Brazil V Switzerland
(Synopsis in red)
Pregame bets:
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.
€5.00 Single
Brazil v Switzerland – Xherdan Shaqiri, 5/1 anytime goal scorer
Full betting review here>https://www.thisdrinkinglife.com/top-bets-of-the-world-cup-2018/
Well I was right in that Switzerland would cause them a hiccup, lol.
Beers: Group E of Beer World Cup:
Up for the Swiss we have a beer from the Dr. Brauwolf brewery, “where beer meets science”, an interesting concept for sure, up against a Brazilian classic Skol and the country’s favourite beer, in today’s beer match up.
V 
Had a Rye IPA from the Dr. Brauwolf brewery and fuck me it was delicious, really great, one of the better beers of the last few days. Outstanding stuff. No competition for Skol. The Swiss win this one hands down.
PreGame:
I have to be honest I hate looking at Switzerland. Let me explain the reasons behind that hatred. In the last World Cup, they were thoroughly shocking. Did the bare minimum to get out of an easy group that included a poor Ecuador, and an even worse Honduras, and lost 5-2 to an average French team. But the worst for me was when they had a piss poor Argentina on the ropes for a good twenty minutes. They basically were playing touch football and toying with them while the crowd were doing ole ole’s from the stands. But the obscene thing is that after getting the better of the Argentinian midfield, they gave up, totally. Was truly an awful sight to see. Compare a team like Iceland to a team like Switzerland and you can understand what I am talking about, men versus boys. Ok to be fair some of their players played well, Rodríguez, Shaqiri, Fernandes all having a decent tournament, but as for the rest of their prima donas, meh!
But nothing seems to have changed as we can see from the qualifying game against Northern Ireland. They scrapped through largely thanks to a dodgy referee. Stephan Lichtsteiner, their captain, spent so much time rolling on the floor that his shirt was completely brown by the end of the game, while a lot of the Norn Iron team must be wondering how they let this one slip through their fingers. For me they are a team that are lazy and not bothered too much, a team that is also leaderless and easy to put to the sword with the slightest bit of pressure.
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).
Brazil are the opposite to Switzerland. A team that plays with the right spirit of the game, with passion and a whole lot of heart. You would pay to watch them all day.
Will be very interesting to see if Brazil have exercised the demons of the last World Cup and the debacle with Germany. They certainly seem to be making the right noises, topped the qualifying in record time, a settled squad, Neymar back to his best, a manager, Tite, who is prepared to let the players express themselves and coming into some decent form at the right time.
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 having said all that Switzerland still could get a result today against Brazil. They could bring Brazil down to their level of puke football and with Xherdan Shaqiri they always have a chance of scoring, more likely from a dead ball situation. Now I dont expect them to win (albeit they did beat Brazil a few years ago), but they could eek out a draw.
A more detailed review on Brazil here and on Switzerland here
“Now I dont expect them to win (albeit they did beat Brazil a few years ago), but they could eek out a draw”, lol. Exactly!
Great game, end to end, and some stout defending from Switzerland near the finish to hold out for a magnificent draw.
Started off ominous for the Swiss as it was all Brazil at the start, pacey and dominant, and sure enough it wasn’t long before they got on the score sheet with a brilliant goal from Coutinho who curled a lovely goal in off the post, brilliant finish.
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?
Good call from the ref on giving the goal, it was too slight a push, and also he got the penalty call correct, no way was that a peno for Brazil. Good referring through the game today,
Nice one Switzerland!
Music to get you in the mood
CSS – Alala (Brazil) V Dandies – L Comme Liaison
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. 
It is a new venture in the region and one with many exciting and ambitious plans. Founded by Peter Danielsson who had a dream to start his own brewery. Despite been in the software industry and a general “newbie” in the beverages industry, he finally managed to take the plunge in 2017 and set up a small brewing operation. 
Smell is malty, with an interesting floral, earthy, and piney smell. Also get the fruits and citrus. 
Get a very hazy looking beer with a nice golden orange look. Very carbonated and has a big frothy head. Good lacing.
“Free Electron” in English, I guess the electricity will be bouncing around your body when in contact with this beer, firing up an unstoppable current of energy and pleasure. Perhaps!
Getting the caramelized malt again, this time in the taste, making this beer very nice to drink. 
Hazy cloudy yellow golden colour, very carbonated and the frothy white head maintains. 
On pour, massive carbonation, all over the place, very temperamental. All resulting in a massive frothy tanned head and a pitch black stout.
“The Last Cry” in English, this is Celestial’s version of a New England IPA. A New England IPA is meant to be a little smoother with less of a hoppy bitterness to their West Coast IPA cousins, the appearance is also meant to be a little hazier. 
Nice malty flavour, the fruits to the fore, bit of caramel.
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. 
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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. 
