decapitated Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I'd love Croatia to do it, but I think it will be France. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baptista_8 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Came in to say the exact same. Heart = Croatia Head = France Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westy8chimp Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 1 minute ago, Baptista_8 said: Came in to say the exact same. Heart = Croatia Head = France ---------"--------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 So difficult to see anything other than France in 90 mins. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon_84 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Who gives a **** Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sons FC Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 8 minutes ago, toon_84 said: Who gives a **** You did in the prediction thread - 2-1 to France. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boltman Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France to elevate themselves onto the list of legitimate World Cup winners by triumphing outside their own nation. Hope it's Croatia though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Who knows, honestly. France already bottled one final two years ago. But something like Lucas scoring two goals wouldn't surprise me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bliss Seeker Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I dunno really. Who will win? France must be favourites right? Croatia MUST be knackered by now I'm going France, but don't really have a preference. Just hope it'd be a good game! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon_84 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 38 minutes ago, Sons FC said: You did in the prediction thread - 2-1 to France. Foiled Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baptista_8 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 35 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said: But something like Lucas scoring two goals wouldn't surprise me. What's happened to Lucas Digne? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestbrother Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 We need a thriller. Finals are so turgid these days, so im hoping for a few goals and a bit of end to end action. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 10 minutes ago, Baptista_8 said: What's happened to Lucas Digne? Why're you asking me about that? I was referring to Hernandez and Thuram reference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mawka Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Croatia, plays positive football unlike the french side. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordan Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baptista_8 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 23 minutes ago, GunmaN1905 said: Why're you asking me about that? I was referring to Hernandez and Thuram reference. Lol. He just popped into my head. Was first choice at the Euros IIRC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westy8chimp Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 44 minutes ago, Baptista_8 said: What's happened to Lucas Digne? He's just backup to Alba so others picked over him due to first team football I guess. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearcey_90 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France 3-0. Mbappe to score 2 based on how much Vida/Lovren struggled with pace against us, and that's minus someone like Pogba supplying better balls. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTHerringbone Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France and by a distance. Croatia aren't anything special. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan045 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France all day, they have too much quality for Croatia. An Mbappe double will win it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Sandman Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Giroud will solidify his crown as the greatest striker of all time with a hatty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svenc Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 France. Deschamps is great. Pogba is great. Matuidi is great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 2 minutes ago, georginho_juventusygr said: France. Deschamps is great. Biggest coaching success is winning the Serie B, isn't it? Epic combover guy will be in charge of the finals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Could have won Serie A if he had stayed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 With Grygera, Legrotallie, Zebina, Pepe and co? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Could have done a counter-attacking strategy for the whole season. We were very good against the mighty Inter, with Il FenoMelo in midfield partnering Marchisio. We never gave up mentally. Remember Boumsong's and Poulsen's last-minute goals? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Same as Inter playing well against Juventus for the past few seasons and still finishing with more 20 points of deficit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Should have trusted Gasperson. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubenJ Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Croatia would be awesome, would really make it one of the GOAT world cups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Federico Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Nobody wants France to win. Me especially. But they will. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedrik Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 2 hours ago, Federico said: Nobody wants France to win. Me especially. But they will. Saw this a couple of times now. What's up with the hatred against France? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpain16 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearcey_90 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Federico Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclonus1010 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Croatia played 120 mins for 3 games straight. If they win it will be one of the greatest achievements in a world cup. Sticking £100 on France tho Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cedrik Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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 ) is on a mad one again Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
westy8chimp Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weiry Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I picked France at the start of the tournament to win it but everybody loves an underdog win! (plus there's a big Croatian community here in Australia) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunmaN1905 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterUsernameHere Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigmatic Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpain16 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD nawrat Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 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. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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