LucaAltieri

The Cameroon coach is almost certainly the descendant of people traffickers. http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/494334751-cameroons-german-head-coach-volker-finke-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXqH607Pk7pRhuAhI1Xj%2FBk4ZlI%2B8i1SXntDQ2vXYVkgL

The Mexican diving is embarrassing. No idea why they haven't been carded yet.

XHamster Señor Penis? Dos chicas, una copa.

Cool. Who will you support in the knock-out stages?

Deserved. Nice goal too.

Best example, Shirley?

Almost feel sorry for Moreno... gets bashed by that fucker then gets booked for his trouble.

Incorrect.

How is it still 0-0?

Croatia vs. Mexico is going to be a good game.

How the fuck did they miss that?

Not sure why you are getting your knickers in a twist mate. No one has said African teams shouldn't be at the world cup, my point was more on Pele and his wayward comments. The opposite is pretty much why his knickers are in a twist, man. Luca caught a big one with that. It's too easy some days.

Game opening up a bit now. This might turn out to be entertaining.

Yeah, I don't know why they bother inviting African teams.

These opening 5 minutes have been so low on quality I'm having second thoughts about screwing off work. Sharepoint feels positively riveting by comparison.

"The penalty was wrong but but but but but..." "It was a dive, but WHAT a good dive." Grim.

Flip is trying to rationalize the result and dispel some of the completely justified horror at that refereeing. The ref won Brazil the game and Flip can't help but be gleeful about it. For shame.

It was a wrong decision but I can see why the ref gave it. From his position and angle it looks like first Fred got his left hand pulled and then he saw Lovren's hand on Fred's shoulder. Add to those the perfect dive from Fred and it does look like a pen from his position. Impossible to tell from his angle whether Fred really got pulled or threw himself to the ground. Nothing corrupt, just the way football sadly works now. Thank you. It's nothing more than an appaling decision. But Fred sold it so I can see how the ref was conned. To think the ref just pointed to the penalty spot for no reason is ridiculous. I still don't agree with saying three decisions went Brazil's way. There really was only one game changer and it was the penalty. A draw would've been fair, but if Neymar deserved a red for that then I'm sorry to disappoint but you won't see any reds like that in football. He gets a yellow because he shouldn't have his arm up there, but peoples bias and hate towards him thinks he deliberately elbows him in the face in the first half of the World Cup in pure rage. It's ridiculous. You had a better angle to see it than the ref. The ref is exactly in the position to see the arm on the shoulder and Fred throwing himself. I'm happy with three points, I think by the end of the game it owuld've come anyways. Also for all of you guys saying the ref is corrupt, how was Croatia able to escape this game with 11 men on the field? 21 fouls against Brazils 5. Persistent fouling and not a yellow ones to Vrsaljko or Perisic. This ref is horrible, but that's on FIFA for putting a god damn japanese ref that in the last World Cup was pretty bad as well for an opening game. ** Before some tiresome posters on here begin, I'm not being biased at all. I think a draw would've been fair. But you guys want a red for Neymar and an allowed goal for Olic who jumps elbow first into Julio Cesar. Neymar checked over his shoulder to make sure the player was there then smacked him in the face. And the "penalty," from every angle, looks like a dive. There was nothing even remotely convincing about it. He clearly just drops to his arse hopefully. Of course you're showing bias. I'll leave the Neymar incident out, maybe I'll have to check it again, but I didn't see the deliberate smack across the face, I saw a bad elbow coming up for a header just like Paulinho, Olic and Corluka did in the game. I'm not going to go lenghts with dicussions. Penalty wasn't a penalty, but I can see why the referee would give it other than he was handed a bag with millions of gold coins to trade back in Japan. He gave it because he bottled it. It was big club syndrome at play again. Doesn't change the fact Croatia were robbed of at least a point.

It was a wrong decision but I can see why the ref gave it. From his position and angle it looks like first Fred got his left hand pulled and then he saw Lovren's hand on Fred's shoulder. Add to those the perfect dive from Fred and it does look like a pen from his position. Impossible to tell from his angle whether Fred really got pulled or threw himself to the ground. Nothing corrupt, just the way football sadly works now. Thank you. It's nothing more than an appaling decision. But Fred sold it so I can see how the ref was conned. To think the ref just pointed to the penalty spot for no reason is ridiculous. I still don't agree with saying three decisions went Brazil's way. There really was only one game changer and it was the penalty. A draw would've been fair, but if Neymar deserved a red for that then I'm sorry to disappoint but you won't see any reds like that in football. He gets a yellow because he shouldn't have his arm up there, but peoples bias and hate towards him thinks he deliberately elbows him in the face in the first half of the World Cup in pure rage. It's ridiculous. You had a better angle to see it than the ref. The ref is exactly in the position to see the arm on the shoulder and Fred throwing himself. I'm happy with three points, I think by the end of the game it owuld've come anyways. Also for all of you guys saying the ref is corrupt, how was Croatia able to escape this game with 11 men on the field? 21 fouls against Brazils 5. Persistent fouling and not a yellow ones to Vrsaljko or Perisic. This ref is horrible, but that's on FIFA for putting a god damn japanese ref that in the last World Cup was pretty bad as well for an opening game. ** Before some tiresome posters on here begin, I'm not being biased at all. I think a draw would've been fair. But you guys want a red for Neymar and an allowed goal for Olic who jumps elbow first into Julio Cesar. Neymar checked over his shoulder to make sure the player was there then smacked him in the face. And the "penalty," from every angle, looks like a dive. There was nothing even remotely convincing about it. He clearly just drops to his arse hopefully. Of course you're showing bias.

That was mainly the failing of the Croatian defence. Brazil like to press high which vacates a lot of space in the midfield. Which means playing Modric and Rakitic in there was a great idea as they should have had a lot of space to work with. Unfortunately the defence, when the did manage to win the ball, weren't finding them often enough or fast enough. It was a good game plan, just not quite executed properly.

With this result I think the suspicion is more because it's Brazil - the golden boys, host nation, money-making brand for FIFA. If it had been England winning that way over Croatia it would have been attributed mainly to shit refereeing.

It was a 50/50 ball there to be won. Contact with the goalie was minimal, not that it matters, since football is a contact sport. He was going for the ball and he won the ball. If it had been two outfield players challenging for a header that wouldn't have been given as a foul. It was a fair challenge. Regardless, in isolation it's not a big deal. Neither is the failure to send of Neymar for blatantly, and deliberately, striking another player in the face. There was no justification for the penalty. It just wasn't a foul. At all. Under any circumstance. There's nowhere in the rule book that says you're not allowed to touch an opponent. However, we didn't watch any of these in isolation. Three key decisions went Brazil's way and it cost Croatia the match.

Topical.

Entertaining match that the ref influenced way more than he should have. Another ref could have easily sent Neymar off, wouldn't have given the penalty, and/or wouldn't have blown for the 'foul' on Cesar near the end there. Seems Brazil got the benefit of the doubt on every decision. If I were Croatian I'd be pissed. Better team still won, but the nature of it was a bit shit.

To cushion the blow of them winning yet another world cup, Brazil are reminding us that they're shit at everything else that isn't football.