I'm not surprised by the 1-0 result on aggregate. But I am totally surprised it's in Sweden's favor. Italy used to be the team that could score a breakaway goal and defend their narrow lead. And it's only the third time ever that Italy won't be represented in the World Cup.
In other news, Australia just beat Honduras to secure their qualification. The last qualifier will be between Peru and New Zealand tonight, European time. I kinda hope New Zealand wins because if they qualify, they will be seeded in the bottom layer and Denmark will be in the second seeding layer instead of the third. Peru on the other hand will be seeded in the second layer and push us down into the third.
Overall we lost because of an own goal, nevertheless a team that doesn't manage to score at least one goal against Sweden in 180' doesn't deserve to get to the WC (even if there will be much poorer teams than ours, still). Many things could have been done better: there is no point in aiming at high crosses against tall players (in fact our main chances from the sides came from low crosses), and for the same reason a player like Insigne would have been much more useful on the pitch. No wonder that the best chances came from the small Florenzi...
I really hope that this will be a trigger for a great change in Italian football, but I am afraid that this will be the n-th lost opportunity (already South Africa and Brazil WC should have started it). There is no sign of resignation from the president Tavecchio, someone who shouldn't have been elected in the first place, since during a public speech he showed all his openness by mentioning stranger players eating bananas (at least he meant the fruit). What kind of change can we expect from such management, and from the people who elected him nevertheless?
I'll create a new thread closer to the tournament, ofc, but for now, to me, Germany looks like the team that should win, with Argentina, France, Brazil, Spain and Portugal as runners up.
Let's gather the party before venturing into the new prediction thread.
In addition to the groups posted by Montresor_SP (and 48 matches there), here's the rest of the schedule:
Match Day Date KO Team/Group 49 Sat 30-Jun 1900 1A v 2B 50 Sat 30-Jun 1500 1C v 2D 51 Sun 1-Jul 1500 1B v 2A 52 Sun 1-Jul 1900 1D v 2C 53 Mon 2-Jul 1500 1E v 2F 54 Mon 2-Jul 1900 1G v 2H 55 Tue 3-Jul 1500 1F v 2E 56 Tue 3-Jul 1900 1H v 2G 56 Tue 3-Jul 1900 1H v 2G
QUARTER FINALS
57 Fri 6-Jul 1500 W49 v W50 58 Fri 6-Jul 1900 W53 v W54 59 Sat 7-Jul 1900 W51 v W52 60 Sat 7-Jul 1500 W55 v W56
SEMI FINALS
61 Tue 10-Jul 1900 W57 v W58 62 Wed 11-Jul 1900 W59 v W60
Comments
Little Sweden kicks Italian butt and takes names. This is the fall of Rome all over again! xD
In other news, Australia just beat Honduras to secure their qualification. The last qualifier will be between Peru and New Zealand tonight, European time. I kinda hope New Zealand wins because if they qualify, they will be seeded in the bottom layer and Denmark will be in the second seeding layer instead of the third. Peru on the other hand will be seeded in the second layer and push us down into the third.
Many things could have been done better: there is no point in aiming at high crosses against tall players (in fact our main chances from the sides came from low crosses), and for the same reason a player like Insigne would have been much more useful on the pitch. No wonder that the best chances came from the small Florenzi...
I really hope that this will be a trigger for a great change in Italian football, but I am afraid that this will be the n-th lost opportunity (already South Africa and Brazil WC should have started it). There is no sign of resignation from the president Tavecchio, someone who shouldn't have been elected in the first place, since during a public speech he showed all his openness by mentioning stranger players eating bananas (at least he meant the fruit).
What kind of change can we expect from such management, and from the people who elected him nevertheless?
(They are giving the bench to the Italian coach to say sorry)
Too bad, Italy. Congrats Sweden!
Africa:
Egypt
Morocco
Nigeria
Senegal
Tunisia
Asia:
Australia
Iran
Japan
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Europe:
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Iceland
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia
Sweden
Switzerland
North and Central America and the Caribbean:
Costa Rica
Mexico
Panama
South America:
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Peru
Uruguay
Panama won't be the winner!
A
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Uruguay
B
Portugal
Spain
Morocco
Iran
C
France
Australia
Peru
Denmark
D
Argentina
Iceland
Croatia
Nigeria
E
Brazil
Switzerland
Costa Rica
Serbia
F
Germany
Mexico
Sweden
Republic of Korea
G
Belgium
Panama
Tunisia
England
H
Poland
Senegal
Colombia
Japan
Let's gather the party before venturing into the new prediction thread.
In addition to the groups posted by Montresor_SP (and 48 matches there), here's the rest of the schedule:
Match Day Date KO Team/Group
49 Sat 30-Jun 1900 1A v 2B
50 Sat 30-Jun 1500 1C v 2D
51 Sun 1-Jul 1500 1B v 2A
52 Sun 1-Jul 1900 1D v 2C
53 Mon 2-Jul 1500 1E v 2F
54 Mon 2-Jul 1900 1G v 2H
55 Tue 3-Jul 1500 1F v 2E
56 Tue 3-Jul 1900 1H v 2G
56 Tue 3-Jul 1900 1H v 2G
QUARTER FINALS
57 Fri 6-Jul 1500 W49 v W50
58 Fri 6-Jul 1900 W53 v W54
59 Sat 7-Jul 1900 W51 v W52
60 Sat 7-Jul 1500 W55 v W56
SEMI FINALS
61 Tue 10-Jul 1900 W57 v W58
62 Wed 11-Jul 1900 W59 v W60
THIRD PLACE PLAY-OFF
63 Sat 14-Jul 1500 L61 v L62
FINAL
64 Sun 15-Jul 1600 W61 v W62