Arena The *Official* 2022 FIFA World Cup Thread

The only opinion I’m certain of now is wanting England to lose.

 

It didn't help that the Polish defence decided to give Mbappe the entire gulf state as space for him to score in (for both goals) defence was clearly optional at that point.

Mbappe runs the left too so it'sWalker who'll be taking him on. Shaw has Dembele which isn't beyond his capability (but will seriously stretch him)

Either way, both Shaw and Walker "can" keep Mbappe and Dembele quiet. Doing so is a totally different prospect and they'll get plenty of chances to score. It "should" be less that they gave Poland but I doubt it.

Saturday will involve Pizza and stress

 

The key to beating France isn't keeping a check on Mbappé. That's nigh impossible and would be stupid to build your strategy around that. The key to beating France is simply to outscore them. Which, with Kane, Bellingham, Foden, Saka and Rashford, is very much possible.

If it involves conceding a goal or two to Mbappé, then so be it.

 

He plays with Varane at United and he's still a problem.

The England system suits him better & he has Rice to protect him, but he's still prone to mistakes as we saw in the early first half against Senegal.
You can get away with that against them, France won't waste that many opportunities

I'm impressed by how effective France have been without Pogba & Kante.
Rabiot has really stepped up.

 

Out of the teams that remain I want either Croatia or Morocco to win.

 

Japan 1 Croatia 1 at the end of full time. First game to go to extra time (and penalties, maybe).

 

And looks like the game is going down to penalty kicks.

 

They still have 15 minutes to score. Then it's penalties.

 

Japan v Croatia is going to penalties!

 

1-0 Croatia.Japan have missed twice.

 

Japan in all kinds of trouble here.

 

And Croatia have won!

 

Croatia through! Wow, Japan were awful. Only one penalty converted.

 

Japan were impressive this tournament, getting wins over Germany and Spain, hard way to go out, on penalty shots

 

Yeah, that's a rough way to go out.

 

After all of the surprise results in this tournament, the last 16 has so far seen a return to form with Europe and South America dominating. South Korea and Morocco are the last hope of a representative of another confederation in the last 8. I think Morocco coud do it - at least I hope they can - but South Korea have really got their work cut out.

 

Yeah, I have a feeling S Korea will be catching the flight home after tonight.

 

A hint of Ronaldinho there. Superb composure.

 

This could be a very long night for Korea

 

Korea have done so well to get here. The rest is... You know, not unexpected.

 

If that counts (offside?), that is magnificent

 

Ridiculously good