Switzerland V Argentina World Cup 2014

Switzerland V Argentina Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Top bets on today’s game: Germany V Algeria

Messi V Shaqiri, two great players in two woeful teams. Both teams have no real idea how to defend, at least going on the performances so far, with only Zabaleta and Romero the only plus points in that regard for Argentina. Swiss goalie has had a shocking World Cup so far and appears very nervous in between the sticks, can see Messi testing him with frees all over the park today.

All four teams to score today 7/2
Messi a/t scorer 8/13
Shaqiri a/t scorer 4/1 and 60/1 to score two or more.
Messi to score from a free kick is 9/1

Hopefully claw back some money

All odds with PP

Well that didn’t work out at all! Tut Tut

Full betting previews, read here>

Beers: Round of 16 Beer World Cup:

http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-last-16/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Guinness Export came out of Group F, winning it on the last day, while Feldschlosschen came out of Group E. Who will quench the thirst, set the mood, get me in the right spirit? Click on picture for a preview of the beers. Get the beer result after, much after!

Feldschlösschen Original Pale Lager V Guinness Export: 2-0 to Guinness Export as the stout beats the light tasting lager. Feldschlösschen is a good beer, with a nice taste and easy to drink. The appearance is of a pure clear yellow colour, bright and clean with a good big frothy head on top that stays. Looks refreshing and tantalisingly good. The aroma is light and malty, on the grainy side but with a little sweetness. The taste is of a classic lager style, nice crisp and a smooth refreshing drink. Grain dominates the taste with very little bitterness. Not complex, well balanced, and very easy to drink. Could drink these all day long. Could, but up against Guinness Export it wont win. Simply because of the flavouring, or lack of it in the Feldschlösschen lager. Guinness Export is the complete opposite, full of exciting and interesting flavours, that had a very powerful aftertaste. It pours the expected pitch black colour with a tan whitish head. A very strong aroma of dark cocoa, coffee and roasted malts. The smell is quite strong on the nose. It was a very strong tasting stout, with a long bitter aftertaste, that had a bite to it. Overall a good strong stout, tasting of roasted malt with traces of coffee. As you would expect with a Guinness stout the flavours are complex and well balanced, making it one of the worlds richest tasting beers, and no contest for a nice, very nice, but bland Swiss lager.

PreGame:

Switzerland won their last game 3-0 but their performance wasn’t anything to get too excited about. Against a very poor team they gave away numerous chances at the other end of the pitch, and if it wasn’t for such bad Honduran forward play, and the wonderful Shaqiri up front, Switzerland could just as easily be heading home. A lovely hat trick from Xherdan Shaqiri, well deserved for the Bayern Munich hit man, who looked lively throughout.

At the back things were not so rosy for the Swiss. Djourou played one of his worst games for Switzerland. Pretty much every time the ball went into the Swiss central defence he was at fault for giving away chance after chance. He was a big hole in the central defence of Switzerland and luckily for him the always reliable Rodriguez had to bail him out on a few occasions. Benaglio in goals also looked very dodgy, and seemed to be missing a lot of simple crosses. Very worrying for the Swiss, and something I hope they have worked on in training as Argentina and Messi will not be as forgiving today.

As I have mentioned before, I think that Swiss team is carrying a lot of passengers. Xhaka is a dead loss, little movement, not much creativity. Inler another that offers very little, and I would even be critical of Drmic, apart from the two assists excellent as they were and all, he looked like he would never score himself. Weak, and not going to trouble too many defenders. Shaqiri bailed out his team big time.

Will be a tough game for them today but the only thing going for them is that Argentina have an equally awful defence. They have an outside chance at most.

Argentina: The most important thing to say about Argentina is that Lionel Messi has scored 24 times in his last 23 games for Argentina. If he clicks again today then Switzerland go home. Simple. No one else on the Argentinian team will cause much grief for the Swiss defence, just the golden boy Messi. He has got his team out of trouble in all their games so far, and without him Argentina are toothless in attack.

Nigeria, and even lowly Iran, cut open once the Argentina defence relatively easy. If Shaqiri can continue his excellent form, he might cause problems.

To be a little fair, Di maria was much more livelier in the Nigerian game, and was creating many opportunities from midfield. A much better performance. Zabaleta, also put in a good shift, stopping a few certain goals with some last ditch tackling. Pity the few around him in Argentinian shirts didn’t play as well. Mascherano was playing, but I wouldn’t have guessed as I barely heard his name mentioned. First time I heard his name talked about in three games, wow. That’s some skill to hide on such a big pitch!

But they have topped their group and a win is a win is a win. That doesn’t hide over the cracks in their defence, and that without Messi they are an average team at best. They take on Switzerland in a game that might be a bit tricky for a while until Messi pops up to get them through again, possibly with another unstoppable free kick.

I HATE teams like Switzerland, HATE them. Get to a World Cup and do diddly squat. Have a very good chance to knock out Argentina, but couldn’t be bothered to do it. Just try for goodness sake. Boring, just like your beer! Have some heart, some passion, some balls, some pride. Nah, they dont care about it enough.

Argentina played awful and they were so lucky that Switzerland were even worse. The game should have just had Messi and Shaqiri, one v one, Keep the goalies and ditch the rest.

Lest go through the Swiss team. Inler, four on one attack and he goes for the glory: sh*t. Drmic, one and one with Romero and passes to him, predicted he wouldn’t score, was right: sh*t. Mehmedi, good for getting the ball, bad for giving it away five seconds later, all the time: sh*t. Xhaka, missing in action and as of yet to be found:sh*t. Seferovic comes on for the final few minutes, and walks, not runs, but walks around the pitch refusing to help his team mates:sh*t! So frustrating. Where are the Swiss style players of yesteryear, like the great Alain Sutter, or Bregy or Kunp. Men who didnt fanny around, got the job done. Not these players, too many egos, not enough skill, or balls. Man up, take the game by the scruff of the neck and score!

But to be fair to the Swiss, in defence they played very well. Rodriguez had the beating off Di Maria for most of the day, and was solid throughout. He has had a cracking World Cup. Lichtsteiner had Messi well marked up to a point, which must be one of the hardest jobs in world football, to try and keep Messi quiet, but he did up to the last fifteen or so minutes. And even Djourou had his part to play in defence. I was very critical of his previous performance, but against Argentina he was brilliant. Well done. It’s such a pity that both behind them and ahead of them the Swiss defenders had a very frustrating afternoon. Once they got the ball out from defence it was immediately returned as the midfield could not hold onto it, while Benaglio was nervous behind them. He still hasn’t figured out how to catch a ball after all these years as a professional. Maybe he isn’t a goalkeeper at all, perhaps he is the kit man?

Switzerland only had Shaqiri as any real threat but he was marked out of the game, and got zero help from his teammates. He played well, and he did produce some great passes, putting in Drmic for his chip/pass, and generally holding the ball up well.

The worst thing was when the Swiss had so much possession in extra time, that they were passing it around for fun, with cheers from the crowd, loving it. But why do that stupid stuff when you could just as easily attack the tired Argentinian defenders, who could barely walk, and score a goal. Stop the messing and just go and win the damn thing! Weak!

Argentina themselves were not much better. Apart from di Maria and Messi, they had no one else showing for the ball or trying to win the game. Di Maria got some awful criticism from the BBC but I thought he played well. He tried all game, and he did get the goal in the end. I will even forgive his showboating, which was criminal, but if he scored the winner, he is allowed a pass. But Argentina don’t have a plan B. Plan A is easy, give it to Messi, and he will win the game for the team. He did that again, picking the ball from deep midfield, running right up to the box, skipping over a half hearted tackle, and picking out Di Maria on the edge of the box. Brilliant. And fair dues to Di maria for a nicely taken goal that nestled into the bottom corner giving the goalkeeper no chance.

Argentina now go on to play Belgium in a game they might not win. Belgium have looked vary good in parts and could give the Argentinians a really good go of it. They have the players to cause that defence real problems. And don’t forget, just double mark Messi.

Switzerland go home, and it is a sad end for their coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, a legend of club football, who did an amazing job in getting a poor Swiss team this far.

Just one more thing. The millionaire ref Jonas Eriksson, of Sweden, had a good game, and let the match flow. Take a bow.

Music to get you in the mood

Gustavo Cerati V Mike Candys