Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia (Morocco and Croatia qualify)

[Dancing Brave]

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Two African teams in the last 16, matching the high point of 2014. Well done to Morocco, best team in their group by a distance, tbh, and can certainly beat Germany or whichever team advances 2nd from that group. 

 

Lukaku looks exactly how I do when I play on weekend mornings.  Every ball just bouncing off him at ridiculous angles, no control over the ball or composure whatsoever. 

[Pata]

18 minutes ago, Bizza said:

That was a corner, no VAR check 

VAR still can’t check corners.

[ponsaelius]

1 hour ago, The Bonk said:

 

I honestly thought we'd be better than this, but I had a suspicion we'd be shite. I hope there's some changeover for 2026 and Herd's is able to recruit quality players who'd be eligible like Fikayo Tomori. 

 

Tomori is already cap tied isn't he as he has played in competitive games for England?

[The Prophet]

Seems like the time for the Belgian FA to sit down and reflect on what the fuck they were thinking giving Bobby M about a decade.

[La Parka]

Golden generation wasted on an incompetent manager. 

[Wullie]

1 hour ago, Interpolic said:

 

 

Means Sky Glass is as well. I was on a work call a few months back and it is apparently pretty much technologically impossible to get the delay down much further on WiFi, fuck knows why

 

The thing that confuses me is that all the betting companies have it down to a matter of seconds. 

[Guest]

Really like Doku. Think he'd give ASM a run for his spot. Gvardiol is going to be world class, too.

[Pokerprince2004]

19 minutes ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

Two African teams in the last 16, matching the high point of 2014. Well done to Morocco, best team in their group by a distance, tbh, and can certainly beat Germany or whichever team advances 2nd from that group. 

 

Lukaku looks exactly how I do when I play on weekend mornings.  Every ball just bouncing off him at ridiculous angles, no control over the ball or composure whatsoever. 

 

Really hoping Ghana can join them as well which would be fantastic for African football!

 

(Cameroon probably not got any chance unfortunately) 

[Wolfcastle]

Great attitude from Canada, playing hard just for the equaliser. Brought something to the tournament unlike Wales and Poland albeit they got through.

Belgium completely finished. Witsel one of the most over-rated players ever. Martinez has to start over somewhere.

Morocco are nothing special but could best whoever they get next if its not Spain. Croatia just about not quite bang average plus they play their way.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Wolfcastle

[Dokko]

Martinez is a foreign Steve Bruce. No idea how he gets his next job.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

27 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Tomori is already cap tied isn't he as he has played in competitive games for England?

My understanding was that he is eligible for Nigeria and Canada still through some loop hole of the rule because he has played under a certain number of matches and did so before the age requirement was in place. Nigeria is a country that actually sends William Troost-Ekong out to play in serious matches, so his name has popped up manny times recently along with the likes of Adarabioyo. 

8 minutes ago, Pokerprince2004 said:

 

Really hoping Ghana can join them as well which would be fantastic for African football!

 

(Cameroon probably not got any chance unfortunately) 

Ghana does not count. We are supporting a Suarez hattrick tomorrow. 

 

I believe people in this thread are over-selling how much of this failure is to do with Martinez. He was an immediate improvement over the prior manager and reached the World Cup semi-final. His biggest crime was holding on to the "Golden Generation" too long. The corpses of Toby, Vertonghen, Hazard, and Lukaku were not helpful in 2022. 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by Segun Oluwaniyi

[Jaqen]

The Belgium 'golden generation' tag shouldn't really apply anymore to be fair. Courtois and KDB aside they aren't all that much these days. 

[gazza ladra]

9 minutes ago, Pokerprince2004 said:

 

Really hoping Ghana can join them as well which would be fantastic for African football!

 

(Cameroon probably not got any chance unfortunately) 

Brazil could play a B team tomorrow. Wouldn’t count them out completely. 
 

Really rooting for Ghana. Hope they drub Uruguay.

[Paullow]

They've done very well for a relatively small country to produce so many good players at the same time, but yeah, most of the squad were there in 2014, and there doesn't seem too much coming through. I thought Trossard was like 22/23, but he's 28 in a few days as well.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#Belgium

 

Courtois, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Witsel, KDB, Lukaku, Hazard, Mertens all there back then and most of them in better shape at that time than they are now, plus many other solid players like Defour, Kompany, Fellaini, Dembele, Vermaelen etc.

 

When I was growing up they rarely qualified for anything - no Euro's from 1984 to 2016, bar one event they qualified automatically for as co-hosts (2002). They did fair a bit better in the World Cup without making any real impact (pre golden generation), but also failed to qualify in 2006 and 2010, so no major tournament at all for them from 2002 to 2014, so despite probably not living up to expectations these past 8 years, it was obviously a huge contrast to the 12 prior to that.

 

With a lot of there squad early to late 30's, I wonder if they naturally sift back down the rankings in the next few years?

 

 

 

[Deuce]

54 minutes ago, BoSelecta said:

Gvardiol has been absolutely superb. 20 year old from RB Liez, would love us to go after him

He’s lined up for a big money move after this season iirc

 

Essential signing for me on FIFA  

[Flip]

Was at the game. Gvardiol is the next big thing. Modric is still ridiculous. Lastly, I genuinely feel for Lukaku. Hurt my gut to see him miss those sitters. 

[Paullow]

SSN reporting Martinez has now stepped down. No surprise really.

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

Belgium have clearly underperformed but Wilmots should shoulder more blame than Martínez. Going out to Wales in Euro 2016 was a catastrophe.

[The Butcher]

 

[Jaqen]

Sign Gvardiol and that's CB covered for the next 10 years. 

[Marko NUFC]

3 hours ago, Jaqen said:

Sign Gvardiol and that's CB covered for the next 10 years. 

Gvardiol is only 20 and the guy has been playing for years at top level at Dinamo Zagreb and RB Leipzig. Insane. Kind of blessed to have this type of defender in Croatian team, although we lack proper number 9

[ponsaelius]

Croatia are interesting because after the last Euros I kind of felt they'd be washed here. Clearly weaker at CF without Mandzukic and no more Rakitic. 

 

However the current version of Kovacic is not really a downgrade from Rakitic and they look much stronger at the back with Gvardiol in place of Vida and Sosa in place of Strinic. 

 

They look like with a bit of luck they could put a similar run together as last time.

[gbandit]

Just read some of Martinez’s post-match comments. He’s such a politician man, sounds like he’s trying to save face and go on about how successful he’s been when in reality he’s been largely complete shit when it matters 

[Kid Icarus]

He's absolutely shit, he proper winds me up.