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Match Day 5: Sweden v South Korea; Belgium v Panama; Tunisia v Engerland


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Kane was basically pants all game, but scored two goals from a combined five yards.  In fairness he was rugby tackled several times at set pieces but his open play was shocking.  England’s high pressing was great in the opening 15 minutes — and Tunisia looked like Saudi Arabia at that point — but Sterling and Lindgard were comically wasteful.  Stones too at one corner.  Alli, Sterling and Lindgard do well bombing forward at pace or pressing high, but if the game slows down against a deep defense, then they don’t have a clear attacking shape.  Loftus-Cheek was by far the best at creating openings; food for thought with Panama ahead.  They missed Lallana’s ability to receive the ball with his back to goal, turn a marker and play a one-two.  Young gave no width, and one terrible attempt at scoring from a good free kick.  Walker and Stones both have an error in them.  Maguire was the best for me.  Henderson was good early on but then regressed to only passing sideways to Trippier.  Not a terrible thing since the youngster was having a good game, but Henderson was pretty pointless then.  They need to hope that the young trio of AMFs find their groove.

Belgium fully deserved their win and Panama fully deserved their litany of yellow cards.  They looked a good bet for a sending off for a while but managed to regain some discipline.  Belgium had some innovative set pieces early on but only got dangerous as Panama tired and had to chase the game.  Mertens and Hazard were best for me, Lukaku took his goals well (especially his second) and DeBruyne has some good flashes but didn’t exactly destroy them.  Why does Witsel start ahead of Dembele?

A decent day of football but that group now looks much more predictable than most.  An upset would have kept it interesting. 

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