World Cup Final and 3rd/4th Place Play-off Live Match Chat
Putin must be delighted at the thought of Europe’s finest taking over Moscow on Sunday. But it is what it is and the stadium will be covered in red and blue as France take on Croatia in the World Cup Final. These two have only met once before in the World Cup, in 1998, when the French triumphed 2-1 in the semi-final on the way to winning the trophy for the first and, to date, only time.
Croatia have never beaten France in their only previous five meetings, losing three and drawing the last two.
The 3rd/4th place play off sees England meet Belgium – a match dominated by Premier League involvement, unless of course Belgium make mass changes, which they may well do. The two have met three times previously in World Cup competition – in 1954 when the teams drew 4-4 in what must have been a tremendous game, in 1990 when David Platt’s last gasp goal saw England progress to the quarter-finals and of course in the group stages earlier in the tournament when both sides played their reserves in a 1-0 Belgium victory.
We will see the line-ups pre-deadline for the 3rd/4th place off match so maybe it’s best to wait to see which players are selected before making any transfers. It’s also worth noting that in the previous four World Cup tournaments there has been 17 goals in the 3rd/4th place play off compared to just 8 goals in the last four finals.
We are again allowed five free transfers and can now select a maximum of eight players from any one team.
THE GAMES IN FULL
Saturday 14th July
Belgium vs England (3pm)
Sunday 15th July
France vs Croatia (4pm)
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!
That Monaco goalie fact is overwhelming haha:
2006: Monaco goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, lost WC final
2010: Monaco goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, lost WC final
2014: Monaco Goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, lost WC final
2018: Monaco Goalkeeper, Danijel Subasic, lost WC final
In 2022, whoever is Monaco’s goalkeeper, I’ll place a little wager on! 😉
The Curse of Cookie!
I can’t take credit for 2006!
2006 was the warning sign of grave danger ahead!
It was also the year i got together with (this) mrs…..she would no doubt agree with you!
At least there is something to cheer about 🙂
Because of Tunisia and Panama
Cheer about? You are about as English as the French are French. 😉
That is coming rich from someone who doesn’t know if he is American or Colombian :big-lol:
Haha you people have some effed up identity crises! At least I am as Finnish as they come and have absolutely nothing to cheer about when it comes to football :big-lol:
Well ZL, are you sure that there is no Russians involved somewhere down the line 😉
Actually, now that you’ve said it, there’s some Spanish in there… Apparently my grandfather’s grandfather was a Spanish sailor who (for reasons uncomprehensible for a human brain) settled down in Finland and married a Finnish woman… So I am a world champion!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!
I definitely know what I am. I have always stated that my nationality is based on what is convenient at that moment.
Trump elected, obviously I am Colombian.
92 Dream team, I am a proud American.
:hippo:
Eskimo, you mean, Zed.
We are all children of the planet Earth Mito. Not in our time but one day there will be no nations. I wonder what the World Cup will be like then :cuckoo:
FIrst goal was a lucky goal, two or three penalties? Two normal goals versus Tunisa? What a hero. ^^
I think golden boot for this WC should go to the person scoring most own goals? 😛
Hey up Razman. Mail me matey.
Just want to say congrats to France. Have a brilliant team on paper and now they have shown that on the pitch. Any french man (Frenchie) congrats enjoy the celebrations.
Shut up Matt, stop bragging about your bet.
They were luckly that Cavani came across Portugal just about time, but yeah, congrats to them and any french here of course.
.
:big-lol: :clap:
Idiot.
Which one?
Roy Keane slams ‘idiot’ referee and Ian Wright over World Cup final penalty decision
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/989214/VAR-Roy-Keane-Ian-Wright-World-Cup-final-penalty-France-Croatia
I don’t think I’d want to be on the same side of a debate as Roy Keane 😆
Keane hardly made any comments throughout the tournament and then decided to explode 😆
I think Shearer nailed it thou.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/alan-shearer-blasts-ridiculous-var-12923371
I was pretty pissed about the decision. But I really wanted Croatia to win, so don’t think Iw as neutral. 😉
Keane is correct and as usual calls it like it is. Best pundit out there for my money.
The thing is that in 100 years we’ll still have the same situations. In general it was a very entertaining World Cup.
I disagree Ivan, the refs are still learning how to use VAR. And they’ll improve. Today he got it very wrong for me, his indecision when going back for another look proved it for me.
It should never have even been called for a review. But the process will improve in time – look how slick the video ref works in rugby now, its generally superb and VAR will get there.
Agree with Cookie here Ivan. We won’t, it’ll improve. As long as they apply common sense it’ll improve and be perfected. Knowing FIFA though there’s a lot that could go wrong in that last sentence alone!
I agree Cookie. It will take some time before it’s fully perfected. Best is not to think yet how is it going to affect the EPL because sooner or later it will be implemented there as well.
Would the penno have been given at the other end for Croatia ? I don’t think so. It stinks even more as Greaseman got that free kick leading to the 1st goal by diving, little slimeball.
Guarantee now we will all spend next season saying ‘but VAR would have….’ or similar.
Elle, like Init and Cookie stated things will improve with time. The next WC will be equipped with air conditioning, hopefully that will help to a better decisions 🙂
How does air-con make better decisions?
If anyone is interested, I’ve knocked this up for the new FPL season. Hopefully self-explanatory. The promoted teams’ data is not based on last season’s stats, but a mixture of expected goals to score and averaging the goals conceded by the newly promoted teams over the past five seasons, hence why it is in red. Arranged using the final column.
Hope people find it useful.
Thx AT, a lot of work in there. Very interesting.
Great work AT, feel like you skipped out on just writing an article here. 😉