Group E - Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia

[James]

17 June 2018
16:00 SAMT (UTC+4)
Costa Rica
Serbia
Cosmos Arena, Samara


17 June 2018
21:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Brazil
Switzerland
Rostov Arena, Rostov-on-Don


22 June 2018
15:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Brazil
Costa Rica
Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg


22 June 2018
20:00 KALT (UTC+2)
Serbia
Switzerland
Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad


27 June 2018
21:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Serbia
Brazil
Otkritie Arena, Moscow


27 June 2018
21:00 MSK (UTC+3)
Switzerland
Costa Rica
Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Nizhny Novgorod

 

[Expo]

Brazil National team improves enormously under the supervision of Tite. They secured an easy 3-0 win against Austria. In previous game Austria defeated Germany. So, in this sense, Brazil has the capability to win the world cup 2018.

 

[sledger]

Ah yes, good logic Exbot.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Chances going begging for Costa Rica

 

[vcs]

Brazil are like the India of football, huge passionate fanbase, historically successful, loved by the neutrals..

 

[sledger]

Dreadful defending for the goal there.

 

[Furball]

How the **** can Lee Dixon look at that replay and say there's nothing wrong with Switzerland's goal?

Even spouting the 'contact sport' rubbish.

 

[Furball]

Dreadful defending for the goal there.

To be fair it's hard to defend a corner when you're shoved in the back.

 

[sledger]

To be fair it's hard to defend a corner when you're shoved in the back.

Made even harder when you show the core strength of a piece of paper I should imagine.

 

[Furball]

Made even harder when you show the core strength of a piece of paper I should imagine.

When your opponent is behind you it's not something you can brace yourself for.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, it's not like every other game Miranda has ever played in would have prepared him for similar or anything. Must have come as a very big surprise.

 

[sledger]

When your opponent is behind you it's probably crap defending.

Now that's more like it.

 

[Burgey]

Made even harder when you show the core strength of a piece of paper I should imagine.

Should play up front.

 

[straw man]

Switzerland probably more lucky to escape giving away that late penalty I thought.

I know Serbia also blew lots of chances, but from highlights I've seen so far all the South/Central American teams including the small ones like Peru and Costa Rica, are great at getting themselves in good positions in front of goal but have been terrible at finishing with the last touch or two.

 

[Uppercut]

Very weak refereeing in this game. Brazil eventually realised it was a bad idea to take any chances because every time they broke through a line they got hauled down with no further punishment. Exactly what they did to Colombia last time so I’m not especially sympathetic but it’s going to lead to a lot more negative football if the rest of the tournament is refereed like this.

 

[harsh.ag]

Every time I watch football nowadays I feel the referee is too lenient.

 

[sledger]

Very weak refereeing in this game. Brazil eventually realised it was a bad idea to take any chances because every time they broke through a line they got hauled down with no further punishment. Exactly what they did to Colombia last time so I’m not especially sympathetic but it’s going to lead to a lot more negative football if the rest of the tournament is referred like this.

Yeah, pretty sure a few of the Swiss team kicked Neymar more often than they kicked the ball tbh.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, pretty sure a few of the Swiss team kicked Neymar more often than they kicked the ball tbh.

Most fouled player in a WC game since 1998. Though strangely everyone seems to just be hating Neymar for it. I wonder if this was the reaction to Pele in 1966.

 

[wpdavid]

How the **** can Lee Dixon look at that replay and say there's nothing wrong with Switzerland's goal?

Even spouting the 'contact sport' rubbish.

It was an astonishing decision because referees usually blow up for any contact whatsoever from a forward on a defender. And this was genuinely a foul, compared to the merest hint of physical contact that referees use to penalise forwards most of the time.
Almost as astonishing to see the penalty awarded against Nigeria when their defender wrestled a Serbian when trying to defend a corner. It was the right decision, but it's so rare that you see a referee having the balls to award a penalty. Lets hope they do that against the bigger name countries as well, although I reckon they probably won't.

 

[wpdavid]

Most fouled player in a WC game since 1998. Though strangely everyone seems to just be hating Neymar for it. I wonder if this was the reaction to Pele in 1966.

I suspect that the public perception of Pele was more sympathetic, although you could probably find some articles at the time justifying the physical approach from Bulgaria and Portugal. Neymar does have the reputation of being a bit of a dick, and it's not just the silly haircut. Maybe that's behind some people's reaction to his treatment yesterday.