⚽ FIFA World Cup 2022: Tournament Discussion Thread for Qatar 2022

[Cryptmuster]

Unfortunately, I was unable to watch this match, my electricity was cut off and I could only follow the score and statistics. Looks like it wasn't very interesting, I'll definitely watch it on repeat when I get the chance again. In fact, I'm surprised that Switzerland conceded so many goals, I thought the match would be more or less equal, both teams are strong, but as it turned out, Portugal were much stronger.

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[piebeyb]

Portugal are through to the quarter finals, beating Switzerland that didn't get the job done. If CR7 had started that game I don't see the score line to be 6-1, because all attention will be on CR7 and the flow of the game won't be flexible as it was. The Portugal national team can play comfortably without CR7.

Going against Morocco will be in favor of the Africa side if CR7 were to start the game (IMO), that's if they'll take advantage of the situation at hand.
The Morocco national side can beat Portugal if all chances are being converted and if they play with the momentum they played with today. Wish them good luck in there next game.

Portugal's quarter final match is going to be against Morocco. I would honestly say that given the form that Portugal is in, Morocco doesn't stand a chance. The most probable semi-final lineup looks like this:

Argentina vs Brazil
England vs Portugal

In the second semi-final, I assumed that England would be able to secure a spot, by defeating France in the QF match. Now predicting the winner of QF match between England and France is extremely difficult, as both the teams are in good form. But I went with England, as I thought that they had a better team balance when compared to France.

there are not many quality players in spain as far as i can see that's why spain's journey only got to the last 16, morocco balanced the game with spain even though beating spain on penalties was enough to advance to the quarter-finals, this is where we see the team that really really quality during the world cup up to the quarter-finals, I also predict that Portugal seems to be much easier to enter the semifinals than other teams that get balanced opponents even though Brazil can also easily beat Croatia

[Juggy777]

Portugal are through to the quarter finals, beating Switzerland that didn't get the job done. If CR7 had started that game I don't see the score line to be 6-1, because all attention will be on CR7 and the flow of the game won't be flexible as it was. The Portugal national team can play comfortably without CR7.

Going against Morocco will be in favor of the Africa side if CR7 were to start the game (IMO), that's if they'll take advantage of the situation at hand.
The Morocco national side can beat Portugal if all chances are being converted and if they play with the momentum they played with today. Wish them good luck in there next game.

Portugal's quarter final match is going to be against Morocco. I would honestly say that given the form that Portugal is in, Morocco doesn't stand a chance. The most probable semi-final lineup looks like this:

Argentina vs Brazil
England vs Portugal

In the second semi-final, I assumed that England would be able to secure a spot, by defeating France in the QF match. Now predicting the winner of QF match between England and France is extremely difficult, as both the teams are in good form. But I went with England, as I thought that they had a better team balance when compared to France.

there are not many quality players in spain as far as i can see that's why spain's journey only got to the last 16, morocco balanced the game with spain even though beating spain on penalties was enough to advance to the quarter-finals, this is where we see the team that really really quality during the world cup up to the quarter-finals, I also predict that Portugal seems to be much easier to enter the semifinals than other teams that get balanced opponents even though Brazil can also easily beat Croatia

I am not really happy with Ronaldo’s behaviour because he once again stormed off at the end, and is proving to be a distraction for this Portugal team and the Portugal player’s have shown that they do not need him hence he should not be in the playing 11 again for their next match. Furthermore it’s not so easy for England to defeat France, because Mbappe is in stunning form hence I believe that France will proceed ahead and England will be eliminated.

[Leviathan.007]

Regarding the matches this week the most interesting match was Portugal Switzerland match because Portugal played very well and they did an attacking style play also the young players who were playing instead of the old stars were playing very well, for example, Ramos did a hattrick and this showed us he had definitely been a replaced with Ronaldo in the future matches, also Ranldo showed us a good reaction even after he was not between the first elven players.

[Silence Scream]

Regarding the matches this week the most interesting match was Portugal Switzerland match because Portugal played very well and they did an attacking style play also the young players who were playing instead of the old stars were playing very well, for example, Ramos did a hattrick and this showed us he had definitely been a replaced with Ronaldo in the future matches, also Ranldo showed us a good reaction even after he was not between the first elven players.

I still wanted to see Cristiano Ronaldo on the field.  He is one of the best in the world and one of the best in football history.  I believe he should play every game since he's had his last world cup.  I hope he takes the field against Morocco.  It would be great to see a Hat-Trick from him in a match.  The reason I support Portugal is purely CR7.  I hope they can win this world cup.

[tokeweed]

The final round of 16 games taking place is today:

Morocco vs Spain
Portugal vs Switzerland  

Portugal vs Switzerland seems a victory for Ronaldo and his team but in the other game Morocco have an excellent chance to beat Spain and make it to the quarter-finals.

Really?  Never thought Morocco had the players to beat a top tier international team like Spain.  I fancy a win with a clean sheet for them.  And to make the quarter finals super interesting I'd really want to see Portugal vs Spain.  Other quarter final matches in the other parts of the bracket are Croatia vs Brazil, Netherlands vs Argentina and prolly the best match up of them all France vs England.  If the English squad goes thru, there's a good chance they win it all.  France is one of the tougher match ups in this World Cup.

Edit:  Ah yeah...  I get it now.  Morocco came out on top in their group and even beat Belgium.  

both of them played equally well during the first half no goals were created, in fact nothing is impossible in this world cup if morocco makes a surprise to make a goal against spain but of course it's not that easy, morocco is also not a bad team during this world cup and the crowd underestimated it, even predicting that Spain could score more than 3 goals against Morocco is impossible, I can only predict that Spain will win narrowly for 0 - 1 or 0 - 2, even though it looks difficult for Spain to penetrate the opponent's defense to score goals, but we'll see. second half later

Yeah I thought the same with the 0 - 2 but no...  Lol.  Looks like Morocco held and on they go to the quarter finals.  I didn't watch the match but I could imagine Spain being a bit stale with the tiki taka style of play.  There are days when everything works and they look brilliant and there are days when the opposing squad's defense is so solid that their attacking would look non threatening, just passing the ball around without any direct attacking threat.  Dunno...  

For those who watched the match, how did it look for Spain?  Stale or did Morocco luck out?

[piebeyb]

Portugal are through to the quarter finals, beating Switzerland that didn't get the job done. If CR7 had started that game I don't see the score line to be 6-1, because all attention will be on CR7 and the flow of the game won't be flexible as it was. The Portugal national team can play comfortably without CR7.

Going against Morocco will be in favor of the Africa side if CR7 were to start the game (IMO), that's if they'll take advantage of the situation at hand.
The Morocco national side can beat Portugal if all chances are being converted and if they play with the momentum they played with today. Wish them good luck in there next game.

Portugal's quarter final match is going to be against Morocco. I would honestly say that given the form that Portugal is in, Morocco doesn't stand a chance. The most probable semi-final lineup looks like this:

Argentina vs Brazil
England vs Portugal

In the second semi-final, I assumed that England would be able to secure a spot, by defeating France in the QF match. Now predicting the winner of QF match between England and France is extremely difficult, as both the teams are in good form. But I went with England, as I thought that they had a better team balance when compared to France.

there are not many quality players in spain as far as i can see that's why spain's journey only got to the last 16, morocco balanced the game with spain even though beating spain on penalties was enough to advance to the quarter-finals, this is where we see the team that really really quality during the world cup up to the quarter-finals, I also predict that Portugal seems to be much easier to enter the semifinals than other teams that get balanced opponents even though Brazil can also easily beat Croatia

I am not really happy with Ronaldo’s behaviour because he once again stormed off at the end, and is proving to be a distraction for this Portugal team and the Portugal player’s have shown that they do not need him hence he should not be in the playing 11 again for their next match. Furthermore it’s not so easy for England to defeat France, because Mbappe is in stunning form hence I believe that France will proceed ahead and England will be eliminated.

I only saw a glimpse of the video there, I didn't see the whole thing, I don't care how ronaldo behaves in the video because he has the right to do whatever he likes, after all we don't know maybe he wanted to go to the toilet so he left his team celebrating victory, think positive only  

[tranthidung]

I am not really happy with Ronaldo’s behaviour because he once again stormed off at the end, and is proving to be a distraction for this Portugal team and the Portugal player’s have shown that they do not need him hence he should not be in the playing 11 again for their next match.

Ronaldo does not care what others think about him, happy or unhappy, it is their problems, not his.

With the very high ego, Ronaldo has yet accepted that his career is going to its ending. Neutrally I should say things have changed too fast with Ronaldo and all of us. It's just one season ago, he was still a best player of Manchester United and belonged to one of best goal scorers in Europe. After a few months in the summer, he lost it all and with him, it is very hard to accept this fact.

However I very agree with you that Ronaldo behavior is unacceptable. It is bad for him and for any team he is playing for at the moment. He is very famous and his drama can affect his teams negatively with so much noise on media and on field too. In match with Morocco, when every players were singing national anthem, Cristiano Ronaldo got the spotlight

[KTChampions]

Yeah I thought the same with the 0 - 2 but no...  Lol.  Looks like Morocco held and on they go to the quarter finals.  I didn't watch the match but I could imagine Spain being a bit stale with the tiki taka style of play.  There are days when everything works and they look brilliant and there are days when the opposing squad's defense is so solid that their attacking would look non threatening, just passing the ball around without any direct attacking threat.  Dunno...  

For those who watched the match, how did it look for Spain?  Stale or did Morocco luck out?

Spain played a shitty game. Possessing the ball and not taking risks in attack is stupid. It's worse than putting the bus in because the defending team's motives are clear. But the motives of an attacking team that has "reliable" possession of the ball and does not risk losing it by going to the dribble or to the struggle are unclear. Spain with its style of play is outdated for a long time, it just worked before, now it doesn't. And to be honest, even when it worked it was a sad sight - all those games were 1-0, if you remember the golden years of Spain. This is not football, but the torment of oneself, the opponent and the spectators.

[JollyGood]

Portugal will really prefer playing their quarter-final match against Morocco instead of Spain but it will not be an easy game no matter which team will end up winning. The majority of fans and commentators would be saying Portugal will win the game but put it this way, I will not be surprised if Morocco win and move forward to the semi-finals.

As for Ronaldo, even if he starts on the bench he will be an excellent option to bring on to the pitch in the second half especially if Portugal are losing the game because he has the ability to change the momentum of a game.

I bet on Portugal with 1.9 odds and I am really sure with or without Ronaldo Portugal will finish their work with confidence. And, after the kick-off, the squad looks impressive to build an attack, and the scheme looks good even Ronaldo is on the bench is looking frustrated didn't play yet after 2nd half, yes this guy is always on shooting target of news, every behavior always cornered him even he is very happy if the squad able to the next round.

[darewaller]

Portugal's quarter final match is going to be against Morocco. I would honestly say that given the form that Portugal is in, Morocco doesn't stand a chance. The most probable semi-final lineup looks like this:

Argentina vs Brazil
England vs Portugal

In the second semi-final, I assumed that England would be able to secure a spot, by defeating France in the QF match. Now predicting the winner of QF match between England and France is extremely difficult, as both the teams are in good form. But I went with England, as I thought that they had a better team balance when compared to France.

I am sure that people said the same thing about Morocco vs Spain as well, who would have thought that Spain would play this badly and lose to Morocco but they did and thats what happened.

Looking at Portugal and their 6-1 win, everyone thinks that Portugal is amazing and great and that is why we are going to see them dominate Morocco and will be an easy game, but let's remember what pundits were saying before the Spain game and what they are saying now, same thing, so the result could also be the same. Nothing in the world of football is guaranteed, all games start 0-0 and no team is at any advantage, anything could happen in that 90 minutes, and we should be ready for it.

[Igebotz]

Portugal will really prefer playing their quarter-final match against Morocco instead of Spain but it will not be an easy game no matter end up winning. The majority of fans and commentators would be saying Portugal will win the game but put it this way, I will not be surprised if Morocco win and move forward to the semi-finals.

As for Ronaldo, even if he starts on the bench he will be an excellent option to bring on to the pitch in the second half especially if Portugal are losing the game because he has the ability to change the momentum of a game.

Morocco were far the better team against Spain, they have a team full of experience players and, as you said, I won't be surprised if they go on and win against Portugal, and as for Ronaldo being the bench, I think they are better off without him now, he used to carry the Portugal a few years ago but now the team is the one carrying him, and I will be surprised if he doesn't retire from international duty after this world cup, just like Hazard did. He recognized when it was time to call it quits and retire with pride. BTW, the momentum is long gone.

Spain came with qualities with only few experience players.

[JollyGood]

Hearing Hazard retired from international duty was a surprise but to be honest he is not the same player that was at Chelsea. He has not performed at all for Real Madrid because of injuries and confidence issues. He is earning £400,000 per week there and he is contracted until June 2024, they want to get rid of him but just like with Bale who will take him off their books with that salary?

Ronaldo could retire from international duty after the world cup becvause it would be perfect timing. Chelsea are said to be interested in taking him on in some capacity but he is holding out for a Champions League club. As a back-up he has the offer of $210 a year salary to play for Al-Nassr.

Back to the world cup, Morocco are flying the flag for Africa. The last African team to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup was Ghana in 2010 therefore the whole of Africa will be behind Morocco when they play Portugal on Saturday 10th December in their quarter-final match. The winner of the Morocco vs Portugal game will face their toughest test of the tournament in the semi-final as they will face the winner of the England vs France game.

For the neutral fans watching the games it is always great to see the underdogs play well and go far in a tournament therefore I hope for that reason alone Morocco win their game. Having said that, if I had to choose I would say the semi-finalists would be: Brazil vs Netherlands and Portugal vs France  

Croatia 0-2 Brazil
Netherlands 3-1 Argentina
Morocco 1-2 Portugal
England 0-2 France

Morocco were far the better team against Spain, they have a team full of experience players and, as you said, I won't be surprised if they go on and win against Portugal, and as for Ronaldo being the bench, I think they are better off without him now, he used to carry the Portugal a few years ago but now the team is the one carrying him, and I will be surprised if he doesn't retire from international duty after this world cup, just like Hazard did. He recognized when it was time to call it quits and retire with pride. BTW, the momentum is long gone.

Spain came with qualities with only few experience players.

[CryptoBuds]

Croatia 0-2 Brazil
Netherlands 3-1 Argentina

Can Brazil score two goals against Croatia? Croatia's defense is strong enough, as they have shown in the past few matches. So in Brazil vs Croatia match, my guess is Brazil will win 1-0 or 2-1. We will not see too much goal difference in this match.
It is difficult to pick a favorite team in the Netherlands vs Argentina match. I will refrain from betting on this match. I think the Netherlands are favourite. Because Argentina's defense is not strong enough. But I want Argentina to win this match. The World Cup will be more exciting and competitive if the semi-final between Brazil and Argentina takes place.

[Sithara007]

Croatia 0-2 Brazil
Netherlands 3-1 Argentina
Morocco 1-2 Portugal
England 0-2 France

LOL.. so you are assuming that all the four matches will be decided in the regular time itself and it will not go into the extra-time and penalty shootout? I agree with your prediction for the first match, but not with the other three. Here are my predictions:

Croatia vs Brazil: 0-2 (same as yours)
Netherlands vs Argentina 1-3 (I would say that Argentina will sweep the floor with the Dutch)
Morocco vs Portugal: Will be 0-0 after regular time and extra time, Morocco will win during shootout
England vs France: Will be 2-2 after regular time and extra time, England will win during shootout (yeah.. I haven't forgot what happened during Euro 2021).

[FanEagle]

Croatia 0-2 Brazil
Netherlands 3-1 Argentina
Morocco 1-2 Portugal
England 0-2 France

LOL.. so you are assuming that all the four matches will be decided in the regular time itself and it will not go into the extra-time and penalty shootout? I agree with your prediction for the first match, but not with the other three. Here are my predictions:

Croatia vs Brazil: 0-2 (same as yours)
Netherlands vs Argentina 1-3 (I would say that Argentina will sweep the floor with the Dutch)
Morocco vs Portugal: Will be 0-0 after regular time and extra time, Morocco will win during shootout
England vs France: Will be 2-2 after regular time and extra time, England will win during shootout (yeah.. I haven't forgot what happened during Euro 2021).

I would say that Portugal would beat Morocco if you ask me, and France will beat England, but aside from that I would agree with yours. First of all, Brazil and Argentina will definitely be decided on regular game, and I think Portugal could beat Morocco on regular game as well.

But, England vs France could go to extra time and in that extra time I am expecting France to beat England, this is of course just my guess, maybe they won't and maybe all games would be shootouts, or maybe none would, maybe we are all wrong. But at the end of the day France looks a bit better, definitely a lot more ready at the very least. England doesn't seem as ready as France from the games I have seen.

[KTChampions]

I would say that Portugal would beat Morocco if you ask me, and France will beat England, but aside from that I would agree with yours. First of all, Brazil and Argentina will definitely be decided on regular game, and I think Portugal could beat Morocco on regular game as well.

But, England vs France could go to extra time and in that extra time I am expecting France to beat England, this is of course just my guess, maybe they won't and maybe all games would be shootouts, or maybe none would, maybe we are all wrong. But at the end of the day France looks a bit better, definitely a lot more ready at the very least. England doesn't seem as ready as France from the games I have seen.

I agree about Portugal - they are definitely capable of beating Morocco in regulation time. People started to praise Morocco too highly after beating Belgium (where the players don't talk to each other lol) and shitty Spain who pass the ball to each other in midfield and don't know where the opposition's gateway is.
Brazil is also a clear favorite, and the rest of the games are random for me.

[tokeweed]

Yeah I thought the same with the 0 - 2 but no...  Lol.  Looks like Morocco held and on they go to the quarter finals.  I didn't watch the match but I could imagine Spain being a bit stale with the tiki taka style of play.  There are days when everything works and they look brilliant and there are days when the opposing squad's defense is so solid that their attacking would look non threatening, just passing the ball around without any direct attacking threat.  Dunno...  

For those who watched the match, how did it look for Spain?  Stale or did Morocco luck out?

Spain played a shitty game. Possessing the ball and not taking risks in attack is stupid. It's worse than putting the bus in because the defending team's motives are clear. But the motives of an attacking team that has "reliable" possession of the ball and does not risk losing it by going to the dribble or to the struggle are unclear. Spain with its style of play is outdated for a long time, it just worked before, now it doesn't. And to be honest, even when it worked it was a sad sight - all those games were 1-0, if you remember the golden years of Spain. This is not football, but the torment of oneself, the opponent and the spectators.

Ah yeah...  Stale.  Man City was kinda the same before Haaland.  Sure they were winning matches and sure they were playing good football but if you watch the match it almost gets boring at times because of the lack of directness at the offensive.

Anyway, what do you guys think of Morocco and Portugal?  Morocco took down Belgium in the group stages and Spain in the round of 16.  Can they take down Portugal in the quarter finals?  :/

Here's my parlay for the quarters...  Brazil to win and over 1.5 goals combo, Netherlands +.5, Portugal to win and BTTS for England vs France at 8.15.

What do you guys think?

[JollyGood]

Croatia vs Brazil: 0-2 (same as yours)
Netherlands vs Argentina 1-3 (I would say that Argentina will sweep the floor with the Dutch)
Morocco vs Portugal: Will be 0-0 after regular time and extra time, Morocco will win during shootout
England vs France: Will be 2-2 after regular time and extra time, England will win during shootout (yeah.. I haven't forgot what happened during Euro 2021).

Argentina are mediocre without Messi and an above average side when he is playing. To say they will sweep the floor against the Dutch is a bold statement. It is good to read your scores. We will compare them after the games have ended 

I would say that Portugal would beat Morocco if you ask me, and France will beat England, but aside from that I would agree with yours. First of all, Brazil and Argentina will definitely be decided on regular game, and I think Portugal could beat Morocco on regular game as well.

But, England vs France could go to extra time and in that extra time I am expecting France to beat England, this is of course just my guess, maybe they won't and maybe all games would be shootouts, or maybe none would, maybe we are all wrong. But at the end of the day France looks a bit better, definitely a lot more ready at the very least. England doesn't seem as ready as France from the games I have seen.

I am hoping that no matter how the games play out (and whoever wins), they will be exciting matches to watch. No team wants to go to penalties because even the best could lose and go out of the tournament, they all would prefer to end the within 90 minutes at best or within extra-time at worst.

[ILuckyGuyI]

Some people are believing that Croatia can resist Brazil but I think the opposite. We have all watched how Croatia played against Japan. They had really big difficulties and they just barely eliminated Japan by penalty shootouts. I can just see Croatia as a struggling team after watching that game. Brazil and Japan are completely different teams to deal with. Japan didn't have enough strength in their attacking line otherwise they could have even eliminated Croatia.

Brazil have one of the best attacking lines among the teams in this round. With Neymar's return from his injury, their midfield is much stronger again. I'm really curious about what Croatia manager is planning to do against that much attacking power. Will they play a defensive game maybe? It might be wiser for them to try to hunt Brazil with counter attacks.