I did play wild card before indeed.

what does the bench boost say?

bench boost means all your players score so no substitutions required

Mousa Dembélé is playing for Belgium instead of Meunier, the rest is the same as previous match.

Belgian analysts were calling the French coach a terrible coward ;) they are not really impressed by the French team this tournament.


1986 was the last time that Belgium played the WC semi finals in Mexico. Back then it was Argentina with Maradonna, so they already knew they would loose from the start. Now everything is different and they make a very good chance.

i have no idea who will win but i expect it to be a FANTASTIC game

and i think you have the better tactician in charge yeah

ooooooooh this is exciting ha ha ha ha

first 20’ so far and belgium ON FIRE

tense yet tentative so far

France not able to stop Hazard atm

awesome open game ah the chances!

fellaini don’t lose your mind dude

—

sure looks now like france can defend and hold the ball though this is far from over

if you were thierry henry would you spy for france/ sabotage belgium?

uau

—

oh and again like an imbecile i don’t captain varane

griezmann captain scored me a modest 5x2

Gonna be chuckling about this one for a while I reckon. Classic.

dont shit on your former manager lol

well maybe you have cause...

france’s talent pool though holy shit

—

and yes they CAN defend and play like a team

boring second half

Trust me I've nothing but happiness for that shitehouse being shown up. No plan b, stupid decisions with subs, never practices set pieces which is why they concede from them, on and on I could go

it was less fun yes as france shut it down after they scored

but still massive quality on both sides


damn! ok i believe you

yes nobody on the goalpost in that defense

so this is the world cup that might get me watching the prem in earnest...

when do you guys begin the season? :D

They were saying before that 40 players of the 92 in the semi finals play in the premier league. Crazy stat there. It starts in a months time. I'm actually dreading it. I've been in this football world where money isn't the focal point every conversation, the petty team rivalries isn't there. It's just...better:(

Great game, shared opportunities, good saves on both parts.
All I think about now is that defeat two years ago against Portugal; I hope it doesn't happen again (or the defeat against Italy, but I wasn't that sad then, as the Italian side truly had been fantastic all the way - 2006).
Fortunately for Belgium, Giroud squandered a lot of opportunities. Yet he was as involved as the rest of the team.

Whatever happens with England, this has been the best WC I can remember.

here a reasonable post-mortem

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-a8441281.html

though i’ll say the writer seems to ignore that the first half was extremely lively

two words




Anti
Football


:((

Hazard and Courtois have been saying that. Do you really agree with them?

Fuck that fantasy football shit.

I'm on #4 now. Good start, terrible finish.

im sorry dude. my condolences. i was sad to see belgium go.


gerbilfeet (i think that’s bertrand?) bolted forward yesterday.

i think i should be 2nd not 1st.... i dont see points deducted for additional trades anywhere, so i suspect they will come to bite me at the end

jeremy irons doing a promo for the game quoting shakespeare lol

if i was english i’d get chills though

hooooleeee shiiiiiit that was fast

—

lovren gonna get me nega-points at this rate

—

croatia has taken too long to adjust and they will go to halftime still one goal down... which should let england time to respond

time to diffuse the tension by asking— vida and silent bob strike back?

Thes Fox sports announcers have such a hard on for england. pathetic.


why do these athletes fall and grab their knee when someone kicks their ankle? what bullshit.

Croat attack attack attack, it pays off....

this is reminding me a lot of england-colombia but croatia is better than colombia

it’s a rupert murdoch property...

ufff... feel bad for my english friends

sorry dudes

Croatia France. This should be exciting!

Croatia showed so much when, tbh, after that 1st England goal went in, I thought we were gonna storm it. But Croatia kept working away at our right side and finally edged it.

But England have been great. Pickford, Stones, Maguire, Trippier have been a revelation and I've real belief in what Southgate's doing there. Disappointed with tonight's result but massive respect to the team.

a first for croatia— huge for them!

i’ll say happy to see their team go through. they play nice football. only a little frustrated with their goalscorers but mandzukic finally showed up

and in fantasyland, ruritania bolts far ahead in the league with captain *gasp* trippier.

amazing call, that one. props.

oh hey i somehow did not see you writing this.

i was thinking england 3-0 by the game’s end but croatia started to pick up around 30-35’

i expected southgate to shut it down the way france did against belgium come the 2nd half, but nope. not sure why he didn’t. instead he stayed the same and croatia took over.

great batch of young players for sure but i am not sure southgate was so great in his tactical choices. why not park the bus and beat them with counters? you had the speed, at least early on... was there something missing for that?

anyway glad to see little croatia make the final— the uruguay of europe! ha ha ha— same population, but wow. even greater now.

obviously the odds are heavily in france’s favor, and yet... i believe croatia could go all the way. it would be insane of course but it all comes down to talent and tactics... and a bit of luck... and leaving everything on the pitch—which croatia did today.

It's a very young team and Southgate is a relatively inexperienced manager. They should improve together. One criticism is that he took too long making changes during a game, which is probably true, but given the low expectations going into the tournament, we can't be too critical.

Croatia grew during the game and were the better team over the 120. England were never geared for parking the bus. It wouldn't work with the players available and would run counter to Southgate's general approach. I'm happy with that. We just need to become more clinical in front of goal and tighten up in midfield - hopefully a creative playmaker will emerge sooner rather than later. That's the one player we really miss. As it is we rely a bit too heavily on set-pieces.

I back France in the final but Croatia won't make it easy for them.

yeah. as a neutral party with no emotional involvement i saw england throw away a huuuuge advantage. not just the early goal but the croatian desperation that followed and could have been exploited but wasn’t.

it’s understandable that southgate wanted more of the same i suppose but... it wasn’t.

it took croatia about 1/2 hour to start getting their shit together. people say the second half they came better—but in my eyes they got their shape earlier, just that, being a passing team, took a while to start getting results.

i thought southgate would respond at halftime (said so this much here) but nope... same plan.

ive been looking at the british press and tv for explanations for the defeat and i hear a lot of praise and pride but nobody except cox says what i think—which is you guys threw away the lead. not trying to salt the wound, just looking at it clinically.

a creative midfielder would be great, but speed is a feature of young teams. get ready for the euro!

o wtf. FATAL ERROR

belgian and english players will still count for fantasquad!!!

i got rid of them too soon.... kept a swede instead of ditching him.... bwaaaaaaaaaaaaah