O/t - them!

[bobafett]

Calm yer bones James. First proper good team they come up against they'll get found out. They are highly suspect at the back and their central midfield is average at best.

[stokearab]

England are totally haunted this year - I've just looked up Thursday's last round schedule and Colombia's group complete their games BEFORE England's later on that evening. So therefore they may choose to lose against Belgium if they already know it will mean dodging Colombia in the next round. You honestly couldn't make it up.

Did it not use to be that all the last group games kicked off at the same time?
Depending where Columbia finish this could result in Belgium and England trying to lose against each other ffs

[bobafett]

one of the diving, cheating, injury feigning countries.

You mean diving little sh1ts like Ashley Young, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling....yeah??

[Whitfieldarab]

You mean diving little sh1ts like Ashley Young, Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling....yeah??

No I mean the Spains, Portugals, Brazils etc who fall down like they've been shot, roll around and then sometimes hold the opposite foot, leg, ankle that supposedly was injured then 10 seconds later are sprinting like Usain up the wing.

England players are culpable too but some of these teams are in a league of their own.

[shedboy71]

I see through media coverage England have won the damn thing. I didnt realise it was the final - that went quicker than any tornament i know but good to see rest of teams playing friendlies to pass the time.

[TerryTheTerror]

It's always one extreme or the other with the coverage of them at a World Cup. Radio 5's phone in the morning was: how do you feel about England, woo hoo or hmmm. No option for I hate them. 😛

[Skolcorner]

It's always one extreme or the other with the coverage of them at a World Cup. Radio 5's phone in the morning was: how do you feel about England, woo hoo or hmmm. No option for I hate them. 😛

Wish we had a Scotland side that could be in their position.
You've got to be in it to win it! So let them dream!
How do you feel about Scotland not being in it?
Thank goodness (spare the embarrassment!) or you know what, with so many teams misfiring, we could've won this!

[JamesMcClean]

The round of 16 set up is actually a bit of a joke. It's surely not right that in a cup tournament, it's already pre determined who you're likely to get before a ball is kicked. Instead why don't they have a further draw immediately after the groups for the round of 16. Group winners earn a seeding, runners up non seeded. Therefore the incentive is there to win the group and avoid 'match fixing' so as to deliberately dodge a certain team in the next round.

[cybershed]

Calm yer bones James. First proper good team they come up against they'll get found out. They are highly suspect at the back and their central midfield is average at best.

This is where I am. They have got enough about them in an attacking sense to pose a goal threat to any of the remaining teams, but don't think they have a good defence. Their midfield is not awful, but not great either.

We'll be in a better position to assess their threat after the Belgium game. But I'm pretty sure they will be found out when they come up against one of the more decent sides.

[cybershed]

The round of 16 set up is actually a bit of a joke. It's surely not right that in a cup tournament, it's already pre determined who you're likely to get before a ball is kicked. Instead why don't they have a further draw immediately after the groups for the round of 16. Group winners earn a seeding, runners up non seeded. Therefore the incentive is there to win the group and avoid 'match fixing' so as to deliberately dodge a certain team in the next round.

Yeah. Absolutely. And a televised draw could be quite exciting.