World Cup groups placings

[Airborn Pie]

Is this the first time that in the event of a tie, group places are to be decided on a team's disciplinary record?

[Bohinen]

It is true, and all England had to do was hang on to their six goal advantage to be ahead on actual GD. Not only did they fail to do that but they pretty much gave up trying to restore it. Call me over critical but I think Southgate was pissed off about it too.

[Elite_Pie]

It's weird to think that if the game against Belgium is level it could go down to who gets the least yellow cards as to who tops the group. The tables at the moment suggest it might be better to finish second, and Belgium have one more yellow than us as it stands.

[Airborn Pie]

It's weird to think that if the game against Belgium is level it could go down to who gets the least yellow cards as to who tops the group. The tables at the moment suggest it might be better to finish second, and Belgium have one more yellow than us as it stands.

Allardyce just said the same.

[Bohinen]

It's weird to think that if the game against Belgium is level it could go down to who gets the least yellow cards as to who tops the group. The tables at the moment suggest it might be better to finish second, and Belgium have one more yellow than us as it stands.

So if we are drawing in the last minute of injury time, one of our players has to do a Noble? I nominate Sterling for the job.

[Bohinen]

Scrub that, if Columbia are top of that group, we've got no chance. They are the new Brazil.

[upthemaggies]

With Poland being so shockingly poor you'd have to expect Japan to top that group. Colombia should beat Senegal and finish 2nd.

Colombia are a far better side than Japan and would have beaten them had they not gone down to 10 men in the first 5 mins, which potentially makes England v Belgium a very curious game indeed. There could be a very clear advantage for the losers of that match. Pundits will spout the usual rubbish about "You always want to play to win and top the group", but in this case you really don't if Japan finish top.

[legs77]

Problem with that is you probably get a harder quarter final if you go through against a Japan.

IMO you have to play to win every game we aren’t likely to win it but if we beat Belgium why can’t we beat Columbia ??

Confidence is everything we don’t want to be messing around with selection either keep it as close to the best eleven as possible.

[sidders]

Columbia, Croatia and Russia are the new must to avoids.

[the_anticlough]

A big advantage is that Group G is the last to finish, so you the whole of the draw you'll fit into. For now, there are so many permutations, the only thing for certain is that the top half of the draw looks much harder than the bottom. I just hope England are savvy tournament players for once, like the Italians of old, and do what it takes to maximise your chances. It's been hopeless and getting worse in the last few tournaments - like Hodgson picking all reserves to 'give everyone a game' and putting us in the wrong half of the draw as a result.

Question: which would be better a) Japan followed by winners of Germany/Brazil or b) Columbia followed by Mexico?
I'd go b), but you'll see how everything fits 5pm on Thursday