by Red Okktober » Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:06 pm
Well played England - reaching a WC semi final is a fine achievement, albeit on the soft side of an unbalanced draw, against fellow journeyman teams. Once again though, they looked short of ideas and ran out of steam after a promising start. No creativity, and very little pace, outside of Stirling, who was useless on the ball. Kudos to the team though for getting as far as they did with limited resources.
The third place play-off is shit, no one wants to play in it. Teams are remembered for making the semis, and not who came third and who came fourth. It's just a glorified friendly between two knackered teams, who can't wait to be on the plane home.
Re the final, I'm fairly hopeful of a French win, but won't count any chickens just yet. All three of Croatia's knock-out games went to extra time, that's 90 minutes of intense football, an extra high energy-sapping game if you like, whereas France won all their three inside 90 minutes. Croatia looked like they picked up a few injuries as well last night, IIRC France didn't have any. Plus France get the extra day to prepare.
Any of France's ko round opponents, Argentina, Uruguay, and Belgium would have caused more problems in the final than Croatia probably will (or England would have done). Take Modric out, and Croatia are very ordinary, and he's looking out on his feet anyway. In any case, all France have to do is put Kante on him and let their own flair players control midfield. On paper, the final has a bit of a one-sided look about it. I can't wait to see Mbappe, Griezmann and Pogba terrorise the Croatian defence! Giroud's due a goal as well. Of course it doesn't always work out how you think it will, but at this stage, France and their supporters must be very confident.
Vive La France!