that Japan is a good team, but don't get carried away by them beating Spain. In that game Spain probably never wanted to win because then they would probably face Brazil in the quarters. Of course that no one from Spain will admit it but I really think that they could have beat Japan if they wanted to. Because of that (and the fact that I'm Croatian  ) I think that Croatia will win in today's game. Maybe Croatia is not as big favorite as France and England were yesterday but I think they are a better team than Japan. As for Brazil vs. South Korea game, there's not much to say. Brazil is probably too strong for South Korea and I really don't see how they could lose today's game. |
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Oh man... I missed the France defense question by one player... Now all I jeed is England strikers to each have at least one shot on target to be equal to inthelongrun. If I miss that, he'll be up two points and I'm not sure I'll manage to beat that.
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Back to the quiz itself, this was so tough, I am glad I got 1 right, happy to see many got both wrong but a few guys got 2/2 so far, what a great start for them.
What most every other users scores now doesn't actually affect you or your chances, for now the only results that matters is just between you and your opponent. My opponent LTU_btc, also had the both set of the first two questions wrong and as did I, but we've got a couple of different opinions about a lot of other upcoming questions and the most crazy thing is that we actually have just a minute difference between our tie breaker answers, so it's going to be a really close and unpredictable one. This reminded me to check how I stand versus my opponent inthelongrun and he already has a head start. He answered the second question about Australia conceding a goal correct and I got both of them wrong. We will see how today goes. I hope I get both a swers correct as we both answered differently (even the England domination question which is 50-50). I guess after today he will be two or three points in front of me or I'll take over the lead. May the best (or luckiest) man win! |
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In yesterday's matches at the world cup, after a long time, there were no surprises and the favorites won, without any difficulties.
The match between the Netherlands and Argentina will be completely uncertain and even. Both teams had good and bad moments in this world cup and in their match everything is open.
I believe that Brazil will not have major problems against South Korea and Croatia could have problems against Japan because they have problems with the efficiency of their attack in this world cup.
However, due to the players' experience and routine, I give a slight advantage to Croatia.
I'm sure that there will be more surprises and unexpected results at this world cup.
Croatia could have problem with the speed of the Japan's players. They are really fast. I just hope they will not play like they did against Morocco when they were too afraid of the Morocco's counter attacks. Croatia should play their game, hold the ball in the possession and be careful of counter attacks. But they should eventually win and advance to the next round where probably Brazil will wait. I think that in this knockout round there shouldn't be so many surprises because there is no place for calculations like in the group stage. There is only one game and everyone must play their best game in every game. |
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Trofo or cryptofrka, could you enable us to select the cells in the spreadsheet with the results? On mobile I can't see most of the answers because I they are too long. If it's too much of a hassle then don't. But it would be great if you could do this. I can't see when I answered that Australia will concede a goal on mobile  |
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I really think that USA could surprise Netherlands today. Netherlands is a good team, but USA is playing surprisingly good in this tournament. If they continue to play like they did in the last three games, Netherlands could have problem with them. We will see. I'm certain that surprises will happen in the knockout round, especially since it's only one game that's deciding who will advance and who will go home.
On the other hand, Argentina should have no problem with Australia. Australia is good, but if Argentina plays like they are suppose to, it should be an easy win for them.
The World Cup tournament this year has been exciting as well as surprising. Teams seem as underdogs in the competition has gone ahead and surprised so called top teams. The Netherlands is a string football nation and the match with the United States shouldn’t be a hassle for them. But we may be surprised as the US has played surprisingly well in this tournament and knocked out all their opponents to survive to this stage of the tournament. Ordinarily, the Netherlands looks good on paper but I haven’t got a clue as to who would win. I do hope the Netherlands win against the US. Argentina on the other hand, looks more favorable to win the game against Australia but the match between Japan and Spain has reminded me that with football, anything is possible. I think that underdog teams that surprised all of us did that by attacking and not only defending their goal. I guess it's a recipe on how to beat a team that is better "on paper". Of course, a team should concentrate on defense too. The key thing is to be active on the field and that forward players are involved in the defense too. The team that manages to play like that can win against stronger teams. We have seen how Japan played the second half against Spain. |
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Cameroon became the first African team to beat Brazil in the World Cup and make new history even they did not save them in the world Cup. Cameroon had to eliminated from the group stage. And that's why Cameroon's supporters have regrets as well as pride. Their coach also gave the same message yesterday that "i didn't realize it was such a historic win", he said. "We are one of the teams that have played in the World Cup more times than most teams in Africa and this time we beat Brazil". Cameroon started the World Cup by losing 1-0 to Switzerland. In the next match they fell behind and drew 3-3 with Serbia. Cameroon coach expressed disappointment for not being able to do well in those two matches. Ultimately, he feels his team played well in the last match. Their game has also improved a lot under his supervision.
I understand that Cameroon will be proud of this victory, but you understand that Brazil was already in the playoffs before this match and many main team players watched this match from the bench, so I consider the significance of this victory to be exaggerated, although I understand that now the result of this the match will be counted in the statistics as the first victory for an African team over Brazil. That may be true and Brazil probably didn't play at 100 percent but still they should have beaten Cameroon. They were probably afraid of injuries or yellow cards which would make some players not being able to play in the next game. I'm just sad I didn't place a bet on Cameroon like I did on Japan the other day. We will probably see more surprises in the knockout round because it all depends on one game. You have one or two players that are having a bad day and that could make the whole team lose the game. |
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I really think that USA could surprise Netherlands today. Netherlands is a good team, but USA is playing surprisingly good in this tournament. If they continue to play like they did in the last three games, Netherlands could have problem with them. We will see. I'm certain that surprises will happen in the knockout round, especially since it's only one game that's deciding who will advance and who will go home.
On the other hand, Argentina should have no problem with Australia. Australia is good, but if Argentina plays like they are suppose to, it should be an easy win for them.
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I'm not sure that you counted European nations in the 9th question. If I counted correct, there are eight European nations (1 Netherlands, 2 France, 3 Poland, 4 England, 5 Croatia, 6 Spain, 7 Portugal, 8 Switzerland). It's not that big problem because the answers are OK. Some teams are playing each other so there's no chance for all eight of them to advance to the quarters.
That was the point, we gave only option for those that can go trough but maybe we wrote the number wrong in the question itself. There is 2 games without EU team so only 6 can pass. But there are of course 8 left in the competition. It is though to organize competition like this when there is no break days between match days. We have to wait for last game to finish and we have to give you guys enough time to cover all time zones. Really not the perfect work conditions. I agree that it's not easy to organize this kind of competition where you have to give out questions immediately after the last game. Both of you are doing an amazing job and I really hope that you will continue organizing this kind of competitions in the future. The questions for this round are pretty tough but that's the way it should be. The error in the question does not impact the result so it's all OK |
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I'm not sure that you counted European nations in the 9th question. If I counted correct, there are eight European nations (1 Netherlands, 2 France, 3 Poland, 4 England, 5 Croatia, 6 Spain, 7 Portugal, 8 Switzerland). It's not that big problem because the answers are OK. Some teams are playing each other so there's no chance for all eight of them to advance to the quarters.
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I just checked the points in my group and... Huh... It will be close. I thought that I'm rather safe with 13 points from the first two rounds, but now I see that mitchr4 got 7 points in the third round and he is only one point behind me. Buwaytress already passed me and he is sitting in the first place for now. Here is the current score for the group D: buwaytress 19
slackovic 17
mitchr4 16
renampun 10 It will be tough... EDIT: Actually no. If I calculated correctly, I should be safe. mitchr4 can't win any more points except for the tie-breaker question and I can still win two more points for top goal-scorer (if Valencia stays the top goalscorer) and for the team with the most goals in the third round (I don't know where to see how Germany is holding up). |
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Embarrassing game for Spain against Japan. Rumors say that the Spanish team lost deliberately, so that they could finish at the second place in their group and face Morocco at the round of 16. Shame on them. I really hope that Spain will be kicked out of the tournament at the quarterfinals. Croatia vs. Japan would be interesting, but I bet that the Croatian team would reach the quarterfinals.
Germany deserved to leave the tournament at the group stage. The German team is missing some key elements, in order to be competitive against France and Brazil, who are the big favorites for winning the World Cup.
I kind of believe what you’re saying about Spain losing on purpose. Because at halftime, the two central defenders for spain made at least 90 complete passes with over 100 touches of the ball. It appear to me Luiz Enrique didn't want to attack after the goal. Seems like he was avoiding a win. They’re simply avoiding to play Croatia. They want to play Morocco and with what I have seen so far, Morocco might shock them in the round of 16. Well, I never thought of that. As a Croatian I'm looking forward to my team not playing against Span. They kicked us out of the Euro 2020 and I didn't want to see that happening again. I'm not sure that Spain should be afraid of Croatia but who knows. Maybe you are right. However, Morocco is also a pretty good team. They beat Belgium 2-0 and rightfully won the group stage. If Spain lost intentionally, maybe it could backfire and they will lose to Morocco. |
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in front of the line or behind the line ? that was the big question yesterday at the world cup. when you see this photo, everyone thinks the ball was behind the line. or am i seeing it wrong ? but maybe a few millimetres are missing . but never mind. denmark gone, yesterday germany gone, belgium gone ,mexico gone , and today another co-favourite ?  source: https://www.sportschau.de/fussball/fifa-wm-2022/video-wm-2022-japan-spanien-highlights-100.html out or not out but still congratulations to japan. you fought great !! I think there will be no end to discussing it because the match is over and Japan has successfully conquered Spain to qualify for the knockout round, I know that match sucks making me lose the bet for Spain, but I think I have to admit that Japan has won that match and betting on the other matches in the knockout stage later  What I don't understand is why didn't they show VAR on the TV? When Croatia was denied a penalty, they showed on TV a computer image why an offside was called and here we couldn't see if the ball has crossed the line. However, I think that Japan really deserved a win. In the second half they were playing great first at attacking Spain's goal and later at defending their goal. It was really a great game to watch. |
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There are unexpected group winners and teams which goes home earlier than expected, but that's sport. Belgium, Germany, Mexico... Do not forget Italy does not play at all. Spain was in a good situation, so maybe that's why they lost. Argentina was winning 2:0 with Poland and gossips are they were told not to score more goals because it would make Poland go home, so with 2:0 both teams were 'happy'.
I think that now all will be more "normal". I expect France easily win with Poland, Japan will probably have difficult times with Croatia. But of course we cannot exclude 'surprises', like for example Poland will play 6-2-2 so it will be impossible to score a goal, they will do 1 fast attack, Lewandowski will be stopped/kicked and he will score a penalty goal...
Who is going to win? I do not know, but I think Argentina has really good chances.
I don't think that Spain lost because they didn't try to win as they were in a situation where they are 99% qualified for the next round. If by any chance Costa Rica managed to win against Germany and Spain lost to Japan, it would make Spain go home too. Besides, Spain really looked like they want to win. They were attacking and almost all the time in the last 30 minutes the ball was in Japan's half. But they couldn't brake Japan's defense. They had few chances to score, but couldn't. While I almost fell asleep in the first half, the second half of the game was really great to watch. |
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Ma joj... Idioti! Nemam druge riječi za ljude koji padnu na takve prijevare... S druge strane imamo nešto sofisticiranije prevare. Noćas je hakiran Ankr protokol. Izgleda da je haker nekako uspio mintati 10 milijardi aBNBc tokena, malo sve izmiješao preko Tornado casha i na kraju prodao za 3446 ETH. Što je zanimljivo, netko (možda i taj isti haker) je iskoristio šansu nakon što je haker dumpao aBNBC, taj netko je kupio 183885 aBNBc za samo 10 BNB, iskoristio aBNBc kao collateral da preko Helio money posudio 16 milijuna HAY tokena koje je onda prodao za 15,5 milijuna BUSD. Meni sve te "kemije" s DeFi protokolima izgledaju stvarno zanimljivo. Ne mislim tu na hakiranje nego ovu "kemiju" s korištenjem aBNBc kao collaterala za posudbu HAY tokena i zatim prodaju za hrpetinu BUSD-a. Uvijek imam osjećaj da kad bi ja to išao raditi, uvijek bi došlo do nečega što nisam predvidio i na kraju bi izgubio lovu umjesto da ju zaradim. |
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I was watching the game between Japan and Spain and I must say that I'm surprised at how Japan played the second half. They were owhere to be fond in the first half. They couldn't do anything against Spain. And then when the second half started, it looked like another team entered the field. They were so much better than in the first half. I'm glad that they won because now Croatia will play against Japan in the next round. If Japan plays like they did in the second half, it will be a difficult game for Croatia. But I still think that Japan is much better opponent than Spain.
I think I didn't watch any game that Germany played in this World Cup. I guess I was just busy doing other stuff when they were playing. I don't know how they were playing but I'm pretty shocked that they are going home such early in the World Cup. I guess they have to change something in their game for the next tournament. Is it a coach or some senior players... I don't know as I didn't watch them play.
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(by the way, Lukaku came in to play)
Great Match Canada(1) vs. Morocco(2)... not the same with Belgium, it seems discouraged...
Lukaku could have a had a hattrick in the minutes I watched actually, and that wasn't even long, maybe last 20 minutes + injury time? To be fair, most of the chances that sort of fell to him weren't precisely what you'd call expected but Croatia keeper will end the night with some minor heart attack from what I saw. Nice progress for Croatia, didn't think their defence could hold but now on to Spain (?) but I'm glad Morocco won the group, fully deserved. The number of chances that all feel for Lukaku during those minutes of coming shows how much they needed a centre striker, but Martinez opted for the worse choice and the shortest of them all, why play Mertens as a centre when there's Batshuayi on the bench, I'm not Batshuayi apologetic but it's a no brainer to have Mertens in the role of a centre striker ahead, Belgium scored only one goal this tournament, despite their attacking varieties and it was no other person than Batshuayi who scored that goal. I think it's pretty much time that both Roberto Martinez and Henry step down from their positions as the coaches of the team, then end of an Era, The Wooden Generation.. I really don't know how Lukaku managed to miss all those chances. A proper in form striker would have scored at least 2 goals from them but this way works better for us so there is that Don't know if you guys follow the career of Joško Gvardiol, but he had another excellent game and I am quite sure he will break down all transfer records for defenders when he leaves Leipzig. He seems perfect for Pep in the City and I don't see him leaving for anything less than 150M. He already plays like seasoned defender and he is only 20 years old, add to that the fact that he is one of the best, if not the best, centre backs with ball in his feet and only sky is the limit. Croatia has passed the group stage thanks to Gvardiol and his excellent games as a defender. In the game against Belgium that was evident, especially when he took the ball off the Lukaku's leg. I saw that ball in the goal already and then suddenly Gvardiol showed up and denied Lukaku his shot. Impressive play by such a young player in such important game! |
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I don't like how Croatia is playing. They were a better team for the first 20 minutes but then Belgium took over control of the ball. I hope that Croatia can play better in the second half because I'm not sure that they will manage to secure a draw with this type of game. With Morocco leading in the other match, Croatia must at least secure a draw in order to qualify.
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Today's another important day for qualifying teams in next round , Croatia and Belgium both need to win this game in order to qualify to super 16 and they are same rank teams Croatia has 4 points on table and Belgium has 3. The win probability is same for both teams but in other game Morocco and Canada Morocco is far better than Canada in terms of their game to hoping for its win in today's match .
Second round we have Japan and Spain , I think this will be a one-sided match as Spain performances are smashing in this world cup and they are extremely motivated to win the fifa Cup . Germany vs Costa Rica this match that we all are looking for today Germany will decide its fate in fifa and this is going to be most important game for Germany .
Croatia doesn't need to win to qualify. A draw is enough for them to qualify, but with a win they would secure the first place in the group and avoid probably Spain. I would love for Croatia and Morocco to win and Belgium to be kicked out. They really doesn't deserve to qualify with the way they played the first two games. |
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The third round matches of the World Cup are being played today in Group E and Group F.
The first to take the field are the teams in Group F. Croatia takes on Belgium; while at the same time, Morocco faces off against Canada. While Canada has already been eliminated from the competition, the other three teams have a chance to advance to the knockout stage.
Group E matches begin at 20:00 (CET). Spain is playing against Japan. Luis Enrique previously announced that his team will go for victory in order to secure first place in the group. In the second match, Costa Rica will compete against Germany, last in the group with only one point and needs a win to advance - but it also depends on the result of the match between Spain and Japan.
Croatia should win if they will play like they played the game against Canada and especially if Belgium will play like they did their first two games against Canada and Morocco. However Lukaku should start in this game and we will see how well he recovered from the injury. In the last game against Canada he played the last 10 minutes and did nothing. I really hope that Morocco qualifies as the second team because they played their first two matches pretty OK. They definitely deserve it more than Belgium. |
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