bookd.
Lecce0 - 4Roma
Watched the first half and most of the 2nd. I’m both very impressed with roma and very unimpressed with lecce this game. Roma looked really dominant until the end of the first half and in my opinion better than inter looked vs cagliari the day before. Malen since january is one of the best players in the world and that was clear in this game, finding himself in goalscoring opportunities time and time again taking two of them. I have to admit I’m worried about maguire and lisandro vs malen almost as much as shaw vs olise. Dybala depsite wasting some chances to score was absolutely outstanding and it’s still hilarious that juve sold him 4 years ago thinking he was finished. Lulli was a nice surprise because I’ve never heard of him before but he was really good especially in the attacking phase. Lecce i don’t really have much to say accept welcome to serie b, they truly had no redeeming qualities. Only decent performance was falcone in goal and he still conceded 4 which says a lot. Notable players: malen, dybala, lulli, hermoso
Roma
Barcelona5 - 2Rayo Vallecano
Watched 30 mins of the 1st half and a bit of the 2nd, not a lot however long enough to witness the insane quality of barcas attack. In my opinion that attack hy itself is enough to win the league but I don’t think the defence is good enough to challenge for the champions league. There’s too little PnP with the pairing of cubarsi and gerrard martin or really anyone you would put next to cubarsi. Christensen seems like the best option because of his size but he isn’t particularly quick and cubarsi is also slow so he can’t make up for that. What this defence does excel at is progressing the ball, cubarsi especially is ridiculously good at breaking lines with his passing which makes up for his defensive mistakes and lack of PnP. Gerrard martin on the other hand just doesn’t have that quality and can’t be a starter at cb. Maybe the addition of rodri to the midfield nullifies the weaknesses but we’ll have to see. Rayo did all they could even taking the early lead and eventually scoring a 2nd but there’s really nothing you can do to stop the likes of raphinha and yamal when they’re in form. Losing isi to injury and ratiu leaving for the premier league didn’t help them either. Xavi epsart had another great game and I know it will never happen but I would love to have him at united especially now with the lb trouble, would raise our technical floor so much. Notable players: Raphinha, Yamal, xavi espart, camello
Barcelona
Aston Villa0 - 1Arsenal
Watched almost the full game with some minor distractions. Arsenal will probably be the eventual league winners however that doesn’t change the fact that their football is unbearable to watch. There’s no creativity no pace in the play, everything is slow. Unfortunately even without saliba their defence is good enough to keep clean sheets against almost anyone. Villa despite still not having a goal this season I think looked ok and are good enough to challenge for ucl even after selling rogers, watkins and tielemans. Jackson had a good debut in my opinion, he just didn’t get enough service but then again it’s hard to get any against arsenal. I’m still patiently waiting to see the full potential of this villa attack with manzambi and mbaye. Midfield wise they’re ok and the defence is good enough as long as pau torres doesn’t commit war crimes against his team. Goalkeeper wise I honestly think they upgraded with suzuki over martinez, just as good on the line and much better with the ball at his feet. Regarding arsenals attack selling martinelli and trossard while only buyinh tzolis was a huge blunder that got rid of any depth they had attacking wise. All their targets got stolen by rivals: rogers, barcola etc. leaving them with a young and inexperienced at the top level winger as the only option on the left. Notable players: Saka, buendia, suzuki, calafiori
Arsenal
Celta Vigo0 - 2Athletic Club
Watched until the first goal and then the second half and I have to say giraldezs team selection was questionable here especially looking at how much better the 2nd half looked at least defensively after making a ridiculous 4 halftime subs. Despite not having a great game I think it's quite obvious that iago aspas is still one of celtas best players and he should start. After conceding 5 goals in the first 2 games of the season bilbao fans can finally be happy about the defensive performance, because besidse keeping a clean sheet they didn't even allow celta to get a proper goal scoring opportunity. Offensively it looked fine too as berenguer and navarro both had good games topped of with goals and then nico williams coming off the bench looking in form once again. One more player I want to mention is areso who was just very solid in all phases of play. Notable players: Berenguer, Navarro, nico, areso
Athletic Club
Monaco2 - 0Marseille
Only watched the 2nd half here and to be honest it was kind of a snoozefest. Marseille dominated possesion but just simply couldn't get through camara who was cleaning up everything in the middle. Monaco just sat back and played for counters which worked as they kept a clean sheet and doubled their lead. Now onto the guy that scored both of these goals paris brunner, after seeing this performance and both of the goals I couldn't believe this guy has almost no senior games played, but despite that I can confidently say that he's definitely going to make a career. He's got the physical attributes (PnP) but also the technical, put that together with his positioning and he will be one of the best striker prospects in the world very soon. Now for the negatives from this game I was very disappointed with marseilles attack because it does seem good on paper besides harit having murder charges. I do have a question and that's why did kondogbia start at cb when aguerd was right there on the bench. Notable players: Brunner, camara, vanderson
Monaco
Cagliari0 - 1Inter
Watched only the first half and the game was a disappointing spectacle but at least a very good showcase of inters dominance. I know cagliari aren't a very strong team but inter not even allowing a shot in the first half is ridiculous. It was pure dominance in every phase of play because despite only scoring 1 goal in the whole game inter realistically could've had 4+. I absolutely love inters left side with bastoni and dimarco, they are resposible for everything which i think is well reflected in the stats where you can see bastoni had 4 key passes and 1 BCC and dimarco with 7 key passes and 9 passes into the final 3rd. Along with them barella is another player whose quality you can see regardless if they have a good game or not (although all of them had a good game here). It will be interesting to see the developmetn of esposito as well, because despite not scoring I loved his hold up and link up play, he was basically what zirkzee is supposed to at united when he plays. The only cagliari player i can give credit to is alessandro romano who I thought was decent in that 1st half. Notable players: Dimarco, Bastoni, Barella, esposito
Man United5 - 2Ipswich
Entertaining game with lots of goals and it was very satisfying to see so many goals after the tortures of the first 3 halves of the season. First half was honestly terrible and just as bad as the game vs hull, fortunately after losing the first goal we got incredibly lucky that nunez handed us a free goal. Second half started off the same, however after a lucky 2nd goal, and a beautiful play from mainoo which led to a pen we caught life and dominated until the end. My biggest issue is that we only started playing well when up 2 goals, my worry is that was not a real good 30 minutes of football but a fugazi confidence swing led burst that won't translate to the next game. Another worry of mine is the defence which looked poor and unfortunately it can only be fixed with personel change which won't happen until at least january. It's not all bad though, bruno got a hat trick, mainoo was amazing this game and tielemans looked like what I expected him to in the 2nd half. From ipswiches perspective i don't know what to think, they didn't show much in the awful united 1st half. Their goal came from shaw being a slow, fat slob while fatawu is one of the quickest in the league while the 2nd was just a gift from lisandro. One thing i can say about them is that they need to start palacios, to have a player of his quality at such a mid club and not use him is insane. Coming back to united I feel the need to mention rashford being our only creator is not looking good, bruno needs to play deeper and cunha has to take on more of a creative burdain instead of camping in the box, unfortunately I think these are all carricks orders which makes me sceptical of him. Notable players: Mainoo, bruno, tielemans
Chelsea4 - 3Brighton
Amazing game to watch with lots of goals and interesting moments, the takeaway from this game however is the same as last week for chelsea and that's besides the attack the team doesn't look great. Once again the JP morgan attack went nuclear however the midfield with gusto and lavia just lacked control meanwhile the defence lacked coordination and preparation. Xabi has to stop trying to squeez fullbacks in midfield because it doesn't work it didn't work with someone as good as reece james I can guarantee you it won't work with gusto either. the defence is interesting because on paper it looks good, even to me and I don't rate fofana and colwill as highly as most, in practice however there's no coordination attackers are often left alone in the box, or in front of it. On top of that the ball playing doesn't look great either. On brightons side it doesn't look great in my opinion, starting with the players themselves. There is no quality in the squad, I look at the teamsheet and feel nothing. Second of all i don't know what huerzeler was thinking putting the slowest cbs in the league against the best transition team in the league weird choice. kadioglu with a horror gaem too. Only positives for me are wieffer who looked alright in that dysfunctional defence, and yalcouye who was amazing in all phases of play. One more thing worth noting about chelsea is that despite me not rating martinez very highly he's a huge upgrade on sanchez, and he showed that this game. With Sanchez in goal this is at best a draw.
Bayern5 - 1Stuttgart
Watched about the first 70. Bayern is a team with ridiculous quality and despite the whacky kompany in possession setup with brown and davies as almost 10s bayern made easy work of stuttgart. Most of the winning however was done out of possession, bayern truly dominated physically with their press, jumps to 2nd balls and duel winning, after regaining possession high bayern would sprint in transitions and create lots of chances that way, though it’s not hard to do that when you have kane spraying the balls and diaz, olise and davies running after them. Stuttgart simply got outmatched in every way possible. Even when the score was 1-1 it felt inevitable that bayern would eventually win. Notable players: olise, kane, davies
Bayern
Lille2 - 2PSG
Only watched the 2nd half of this game and davide ancelotti seemed to have everything in control with his lowblock setup leading 1-0 until the 85th when bakwa scored the 2nd and the game seemed over. Psg’s attack despite the clear quality and depth was impotent all the way until added time when vitinha took matters into his own hands and created 2 goals out of nothing to rip a point from lille. Alrhough the finish was disappointing i think most lille fans would happily take this result before the game. Other stuff lille fans can be happy about is the quality of their new signing bakwa because that goal was amazing. Other notable players were tiago santos who was pocketing all the attackers psg threw at him and even could’ve had an assist to giroud, unfortunately that chance was wasted. Bentaleb also had a good game. Notable players: vitinha, tiago santos, mbappe, bentaleb
PSG
Crystal Palace1 - 4Man City
Watched the first half and marseca might finally get his fullback in midfield gimmick to work because o’reilly is not a fullback but a midfielder. Overall city looked decent but the backline is shaky and could be improved, I’m not a big fan of the dias guehi pairing and more specifically dias. Even though i didn’t see the goals live cherki is utterly ridiculous and it’s funny that despite costing 100m less it was clear to me from day 1 that he would be better than wirtz. On palaces side the midfield was decent although the wharton and kamada pivot is missing pnp even in a 5 back formation. Wharton was the standout player for them although i was surprised with nketiah and how he was holding up and progressing the ball during counter attacks. Notable players: cherki, haaland, o’reilly, wharton
Man CityBarcelona2 - 0Athletic ClubEven though barca weren’t at their best they still cruised to a calm 2-0 win. The quality of the midfield was so overwhelming that the disappointing attack didn’t even matter. It’s really ridiculous that this is still before rodri gets settled in and we can see the full potential of this midfield. Bilbao really struggled with the barcelona press and couldn’t get out of their own half outside of long kicks from simon. Very disappointing performances from the bilbao forwards too as even when the ball reached them they got shut down immediately, the only exception being sancet who managed to get shots off and create a chance. Bilbao fans don’t have much to be happy about after this game but their new addition to the first team Johaneko looked really good defending against yamal holding his own, and when he got taken off only then yamal started to ramp up. Barcas attack was very disappointing in the first half with neither yamal or gordon adding anything of value, Raphinha was the only one to actually create any danger in that front 3. In the 2nd half yamal woke up and kept getting better until the final whistle before which he should’ve registered at least one assist from the 2 chances he created for adeyemi, gordon on the other continued to play like shit. Midfield is where barca dominated as usual with great performances from bernal and even better from pedri who on top of sweeping like prime kante also had that brilliant assist to raphinha and a couple more chances created on top. Rodri debut happened but he didn’t have much to so just circulated the ball until the final whistle. The surprise of the game for me was xavi espart who I knew before but was still really shocked at how good he is in all phases of play, defending, passing, carrying, dangerous shot, and he seemed comfortable with both feet as well looks like another la masia talent set to stay in the 1st team for a while. Notable players: Pedri, Bernal, xavi espart, Johaneko, yamal 2nd half
Barcelona
Fulham2 - 3ChelseaGood start for xabi’s blues however there will have to be improvements to challenge for trophies. The brand new jp morgan attack looks like potentially best in the league and the way chelsea leaped to counterpress after losing the ball in the final 3rd was great, however outside of that it doesn’t look great. The midfield was getting absolutely ran over by berge and iwobi, i just don’t think any manager can succeed using a fullback in midfield full time. The defence looked very disorganized wether it was letting fulham shoot from distance or allowing the to get 1v1 against the last defender from clearances it didn’t look good, and that’s without even mentioning sanchez. On the fulham side of things gonzalo garcia looked great and even managed to snag a goal on his debut. Josh king also looks like the next big thing possibly someone along the lines of dele alli. If i was a fulham fan I would be optimistic for the season with the striker looking good josh king developing properly but mainly because despite the differences in squad cost fulham managed to control the game at points and really take over, unfortunately for them the talent in chelseas attack was too much.
Chelsea
Hull City2 - 0Man UnitedHorrifying performance and to be honest this one is on carrick from the questionable team selection to the team looking like a bunch of guys just going to play footy at a local pitch on the weekend with no plan, no roles, no responsibilities, they just played. On top of that horrid performance from dorgu turning every touch into a counterattack for hull, toothless performances from mbeumo and cunha not even trying create anything, bruno without any dangerous balls, tielemans and santos looked like they had a xxxl kebab in the tunnel, shaw and mazraoui just did nothing, the only respectable performances were from lammens and ironically rashford who we tried to get rid the entire summer. Seems like carrick is still struggling against back 5s and this is something that will need to be addressed soon. Baleba should fix the problems with counterattacks as he adds lots of athleticism but there’s a lot more to improve if we want to challenge for anything. Notable players: ryan giles did amazing dueling anyone that tried dribbling on his side of the pitch and than carrying the ball higher up the pitch, oli mcburnie worked his ass off helped building the attacks that led to set pieces and goals, on top of which he also had 2 dangerous situations of his own
Hull City
Real Madrid4 - 1Real Sociedad
If you didn’t watch the game and just looked at the result and stats you probably think madrid dominated the game however it really wasn’t anything special. Usual madrid game with very little control and idea on how to approach the game, nothing to make the opponent uncomfortable. On the other hand sociedad played with a makeshift squad and made as much of it as they could. At the end of the day los blancos just have far too much talent, but if they keep playing like this for the rest of the season the title is going to barca for the 3rd time in a row. The worst parts of madrids game was the midfield chemistry, each of the midfielders on their own are good but putting them together doesn’t work, they just didn’t control the middle of the pitch at all. When they tried to play through the wings outside of individual mbappe and vini actions not much was happening either. Notable players: mbappe was just mbappe, bellingham with great workrate both in the middle of the pitch but also in the final 3rd to snatch the ball and get his 2nd assist
Real Madrid
USA2 - 0Australia
Another enjoyable 90 minutes of poch ball. It’s really nice to see that he’s not washed after his chelsea stint. Really weird decision from the australian coach to start his best players on the bench, after they subbed on the us domination stopped, maybe if they started australia could’ve squeezed out a point. Antonee robinson and dest wingback pairing was amazing provided great width, off ball runs and on ball quality, balogun despite poor stats was good, proper striker performance. Good performers: tillman not only had the quality to break down australias defence but also the stamina to run like a dog, freeman amazing in all phases of play and performance topped off with a goal, and the rest of this us team, irakunda good offensive outlet, volpato had a chance to score that he wasted but I was surprised with his dribbling and carrying which was amazing this game Poor performers: all of australia bar the 2 above, burgess and italiano get a super ass medal for this one
USA
Mexico1 - 0South Korea
Boring game that I felt like turning off many times throughout. In the end mexico won on a jammy goal after a stupid mistake. Both teams struggled to progress the ball and settled for long balls to the strikers and wingers, neither midfield did their job well and it was honestly painful to watch. Korea definitely could’ve equalized towards the end if not for rangel and poor finishing. The only outstanding plays of the whole game were quinoes’s cross to raul, in beoms long ball to kang in lee and ji sung flicking the ball over one of the midfielders. Good performers: rangel saved mexico late in the game from conceding the equalizer, romo for scoring the goal, edson alvarez was alright and the one trying to progress through the middle most, kang in lee was the only korean that wanted to win, he was everywhere tried to do everything to win Bad performers: seung-gyu and gi-hyuk for gifting mexico the goal, all of the midfielders, all the wingers and strikers bar quinoes he was aight
Mexico
Canada6 - 0Qatar
This is more like the qatar that everyone expected to show up, they were just terrible today even before the red cards they were dominated from start to finish. Canada played a great game and didn’t even let the qataris leave their own box. David and larin hunting for crosses and cutbacks in the box with buchanan, johnstone and laryea delivering them. Unfortunately around the 60th minute kone got his legged broken in a game that was already over, such an unfortunate and unnecessary serious injury. Good performers: all canadians but the outstanding guys were david for scoring that hat trick, buchanan was the wide outlet and was causing lots of trouble with his dribbling, johnston and Laryea, first overlapping latter underlapping were incredible and combined with their wingers created lots of chances Bad performers: all qataris and especially al amin who got a red card but was awful even before that, almanai for the own goal, and madibo for getting a red and snapping kones leg in half
Canada
Switzerland4 - 1Bosnia & Herzegovina
Awful first 70 minutes but when those subs hit game took a 180 turn. Switzerland controlled momentum but couldn’t score until subbing on vargas and manzambi who turned the game around. Before them ndoye tried to create but most his crosses and cut backs ended on the first defender. Bosnia very non threatening despite the game being tied for 70 there wasn’t a moment where it felt like they can win. Good performers: Manzambi changed the game after coming on with goals and overall threat, should’ve take the pen, vargas same as manzambi and their link up was beautiful to see, xhaka controlled the game ip for the swiss but lacked that last pass, akanji crucial in build up and had a few line breaking passes, mahmic beauty of a goal Poor performers: almost all of bosnia bar dzeko and maybe alajbegovic, but muharemovic was especially ass for that stupid red card, aebischer and rieder for creating zilch before the subs, widmer and rodriguez didn’t offer anything on either side of the pitch
Switzerland
Czechia1 - 1South Africa
Really bad game that I don’t even feel like writing about. Czechia scored and just sat back try to defend the lead, it felt really rewarding to see this tactic backfire and them scrambling for a goal in the last 10 minutes. Replacing sithole definitely helped SA in this game. But despite them scoring a point this SA team is just awful and I don’t see a world where they go through. Good performers: mokoena scored the goal and was the most active player for SA, maseko won the penalty that gave the equalizer and felt the most threatening on the team, krejci crucial in build up for czechia, sadilek for scoring ig, almost forgot about ronwen and his incredible distribution Poor performers: koubek for coaching this disaster of a game and making me watch it, schick and hlozek two cheeks one ass neither did anything not entirely their fault but even when they had chances to show sum they did fuck all, rayners 0 threat whatsoever, adams was like putting a mannequin on the pitch.
South Africa
Uzbekistan1 - 3Colombia
Interesting to see colombia sit back and not try to increase the lead after scoring the first until uzbekistan equalized. Game was interesting all the way until the end, it really felt like they could make it 2-2 Good performers: luis diaz great assist and a goal on top of that without him colombia don’t win this game, arias had moments that gave colombia lots of momentum, cucho hernandez just for that assist absolute warrior, from uzbekistan the only decent performance was shukurov who was clearly the best player there and had some top moments like the pass setting up their goal Poor performers: suarez felt underwhelming considering his league output, james rodriguez was passive and did more dropping down to the 6 position than creating higher up, shomurodov was just bad ball kept bouncing off him, khusanov I really thought would be more involved in build up but he was just another body, and majority of this uzbek team didn’t necessarily have a bad game but are just bad football.
Colombia
Ghana1 - 0Panama
Might be the worst game of the tournament. Both teams played the exact same way, just pass it around the back and then hoof it up top, the only reason this game gets the 1,5 stars is because of the winner. For panama blackman and rodriguez were very active especially in the 1st half unfortunately that led to nothing. As for ghana no one was active because they had 35% possession. Good performers: andrade really held down that left side and on top of that was probably panamas most dangerous creator, ramos and murillo for holding down the right side and keeping ghanas most dangerous player quiet for almost the whole game, yirenkyi and semenyo for getting ghana that late winner. Poor performers: ghanas wingers just didn’t have the balls or ability to do anything, cordoba for allowing semenyo to get to that ball and get an assist on the winner and most of everybody that wasn’t mentioned above.
Ghana
Austria3 - 1Jordan
Meady game that felt over from the moment it started, austria dominated and closed the game 20 minutes in with a beautiful goal from schmidt. I really don’t have much to say jordan just aren’t good enough and that’s ok. Standout performers: schmidt for his goal, alaba for ridiculous amount of progressive passing ge offered, ali olwan for his goal and some nice moments carrying the ball. Poor performers: abu laila for letting in 3 goals without a save, obaid for causing a penalty, actually make that the whole jordan defence nuke the whole generation, posch just uselses in all phases of play
Austria
England4 - 2Croatia
For sure the best game of the tournament so far. Not sure if this english team has what it takes but their threat from corners is nuts. 1st half Croatia had a plan to stay in a fairly high line and try to make life hard in build up and it worked, but kane dropping deep and making long passes to madueke countered that. 2nd half england started dominating but still had issues in build up. Sad that I didn’t get to see mainoo play instead tuchel even went for reece james in midfield. Standout performers: kane for the 2 goals, madueke great channel and runs if he got a goal or assist he wouldve been my motm, bellingham mediocre in the 1st but brilliant in the 2nd, livakovic really kept croatia alive in the 2nd, baturina incredible strike and he linked the midfield and front line, rashford you could just feel the improvement over gordon. Poor performers: gordon just terrible, stones at the crime scene, gvardiol and vuskovic let engalnd do anything in the box. Begrudgingly kane jammy motm
England
Portugal1 - 1Congo DR
Terrible game of football to watch, 2nd worst of the tournament only behind switzerland v qatar. Portugals 1st half was a disgrace cowardly football just staying in possession and hoping congo don’t counter. Second half they tried harder(because they had to) but still awful football, it felt like the only people on the team who actually tried to win were bruno, joao neves and conceicao. Congo on the other hand played to their strengths and got a good result against a seemingly much stronger opponent. Standout performers: bruno the only one on portugal creating chances, joao neves goal and decent work covering during counters, wissa for finding that equalizer and the whole congolese defence. Poor performancers: ronaldo barely did anything partially not his fault but still very poor, bernardo silva can’t continue on the wing just awful, araujo terrible defending on the goal And the worst of all roberto martinez tactical disaster class at times had his team set up in a 10 man circle
PortugalAustralia2 - 0Türkiye
First big upset of the tournament, incredible scenes. Makes me so happy that this turkey team lost. The team and fans were so cocky before the tournament just to lose to Australia. Every single turkish player should be ashamed and every australian player should be proud. Best player of the match is obviously the keeper for saving australia time and time again.
Australia
Haiti0 - 1Scotland
Another boring game, was hoping that haiti win this and honestly had hope they could comeback for a while. Standout players were mcginn for scoring, jean jacques, bellegarde and lewis ferguson, only poor midfielder was mctominay just not his game. But besides midfielders not many good performances tbh
Scotland
Brazil1 - 1Morocco
Morocco were better in that first half and should’ve capitalized on it instead after scoring they let vini get that goal from nowhere and only left with 1 point. Igor thiago absolutely stunk it, same with raphinha and honestly majority of this brazil team. Standout performers were vini and saibari for scoring, hakimi for stopping vini and the one time he wasn’t on him vini scored, mazraoui solid performance exactly what you would expect, bouaddi was also decent but his lack of progressive passing was kinda disappointing.
MoroccoQatar1 - 1SwitzerlandAwful game of football I don’t really have much else to say. The qatari keeper, Ruben vargas and xhaka were decent everybody else just wasn’t it.
Switzerland
Argentina3 - 0Algeria
We were having discussions about who is the best in the world right now and the answer might still be messi. Besides that argentina look really good and are definitely contenders to go b2b. I was also really disappointed with algeria, thought they could cause some trouble in this game and maybe get an upset in the ro32 but playing like tonight that won’t happen.
Argentina
Iraq1 - 4Norway
Disappointing result for iraq considering they played better football for majority of the game, but that’s what happens when you make stupid mistakes. Of course haaland scored 2 because who else. Besides him not many outstanding performances. Nusa had a few good moments but overall it was a nothingburger, odegaard got an assist from a corner but didn’t really much outside of that, hussein scored but in both goals. The only other person who i can say had a good game is berge he felt like the person controlling the game for norway especially later on.
Norway
France3 - 1Senegal
Similar to a bunch of games this tournament boring 1st incredible 2nd half. Mbappe was stinking it up early on but stepped up later and became one of the candidates for motm. Nicolas jackson finished without a goal but that was a proper #9 performance. Krepin diatta fantastic game from rb especially the 1 st half, disappointing game from lamine camara teally thought he would do better. Olise playmaking masterclass, demebele looking more or less just as ass as always for the national team. Near post man strikes again and lets in that mbaye(hope united get him) goal, upamecano also very very good game. On the other hand kounde was horrid in both halfs, deschamps might need to tru wze at rb.
France
Iran2 - 2New Zealand
One of the best games of this world cup so far. Very interesting to see taremi and wood help link up play in different ways, wood playing as high as possible receiving the ball with his back to goal and taremi dropping deep to help bring it up the pitch. 2 beautiful goals from just, and the touch to set up the shot on the first one was just beautiful. For some other standout players: stamenic for his contribution in build up, surman for his insane amount of defensive contributions, mohebi for the goal. Motm was between just and rezaeian, the iranian just edges it for me because of his defensive contribution on top of the goal and assist.
Iran
Saudi Arabia1 - 1Uruguay
Hard to stay awake at these hours but it was kinda worth it. Saudis showed that they can play ball in the 1st half and tried to park the bus in the 2nd but that failed. Hard to find any outstanding performances bar the saudi keeper, best example to show it is that olivera (cb) is the only person in this game with a bcc
Saudi Arabia
Belgium1 - 1Egypt
Good equal game, lukaku came to belgiums rescue. Ashour insane 1st half but fell off in the 2nd. Marmoush the real egyptian star. Doku hinky jinky dribbling doesn’t work against africans. Tielemans very good 2nd half. Courtois is washed. De bruyne and salah had a wash off.
Egypt
Spain0 - 0Cape Verde Islands
Spanish offense looks asspack without yamal, gavi get that thing off the road bruh he did nothing, vozinha voodoo in goal to keep that clean sheet. Overall insane upset that was possible thanks to great coaching from bubista and terrible finishing from ferran.
Cape Verde Islands
Sweden5 - 1Tunisia
Gyokeres and isak look actually work well together, swedens midfield was ass pack only ayari gets a pass because of his goals, they offered nothing ip none of them even completed 20 passes. Tunisia just didn’t have the quality to compete it was very obvious that they’re a level below. Hannibal by far the most active player on the pitch and the best for tunisia.
Sweden
Ivory Coast1 - 0Ecuador
Only 1 goal but the game was actually pretty good to watch, diomande was ridiculous and had hincapie shook, shoutout amadinho and singo for that winner, also oulai absolutely mogged caicedo in the last 20 minutes.
Ivory Coast
Netherlands2 - 2Japan
First half koeman ball nearly put me to sleep but that 2nd half was a classic. Very disappointed in sano thought he would cook in this game but he was mostly invisible
Japan
Germany7 - 1Curaçao
Curacao made it seem like this will be a scrappy game in the first 30 minutes just to lose by 6, motm could’ve went to any of: wirtz, musiala, brown, nmecha, kimmich, undav
Germany