Knockout Stages - Quarter Final

[FoxesWalk]

6 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

I know some paranoid Ingerlunder is going to use this to claim Messi is being given a free ride and that the world is against England but this is a poor metric to do any analysis on in isolation. 

 

I do think it's interesting but it's just as much about footballing styles and the types of fouls committed as the way those teams' games have been ref'd. 

 

Teams like Spain and Argentina commit hundreds of little low impact fouls all of the time, just little niggly, shithouse stuff that doesn't really warrant a card. They'll probably also spread it out more around the team, they'll all be at it. 

 

A team could be quite dirty overall but actually score quite a high number of fouls per card just by weight. 

 

Where as a clean team could actually commit very few overall fouls and have few overall cards but maybe the small number of fouls they do commit were physical tackles or deliberately pulling a player back by the shirt to stop a counter? 

 

I don't have the stats, I'm just speaking anecdotally but England don't tend to mess around with a lot of little fouls and fluff, if you're going to foul someone it's going to be a "proper" foul not hundreds of little trips and cynical incidents. 

 

There is something in that, but even so, just from pure accumulation of fouls Argentina should be getting more yellows than they have. Similar story for Paraguay etc. 

[Finnegan]

29 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

There is something in that, but even so, just from pure accumulation of fouls Argentina should be getting more yellows than they have. Similar story for Paraguay etc. 

 

Paraguay have the third highest yellows in the world cup. 

 

[reynard]

6 hours ago, Sampson said:

Argentina really haven't convinced me against Cape Verde or Egypt. I'm really not convinced that they'll beat Switzerland.

Nor me. They look tired and past it to me.  England will get to the final without any bother in my opinion. The other sides in the same half are very average. I also think England will win the whole thing. Not because they are an especially great team but because they are the least worst of all the teams remaining. I've watched finals since the early 70s and this is one of the worst I've seen in terms of quality. England will not have a better chance to become world champions.

[1972 Fox]

11 hours ago, FoxTimmy2 said:

Romero always prides himself on fair play.

[Jaspa]

If you were to analyse every single foul committed by England, are there many cards if any which were unjust? People bolting more onto it than it needs to be. The last round of fixtures have really stirred up the conspiracy theory/fixed side of things.

 

It's the sharp edge of the tournament now, a whole day without a fixture signals in were nearing the end. World Cup Final in 11 days. Seeing Norway have a "sickness bug" going around, not believing anything out there like that now . Be bonkers if England make the Final, country will be buzzing.

[filbertway]

17 hours ago, Nalis said:

The difficulty in opposition so far is quite similar between the four favourites, argument for England or Spain having marginally the most difficult and Argentina with the most straightforward

 

I see if slightly different, order of difficulty for me would be (toughest at top)

 

France v Morrocco

England v Norway

Argentina v Switzerland

Spain v Belgium

[Nalis]

39 minutes ago, filbertway said:

 

I see if slightly different, order of difficulty for me would be (toughest at top)

 

France v Morrocco

England v Norway

Argentina v Switzerland

Spain v Belgium

Sorry I meant difficulty to date not including the quarters. Your order of difficulty above is probably right.

[filbertway]

2 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Sorry I meant difficulty to date not including the quarters. Your order of difficulty above is probably right.

Ah fair, I read your message without looking at the prior context and clearly took an incorrect punt 

 

 

[FoxesWalk]

20 hours ago, Nalis said:

The difficulty in opposition so far is quite similar between the four favourites, argument for England or Spain having marginally the most difficult and Argentina with the most straightforward

Argentina have had comfortably the easiest run on paper, they’ve just toiled in two games they should have dominated.
 

England have faced two teams around the top 10 rankings in Croatia (11th when we faced them) and Mexico (10th).

 

France’s only challenge of note was Senegal (18th) thanks to Norway fully rotating. They did struggle for an hour in that game. 

 

Spain have faced Portugal, but otherwise should have comfortably won all other fixtures on paper. 

 

Id say in terms of tests so far, hardest run to easiest it’s England, Spain, France, Argentina. 

Edited Thursday at 10:50 by FoxesWalk

[ramboacdc]

England vs Norway World Cup quarter-final in danger of being hit by weather delays - Yahoo Sports https://share.google/35aupWpNFele6LOHD

 

 

3 days of weather watching.

[Grebfromgrebland]

On 08/07/2026 at 11:16, RonnieTodger said:

For all the moaning (usually from Celtic nations) about how England always get easy draws, Argentina’s route to the semi final is:

 

Algeria

Austria

Jordan

Cape Verde

Egypt

Switzerland

We've not meant to notice this. Or anything like leniency from the refs etc.

 

You'll be called a conspiracy theorist.

[Super_horns]

1 hour ago, ramboacdc said:

England vs Norway World Cup quarter-final in danger of being hit by weather delays - Yahoo Sports https://share.google/35aupWpNFele6LOHD

 

 

3 days of weather watching.

Will the teams agree to any kick off time change this time?

[StanSP]

 

 

 

[AKCJ]

2 hours ago, ramboacdc said:

England vs Norway World Cup quarter-final in danger of being hit by weather delays - Yahoo Sports https://share.google/35aupWpNFele6LOHD

 

 

3 days of weather watching.

The Met Office is predicting 31 degrees at kick off with <5% chance of precipitation. That's obviously bloody warm but the problem is that they don't think the temperature will drop to below even 27 degrees overnight.

 

Almost as if playing football matches in an open aired stadium in Miami in the middle of July is a ****ing stupid idea.

[Muzzy_no7]

2 hours ago, StanSP said:

 

 

 

Unreal only one Argie has a yellow.

 

Then again, after this WC and Qatar, it’s not. 

[AKCJ]

Quansah to serve a two game suspension which would rule him out of a potential tie with Argentina  

 

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it's amazing how much is stacking in their favour.

[Jaspa]

3 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Quansah to serve a two game suspension which would rule him out of a potential tie with Argentina  

 

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it's amazing how much is stacking in their favour.

It was a red card. I think Argentina have been exposed to a degree, their fullbacks are shocking, they'll find the semi in Atlanta tough against either England or Norway.

 

It was laid out on a platter for them in Qatar, but I don't think it'll work out like that this time. Thing that stands out about them for me are their fans, they're so energetic and rambunctious, filling stadiums and so vibrant, I thought their nation was going through repeated severe economic challenges for a while now... they seem to be doing quite well for themselves and very proud.

[martyn]

I think its absolutely fine to jump on the conspiracy horse at this point. At best it's FIFA just trolling.

[martyn]

Just now, Jaspa said:

It was a red card. I think Argentina have been exposed to a degree, their fullbacks are shocking, they'll find the semi in Atlanta tough against either England or Norway.

 

It was laid out on a platter for them in Qatar, but I don't think it'll work out like that this time. Thing that stands out about them for me are their fans, they're so energetic and rambunctious, filling stadiums and so vibrant, I thought their nation was going through repeated severe economic challenges for a while now... they seem to be doing quite well for themselves and very proud.

I don't think anyone of sane mind is contesting the red card, rather, why has an extra game been added to the suspension.

[Muzzy_no7]

1 minute ago, martyn said:

I think its absolutely fine to jump on the conspiracy horse at this point. At best it's FIFA just trolling.

I would be very intrigued to listen to people who still don’t think it’s at the very least corrupt, let alone rigged.

[Foxdiamond]

10 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Quansah to serve a two game suspension which would rule him out of a potential tie with Argentina  

 

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it's amazing how much is stacking in their favour.

No wonder the World Cup is abbreviated to WC as this is getting as smelly as a blocked khazi

[Foxdiamond]

21 hours ago, FoxesWalk said:

There is something in that, but even so, just from pure accumulation of fouls Argentina should be getting more yellows than they have. Similar story for Paraguay etc. 

Also some teams probably make more of a foul that results in opponents getting a card.

[whoareyaaa]

19 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Quansah to serve a two game suspension which would rule him out of a potential tie with Argentina  

 

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it's amazing how much is stacking in their favour.

Probably a good thing, get Stones in the team

[whoareyaaa]

Free money as well betting on a Bellingham and Rice yellow card

[fox_up_north]

That's it I'm putting money on a France v Argentina final with at least one Messi goal via pen