France-Belgium Jul 10 2pmET
Croatia-England Jul 11 2pmET

i don't think the other side is strong enough to beat either France or Belgium. my rooting order right now is Belgium, France, England then Croatia.

i don't really care, though, just give me great matches.

with the 2nd, if Croatia were healthy and rested, they'd be the definite favorite. But they're obviously not so...

yeah, they've got 3-4 guys on big clubs. England's got a higher ELO rating and is in better form this tournament. All Croatia's done is smoke a trash Argentina team. if both teams were on equal rest i'd say it's a tossup, but the exhaustion factor makes me lean england pretty hard.

But I agree - they are a squad that has gotten here on the wings of weak competition, a hot goalie, a top 5 player in peak form and Mandzukic running really hard. I still think they're more talented but some combo of Rakitic, Krameric, Kovacic and/or Brozovic need to show the fuck up already, otherwise England is definitely sending them home Wednesday.

Trendy. All the rage, in fact.

the other night @ a housewarming, i was telling this girl how belgium / croatia was the hipster finals pick.

she made fun of me for still using the word "hipster" in 2018 but the point still stands.

more like, it was one of the dark horses before the competition, and on paper it's got a lot of favorable factors, but I can't say I haven't seen a lot of people say they were anywhere near favored over England, with most people pointing to the 2 consecutive ET

Rakitic needs to step it up for Croatia to win...dude is capable of it as we all know.

I'm honestly surprised England has been able to hide their weakness in the middle of the pitch (respect to Southgate for that).

If Croatia can't do it, Belgium or France will

He puts in work.

Modric is a "top 10 player doing it" talent, Rakitic and Perisic are great when they're on their games and Kovacic is the hype/hope that just hasn't materialized yet. After that? Mandzucik couldn't beat a training cone in the open field and their best defender is Liverpool's worst. Things get even thinner from there. It's a myth that "if Croatia were fresh" they would be better than England; England may only have one or two great players compared to Croatia's 3.5, but they have extensive depth and cohesion.

And I am here for that. I know that England is a bit browner/blacker than before but that song, YO. If England wins, we gotta hear that song forever. That is like the Cheers theme and Boston.

>And I am here for that. I know that England is a bit
>browner/blacker than before but that song, YO. If England
>wins, we gotta hear that song forever.

back to back penalty shootouts? not questioning the mental toughness of Balkan cats but they may be physically on fumes at this point

And fuck that song

Because "It's Coming Home" is 10000x worse than God Save the Queen.

>Because "It's Coming Home" is 10000x worse than God Save the
>Queen.

according to my day drunk english co-workers ...whatever that's supposed to mean


I guess England invented soccer?

The changes against Brazil were mostly masterful, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but what in the hell is this? Back 4 with Chadli as a right back and a roadblock of 3 6s? 3-4-3 with Chadli and Dembele as the wingbacks? I want to understand.

mini-Lukaku is the only Belgium player that has the pace to stay somewhat with Mbappe and is the only natural leftback on the team. What a crazy gamble.

honestly I have no idea what to expect from this game, way too many considerations and my brain is broken from the nervousness

I also used the phrase "so far." Now, at the time I posted, Belgium had repeatedly created chances around goal with the help of some sketchy French defending, including clumsy headers and Umtiti's absolute whiff on a low cross.

However, Belgium did not manage to score, the French defense settled down, and the game turned.

Therefore my post stands.

this is tense and tight. i love it.

if it's just 90 or 120 minutes of tenseness.... I dunno.

Pavard waiting for him to be at full blast to defend is not helping either

that mission? get out of London and to Madrid.

Hes had a few chances to take an easy foul in the left channel either on Pavard or Pogba and just stayed up to prove whatever point it is he's going for. I'm sure Martinez will tell him to go ahead take the kick when he can.

Lets crack this open.

.

and not Hazard. Everyone is looking for Eden to this point. And while he's obviously dangerous, KdB is a bigger danger imo.

Thought there'd be goals, for one.

They are nowhere near, or at least shouldn't be, as one-dimensional as they played.

All the props to France's defending though. They froze Lukaku out of the game and generally did a good job with Hazard.

but DD gonna DD. Martinez was kinda feelin himself with that starting XI, but aside from Hazard who was monstrous, I though we did well past the first 30mins

but like folks are saying, straight credit to Pogba and Kante Tha God. They locked the entire stadium down.

some good undeground work from Griezmann too

Belgium had some great chances early but as we've seen in the knock-out stages, they haven't converted high % chances very well. Otherwise, they were very inconsistent and relied heavily on individual magic from Hazard and KDB to create half chances.

France were the more consistent team...bolstered by a MotM performance in Lloris and Pogba (incredible discipline and effort tonight). If not for some great last ditch defending by Belgium, this game is out of sight.

really a lot of good to pick out from les bleus who frustrated the Belgians immensely while still being on the verge of a breakdown countless times.

Varane is having some WC. Umtiti made me nervous but that header, wowza

Kante/Pogba, what more can be said. Matuidi played like a lion. As usual his technical limitations can be tedious, but he more than makes up for it in his forward movement

Giroud went back to his mineworker gameplan and was our best defender at times. Idgaf about our centre forward still lacking a goal, worked well enough in 98

Mbappe can be annoying but he is key to making things happen. And he is getting good at provoking the opponent, even with that Argentinian-type yellow card in injury time

OOOh boy this feels good. Part of me now wants to see England in the final to make it "more" classic, but I certainly won't be sad if our Croatian brethren pull it off tomorrow.

I am not gonna pretend like I wasn't hating during the qualifiers and the preparation (it's mostly cause I was rooting for TTBOI)

shame on me to have doubted the god, he's having an incredible tournament.

"I wouldn't say that the other team was better than us. They defended in their own half the entire time, we shouldn't have been surprised, they've done that all tournament. It's a shame." (BeIN)

probably before then, but has a bigger platform now.

that he didn't believe Karius had a concussion (26/30 tests came back positive) because the symptoms weren't exactly the same as his own and that medical staffs will take out if you do have one (LOL)

"I prefer to lose with this Belgium than win with that France"

UMTITI LEFT YOU IN TATTERS MY GUY

That was crazy to not call that, but Belgium's only idea of slinging balls into the box was just poor.

not sure what you guys were watching

this is seriously one of the best feelings in the entire world

https://www.tuxboard.com/photos/2013/11/matuidi-sakho.gif

on that MMMBOP to Giroud backheel. It would have been so epic.

that woulda been a sure goal. it was fucking beautiful, nonetheless.

Okay, player.

nasty.

Cake walk

One more time

how on earth did he get that squarely on goal with perfect placement?

wow

and that post moment right after. watching this at work is awkward, I have to talk to people I'm serving with this on to my right lol

Hendo is a reliable midfield lynchpin.

no idea how Croatia are still standing, but they looked a lot better than England at the end

Are they on that Maradona?

Relieved more than joyful. What a dogfight.

Well, get me my fucking thrift store reading glasses then, bitches.

I've admittedly thought they were going to fall apart at alternating points during the last two matches, but it's got to run out eventually, right?

France is 2x as good as Russia or England. Especially in attack.

I mean, Croatia wasn't much sharper they just made a couple key moments count.

England couldn't do that today.

Can watch Sunday pretty neutral and just hope for a good game

that ET was astounding. One team playing to win, the other...

You can’t turn off in that situation. He either thought Pickford was closer or didn’t realize Manzudkic was off his shoulder. Either way, really soft goal to give up and in the worst moment

since 1982 every final has featured at least a player from Bayern and Inter. For this year Tolisso/Perisic+Brozovic. Kind of amazing it happened when you look at the odds

It's true for each, not "or" right?

Also not counting this year I think only 2 final hadn't involved either Germany or Italy

somehow this year Bayern looked the most unlikely outcome once Germany crapped the bed. I remember hearing about the stat before the 1/4 finals and thinking it was possible but definitely not likely to happen

______________________________
http://i.imgur.com/v2ye7l2.jpg

about england getting knocked out, but now I can't even do it because I really respect the way they played


DAMN IT ALL TO HELL

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

http://remezcla.com/sports/salvadoran-photographer-yuri-cortez-croatia/

https://twitter.com/urualejandro/status/1017160278641913856?s=21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsXMXkkoCco

i thoroughly enjoyed how unintentionally dad joke all this "it's coming home" stuff was.

https://www.facebook.com/lequipe.fr/videos/10155709827397066/

MMMBOP
PIDDLYBIPBAP
MMMBOP

Honestly, the only other dude I've seen do it at that pace and touch was Henry.