World Cup 2018 | 28th June | England vs Belgium Match Thread, KO 19:00 (BST)

[kaz7]

What a twatty thing to say,that is not keeping the competition honest,this should have been a good game but now it will be crap,the fans haven't spent all their money to be there to get that attitude

 

[Groke]

Colombia is the significantly harder game, they'll cause havoc on our left. Should be going all out to win this.

 

[MCFC1993]

That’s what Martinez wants though. If we smash them, they won’t be arsed. Belgium would be in the semis and we’d be on the plane home after the quarters. They’re not stupid, they want the best chance of winning the tournament. We should want that too. This game could be a contest of who can score the most own goals without making it obvious that it’s intentional ;)

Yeah I guess there's that. Purposely pissing them off would be funny.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Honestly think they’ve kept Boyata in the starting line up because his 3 own goals won’t raise suspicion.

 

[lancs blue]

They could stop all this farcical nonsense and just have a more open draw for the first ko round - just seed the group winners.

 

[Metalartin]

Thoroughly disagree with anyone saying the "smart" thing would be to avoid teams later on in the competition, if you throw a game then everyone will know(especially after these comments and the team selection) that YOU THREW A GAME to get an easier path to the semis and when the semis do arrive you'll be smashed to bits because... karma and also no team can respect a team which does that. So on top of getting smashed out at the semis you wont get much credit for how far you progressed either, it will be a hollow achievement... would you rather be remembered as the bottlers that squirmed their way through avoiding the big boys or the team that took on everyone and went out to the eventual winners of the tournament?

England aren't experienced enough to be planning routes(neither are Belgium) the most important thing is building a fearless winning mentality especially in a young team... when you start avoiding teams, there comes the danger of things falling apart, doubts creep in, form drops, the goals dry up and mistakes start happening at the back.

 

[BlueHammer85]

He cant win though he plays his first 11 and someone gets injured he gets stick. He has to balance rest, injuries and squad morale as they are living together for a month. Besides finishing second isnt a disadvage if we want to go further we need to be good enough to beat Columbia.

Exactly. He’s the manager , he picks who he wants.

 

[blueparrot]

What a twatty thing to say,that is not keeping the competition honest,this should have been a good game but now it will be crap,the fans haven't spent all their money to be there to get that attitude

Fair enough but think we'll have the same attitude just not as openly.

 

[Uptop]

All I hope from tonight is that Rashford is terrible so they can stop making out he deserves to start ahead of Sterling.

 

[kaz7]

Fair enough but think we'll have the same attitude just not as openly.

Both managers are chicken then wanting the easiest route through,throwing games is out of order in my book