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The Final & 3rd Place - FRA v. CRO / BEL v. ENG


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12 minutes ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

Pogba definitely has a claim. Modric controls a midfield battle better but Pogba has worked hard and produced numerous stunning passes from deep, hugely important ones too.

Exactly right. Statsbomb had a graphic showing that Pogba has been the most incisive player in the tournament in terms of fast forward passing and dribbles. He's also won more duels in the knockout phase than any other midfielder.   The guy has been class in this tournament but as is so often the case when it comes to Pogba, no matter how well he plays it just isn't enough in the eyes of certain people. 

 

Anyway, I'm satisfied that Modric wins player of the tournament. It was a close call between him, Pogba, Kante and Hazard. Don't think there can be much complaints if any one of them had won it.

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Great game. The VAR penalty still probably the most nail biting moment.  That and seeing Pussy Riot wrestled to the ground. The second two France goals made it a deserved win.

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32 minutes ago, john said:

Great game. The VAR penalty still probably the most nail biting moment.  That and seeing Pussy Riot wrestled to the ground. The second two France goals made it a deserved win.

That was Pussy Riot? haha. American commentators always try to deflect from that stuff, so I had no idea who it was, but I thought they were Russians.

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57 minutes ago, Triskjavikson said:

France probably should have won the last Euro cup and just about everyone from this team except Giroud and Lloris will still be around next WC.  Very good shape for the future.  

 That Pogba goal was set up by Mbappe's incredible speed which was really on display on the pass to open space that got that one going.  

Wasn't that what people said about Germany four years ago? Well, replace the names Giroud and Lloris with Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Klose, but you know what I mean. Remember the last team to succesfully win back-to-back world cups was Brazil in 1962.

I think England might actually win it in four years time. This year it was a bit too early for them.

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A farce orchestrated by the referee and the French players. Shame, because this was a great World Cup up until this point.

Griezmann is such a diva. Dude fell after a non-existent contact with Brozovic after which the first goal happened.

And that wasn't a penalty. Matuidi was one meter away from Perisic and the latter couldn't react that fast and remove his hand away, There wasn't even an intention, nor that ball was a real threat to Croatia. 

Kudos to the Croats who fought till the end despite all the injustice towards them. 

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16 minutes ago, Notone said:

I think England might actually win it in four years time. This year it was a bit too early for them.

We would need some of the young talent to develop into top players I think, and a left back to emerge from somewhere (Luke Shaw could still make it I suppose). It'll be nice if the likes of Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho are fully fledged by then.

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11 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

A farce orchestrated by the referee and the French players. Shame, because this was a great World Cup up until this point.

Griezmann is such a diva. Dude fell after a non-existent contact with Brozovic after which the first goal happened.

And that wasn't a penalty. Matuidi was one meter away from Perisic and the latter couldn't react that fast and remove his hand away, There wasn't even an intention, nor that ball was a real threat to Croatia. 

Kudos to the Croats who fought till the end despite all the injustice towards them. 

During France-Belgium Jan Verthongen made actually a sign during the match that the ref had been bribed... ^_^

I think the first two goals weren't really deserved but the last two goals of France were deserved. 

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1 minute ago, Tijgy said:

During France-Belgium Jan Verthongen made actually a sign during the match that the ref had been bribed... ^_^

I think the first two goals weren't really deserved but the last two goals of France were deserved. 

I wouldn't say they were bribed. But biased af. Anyway, it's hard to fight after you conceded such two goals. A shame, but football never really was a fair and a just game. On the contrary.

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Neither did I. Jan just made the sign during the game :P

But it is still rather weird that in both games the refs made some weird decisions. Nevertheless I don't think it is completely undeserved France won both times.

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2 hours ago, Notone said:

Wasn't that what people said about Germany four years ago? Well, replace the names Giroud and Lloris with Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Klose, but you know what I mean.

Germany's problem was that it didn't replace those three players you mentioned properly- although Kimmich isn't THAT much of a downgrade over Lahm.

Only Giroud, who wasn't exactly irreplaceable, won't be there in 2022 for certain. One opes the coach doesn't use Lloris if he spends the entire season out injured.

Also, France has a ton of talented players that weren't called, such as Rabiot, Martial, Coman, etc, who will be hungry for a trophy.

 

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15 minutes ago, Bern is Burning said:

Only Giroud, who wasn't exactly irreplaceable, won't be there in 2022 for certain. One opes the coach doesn't use Lloris if he spends the entire season out injured.

 

Well, Neuer was the least of the problems in Germany's attempt to defend the title. 

15 minutes ago, Bern is Burning said:

 Also, France has a ton of talented players that weren't called, such as Rabiot, Martial, Coman, etc, who will be hungry for a trophy.

 

Yep, they didn't win the title. Now it'll take some balls to axe some of the players that won the cup (Mark Twain's right about the sacred cows making the best hamburgers, but few dare to take that to a test). 

Anyway, France's development has some similarities to the German team's. Very good talented team that didn't win the World Cup on their first proper run (Germany failed in 2010 and so did France in 2014), both had some disappointments on their way there (Germany's semi-final exit against Italy at the Euros in 2012 and France's heartbreak in their final at home 2016 against Portugal). 

Let's see if the players you mentioned can break (back) into the team. Eventhough it's pretty hypothetical, but Iam not sure they could do much, if they were in roughly the same squad in four years time, with a Pogba in solo-mode (as in, I've already won that thing and don't need to prove anything anymore, and not track back as decisively), just with some sort of saturation and complacency.

Again, for the last 20 years almost any reigning champion has struggled rather badly when it came down to defending the title. Brazil in 1998 was pretty much the last champion that managed to play a good tournament. 

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3 hours ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

We would need some of the young talent to develop into top players I think, and a left back to emerge from somewhere (Luke Shaw could still make it I suppose). It'll be nice if the likes of Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho are fully fledged by then.

If we continue to play 3 at the back then Ryan Sessegnon will be an option there, though he mainly plays as a winger these days. His first year in the top flight is one of the things I am looking forward to most from the new PL season.

 

1 hour ago, Notone said:

Well, Neuer was the least of the problems in Germany's attempt to defend the title. 

It was more the complacency it exuded - letting someone who had not played all year walk back into the team no questions asked - than his poor performance that made it a bad decision.

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44 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Man, how I hope so. United fans hope for this every season but the truth is that Shaw is a worse player now than when he was 18. 

I actually hope so too, even as a City supporter. We've seen too many promising careers go awry. I still think what happened with Michael Johnson was a travesty. I remember going and seeing him play at 17 for us away at Newcastle where he set up the winner and also away at Wigan where we lost 4-0 but he was the brightest spark in the team. Then the following season he was immense under Sven Goran Eriksson but he got an injury and never seemed to recover (physically or mentally).

1 minute ago, Philokles said:

If we continue to play 3 at the back then Ryan Sessegnon will be an option there, though he mainly plays as a winger these days. His first year in the top flight is one of the things I am looking forward to most from the new PL season.

Ah yes, good point. I'm looking forward to seeing him too. Good that he has stuck with Fulham for now.

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