I feel our full strength team will do em.
Good team though they are.

Confident?

They'll probably outplay us but we should scrape through thanks to set-pieces or a goal on the counter.

ElectroClaret wrote:I feel our full strength team will do em.
Good team though they are.

Confident?

What happens if it’s a draw at full time?

Not particularly confident, but if we are knocked out it doesn't mean we should have tried harder to beat Belgium tonight.

South West Claret. wrote:What happens if it’s a draw at full time?

Extra time and penalties of course.

South West Claret. wrote:What happens if it’s a draw at full time?

The captains have an arm wrestle on the centre spot and the winner means his team go through.

Honestly think we can beat them. With Pope in the nets. And Mee and Tarkowski at the back and ... no , I'm just being silly now - I do think we can beat them.

Your being silly now!

Tall Paul wrote:Extra time and penalties of course.

Oh good no changes from the traditional way.

I think it will be a traditional, backs to the wall, Terry Butcher blood soaked, agonising narrow win. Or three nil to Colombia.

I think England have a really good chance, and i hope they win it. But i'm still going to find it funny if they don't. I hope you all understand

Imploding Turtle wrote:I think England have a really good chance, and i hope they win it. But i'm still going to find it funny if they don't. I hope you all understand

As you said you'd find it funny if Aberdeen knock us out of Europa it's no surprise at all.

taio wrote:As you said you'd find it funny if Aberdeen knock us out of Europa it's no surprise at all.

I could see the funny side of it. We've waitged decades to get back into europe and then it being a British team that knocks us out at the first hurdle. There is a pretty clear funny side to that. That's not to say it's what i want to happen, which is what some of you like to suggest about me.

Tall Paul wrote:Extra time and penalties of course.

just extra time

..it's only penalties if its a draw after extra time!

I'm feeling pedantic tonight TP!

One major obstacle. We don't win tournament football games on ITV!

Who gives a **** ?? You ain't gonna win it, Colombia got way too much skill and heart to lose on Tues. More important is trying to get Aberdeen tickets to follow the only team that matters. UTC.

Think we can win this but will be tough. Be a tougher game than the quarter final against Sweden/Swiss if we get to the quarters that is. Columbia have Rodriquez injured who is a brilliant player. Hopefully he not fit to face us next week. UTC GSTQ

LongSider75 wrote:Who gives a **** ?? You ain't gonna win it, Colombia got way too much skill and heart to lose on Tues. More important is trying to get Aberdeen tickets to follow the only team that matters. UTC.

I wish there was a yawning smily. Why do you feel the need to comment on England v Columbia if you have no interest in England v Columbia?

So boring.

Imploding Turtle wrote:I think England have a really good chance, and i hope they win it. But i'm still going to find it funny if they don't. I hope you all understand

Yeah really funny, we all understand

I'd rather have Japan as I think they are by far the weakest team in the group but Colombia are beatable.

But its going to be a close one.

Tall Paul wrote:Extra time and penalties of course.

Bound to happen as well. Bound to

Imploding Turtle wrote:I could see the funny side of it. We've waitged decades to get back into europe and then it being a British team that knocks us out at the first hurdle. There is a pretty clear funny side to that. That's not to say it's what i want to happen, which is what some of you like to suggest about me.

I can agree with that IT, the slightly worrying thing is no one else agrees with you, does that make me weird?

What I didn't get with before the game last night was that people were saying it might be good to lose because it would be easier in the next round. In what universe is Columbia an easier game than Japan? Okay Brazil are in that half of the draw but we would have to get past the next round to bump into them. As I have said before there are NO bad South American sides and unless anyone hasn't noticed 4 out of 5 South Americans have got through to the next round.
I'd love England to go on and win this but I seriously think this is going to be another South American victory.

Just on the 'easier' route and all the accusations of arrogance and delusion that brings.. remember in 2002, the last time we actually had a decent England team and we rightly got hammered for not going all out to beat Nigeria in the final group game, which would have meant avoiding a QF with Brazil who beat us. This time all we had to do is play our 2nd team and lose to avoid Brazil and we're still getting grief about it.

One game at a time folks. We can beat Columbia if we play to our strengths. England have given the opposition far too much respect in previous tournaments - especially at the knockout phase. If we have a fully fit first 11 and we play our game we should have enough to beat Columbia. They've got a very good front three so we need to be wary but our midfield should have too much for them and ultimately I feel it's a game we should win in 90 minutes.

Too much respect or just not as good as some folk think?

houseboy wrote:I can agree with that IT, the slightly worrying thing is no one else agrees with you, does that make me weird?

No. It's just irony, and i find irony funny. Some people take football too seriously to laugh sometimes.

The key will be whether James Rodriguez is fit or not. Without him they are a lot weaker.

taio wrote:As you said you'd find it funny if Aberdeen knock us out of Europa it's no surprise at all.

It one of those situations that you either laugh or cry. C’mon we dreamt of going to the San Siro or some lovely warm beach town or whatever. Yet we could get knocked out by Aberdeen

The problem that I see is the huge changes coming back in and how it will effect the flow of the football. Japan would have been perfect to bring everybody back get through and get the momentum up before Brazil. This could all happen against Colombia of course but they will be a tricky side. Expect England to win but it will be bery bery close.

Folk are going off the name. This is a very poor Colombia side and their best player is injured.
I’d be more concerned if it ends up Sweden in the next round. We tend to struggle against Scandinavian nations.

houseboy wrote:What I didn't get with before the game last night was that people were saying it might be good to lose because it would be easier in the next round. In what universe is Columbia an easier game than Japan? Okay Brazil are in that half of the draw but we would have to get past the next round to bump into them. As I have said before there are NO bad South American sides and unless anyone hasn't noticed 4 out of 5 South Americans have got through to the next round.
I'd love England to go on and win this but I seriously think this is going to be another South American victory.

Nobody was saying it would be easier in the next round if we lost.

And it's ColOmbia!

Spijed wrote:The key will be whether James Rodriguez is fit or not. Without him they are a lot weaker.

Sounds like he was carrying a niggle before yesterday's game,i'm sure they will do their damnedest to get him on the park if possible.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44651678

Imploding Turtle wrote:No. It's just irony, and i find irony funny. Some people take football too seriously to laugh sometimes.

Now irony is my favourite type of humour, along with sarcasm, which is closely related. Bizarre humour along with the above is probably why I think Fawlty Towers is arguably the finest sitcom ever.

Tall Paul wrote:Nobody was saying it would be easier in the next round if we lost.

And it's ColOmbia!

Actually they were on the BBC Football website and at one point on the commentary, I didn't mean on here mate. As for Columbia? Are you saying we are going to stroll past them?

houseboy wrote:Actually they were on the BBC Football website and at one point on the commentary, I didn't mean on here mate. As for Columbia? Are you saying we are going to stroll past them?

I don't believe anyone was saying that, but if they were it was a stupid thing to say. I think it's more likely that they were saying we'd have an easier route to the final and you've misinterpreted them.

As for Columbia, they don't have an international football team, because Columbia isn't a country. I don't think we're going to stroll past Colombia though, but we have a reasonable chance of getting past them.

With James potentially injured and Falcao seemingly not as good as he once was they are certainly a lesser threat than they could have been but they are still a team who are more than capable of putting us out.

I am confident that we have enough to beat them and anyone else in our half of the draw but over 90 minutes generally anyone can beat anyone (as our club have proved time and again over the last few seasons )

Everybody wanted to avoid Brazil. I'd find it funny if they were beaten by Mexico. In one game anything is possible !

piston broke wrote:Folk are going off the name. This is a very poor Colombia side and their best player is injured.
I’d be more concerned if it ends up Sweden in the next round. We tend to struggle against Scandinavian nations.

One of our only 2 wins in a knockout game in the last god knows how long was against Denmark. However we do tend to struggle against sweden. The best scenario is beat colombia and get the Swiss.

From what I've seen of them this World Cup, Colombia will be a threat against our, imo, weak defence. We'll need to get more men behind the ball when we don't have it, to support the defence, and spend phrases of the match counter-attacking. But we can beat them, for sure.

Tall Paul wrote:I don't believe anyone was saying that, but if they were it was a stupid thing to say. I think it's more likely that they were saying we'd have an easier route to the final and you've misinterpreted them.

As for Columbia, they don't have an international football team, because Columbia isn't a country. I don't think we're going to stroll past Colombia though, but we have a reasonable chance of getting past them.

Colombia/Columbia - a very common spelling error even made by myself who is not prone to such errors.
As for 'easier' or 'easier route' is your middle name Pedant? Any route starts with it's first phase and the first phase of our route is definitely harder than Belgium's, therefore our 'route' is more difficult. The 'route' may become easier IF we get past the first phase of it but that is very much open to question.

Here endeth the first lesson in pedantry.

"The best scenario is beat colombia and get the Swiss."

I don't understand this logic. You don't want Sweden, so would rather play a team that can beat Sweden, who you think you'll struggle against?

piston broke wrote:Folk are going off the name. This is a very poor Colombia side and their best player is injured.
I’d be more concerned if it ends up Sweden in the next round. We tend to struggle against Scandinavian nations.

The same Colombia that finished a very close up 4th in their qualifying group ( 4 points off 2nd placed Uraguay) after conceding 2 last min goals at home in their final game ( they’d already qualified ) This in a brutal 18 game qualifying group playing the likes of Brazil, Argentina ,Uraguay,Chile ,Ecuador etc twice! Compare this to our strolls round the park against European butchers bakers and postmen .

They’re actually a very decent side , but like you say their key player has a niggle ,and I believe we’ll have a bit too much for them over the 90 mins , but to underestimate this lot would be criminal

edison wrote:"The best scenario is beat colombia and get the Swiss."

I don't understand this logic. You don't want Sweden, so would rather play a team that can beat Sweden, who you think you'll struggle against?

Im going off previous. They are a bogey side for england. If west brom played stoke and the winners possibly played Burnley would you want stoke or west brom?

James Rodriguez looks HIGHLY likely to be out (worst case scenario extremely limited). Fantastic news for us.

I thought their CB Sanchez was excellent in the last game. Single handedly kept them in it.

I don't think anyone is underestimating Colombia. We all know it will be a tough game but a full strength England should have too much for them.

As has been mentioned though...... anything can happen in a one off game.

houseboy wrote:Colombia/Columbia - a very common spelling error even made by myself who is not prone to such errors.
As for 'easier' or 'easier route' is your middle name Pedant? Any route starts with it's first phase and the first phase of our route is definitely harder than Belgium's, therefore our 'route' is more difficult. The 'route' may become easier IF we get past the first phase of it but that is very much open to question.

Here endeth the first lesson in pedantry.

It's hardly pedantic to point out there's a big difference between someone saying the next match would be easier and someone saying the route to the final would be easier.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that any team is guaranteed to lose if they face Brazil. By avoiding the possibility of playing Brazil until the final we have a bigger chance of getting there than Belgium who would be guaranteed to lose in the quarter finals if they got past Japan.

Obviously the assumption isn't true but, as tournament favourites, the chances of England, or anyone else, beating Brazil will be smaller than their chances of beating any of the other teams.

As an aside, we're avoiding the possibility of playing your tip for the tournament until the final as well.

gandhisflipflop wrote:Im going off previous. They are a bogey side for england. If west brom played stoke and the winners possibly played Burnley would you want stoke or west brom?

I'd want whichever team is weaker.

There's no such thing as a bogey side.

HiroshimaClaret wrote:James Rodriguez looks HIGHLY likely to be out (worst case scenario extremely limited). Fantastic news for us.

What source did you get this from? I've read a few and they're just going off what Pekerman said straight after the match, before any examination.