Richarlison has his moments and might score today as well, but in general his donkeyness stands out in the forward line.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Richarlison has his moments and might score today as well, but in general his donkeyness stands out in the forward line.

Xhaka meanwhile looks like a King among men in midfield

Nice goal from Casameiro

Quality of goals today has been wild

Bentancur already on a yellow and has to keep fouling to stop them. Not playing well so far.

He grew into the game and had many nice moments after.

Nuno Mendes is absolute quality. Shame he got injured.

Lusail is such a fantastic stadia to watch a match

Think it's a tough one. If it's not a penalty it's something that could easily be abused, even if it was not intentional here.

It's a nonsense call. I've seen an image on Twitter claiming to be from the IFAB handbook saying that the arm that is grounded when a player is falling should not be called as handball. It's nitpicking for nitpicking's sake.

This is a great WC by the way, other than Netherlands and Brazil matches all the other matches have qualifications at stake

Clrnc wrote:

This is a great WC by the way, other than Netherlands and Brazil matches all the other matches have qualifications at stake

Agreed. However, even Brazil game, Cameroon need a win.

Yeah. I expected to give the first round a miss. This has been riveting.

And Netherlands are technically not through yet either although shouldn't have trouble against Qatar.

Portugal have a brilliant squad, but they play some ugly cautious football.

this thing has been impossible to call. i wonder if it is worth putting up a google sheet before the knockout and we each guess who will win the L16 and each of the subsequent rounds.

Kel Varnsen wrote:

Portugal have a brilliant squad, but they play some ugly cautious football.

Ronaldo looks shot. He's holding them back and I don't think he's going to drop himself from the team. Otherwise, they're probably my favourite side in terms of balance and personnel. Not convinced with Felix out wide but he'd be a great false-nine I would think, with Leao taking his place on the left.

As for your other post regarding France, they're always boring as hell but simultaneously setup to win. Even with Zidane and Henry, they were a bore.

On Portugal.. I used to like Ronaldo, but every time that teams attacks, he just runs to the top of the box and stands there. It crowds that area of the field with at least two men. He thinks it's great for sending headers in but it makes it difficult for Portugal to attack the and redistribute the ball to the wings to penetrate. It destroys movement. He needs to be more selfless.

France look great. I've never been a big fan of Giroud and Griezmann but I like what they are doing. And Mbappe is the best player in this tournament.

Since Brazil 2002 and maybe Spain 2010, all the teams who won major tournaments played mostly cautious defensive football grinding out low scoring wins so can't rule Portugal out

Ecuador v. Senegal was a really good match to watch

Brazil and France are the most impressive teams that's the dream final.

Portugal and Spain have also impressed me. Then you have England as outsiders. I don't think anyone else has a chance. I'm ruling out Germany and Argentina.

I think it is Brazil's year but playing an injured Neymar could cost them.