Tunisia V England
(Synopsis in red)
Pregame bets:
€10.00 Single
Tunisia v England – England scores 2+ goals & 6+ England corners 17/10
€2.00 Single
Tunisia v England – Correct Score 0-3 17/2
Full betting review here>https://www.thisdrinkinglife.com/top-bets-of-the-world-cup-2018/
Get in you beauty, I will take that!!! Phew left it late though, but should have had it up way before the end, England always make it hard for themselves!!! Good man Kane.
Beers: Group G of Beer World Cup:
V
As Tunisia is another Muslim nation where beer is hard to come by, I will be only drinking the one beer for the game. But what a beer that is, London Pride is a fantastic beer, and got to the final in my last World Cup, so will enjoy drinking it again today.
London Pride, excellent beer, really top class and so smooth and silky. Love this beer. One nil to the England!
PreGame:
Things appear to be a little different this time with England. Under Gareth Southgate their seems to be far less pressure and expectations on this team from the media and the general public. A team that qualified with relative ease, 8 points to spare and unbeaten, Southgate has done well since he took over the hot seat from Sam Allardyce.
There is a quiet confidence with this England team and the manager has also done very well to blood the team with a lot of new young players and letting some big names retire early. This is an England team without the big stars and big egos of English teams past. Wayne Rooney is finally gone, thank Christ, and there are no Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Owens type players to raise expectations. Ok Harry Kane could arguably fill that bracket, but he is still relatively unproven at international level, and with him we have Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Danny Rose and Dele Alli, a bunch of players who have had good seasons with their clubs the last few years,
Tunisia: Their squad doesn’t show much to excite. A few players from the local Tunisian league and quite a few that play in France, but no stand put player. Added to this fact is that they will also be losing their main striker to injury, Youssef Msakni, the top scorer in the qualifying campaign, and that further dents any chances they might have had. In a group with Belgium and England I am sorry to say I dont expect a whole lot from Tunisia. Even in the Panama game, where they might be already out at that stage, they might struggle. I fear for them, I really do, sorry Tunisia!
Against Tunisia today I feel that England should have too much for them, I think they will have them for pace, especially down the flanks and with Kane, and perhaps Vardy, up front, they have two well established goalscorers who should be able to get on the score sheet against a relatively weak Tunisian defence.
A more detailed review on Tunisia here and on England here
Wow, England left it very late, always making it hard for their fans, but they got there in the end and deservedly got the three points. Would have been a complete travesty if they had not as I feel the penalty was a terrible decision and the ref never gave them much throughout the whole game. Tunisia were playing puke football all match and were lucky to even get one goal never mind a draw.
Started very brightly, Deli Alli was sprightly and on fire early on, while Sterling missed a complete sitter. England were strong in attack and caused Tunisia all sorts of problems that they couldn’t cope with. Sure enough England scored early, with a Stone header not saved well and Kane with the rebound. A real poachers goal.
Sterling wasn’t the only player with no shooting boots on, Lingard could have done better with his simple chances too. But just when you were thinking who is going to score the second goal for England, a penalty is giving to Tunisia for a rather innocuous challenge by Walker on Ben Youssef who fell to the ground like a sack of spuds. And the clowns in VAR still got it wrong. Never a penalty. If that is a penalty then the EPl would have about ten a game. Terrible decision by all involved. Tunisia’s Ferjani Sassi stepped up to equalize from the penalty spot. It was all the more galling that the ref kept missing how Kane was wrestled to the ground for virtually every corner (expect the last one funnily enough!)
That penalty kind of rattled England a bit and they started to fanny around the pitch as they sometimes like to do, aimless balls and passing back and forth with no decisiveness. Always so frustrating to watch at times, these millionaire footballers so inept at playing what should be a simple game. Alli faded badly in the second, and Sterling was his usual crap self for England, and just when you were losing all hope to live, England get a corner, and to be honest you kind of felt they might jam in a goal from it. And they did. Kane again, good goal, great to get the space and England survive for another day.
To be fair to England they did well up against a very cynical and dirty Tunisian team and against a ref who gave them nothing in the game. They played well in patches, Stones in particular had a good second half, and when the chips were down they did step up and grind out that victory. I think that was a decent enough performance all things considering. They should steamroll Panama now, while Tunisia might be lucky to get a draw with a similar performance against Belgium, perhaps.
Music to get you in the mood
Hedi Habbouba & Olfa ben Romdan : Folklore Tunisien (Tunisia) V New Order – True Faith
Ok the squad have lost Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Miroslav Klose and Manuel Neuer might be a bit out of form with a slow recovery from injury, but its still a squad with some serious amount of talent. Mats Hummels is still the rock in defence, Toni Kroos has stepped forward to run the show in midfield, and Thomas Müller is sure to score up front (and dive like the bitch he is!). Added to that is the fact that big things are expected of Timo Werner who has scored aplenty in the Bundesliga, and PFA Young Player of the Year Leroy Sané, who likes to bomb it up the wings. But really the thing with the German squad is that they slot into positions so easily, they have plenty of talent in all areas of the field, and can afford to take the hit of an injury to the team. Its hard to pick any weaknesses in this team. 
Rafael Márquez is back for his fifth World Cup, yes his fifth! He is a wily old player, 39 to be exact, world class in his day, but I do wonder what the hell he is doing back with the team considering his two mistakes cost Mexico in the last World Cup and got them knocked out by the Dutch. Could he not have just let it go? Actually looking at the squad, it is quite an old squad, Héctor Moreno also a rock in defence (30), Andrés Guardado (31) and Giovani dos Santos (29) back in midfield and Javier Hernández (30) upfront. This will be the final swansong for a lot of the Mexican players on the world stage. 
Can they do it this time and finally make the last eight? I dont think so. For two good reasons. Germany and Brazil stand in their way of doing that. Today is a big test for them. Get a result against the Germans today and they have a massive chance, but that would be a huge achievement for them and to be honest not likely at all. 
I fancy Brazil to do great things in this World Cup, to make the final at the minimum. But I think Switzerland, with their decent defence, might cause them a small hiccup at the start. Remember the Swiss also beat Spain at the start of W Cup 2010, and the Spanish ended up winning the thing, so they can throw a spanner in the works for sure. And the Swiss also got Xherdan Shaqiri who can muster up some magic, if bothered, hopefully today he might get his finger out of his ass. 
Don’t get me wrong, they have some seriously good players. Xherdan Shaqiri is world class, without a doubt, but Jesus can someone have a good chat with him and tell him to get his finger out. One can see the attitude with his club choices, from Bayern to a relegation bound Stoke tells us all you need to know here, in it for the money. Johan Djourou, Michael Lang, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Ricardo Rodríguez are all excellent players that work well together, but getting from defence to midfield is always a problem when you have such muck in the centre, Granit Xhaka and Valon Behrami are simply woeful. Gelson Fernandes is a gem in the centre but he is definitely a confidence player and needs to be clicking with his teammates to hit form. Shaqiri plays as an inside forward, and he needs to because they struggle to score goals. Breel Embolo is a big lump of nothingness up front, I still laugh at how great a deal FC Basel did when they sold him off to Schalke, while Mehmedi, Derdiyok, Drmić and Seferović are all journeymen. So its a bit of hot and a lot of cold with this team. I find this disjointed team terribly frustrating to watch. And whats worse is that Vladimir Petković could have included a few of the Swiss champions Young Boys team in the squad. Kevin Mbabu for me should walk into that squad, even Christian Fassnacht or Steve von Bergen, but no not even one player makes the cut from the Swiss champs (as of going to press). 
All eyes will be on Neymar today but I am looking forward to seeing Liverpool ace, Roberto Firmino, and also Gabriel Jesus of Man City. Both players having great seasons in the EPL. Both the whole squad looks decent and although my heart skipped a beat when I saw the name Fred, rest assured it is a new younger Fred who plays in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk, phew!
But after the while the Brazil attack petered out and Switzerland came more into the game, and got the equaliser from a free header. They played well, the Swiss and even though I am not one of his greatest fans, Behrami gave a world class performance today, top stuff. Their defence also held out very well today, Sommer was strong in goals, and we only got the two dives from Lichtsteiner today. I wonder is he not well?
Expect Costa Rica to continue where they left off at the last World Cup, hopefully with more goals and more great counter attacking football that won them so many admirers in 2014. Serbia are muck so I wouldn’t be surprised to see CR grab a few here. 
Keylor Navas and Joel Campbell made names for themselves in the last World Cup and are back again for another adventure. Otherwise they dont really have any other stand out players in the squad. But is that any different to last time round? I certainly didn’t expect them to get up to much in 2014 and they ended up causing shock after shock, so who knows what gems lie in their squad this time round. 
And what a goal it was from Kolarov, excellent goal. If he hadn’t of scored I doubt Serbia would have got a goal at all, as they missed a few simple chances today and they didn’t seem to have their shooting boots on. 
I reckon Peru will be a little overawed in their first World Cup outing since ’82, while Denmark, for me, are a serious outfit with a quality team that could propel them into the last eight. I really fancy this Danish team to go far in the tournament, and with C Ericksen they have a player that can turn a game on its head. This is an easy bet for me, Denmark to win their opener, and with relative ease. 
They have the players to do this. Simon Kjær, in defence, is a joy to watch at times, especially when he starts pinning 50 yards passes up to his strikers, passing deep from his own defence. While Christian Eriksen, on form, can be lethal, not just at shooting but also his general linkage play is excellent. In Pione Sisto they also have someone who can run at defences and cause general mayhem in the opposition box. Yes, I really like this Danish team. A squad that is well used to the tough European leagues and should have no problem in dealing with a relatively inexperienced Peru team. I can only see Denmark winning here. 
Paolo Guerrero is allowed to play, and that is good news for Peru. They will need their top striker as they have three relatively tough games to maneuver in this World Cup. I dont know a whole lot about this team, but with the canny Ricardo Gareca, back again for a third World Cup, as manager, I am sure they are a well drilled team open to playing attacking football. His teams generally play an expansive game, but this might be their undoing, as against Denmark they probably should play a slow patient waiting game. Can they play a game that requires this? I am not so sure. I would imagine the Danes would rattle their cages very quickly and attack them from the start. I can see a long 90 minutes in store today for Peru. 
Do not rate Australia at all. In the Confederations Cup they were truly awful to see, no technical ability with a lot of plodders in the team. Not only that but they carry on the great Australian sporting tradition of whinging a lot. That is not going to work against a French team that will be fired up to put on a show, especially after the feast of football we were served last night between Spain and Portugal. Now its France’s turn and I am sure they wont want to disappoint!
And if, as I expect, France will win and win handily, then you would fully expect that the goals would come from their usual strike partnership of Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud. 
France: Deschamps has assembled a fantastic squad yet again. Last time they were oh so close and this year they might just go one better, and win the damn thing! They have a very strong squad, with a loot of technical players, but sometimes it can be hard to get them to gel as a team, but Deschamps is finally getting them to play as a unit. He has one again made France a team to be reckoned with, and for this we must congratulate him. 
Ok they have the great Tim Cahill, but he is 38, and I am not so sure he can last more than 30 minutes without bursting a lung. Will be a long 90 minutes for the Aussies. 
On the opposite side, France had a whole team of passengers. Pavard, as right back, looked way out of his depth, was embarrassing to see, while the big names of Mbappé, Dembélé and Pogba, and Matuidi when he came on, were awful, truly awful. And what is with Hernández, what is with the little bitch rolling round the floor over the slightest touch, and he is a defender, ffs!! Mark Lawrenson said on the Beeb, that “the French are going backwards”, well where have we heard that before, what a fucking EMBARRASSMENT! Pogba doing flicks in the 67th minute when his team needs a leader on the pitch, then kissing his badge when he scored a fluky goal, what a cunt!
And if Argentina are to score three goals, then surely Messi will be on the end of one or two of them. Also if Ronaldo can score a free kick, I’d bet Messi will copy him today, and even hotter prospect when you consider that Messi usually gets the better return from scoring on free kicks than Ronaldo’s one out of 50 efforts in international football!
I have to be honest, I dont think they actually played much decent football at that tournament, a lot of it was smash and grab stuff. But to be fair to the Icelanders, it wasn’t a tournament with a lot of quality on show. We did learn though, that this team can compete and can beat the top teams. And they will never give up, playing right to the 90th minute and beyond. Which goes to show you that a team which such a strong work ethic always have a chance. I guess that’s why we love watching them. 
But up against Messi I am not so sure they will be able to keep him quiet for a full 90 minutes. Argentina rely on the small man a lot, a bit like Portugal with Ronaldo, and when he is motoring along he raises the team spirit as well. 
Nigeria are a team that generally starts slow. Up against a very strong Croatia team they might get punished for this. Modric will run the show from midfield and, with a team of decent strikers, I expect Croatia to just nudge this game, possibly score in the last ten minutes or so to nick it. 
v 
Nigeria are a team I always enjoy watching in the World Cup. Every time they produce a few stand out games at the games. They are always a big psychical team but with bags of technical ability. And with this in mind I fully expect them to give Croatia one hell of a battle. 
These days Real Madrid star, Luka Modrić is the player every one looks out for, but if you scan through their squad you can see they have many players who ply their trade in the top leagues of Europe. Their midfield is particularly strong, with Modrić as mentioned, but also Ivan Rakitić of Barca, and Marcelo Brozović from Inter and with Mario Mandžukić still banging the goals in for club and country, they can beat anybody on their day. 
This has a draw all over it, really it does. I would be well surprised if it is anything but a tie. If there are goals then I’d expect Ronnie to be on the score sheet too, that is the basic law of averages, better than that law in fact!
Spain seemed to have settled back to their old routine, of winning games and playing nice football, so this shock decision might unhinge all their good work of the last few years. You would imagine that top players wouldn’t be affected, but it is an excuse for not playing well that could be used. Will be hard for Hierro, who has steeped in at short notice, to stamp his authority in less than a 2 days! 
On the other side, Iniesta and Isco were beginning to dominate the game for Spain, and the tide turned when Diego Costa scored a great goal to equalise, despite being shadowed by two Portuguese defenders he still manged to get his shot away, and leaving the child Pepe lying on the ground like a buffoon. Class.
It was all Spain, but then Portugal got a free kick and you just sensed that this was going to be Ronaldo’s night. Now we all know that his record of taking free kicks is rubbish at tournaments, but we also sense that he knows what he is doing. I, myself, was thinking at the time, surely he must be scoring them in training, to keep taking them all the time even when he fucks them up. But he is a confident fucker, and sure enough he managed to get it up and over the wall, to get his hat-trick and Portugal’s third. What a great way to finish a great game.