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And it's adiós to Spain. If Switzerland go through tonight I can't even begin to imagine how exciting that QF might be



Not taking Thiago Alcantara was a stupid decision in hindsight. I have lost count of the times I have seen him opening up teams in the final third. Not necessarily always an assist, but also a pass leading up to it.
Also, he is hugely experienced. Spain could have used that.


Of course I am delighted he is rested instead, cause he is also fragile.



Croatia v Brazil
Netherlands v Argentina

Morocco v Portugal
England v France
Are the countries in bold your predicted winners? If so, I agree. Let me edit this: France will probably beat England.
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Not taking Thiago Alcantara was a stupid decision in hindsight. I have lost count of the times I have seen him opening up teams in the final third. Not necessarily always an assist, but also a pass leading up to it.
Also, he is hugely experienced. Spain could have used that.
Spain's problem isn't opening teams up, it's scoring goals. It's why I'm still a little suprised that there's been any talk of it being an upset. Yes, the Spanish were favourites, but favourites lose quite a lot and a team which can't/doesn't score is far more likely to lose than one which can/does more often. That's just basic. I only watched the first 15 minutes or so but turned back for penalites and was very pleased to see Spain lose. Nothing against the place, people or even the players, it's just they're very, very dull to watch.

I'm guessing Santos will have less trouble explaining to Ronaldo why he's not starting in the quarter final.
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Are the countries in bold your predicted winners? If so, I agree. Let me edit this: France will probably beat England.
Those are my predictions. I just think England will reach the final.



Those are my predictions. I just think England will reach the final.
Who would they be playing do you think?



It feels like everyone will lose to Brazil atm. Of course, it felt like that in 82, too. It does feel, atm, though that the semi between Brazil and Argentina is the defacto final.



Croatia through on pens to upset Brazil. Not sure Neymar can believe it.
A Croatia-Argentina semi would be interesting ..... could be anything from a decent game of football to one of the biggest kicking sessions going



Anybody but Argentina for me, after their behaviour during the Dutch match. I know the Dutch weren't particularly angels themselves, but that was horrible from both the sides.


England should be proud of their performance against France.


Ideally I want Croatia to win this.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
No great love of Argentina but I think it would be nice for Messi to win a world cup.
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Anybody but Argentina for me, after their behaviour during the Dutch match. I know the Dutch weren't particularly angels themselves, but that was horrible from both the sides.


England should be proud of their performance against France.


Ideally I want Croatia to win this.
Too bad Kane missed his penalty kick. Disappointing.



It feels like everyone will lose to Brazil atm. Of course, it felt like that in 82, too. It does feel, atm, though that the semi between Brazil and Argentina is the defacto final.
Then Croatia came...

While football is unpredictable, so you cannot say losing a match means the team is bad, but Brazil had had an issue over the past 5-world-cups in that they systematically got eliminated by teams in elimination rounds that before the match they were not expected to lose. In the case of Belgium in 2018 and Croatia now, it certainly looks like Brazil lost both rounds at the strategic level. In the case of Germany in 2014, that was also true (although that match is a weird case of the nervous breakdown of a team, the management of the team was certainly inept before the nervous breakdown happened).

So I think that the issue is that Brazilian managers are outdated compared to European managers. While the Seleção has tons of great players, there is a lack of Brazilian managers operating at the highest level since they only manage teams in Brazil.

A few decades ago, that was not an issue because the Brazilian league was not much worse than the big European leagues (the 1994 Seleção, which won the world cup, for instance, had more than half of its players playing in Brazil at the time), so Brazilian managers had experience with football close to the highest level.

Now, as a massive technical gap opened up over the past 30 years between the Brazilian league and the Premier League and La Liga, we still have a manager of the Seleção who had a career managing Brazilian teams which play much inferior level than Barcelona or Bayern, after which they managed the Seleção playing with much worse teams like South Korea, which makes their job appear easy. Then comes the first effective opposition, like Croatia, and they don't know what to do because they have never managed high-level football before.



Then Croatia came...

While football is unpredictable, so you cannot say losing a match means the team is bad, but Brazil had had an issue over the past 5-world-cups in that they systematically got eliminated by teams in elimination rounds that before the match they were not expected to lose. In the case of Belgium in 2018 and Croatia now, it certainly looks like Brazil lost both rounds at the strategic level. In the case of Germany in 2014, that was also true (although that match is a weird case of the nervous breakdown of a team, the management of the team was certainly inept before the nervous breakdown happened).

So I think that the issue is that Brazilian managers are outdated compared to European managers. While the Seleção has tons of great players, there is a lack of Brazilian managers operating at the highest level since they only manage teams in Brazil.

A few decades ago, that was not an issue because the Brazilian league was not much worse than the big European leagues (the 1994 Seleção, which won the world cup, for instance, had more than half of its players playing in Brazil at the time), so Brazilian managers had experience with football close to the highest level.

Now, as a massive technical gap opened up over the past 30 years between the Brazilian league and the Premier League and La Liga, we still have a manager of the Seleção who had a career managing Brazilian teams which play much inferior level than Barcelona or Bayern, after which they managed the Seleção playing with much worse teams like South Korea, which makes their job appear easy. Then comes the first effective opposition, like Croatia, and they don't know what to do because they have never managed high-level football before.
This is spot on. The pressure, lack of tactics to combat stubborn and defensively rigid teams together with a lack of a plan b means that Brazilian managers don't fare well against European teams who have lesser players but the sum of their parts are more adapted to modern knockout football. Makes tonight's game a fascinating one - can Argentina buck that trend?

Hope so. I'd love to see the best player of all time lift the cup.