France

I thought they were a good side. They beat Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium and Croatia in the knock out rounds too, so a tough route to win it. I think them and Belgium were the pick of the teams at a very enjoyable world cup. England did well but we're a long way behind those two.

 

The last time France won it, it was fixed. Their run fixed, and Ronaldo and the team had been gotten at before the game....

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....mits-fixing-1998-world-cup-draw-increase/amp/

Can’t stand the cheating gets. It really does leave a bad taste in the mouth that they have now won it twice.... and we never will..

 

Wasn't a fix at all. France shut down all this foaming at the mouth to samba football BS, that's still around today. Original Ronaldo was a quality player, but France won far too comfortably to think one guy playing would have made such a massive difference. Apart from Mbappe for Guivarc'h I don't think anyone else who won it today, would have got in the starting 11 of twenty years ago.

 

Brazil were awesome until the final. The entire team were below par in the final. There had been shenanigans at the team hotel, food poisoning and Ronaldo had a seizure before the game.... platini actually admitted the fixing of the run! wonder what the result would have been if the same would have happened to France today, and mbapp had a seizure..,

 

I'll leave the counter argument to the French causing Ronaldo to have a seizure to anyone who believes this scenario has even a grain of plausibility.

There were 8 seeded teams for France 98, one for each of the 8 groups in the first round. Brazil were one of these seeded teams being the holders, France were another as hosts. The winners of groups A, D, E and H went into one half of the knockout stages, the winners of groups B,C, F and G went into the other half.

Brazil were in group A. If they won the group, they couldn't meet the winner of any of the groups B,C,F and G until the final. France were in Group C and won it, so they were in a different half of the knock out stages to Brazil and couldn't meet them until the final, but so were Italy, Germany and Romania, the winners of Groups B, F and G; and Norway, Paraguay, Mexico and Croatia the runners up in groups A,D,E and H. If you make it through the group stages you cannot meet half of the teams that have done the same until the final because that's how the system works.

However, if France had finished runners up in their group and Brazil had won theirs, or vice-versa, they would have met in the quarter finals.

Platini is an arsehole and I don't know why he felt the need to say what he did, but you can't fix a world cup draw. The hosts cannot be drawn in the same group as the holders, it's the rules. After that, when they meet one another depends on how they perform. You can't even convince people you can fix the draw unless the people you're trying to convince don't understand how the draw works.

 

So he lied to make himself look worse?

I was hoping for the counter argument to the seizure part...

 

I thought France would win it before it started. Felt they'd the best XI on paper. But I doubted it when it kicked off and backed Germany. I reckoned France would get done at some stage, a bit like Spain actually did.

I'm terrible at betting.

I assumed we'd get out of the group but expected little else. Was beautiful to see us actually look the part. Shame about the Croatian game, we had enough chances.

With a handful of really good kids on the way up (Sessegnon for Young straight off the bat) I hope to see us competing in the latter stages of the Euros in 2020.

Back to the final... France were very lucky in that first half today. Rub of the green throughout.

They were much the better side second half though. But the first half allowed them that I feel.

I don't believe there was a stand-out side this time, one we'll remember in years to come. But I reckon the tournament as a whole will be remembered as a very good one.

 

Celebrating through the night - 2 people reported killed so far.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...h-revellers-in-paris-amid-world-a3887796.html

 

I thought they were more impressive than the German’s who won the last one.

That Germany team were pretty dire to watch, it all gets forgotten about because of the 7-1 against Brazil where they went to pieces without Silva & Neymar but the rest of the tournament they were underwhelming. Very close to going out against Algeria in the last 16.

Preferred the French team over that side.

Would say France 98, Brazil 02 & Spain 10 were all comfortably better sides than the last 2 winners. Italy 06 weren’t a great side but had a great defence, keeper & had Pirlo in front of them & were tough to beat.

 

My theory on why Ronaldo was sick would be more down to a bad blood bag or bad storage of drugs.

Teams take their own chefs to tournaments. In one of if not the biggest game of their lives the Brazilians wouldn’t have been letting some local cook their meals.

 

France best team in the tournament in my book by far - they did not set the pulses racing, but they had a winning counter attack game plan and some exceptional players. It was clear what they were trying to do. They were lucky in the final, but then Croatia were lucky against Denmark and needed three lots of extra time just to make the final.

 

It’s been a great World Cup and France were the best team in it.

Comparing them to previous sides is a little pointless. The game is so much quicker and different in other ways. For example the 1970 Brazil side would likely be blowing out of their arses before half time, most of the keepers prior to 94 would struggle hugely and this French team was built to win this tournament against the opposition it faced - not previous ones.

The quality wasn’t too high - it wasn’t a great England side that made the semi final let’s be honest, and Croatia have huge flaws and made the final.

Yes previous world cups had more standout sides playing arguably a better style of play but I’ve really enjoyed this tournament.

Had we taken a couple of chances against Croatia when we dominated the first half we’d have been finalists, which is testament to both the great work of Southgate and his staff, and also of the fact there aren’t many great international sides at the moment

 

Apparently France have the second youngest squad in the tournament. As Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Germany rebuild who's going to stop them walking the 2020 Euros?

In case you haven't heard the next World Cup final will be held on December 18th.

 

The standard of football has dropped significantly over the last 10 years. Italy were poor in 2006 but that World Cup had players like Zidane, both Ronaldos, Gerrard, Lampard, Kaka, Henry, Rooney, Messi etc. Nowadays you've got Paul Pogba dabbing with the World Cup trophy, almost makes me sick