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Who will win the Final


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Who do you think will win the world cup?  

61 members have voted

  1. 1. Who do you think would win the world cup?

    • France
      50
    • Croatia
      11

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  • Poll closed on 14/07/18 at 14:00

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I dunno really.  Who will win? France must be favourites right? 

Croatia MUST be knackered by now :lol: 

I'm going France, but don't really have a preference. Just hope it'd be a good game! 

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That's what they said about arguably the least evenly matched final in recent times too (Brazil - crumbling and torpid Germany 2002) too-- and then ze Germans , who lucked massively out against the US, Cameroon and struggled to beat Ireland played the best match of their tournament and gave Brazil a decent run for their money -- despite missing out on Ballack, their only outfield player of superior class at that point. You don't get to a world cup final usually with teams leagues apart -- and if the final result is something extraordinary, it oft comes about caused by the run of the game, or remarkable events within it at this stage. Also see that 1-7 drubbing and how remarkable that is to see a defense completely falling apart for ten minutes plus (or a reknowned left back not getting the message that every time he doesn't track back, his side is tormented and begging to concede).

FiveThirtyEight has it down as a 60/40 game. Naturally, may as well end up 4-0 for France regardless. :D

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Like everyone else, I want Croatia but expect France. 

A new first time winner would be amazing. Especially one like Croatia who always develop these amazing players despite being a wee country with a pretty small population. 

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I want Croatia to win, but France has been probably the most consistent team throughout the tournament. However, not all their games were that good, and Croatia has a realistic chance to win it too, if they have players like Modric and Perisic on a good day.

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I can't see us winning this one. France just looks too good and the mood in Croatia is that everyone should be happy with the silver. For some reason I doubt our players will be fired up as they were against England. Maybe I'm wrong, just a gut feeling.

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19 minutes ago, kpain16 said:

I can't see us winning this one. France just looks too good and the mood in Croatia is that everyone should be happy with the silver. For some reason I doubt our players will be fired up as they were against England. Maybe I'm wrong, just a gut feeling.

I’d think they will be. 20 years on, time to get revenge for that defeat in Semi Final of 1998 against them. Obviously comes down to if Croatia players are fired up for that, or English press fire them up more :D 

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5 ore fa, Cedrik ha scritto:

Saw this a couple of times now. What's up with the hatred against France? :)

Just football rivalries. And maybe a little bit more of something else... neighborhood problems you know.

It was fun when Raymond Domenech was sitting on the french bench, he loved to tease italians, sometimes in an offensive way too.

Those days are past now, and in the past they must remain.

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5 hours ago, Cedrik said:

Saw this a couple of times now. What's up with the hatred against France? :)

I can't speak for everyone but personally I hate to see a team with superstars like Varane, Umtiti, Pogba, Kanté, Griezmann and Mbappé play boring safe football. They could be playing like Belgium and still winning as they have objectively the best player pool at this WC. But nah, they don't do that. They play boring crap football that isn't really worth watching. 

I watch football to be entertained though, not bored to death. I appreciate for the French winning football is probably more important. 

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47 minutes ago, JDownie said:

I can't speak for everyone but personally I hate to see a team with superstars like Varane, Umtiti, Pogba, Kanté, Griezmann and Mbappé play boring safe football. They could be playing like Belgium and still winning as they have objectively the best player pool at this WC. But nah, they don't do that. They play boring crap football that isn't really worth watching. 

I watch football to be entertained though, not bored to death. I appreciate for the French winning football is probably more important. 

I completely agree concerning the football. At times it's awful to watch. A positive for me though is that France really defends well, I am thoroughly impressed with Varane and Umtiti who have been immense this whole tournament. Lucas Hernández has a decent tournament imo and the same goes for the relatively unknown Pavard (who even plays as a central defender for Stuttgart iirc). It's not that France is parking the bus without actually knowing what their doing and just trying to retain no matter what (as for example Sweden did). I also saw some very nice stuff from France this tournament I have to admit. 

The biggest reason why Deschamps is playing like this, is probably due to the fact that tactically a lot of players are pretty weak, if France would go completely out on attack they would have it very difficult when being caught on the counter. Next to this they are limiting the qualities of Mbappé, who imo needs to use his pace to fully flourish, he isn't per se a player for attacking football purely based upon possession. Also Griezmann is used to playing with a more defensive approach at Atletico of course. 

Belgium isn't anything better. I don't know where this perception comes from that Belgium plays attacking football. Belgium loves to counter, that is also what made them so good against Brazil. Only against France they immediately went forward, not because they wanted to, but because they needed to. If France would score first they knew they would be in huge trouble. And the latter also turned out to be the case. 

I don't expect to see anything different from them for the final, France will look to get that one goal and then switch to a more defensive approach whilst luring for opportunities to counter. The best way to get a spectacular final is to hope that Croatia will be able to get the first goal. A bit the same what Belgium was hoping for. 

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7 minutes ago, Cedrik said:

I completely agree concerning the football. At times it's awful to watch. A positive for me though is that France really defends well, I am thoroughly impressed with Varane and Umtiti who have been immense this whole tournament. Lucas Hernández has a decent tournament imo and the same goes for the relatively unknown Pavard (who even plays as a central defender for Stuttgart iirc). It's not that France is parking the bus without actually knowing what their doing and just trying to retain no matter what (as for example Sweden did). I also saw some very nice stuff from France this tournament I have to admit. 

The biggest reason why Deschamps is playing like this, is probably due to the fact that tactically a lot of players are pretty weak, if France would go completely out on attack they would have it very difficult when being caught on the counter. Next to this they are limiting the qualities of Mbappé, who imo needs to use his pace to fully flourish, he isn't per se a player for attacking football purely based upon possession. Also Griezmann is used to playing with a more defensive approach at Atletico of course. 

I don't expect to see anything different from them for the final, they will look to get that one goal and then switch to a more defensive approach whilst luring for opportunities to counter. The best way to get a spectacular final is to hope that Croatia will be able to get the first goal. 

I'm not sure I agree. 

He went with Hernandez and Pavard (who is naturally a CB, yes - he also scored the goal of the tournament and one of the best goals ever) who along with Matuidi and Kanté and Varane and Umtiti would have made for a solid back 6. Then a front 4 of Pogba, Griezmann, Mbappé, Giroud/Dembélé/Someone else could have been able to devastate on the counter. 

But even their counters are crap because the focal point of their attack is Giroud. He is slow and cumbersome and encourages slow play instead of fast counter attacking football. It's not even like Giroud is great at playing in behind the defence for Griezmann/Mbappé making a run in behind. It's just...stupid. It's like Kane with England. He's not really doing anything up front. People will say he allows Griezmann and Mbappé to get into the game. What a load of rubbish. He slows the game down. Griezmann is used to playing a fast counter game with Atletico, he doesn't need Giroud stopping the play at the halfway line to find a glorious 15 yard pass to Pavard who naturally as a CB knocks it sideways to Varane. 

E: I should point out that I think you're making valid points I just don't think I agree with them. I think Deschamps is afraid of failure after 2016 in his own country, losing that match to Portugal on home soil in the final of the Euros was probably just as hard to take as Brazil losing the semi final in 2014 (albeit theirs had a more embarrassing nature to it). So to compensate he's gone ultra-safe with a superstar pool of some of the best players in the world. It's boring.

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If France played attractive football on Sunday and outplayed Croatia I'd love it, even though I want Croatia to win. 

But the sad reality is that France will play their usual way and grind a 1-0 or a 2-1 or something. Let's just pray Mandookitch (gets me every time :Dis on a mad one again :thup:

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France could win it by war of attrition... but I do think we will see some exciting moments as Mbappe takes on Strinic (if fit) and Vida. Will be such a mismatch of pace. Took Croatia 45 mins to work out Vida and Lovren needed to play deeper vs Sterling... Mbappe is far bolder, quicker and more clinical.

I'd really like to see a Mandzukic winner though, at club and national level I think he has been underrated for a long time, now he's more mainstream and beginning to get the plaudits he deserves, it'd be nice to cap it off with a WC win.

 

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1 hour ago, JDownie said:

superstars like Varane, Umtiti, Pogba, Kanté, Griezmann and Mbappé play boring safe football.

You literally list 2CBs and Kante as superstars and then wonder why're they playing so defensive?

Because they're much better in defensive part of the game.

1 hour ago, JDownie said:

It's not even like Giroud is great at playing in behind the defence for Griezmann/Mbappé making a run in behind. It's just...stupid.

Have you seen their game without him? Even worse.

They're missing an offensive midfielder, because Dembele, Fekir and Thauvin are forwards/wingers.

Add Pogba who's not that tactically sound into that, and you have no balance.

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1 minute ago, GunmaN1905 said:

You literally list 2CBs and Kante as superstars and then wonder why're they playing so defensive?

Because they're much better in defensive part of the game.

Have you seen their game without him? Even worse.

They're missing an offensive midfielder, because Dembele, Fekir and Thauvin are forwards/wingers.

Add Pogba who's not that tactically sound into that, and you have no balance.

I think them looking worse without Giroud says more about Deschamps' tactical limitations than their squad given Giroud has been crap individually.

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2 hours ago, kpain16 said:

I can't see us winning this one. France just looks too good and the mood in Croatia is that everyone should be happy with the silver. For some reason I doubt our players will be fired up as they were against England. Maybe I'm wrong, just a gut feeling.

Not fired up in a World Cup Final? Why on earth would that be the case? 

I could understand underperformance due to nerves (though apart from Lovren your players give the impression of being pretty mentally solid) but not being undermotivated for their first and quite possibly only chance of a World Cup against a side that hasn't really looked any better than them.

I think France will do it because they have more options, Mbappe and a better defence, but there isn't a great deal between the teams, both of which are talented but pragmatic tournament football sides, and it's not difficult to imagine Croatia winning the midfield battle and/or taking their chances better.

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I never said they will not try hard or anything. I just have a feeling they'll be missing that extra something they had against England. They ran for 120 minutes like they were mad. For the 3rd time in a row. My gut feeling says they might crash in the final, one of the reasons being they are already 2nd at worst.  Which would be a shame.

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26 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said:

You literally list 2CBs and Kante as superstars and then wonder why're they playing so defensive?

Because they're much better in defensive part of the game.

Have you seen their game without him? Even worse.

They're missing an offensive midfielder, because Dembele, Fekir and Thauvin are forwards/wingers.

Add Pogba who's not that tactically sound into that, and you have no balance.

Varane one of the best CBs in the world. Umtiti one of the best CBs in the world. Kanté one of the best DMs in the world. 

I've listed 3 key positions to any important and successful system. France are well equipped to be defensively sound with those 3 always defending. No reason every other player should be defending too, which is what France do and why they're boring. 

E: I assume you didn't read everything but if you have you'll see that I said Deschamps is playing cautiously to avoid getting beaten after the failure of Euro 16, where they weren't strictly defensive, just very disjointed (a bit like at the start of the tournament Vs Australia where they gave away some chances and looked shaky).  They aren't bad going forwards, they're being limited by their coaches tactics imo. They have Griezmann, Mbappé, Pogba, Dembélé etc and you want to tell me they are only equipped to be a strong defensive side? Give over. They are equipped to dominate like Germany and Spain have the last 10 years. 

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France have a world class player in every position (DF - Varane, MID - Kanté, FWD - Griezmann) on the pitch really. Lloris the only one who isn't anymore imo but he's still very good and with the defence in front of him he doesn't have to be world class anyway. Importantly their world class players are the spine and are complimented by other top class individuals like Mbappé, Pogba, Umtiti etc. 

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