Fantasy World Cup Live Match Chat Quarter Finals
Hello and welcome to the quarter-finals. We are moving ever closer to the biggest game in world football and while this is something we’re all looking forward to, it does mean that there are only eight games left. The four quarter-finals are spread over two days and the great thing is that these two days are Friday & Saturday, so send the significant other away for the weekend (it doesn’t matter where), get the fridge fully stocked with your favourite tipple, sit back and relax!
First up is the clash between European heavyweights Germany & France who get on well these days, but this hasn’t always been the case (don’t mention the ‘you know what’!). The Germans had a blitzkrieg start to their campaign as they demolished Portugal but since then they have flattered to deceive and they needed extra time to defeat Algeria in the last round. Like the Germans the French had a great start to the competition as they scored eight in their first two games, although since then they have lost some of their early fluidity. This is a tough game to call but as the Algerians proved, you’d turn a double decker bus quicker than the German defence and this will surely give Benzema & co quite a bit of confidence. From a fantasy perspective someone to keep an eye on is Antoine Griezmann who could be given the nod over Olivier Giroud after the youngster impressed off the bench against Nigeria.
Friday nights offering is the all South American clash as hosts Brazil take on FF247’s adopted team, Colombia. The Brazilians laboured through the group stages and then needed penalties to dispose of Chile. Colombia on the other hand cruised through the group stages and then comfortably beat a Uruguay side shorn of the talents of Luis Suarez. On the balance of play throughout the tournament Colombia will possibly start this one as favourites and with James Rodriguez orchestrating things in the number 10 jersey it wouldn’t be a major surprise should they turn the hosts over. However Brazil are Brazil and they can turn to their own mercurial talent, Neymar and while he’s clearly not 100% fit he still has the class to win the game on his own, which is just as well because Fred couldn’t hit a cows arse with a banjo!
Saturday afternoon sees the experienced Argentinian’s take on the relatively inexperienced Belgians. As is the norm these days, Argentina arrived at the World Cup with many expecting them to impress and to date they have yet to do so, in fact you could say that their diminutive #10 has carried them to the quarters. Does this remind anyone else of 1986? Despite being relatively inexperienced the Belgians also arrived in Brazil with much expected of them, due to the abundance of young talent available to them. Just like Argentina, Belgium have done just enough to get this far and while they don’t have a genius like Messi they are playing quite well as a collective. The Argies must go into this one as firm favourites thanks largely to Messi and don’t forget that when Argentina last won the world cup they beat the Belgians on their way to glory.
The quarters come to a conclusion on Saturday night as the Netherlands take on the surprise package of this World Cup, Costa Rica. Apparently the Dutch camp is unified, I know it’s difficult to believe but that’s what they keep telling us and the fact that they’ve come from behind in three of their four games would suggest there might be some truth to this. None of us gave the Costa Ricans any chance of qualifying from their group, but that’s just what they did and now here they are in the quarters. Player for player the Dutch must surely be the favourites to progress from this one but at this stage who’s brave enough to write off the Costa Ricans and with Nigel de Jong set to miss the rest of the competition, the Dutch have no one to maim the opposition!
Who to captain in the Brazil v colombia game…?
Bigz – who you got as options?
Dreamz….
Got lots of options…
Who you got as captain in this game…?
Happy enough with Hummels 42 monster points….
Have u got him as cappo Dreamers???? I didn’t realise! 😉
Currently on 34 points with triple columbians defence to come (not expecting a cs but expecting them to make 15 ‘recoveries’ each!! Captain is Yepes,come on Brazil give them a pummelling!!!
ya super happy Peaky. Others didnt do anything much in the game. We will know more about the scoring I guess after the next game.
34 is good start
I’m only jealous mate well done!! I’m still struggling with the format if I’m honest,where defenders for the losing team often get more points than those of the winning side because they are busier!!!!!!!!
That’s my excuse for being crap and I’m sticking with it!! 😉
Neymar is the obvious. Perhaps Luiz if you have him
Well Samba Bamba, if you are about, that’s our captain sorted. Game on for the rest of the round and the other 10.
indeed, i expect another close one & can’t hold any grudges if i loose to someone with a PJ avatar!
Not the best start, since I backed France to overturn Germany. 27 so far, and here’s my team:
Cillessen
Evra, Zapata, de Vrij, (van Buyten)
Valbuena, Lahm, Rodriguez (c), Cuadrado, Oscar, (Wijnaldum)
Benzema, Griezmann, (Robben), (Messi)
Nice bench though
BRA LINE-UP: Julio Cesar, Thiago Silva (c), David Luiz, Fernandinho, Marcelo, Hulk, Paulinho, Fred, Neymar, Oscar, Maicon
no Alves
Yeah it’s a shocker, Maicon gets the nod…
COL LINE-UP: Ospina, Zapata, Yepes (c), Sanchez, Armero, Gutierrez, Rodriguez, Cuadrado, Guarin, Ibarbo, Zuniga
Evening guys! Is it a good idea to sub out Matuidu (4 pts) for De Bruyne? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, its just the first sub im making
veer, i will wait until the line up posted. then see if KDB started or not.
i had him too, but since gustavo (bra) didn’t play, i replaced gustavo with KDB.