World Cup Quarter Finals Huzzzzah!

mike65

I don't care that they don't start unitil Friday!

Friday

Argentina - Germany
Italy - Ukraine

Saturday

England - Portugal
Brazil - France

Discuss! Nothing else to do for the next two days....;)

Mike.

Royale with Cheese

I Fancy the Argentina-Germany winner to go all the way.

Kingp35

Portugal to beat England!

evad_lhorg

argentina to beat germany
Italy beat ukraine
england beat portugal
france beat brazil


argentina then beat italy
england then beat france

ARGENTINA CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD. MESSI PLAYS A BLINDER

Ruu_Old

Germany to beat Argentina
Ukraine to beat Italy and pull off one of the biggest shocks in history
Portugal to beat England
France to be Brazil

casanova_kid

I think tonight that French team burst into life and I can see them taking Brazil, who despite winning comfortably have lacked spark.
Portugal, if there's any justice in the world and if skill, intelligence and guile count for anything, should walk over England.
I'd expect Italy to win, i can't see Ukraine breaking down that defence especially if Nesta is back and it will probably be a typical one nil win to Italy.
Argentina- Germany is definetly the pick of the bunch, imposibble to tell between these two, but if Argentina manage to expose the german centre backs, i reckon that will be that.

Attractive Nun

Argentina/Germany could be a great game. Brazil/France could be anything. If both teams turn up, it could be a classic. One or other could make it very one-sided, or it could be terrible all round. I hope, and expect, Portugal to beat England and I can't see Italy losing to Ukraine.

eirebhoy

Italy will surely beat Ukraine but the other 3 matches are really too close to call. Excellent quarter final lineup and I'll probably spend most of Friday and Saturday in the pub.

fade2black

I thought nothing of France before tonight but they out done themselves against a probably over cocky spanish team. It will be nice to see Brazil finally play a decent side anyway.

Ronan|Raven

England to beat Portugal.

Germany to beat Argentina

France to beat Brazil

Ukraine to beat Italy

Stranger things have happened!

jester77

I have a very funny feeling it's going to be a Germany-England final.

Germany have impressed me so far, Argentina were great until the last game so I think the Germans will get the better of them.

England will bore Portugal into submission!

France will do their usual and prob play for the last 10 mins!

As bad as the Ukraine are I can see them pulling this off, get the feeling that some of the Italian camp might not be in the right frame of mind with all that is going on back home. Plus they have not been the least bit convincing yet, maybe if they can keep 11 men on the field this time they could do it!

PHB

Argentina - Germany - Germany's defense will be beaten badly imo, I expect a 2-0 win
Italy - Ukraine - Italy, with ease
England - Portugal - My gut would tell me Big Phil will win this, but that said, England have Rooney, so who knows. If I had to bet, which I did, I'd bet on Portugal
Brazil - France - Brazil, interesting to see Makelele try to contain Ronaldinho and Kaka, but France's strength is in defense, and Brazil have the pace and skill to trouble that defense

redspider

My original final-8 prediction was:

Brazil, Argentina
Italy/Czech R, Holland, Spain, Germany, England, France


The actual Final-8 pairings are:

Ger v Arg
Ita v Ukr

Eng v Por
Bra v Fra


The only thing which has thrown me out so far was a poor France in the group stages (they should be where Ukraine are!) and Portugal beating Holland.

Now for the final run in, I would expect the following:

Ger v Arg => Arg
Ita v Ukr => Ita => Arg

---

=> Arg
Eng v Por => Por => Bra
Bra v Fra => Bra


But this is football, no doubt there will be a few twists and turns.
Ukraine v England for the final anyone ????? :-)

redspider

redspider

I forgot to mention that only two countries remain that have never won it before, and they are Portugal and Ukraine.

Portugal are fitting the 'dark horse' category - they have capability and with a good run there is a chance but only a slim one.

Ukraine are more in the Ireland/Greece category. It is highly unlikely.

mike65 wrote:

I don't care that they don't start unitil Friday!
Discuss! Nothing else to do for the next two days....;)

I'm glad of the break. That was 19 straight days of football. It cant be good for us! I would have preferred to see a 1-day break between the group stages and the round of 16 as that would have given some respite.

enjoy the break,

redspider

Rikand

Ger v Arg => Arg
Ita v Ukr => Ger => Arg

---

=> Arg
Eng v Por => Por => Bra
Bra v Fra => Bra

^^ nice to see germany are going to win the game between Ukraine and Italy, redspider


I think Italy will be a team inspired when they take on the Ukraine and they should hammer them and when the face Argentina in the semi-finals, i think the argentinians could find themselves a tougher challenge than a couple of days ago. The accident involving pessotto will inspire many of the italian players, espeicially the older generation and they will want to perform in his honor....as for the rest of it, i cant really say, hehe

I hope Big Phil does the hat-trick on England and France continue playing like they did against spain and beat Brazil

Argentina vs Germany. This is the first challenge for the Germans and I think the Argentines will be too strong, who have already come through a couple of good fights already

Semi-final lineups

Arg Vs Ita
Por Vs Fra ( hopefully, lol )

eirebhoy

The last time Italy were beaten in 90 minutes in the knockout stage of a world cup was 1986.

1990: knocked out in the semi's by Argentina on penalties.
1994: knocked out in the final by Brazil on penalties.
1998: knocked out in the quarter's by France on penalties.
2002: knocked out in the last 16 by Korea on a golden goal after Italy had a good golden goal disallowed, Totti also was wrongly sent off for diving in the box which should have been a peno.

So they pretty much have only lost 1 meaninful world cup match in the last 20 years and that loss should have bean an Italian win. Their 22 games unbeaten and hopefully it'll be 25 on 9th July.

Bacchus

I had a lovely replied to this all typed out and my browser crashed on me :mad: Here's a short version...

Argentina - Germany -> Slow game at first. Argentina to get the first goal and then dominate the game.

Portugal - England -> England have yet to turn-up to the World Cup and are lucky to be this far into the competition. Only for those red cards in Portugals last game I'd have Portugal as a sure thing to win. Still, I think Portugal will edge out an unimpressive England side.

Italy - Ukraine -> Another clean sheet and a 1-0 victory for the boring, diving Italians.

Brazil - France -> Should be a cracker. France finally found their old form against Spain but Brazil, who have been in 2nd gear so far and still breezing to the Quarters will easily deal with the French. I expect France to look promising early on but Brazil will step it up and beat them.

redspider

Rickylovesuall wrote:

^^ nice to see germany are going to win the game between Ukraine and Italy, redspider

woops, fixed now in original post - it was a 'mindypo'.

Ita to beat Ukr.

By the way Eirebhoy, I dont fancy Italy to win the WC, is that who you think will. Sure, they'll be hard to beat as they have many (8?) natural defenders, but they will be beaten, and Argentina should do it.

I think Argentina will win the WC, and it would be good to see them meet Brazil in the final.

redspider

eirebhoy

redspider wrote:

woops, fixed now in original post - it was a 'mindypo'.

Ita to beat Ukr.

By the way Eirebhoy, I dont fancy Italy to win the WC, is that who you think will. Sure, they'll be hard to beat as they have many (8?) natural defenders, but they will be beaten, and Argentina should do it.

I think Argentina will win the WC, and it would be good to see them meet Brazil in the final.

redspider

I think Argentina will win it now but my money has been on Italy since March and I'm confident they can still do it. A lot of people still have this steriotypical view of Italy being boring while Lippi is trying to change that view by playing excellent attractive football. It's hard to play the way you planned though when 3 of the 4 games played have had red cards. Totti is crucial though. He's the best player in the world at setting up goalscoring chances imo and hopefully he will get close to his best against Ukraine.

Luca Toni has maybe had 6 or 7 clear cut chances in this WC and as of yet has failed to score. The amount of chances the strikers have failed to put away is ridiculous. A nice 3-0 win against Ukraine might change that.