[bitontheslide]

Portugal and Italy are in the play offs too

[bitontheslide]

[Nicky91]

today no Bijlow as our goalkeeper


either Cillessen or a debut of Mark Flekken from SC Freiburg


Van Gaal has also last minute called up Norwich City goalkeeper Tim Krul

[Nicky91]

hopefully all of sweden, italy, portugal, netherlands not making the world cup


then i don't have to watch the world cup next year



make it the weakest world cup line up field EVER pls, that would be karma for money hungry Qatar

[LeatherTrumpet]

[Nicky91]

Netherlands possible line up

Flekken, Dumfries, De Ligt, Van Dijk, Blind, F.De Jong, Wijnaldum, Klaassen, Bergwijn, Depay, Danjuma

[Nicky91]

Louis van Gaal not from the side lines during tonight's crucial match, but more from VIP area of De Kuip

assistants Danny Blind, Henk Fraser will do the coaching from side lines, with instructions from Van Gaal via phones

[Zizu]

Why no Haaland ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Zizu]

My gawd .. that shot from T Hazard !!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Calderyon]

Finland v France 0-0 HT

[Calderyon]

Finland v France 0-2 FT

66' 0-1 Benzema (Mbappe)
76' 0-2 Mbappe

[LeatherTrumpet]

Well done Wales

Brilliant

[Nicky91]

what a dire match from Netherlands but Lucky Netherlands as usual


good on Bergwijn scoring a goal




@Zizu, Haaland had a small injury so he wasn't called up




feel sad for Finland but luck was on Ukraine their side in the match order draw then, and bad luck that the finnish were up against France



whoever draws North Macedonia must be careful i think, still a 3-1 win against Iceland no matter what form those are in is still impressive

[Nicky91]

Argentina has also qualified to the world cup

with a 0-0 draw against Brazil






------------------
over in africa

Tunesia, Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Congo-Kinshasa, Cameroon are in the play off for world cup ticket

[Nicky91]

so far the qualified teams

Qatar (Host nation)
Germany
Denmark
Brazil
France
Belgium
Croatia
Spain
Serbia
England
Switzerland
Netherlands
Argentina

yet to be included are

3 main spots for CONCACAF

2 remaining main spots for CONMEBOL

5 spots for Africa

4 main spots for Asia's AFC
----------------------

play off tickets:

3 from Europe (Path A, Path B, Path C)


Interconfederation play offs:

4th place winner from AFC, CONCACAF's third round 4th place

CONMEBOL round-robin 5th place, OFC second round winner


------------------
Oceania was postponed due to covid, and scheduled to be held in March 2022, all at once in one big tournament in Qatar

competing nations

New Zealand

Solomon Islands

New Caledonia

Tahiti

Fiji

Vanuatu

Papua New Guinea

American Samoa

Samoa

Tonga

Cook Islands

[Nicky91]

so far in CONCACAF

good chance of making world cup

Canada now in the lead of the group, followed by USA, and then Mexico in the third spot, currently in the play off spot is Panama


CONMEBOL

things looking also good for Ecuador, but more tight and interesting for the 4th main spot and 5th play off spot (Colombia currently 4th, Peru 5th but both with 17 points)


Asia's AFC

Group A

Iran in the lead with 16 points, followed by South Korea with 14 points, and UAE in third position with 6 points, closely followed by Lebanon with 5 points

Group B

Saudi Arabia in the lead with 16 points, followed by Japan with 12 points, closely in third place is Australia with 11 points,

[Calderyon]

Sadly France came to play and gave us a lesson on what current World Champions can do. Those two goals, especially Mbappe's were outstanding performances.

Finland played quite well until Benzema came to the field, the it all unraveled and France took full control of the game. France showed that they will be yet again huge favorites to win World Cup in Qatar.

But tbf, a team that only wins 1 of their 4 home matches can only blame themselves for disqualifying.

[bitontheslide]

it's a tough competition, there is no guarantee that the likes of Portugal or Italy will get to the finals. The play offs are basically cup finals where anything can happen

[Calderyon]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

it's a tough competition, there is no guarantee that the likes of Portugal or Italy will get to the finals. The play offs are basically cup finals where anything can happen

Anything can happen, but I think Portugal and Italy will both be alright and qualify.

Italy has a great team and Portugal has Ronaldo ,(+Fernades & Jota)

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

it's a tough competition, there is no guarantee that the likes of Portugal or Italy will get to the finals. The play offs are basically cup finals where anything can happen

umm no Bots


you'll get drawn with 3 different paths, each path having a semi final and final

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

umm no Bots


you'll get drawn with 3 different paths, each path having a semi final and final

its 2 games both knockout, so its like 2 cup finals

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

its 2 games both knockout, so its like 2 cup finals

Path A

Path B

Path C


but yes one match those 2 games



3 winners, 9 losers is kinda harsh

[Nicky91]

even harsher is Oceania, whom are not sure of their place in the world cup after their own qualifying league, afterwards interconfederation play off


poor Oceania, things really need to change for the better, to make things fairer for each of the qualifying leagues

[Nicky91]

oopsie

Croatia nearly sacked their manager Dalic, apparently according to a football tabloid Sportske novosti there

- Dalić almost lost his job, and it seems HNS already had the number of Robert Prosinečki. The day after the game against Spain, Dalić had a meeting with Modrić and Kovačić to see if he still has their support, and they answered "you do, but you have to change things"

- Before the game against Scotland on EURO2020, Dalić decided he will put Juranović as a RB, and not Vrsaljko. Because of that, Vrsaljko was pissed and started to yell on Dalić, on which Dalić responded "we called you even when you were tired and injured"

- Vrsaljko's bestie Lovren was also close to be kicked out of the NT after Russia in Moscow. He was complaining infront of the reporters why Livaja hasn't came in sooner, and at the airport he was complaining why they had to travel in the middle of the night. He was lucky Gvardiol got injured and Ćaleta Car had cramps.

Earlier he kicked out Rebić, Lovre Kalinić and Kramarić (but the later was brought back after several good games for Hoffenheim).

[LeatherTrumpet]

Youtube video