Originally Posted by Stagger
FiFA rankings.... the rankings that have Wales above Croatia... Poland, peru & Denmark above us... and Germany ranked no. 1.....? Weren't England top 3 at some point in the rankings recently? I wouldn't pay too much notice to the rankings.
Croatia were undoubtedly superior to us. Look at their players, particularly up front and midfield. Sprinkled around the best clubs in Europe... Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan... they just had quality over and above us.... and once they figured out that putting a bit of pressure on our midfield, we passed it back to the defence or keeper, and a long ball up, and they could win the ball without too much effort.
Certainly no lack of 'bottle' or effort... just a bit of quality.
But football is won and lost on such small margins. Let's not forget that for the width of a crossbar in the penalty shoot-out against Colombia, we would likely have been out in the 2nd round, it would have been another "disaster" and everyone would be slating the team and manager. And on the other hand, had we gone 2-0 up last night we'd probably now be in a world cup final. It's the nature of cup football.
Reply With Quote