World Cup 3rd Group Phase Live Match Chat
Welcome to World Cup 3rd Group Phase Live Match Chat.
Forewarned is forearmed and all that….
We’ve posted this particular LMC a bit earlier than normal but that’s simply because of the points we are about to come onto really and their implications for your teams. This is where it starts to get a bit tricky as some teams have already qualified and others are still fighting tooth and nail to do so. Rest and rotation will occur naturally at this point for those who have but perhaps that may also depend on whether they are secure in 1st spot or wish to avoid a more tricky route by finishing there as opposed to 2nd. Either way it’s probably not the best round to be deploying that Bench Boost chip as getting 11 on the pitch may be hard enough, never mind 15!
For the record then here’s a quick reference guide to the situation in each group and who’s either ‘Qualified‘, have a ‘Squeaky bum time‘ ahead or are simply OUT! We won’t go into the exact scenarios in each group because quite simply they’re seemingly infinite and also mind numbing. All you need to know is whether they are through or not really. But even then it’s anybody’s guess as to what sort of team hits the field come kick off. It’ll be carnage, basically!
GROUP A
Russia – Qualified
Uruguay – Qualified
Egypt – OUT!
Saudi Arabia – OUT!
GROUP B
Spain – Squeaky bum time
Portugal – Squeaky bum time
Iran – Squeaky bum time
Morocco – OUT!
GROUP C
France – Qualified
Denmark – Squeaky bum time
Australia – Squeaky bum time
Peru – OUT!
GROUP D
Croatia – Qualified
Nigeria – Squeaky bum time
Iceland – Squeaky bum time
Argentina – Squeaky bum time
GROUP E
Brazil – Squeaky bum time
Switzerland – Squeaky bum time
Serbia – Squeaky bum time
Costa Rica – OUT!
GROUP F
Mexico – Squeaky bum time
Germany – Squeaky bum time
Sweden – Squeaky bum time
South Korea – Squeaky bum time
GROUP G
England – Qualified
Belgium – Qualified
Tunisia – OUT!
Panama – OUT!
GROUP H
Japan – Squeaky bum time
Senegal – Squeaky bum time
Colombia – Squeaky bum time
Poland – OUT!
You may need to be a touch more savvy with your planning in this round too as there are just 4 game days as opposed to the previous rounds being spread over 5 or 6 days. It means that the bench and captain switch options won’t be such a lose affair as they were previously. You can still plan out 4 viable captains and organise a decent enough bench of course. The fixtures themselves are as follows…
THE GAMES IN FULL
Monday June 25th
Saudi Arabia vs Egypt 3pm (Group A)
Uruguay vs Russia 3pm (Group A)
Spain vs Morocco 7pm (Group B)
Iran vs Portugal 7pm (Group B)
Tuesday June 26th
Australia vs Peru 3pm (Group C)
Denmark vs France 3pm (Group C)
Iceland vs Croatia 7pm (Group D)
Nigeria vs Argentina 7pm (Group D)
Wednesday June 27th
Mexico vs Sweden 3pm (Group F)
South Korea vs Germany 3pm (Group F)
Switzerland vs Costa Rica 7pm (Group E)
Serbia vs Brazil 7pm (Group E)
Thursday June 28th
Japan vs Poland 3pm (Group H)
Senegal vs Colombia 3pm (Group H)
Panama vs Tunisia 7pm (Group G)
England vs Belgium 7pm (Group G)
So that you have them to hand in one place here’s a reminder of the substitution rules, transfer allotment, wildcard and boosters. AKA the rules…
SUBSTITUTIONS
TRANSFERS
Keep track of all the action, the goals, the talking points, right here at FF247 Live Match Chat, an interactive chat which encourages you to keep involved and share your thoughts and emotions as the matches take place.
Good luck to most of you, but not all of you for this 3rd phase of fantasy World Cup!
Inui on with the Japs going home….as we speak
Brutal stuff. 78´´ and Senegal aer out unless:
– they score one
– poland scores one
– japan gets two more yellows
Colombia score seconds after Sabaly is taken off injured! Happy owners!
Quintero assist…
Got them both!!
Ah brilliant then. I’m the owner of those 6 pts from Sabaly (I knew he was gold at 4.0) AND the proud owner of captain Juan Quintero! Finnaly something good in this awful round 3.
Senegal set to be eliminated on disciplinary record, that seems wrong somehow. Why not on overall rankings or summat…
Craziness in Group H! Those results must affect how Belgium and England go after their match, correct?! It looked like they’d both want to lose and face the first placed team from H, but now it’s Columbia in first and they will really want Japan in the round of 16!
So both will try to win now….at least it is better than trying to lose.
Yeah, that’s my thinking. There’s something wrong with going into a match not to win, but I understand that in tournament play your goal is to reach and win the last game, so there are certain strategies that are in play. Seems more and more like Groups G & H have unfair advantages of seeing how the rest play out.
Any chance Kane and Lukaku start now? :winktongue:
Would it be considered match fixing if teams went out with the intention to lose? Hopefully this is be an end to end game now but I’d still hope England finish second.
Well, only England would. Belgium just need a tie and keep the disciplinary advantage to stay in second.
I don’t know Matt. In my thinking it would depend on whether there was anyone connected to the club who stood to profit financially from that particular match. As soon as a manager, coach, player, etc was paid off or made a wager on losing and then lost intentionally I wouldn’t think it was match fixing. If the only benefit to losing is a footballing advantage and it is only a benefit to your team (as opposed to losing on purpose so that the team you are playing is able to knock a rival out at the group stages) then I wouldn’t consider it match fixing. What do you think?
@Pancho. I’d say that’s correct and was kind of what I was thinking since its a tactic that I believe Portugal did during the Euros but DMC would be better poised to correct me there. The way FIFA is I think as long as they don’t benefit financially it would be fine.
You can’t compare that Matt. We started the third game (vs Hungary) in third, equal on pts with Iceland with a worse goal difference. We needed to win that game. We were down to 3-2 on the 55´´ and at that time Iceland were up 1-0 vs Austria.
What happened next is that by scoring the 3-3 on the 62´´, after Austria had tied the game on the 60´´, we had the edge over Iceland on GD AND we were surely guarenteed to go through at least as 3rd. So we didn’t need to win in the last half hour, but if Hungary scored another, we would be out… no wonder that we then freezed the game. Tottaly different story here.
@DMC, ah right no I was just told it was a tactic Portugal used didn’t have a clue how they used it just assumed it was going into the game similar to this. But yeah that is a whole different story.
Brilliant stuff from group H! Have to say I wanted Senegal to go through but cest la vie!!
Am I correct in thinking no African side got out of the group stage?
matt, I agree. Senegal were a breath of fresh air in this tournament! Size, speed, pressing, well-disciplined at the back. They were exciting to watch and just seemed to lack the cutting edge in the box. I really feel they would have given just about anyone trouble in the knockout rounds.
Agree Pancho but they “couldn’t” let Japan equalize like that (in the second game) after edging it on 2-1 if they were going to do anything relevant here.
I can see that DMC. But they were able to hold Poland to a late goal. Poland would have been projected to score more than one against them, and their discipline (IMO) was what got them to that place. Same thing with just giving up one goal to a good Columbia side. I submit that the late goal to Japan is an exception to that discipline, and is what ended up knocking them out of the tournament really.
How do you like Portugal’s matchup against a Uruguay side who didn’t give up a single goal in group play?
I just loved their coach. Looked like some lad to party with 😉 I’d have to disagree on defensive point as they did consider rather late goals in their first two games but apart from that they were very good. Wasn’t too impressed by Mane though maybe captaincy is too much pressure for him?
Matt, it feels like there is a different sort of pressure to represent your national side that some people just can’t overcome. On the flip side, there are some players who are stellar for their national side and then can’t reproduce at the club level. See Renato Sanchez at Euro 16 and then not even being able to really break into the Swansea starting 11.
Completely agree Pancho. There are a lot of players that were like that.
Yes you are. And only one asian did. Allthough parts of Russia are in Asia!
Cheers DMC that leads me to my next question if I did a bet on top African side but none got out of the groups how is that decided??
I wouldn’t be fearing Japan if I was anyone. Don’t really have much to frighten people.
Renato did very well for his Not sure what’s the correct answer here Matt. Perhaps the first criteria could be the position (3rd would top 4th even if 4th got more points), the points, then the GD, then the yellow cards. If you win it based on this fell free to share it!!