5 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

Thought some of the var calls in this tournament have been dodgy, the Iran one wasn’t clear cut either and we don’t get to see much replays.

I watched the highlights of that incident and the offside offence to me appeared to be earlier in the passage of play than when they froze the frame for TV audiences which certainly didn't look offside at that point.

Yes, the sensor in the ball is so sensitive that even hitting a mosquito would change the ball's direction

It's an early start of 4am for the Australia game for me tomorrow. I doubt I'll be waking up that early on a cold winter morning. Hopefully I wake up to an Aussie win.

this wc is rigged afainst underdogs istg

Croatia Portugal match had the best ending to a match yet. Bad behaviour from Croatia fans though

1 hour ago, uhsting said:

this wc is rigged afainst underdogs istg

The 2002 World Cup would say that was the only way around...

eh, if a) a Portugal vs Argentina final happens, and b) their route to the final is as dogged by controversial calls as last night's game was, yeah, rigged

I am begging for one of them to get knocked out somehow. By all rights Spain should beat Portugal handily in the next round but we'll see.

1 hour ago, Iz様 🌟 said:

eh, if a) a Portugal vs Argentina final happens, and b) their route to the final is as dogged by controversial calls as last night's game was, yeah, rigged

I am begging for one of them to get knocked out somehow. By all rights Spain should beat Portugal handily in the next round but we'll see.

That decision for Croatia denied what would have been one of the classic finishes to an World Cup match.

Egypt one goal up already

3 hours ago, Mack. said:

I did say earlier in the tournament when he scored he looked a good player!

1 minute ago, Henessy Lake said:

Egypt one goal up already

Good, I don't like the way Australia deliberately went out to get a 0-0 draw in their last group match.

3 hours ago, Iz様 🌟 said:

eh, if a) a Portugal vs Argentina final happens, and b) their route to the final is as dogged by controversial calls as last night's game was, yeah, rigged

I am begging for one of them to get knocked out somehow. By all rights Spain should beat Portugal handily in the next round but we'll see.

I’d say the Portugal manager will more likely cause their exit lol!

Wc

1 hour ago, Mack. said:

That decision for Croatia denied what would have been one of the classic finishes to an World Cup match.

Indeed who wants to hear about a snickometer rather than a 103min equaliser

Willing Egypt to win this one!

4 minutes ago, TheSnake said:

Good, I don't like the way Australia deliberately went out to get a 0-0 draw in their last group match.

Wait what happened? 👀

3 hours ago, Iz様 🌟 said:

eh, if a) a Portugal vs Argentina final happens, and b) their route to the final is as dogged by controversial calls as last night's game was, yeah, rigged

I am begging for one of them to get knocked out somehow. By all rights Spain should beat Portugal handily in the next round but we'll see.

Honestly, I don't think Portugal can get past Spain. In my opinion, they're an overrated team whose reputation is based more on the market value of their players than on what they actually show on the pitch.

As for refereeing, I think that in every 50-50 situation, officials tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the bigger teams with bigger names like Ronaldo or Messi. Argentina will almost certainly make the final because they have a relatively straightforward path. Portugal, based on everything they've shown so far, shouldn't.

Croatia is a perfect example of how some teams get underestimated. They reached the World Cup final in 2018 and finished third in 2022, yet they were barely mentioned among the top five favorites. Even in the betting odds Mack has been posting here, I personally never saw Croatia anywhere near the top. That's what I call being underrated.

As for this controversial decision, I highly doubt the goal would have been disallowed if the decision had gone against Portugal or Argentina. The referee didn't go to the VAR monitor to check whether the had croatian guy touched the ball with his head. He went to determine whether the Portuguese player had deliberately played the ball, and it was ruled that he hadn't. That's why only the slight contact with the player's hair was taken into account, resulting in an offside decision. If that's really the standard we're going to apply consistently, then half the penalties and fouls that have been given should also be overturned.

Edited Friday at 18:342 days by nine¾

8 minutes ago, nine¾ said:

Honestly, I don't think Portugal can get past Spain. In my opinion, they're an overrated team whose reputation is based more on the market value of their players than on what they actually show on the pitch.

Agreed. People say every time that they're contenders, same as the Dutch, but really they're not. England has more chance than them imo.

Edited Friday at 18:372 days by CRAZY CHRIS

6 minutes ago, CRAZY CHRIS said:

Agreed. People say every time that they're contenders, same as the Dutch, but really they're not. England has more chance than them imo.

Portugal’s record in the modern era at the World Cup is a 4th place finish in 2006, which is also their second-best result ever if you include the 3rd place from 1966. Meanwhile, Croatia is the only team besides France that finished in the top 3 in both 2018 and 2022. Yet Croatia is still often not regarded as highly as Portugal, even though Portugal is seen as a contender for winning the tournament despite not achieving anything significant at World Cups in recent times.

Putting medals aside, they’ve also been playing poorly!

Edited Friday at 18:482 days by nine¾

Five minutes of added time in this first half.

Australia: Beach, Circati, Souttar, Herrington, Bos, O’Neill, Irvine, Behich, Volpato, Metcalfe, Irankunda.

Subs: Ryan, Izzo, Degenek, Geria, Toure, Hrustic, Mabil, Devlin, Trewin, Burgess, Velupillay, Okon-Engstler, Yengi.

Egypt: Shobeir, Hany, Rabia, Ibrahim, Hafez, Fathy, Attia, Ashour, Salah, Ziko, Marmoush.

Subs: El Shenawy, Soliman, Mohamed Alaa, Abdelmaguid, Trezeguet, Abdelkarim, Hassan, Emad, Adel, Saber, Tarek Alaa, Zizo.