- 7 hours ago
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:02hello welcome to copper independence the independence world cup podcast i'm lawrence
00:07osler and i'm joined by chief football writer miguel delaney hello and senior football correspondent
00:12richard jolly hello and senior sports writer kieran jackson hello so we've got rich and
00:19miguel in new jersey at the independence base domestic bliss over there and kieran on the
00:25other side of the country in los angeles so we will chat a bit later about spain belgium which
00:31kieran's going to be covering we'll also talk england norway but let's start with france morocco
00:37as we're recording this they've just wrapped up a two nil win there france very comfortable rich
00:42you had a keen eye on the game tell us your latest thoughts on france after another pretty easy
00:49victory for them now in the semi-finals another win for france and another goal for killian
00:55mbappe and it's really shaping up as a big contest between him and lionel messi as to who has the
01:00final say in this world cup it's interesting that mbappe even copied messi in another way in that
01:05messi misses penalties and then scores a goal so mbappe thought he'd do the same um it was interesting
01:12to watch morocco actually because we've seen them play against brazil and we've seen them play against
01:17the netherlands and they've been pretty positive in both of those games which in some ways was a bit
01:21of a contrast to the team last year who had that fantastic achievement of reaching the semi-finals
01:27but in the knockout stages kind of defended their way there against france today they were much more
01:32negative so whether that was a sign they thought they weren't going to be good enough to actually
01:37take on france at their own game whether that was because ishmael sabari was out and they just
01:42thought the the best way of coping was to add another midfielder and take out a striker
01:47but ultimately the only reason they stayed in the game for as long as they did was a was an
01:52absolutely brilliant first half from yassine bono in goal for them and it did feel a game that it was
01:58a case of if france got one goal would morocco's resistance be over and what would they do and in
02:05effect that was the case mbappe with an absolutely brilliant goal and in effect that was that though he
02:11did help us winter bella get the second migs has your where's your opinion at now on france i mean
02:18in some ways we've seen this before with teams who come through very comfortably get to this point
02:24and then find a kind of rude awakening when they come up against a really quality team and france i
02:29guess haven't been tested yet properly is that just because they're too good to be tested or have
02:34they just not really faced a proper challenge yet but let's not forget that they were in a tough group
02:37and with a potential semi-finalist norway i have to say so me and rich were talking during the first
02:43first half of that game where after the penalty miss there was that slight fear not enough fear
02:48figures maybe the wrong word but i had the feeling a little bit of this there could be an upset
02:53on
02:54here with the kind of momentum goal or you can see a situation against the penalties and bono has one
02:58of those games the hands that built america if you like uh just well lovely stuff yeah yeah
03:06it's taken three minutes to get that in
03:11tying it and look i may as well say what we're all thinking here
03:16is there a slight fear of a semi-finalist that ends up this is no disrespect to any of these
03:20countries
03:20but a semi-finalist that would have been at well now we've got one team true but it could have
03:25been
03:26morocco belgium and norway switzerland and not to dismiss any of those countries i'm not saying
03:31that there wouldn't be merit or respect if they all got that far but against that and obvious
03:38history for those countries france spain is obviously a historically giant match and a game
03:43between probably two best sizes of competition people will probably call it the true final if
03:46it happens and the other one is like argentina england which is a game with so much history and
03:52emotion i mean that is a proper world cup event so i have to say that thought has crossed my
03:57mind a
03:58fair bit over the past few days but with france what is so impressive about them is like there are
04:03some very good sides in that situation who'd missed a penalty and they'd almost succumb to the feeling
04:09that this isn't going to be our day france would have just kept going and like they're eventually
04:14their higher quality just asserted itself which has been pretty much the story of the tournament so
04:19far no matter okay we've missed a few some things haven't gone away eventually we'll get one and
04:23that is so reflected in the quality of that mbappe opener yeah that was unbelievable finish just the
04:31way he's almost stood still for a moment and then generated so much power and accuracy kieran yeah i
04:38mean they've just got so much quality haven't they in all of those positions and a level above all of
04:43the other teams left in the competition it feels like yeah i mean as well i've wrote in my spain
04:47belgian preview about what's so fascinating about the fact the semi-final against spain is that spain are
04:51yet to concede so if they keep it if they get through against belgium and can and don't concede
04:55a goal i mean that is just the ultimate matchup spain's defensive solidity against france is
05:00attacking attacking might so um we'll see which way i think the worst thing spain could do is is
05:04diminish belgium and like actually uh be complacent but nonetheless like france is france is attacking
05:09power like the fact they could bring mbappe off with 15 minutes to go and in kind of the knowledge
05:14and the safety that they were going to get through that match even with a two-goal lead i think
05:17was
05:18pretty telling that deschamps didn't want to take any chances on him even with a with a
05:21slight ankle knock um and yeah just we've spoken about it before their depth is is off the charts
05:27and if i'm honest i was a bit disappointed with morocco today like they didn't really come out
05:31their shell at all i thought it was a pre pre uninspiring performance maybe they simply run
05:36out of gas and you have to feel like the netherlands would have given france a better game today so
05:39that's the way the world cup works sometimes just uh on that point as well i completely agree with
05:45kira that morocco were really disappointed i suppose maybe that's just the nature of you're playing
05:48against a better side so the inclination is to sit deep again me and rich are talking about this
05:53mid-game as we maybe did our own mini production meeting beforehand but i do wonder is is that what
05:58morocco did in this game and what i'm about to say is about to put about two minutes of the
06:03podcast
06:03hostage to fortune given there's not much this isn't going to be out long before the spain
06:07belgium game so producer jamie please delete it as applicable after the match but um is this going
06:14to be a quarter final actually for all i've just said two minutes ago about the fear of maybe
06:18less stellar matches it is actually going to be one where like the quarter finals is traditionally
06:22the point of the tournament where like the pretenders get separated from the contenders really that kind
06:28of teams that have done well to get this far just are it demands that bit more of them and
06:33that
06:33would possibly feel all the more true after six games as opposed to five or with a sixth game rather
06:38than a fifth and i do wonder is this quarter final could this be one where just superior quality
06:44asserts itself and the notional lesser sides just find it gets a bit too far and actually if there's
06:50a uh a tournament of chaos so far and a knockdown of chaos maybe that that french game could set
06:56a
06:56little bit of a tone for the quarters yeah you you might you might be right miguel i think what's
07:00interesting is that the last two tournaments you have seen a shock in the quarterfinals you've seen
07:04croatia beat brazil on penalties in 2018 you saw belgium beat brazil like two two results you didn't
07:10expect to happen obviously they're both involved in brazil so maybe that maybe that says it all but
07:14you feel like it's quite the top four teams to get through it doesn't always work out that way and
07:19if you look at the four quarterfinals obviously one is done you'd say probably norway beating england
07:23looks like the most likely out of switzerland argentina or belgium spain in my opinion classic
07:28english pessimism but i don't know i i i think england's gonna win i think again like haaland just
07:35changed things and changes the complexion norway too as well i mean if haaland's in a semi-final
07:39we are talking about one of the world stars there but again it's back to this issue i suppose of
07:44more moderate teams being stretched i think the big danger is actually switzerland given what given
07:51i was at egypt argentina i think switzerland digging in deep and just frustrating argentina
07:56that that's got real potential for an upset there well you said that me because i remember the before
08:02the tournament started you felt like argentina might be in for a fall at some point they obviously
08:06done very well to get where they've got to but you feel do you still feel like that is a
08:10team that
08:10is slightly sort of flattering to deceive you know that some messi's brilliance is almost covering
08:16some of the cracks in a in a not quite elite team or or are they in better than you
08:22thought they
08:22actually would be well look they obviously they're well capable of turning any game into a fight
08:28as in like i don't i don't mean like physical battle i mean like as in just a dog of
08:32a game that
08:33they they will make you work for but they haven't actually played like a quality side yet have they
08:39like their group was quite forgiving austria were kind of talked up beforehand and they ended up being
08:44a poor side really spain just kind of really like it was too easy for them cabo verde were obviously
08:49the
08:50great surprise team but that doesn't necessarily speak to kind of true quality they do the merit in
08:54cape verde was how much they over performed and egypt really they are moderate like switzerland
08:59and this is something me and jack are editor of a discussion affair well and i've discussed with
09:04other people as well they're a very respectable team don't get me wrong but it's not like they
09:08add much to the uh the tapestry of world cup history is it like there's not really there's no
09:13great stars there there's sort of a series of respectable performance and that is exactly the sort of
09:17game suddenly where you can see that okay it's not we're not talking about an elite side but we're
09:22talking about team that's competent everywhere that's like good european quality everywhere and that is
09:27suddenly the sort of game where you can see just argentina's issues being exposed i mean they've
09:33got such a a compact midfield they've got so little mobility and in fact all mobility and kind of like
09:39i was talking to a coach about this earlier all explosiveness is basically dependent on messi but
09:44messi he's got to conserve himself for like i mean like that was the thing the story of the egypt
09:48game
09:48was basically he was dismal for 73 minutes he kind of did nothing he was he looked listless but clearly
09:56he
09:56was just conserving his energy for when it mattered because in 73 minutes he suddenly went
10:00in the sort of run that i saw him do 15 years ago for barcelona and changed the game rich
10:05of those
10:06three norway switzerland and belgium if you can call them underdogs maybe it's a bit harsh on norway
10:11which one would you fancy if any to to break up miguel's dream semi-final lineup i think norway have
10:18the added element that the others don't have which is purely harland and a match winner of that
10:24caliber and you also think that potentially with england maybe the weak link could be that defense
10:30uh you know they have conceded to mexico they have conceded to dr congo they have conceded to
10:36croatia so you wouldn't necessarily expect england to keep a clean sheet against anyone at this stage
10:41of the competition let alone erling harland so on paper i think norway probably are the ones with the
10:47best chance i do understand the girls argument that switzerland if they're solid if they make no
10:53mistakes if they if they manage to play for 120 minutes as they did against colombia they do have
11:00a chance i mean belgium i think probably are the greatest underdogs of the lot and to have looked
11:06at the way they started the competition they've overachieved really to get this far yes they're
11:12ranked about ninth or tenth in the world their performance against the usa having said all of
11:17that was was really really good just as the usa's performance was really bad one of the interesting
11:22things with this belgium team is they're kind of in that transition period as to what comes after a
11:28golden generation for a relatively small country and we've seen some of the last flickers of that
11:35golden generation you know kevin de bruyne against new zealand was a de bruyne tour de force when they
11:41played against the usa de bruyne wasn't he didn't even come off the bench it was the younger players who
11:47were obviously nowhere near as talented as him but the players with that added mobility like nico
11:54raskin like ledo bacchio those players who were preferred charles de ketelara had the best game of
11:59his international career i think it's pretty safe to say but having said all of that it would be the
12:04biggest shock of all of them if belgium were to not were to knock out spain yeah kieran you're going
12:10to be at that game let's let's just touch on that game given rich has brought it up i mean
12:15how do you see belgium going about it how do you see a world in which they can they can
12:20knock out
12:20spain in in this quarterfinal and keep going given they've already pulled off a miracle i guess in
12:25some ways it feels like a bit of a free hit now yeah i suppose that that can play into
12:29their favor
12:30for sure like the fact it is a free hit even though it's a world cup quarterfinal this is a
12:33team who
12:33drew to egypt drew to iran in the group stage and they found themselves in the quarterfinal so and
12:39they were five minutes from going out against senegal so i think there's a lot to speak about the
12:43resilience of the team i think yuri tillemans is a fantastic captain leads by example and i think
12:48the fact they weren't they didn't miss kevin de bruyne as rich touched upon in the last game
12:52against the u.s where they were really good u.s were poor but belgium had their best performance
12:56of this of the tournament so i think it's a bit of a free hit i just i don't really
13:01see it and
13:01spain's impeachable defensive record so they've set the longest ever run of clean sheets now in world
13:07cup history it's over 600 minutes so vuna simon and goals he keeps david raya out the team
13:12and just the solidity of that defense like kukurea is is a different player at left back for spain than
13:17he is for chelsea or now off to real madrid right back pedro porra has now made that position his
13:22own
13:22in the last few games center back pairing laporte with the barcelona teenager like it all it all gets
13:27it was really smooth and then you've got the best defensive midfielder in in the world guarding it so
13:33you know i think spain because they keep the ball so well they just suffocate teams and it may it
13:38was
13:38going to make it really difficult for belgium to create chances i think cristiano ronaldo shot in
13:42the first half of portugal spain was the first shot on target spain have received all tournament
13:46which is insane really i think that's an insane statistic so yeah i i think spain have got they're
13:53just gradually coming into form obviously it was a it was a bit of a dogfight against portugal
13:57but i think this one might be a bit more smooth against belgium and uh just just to add to
14:02spain's
14:02point about the wider context of their team at the moment if they win this world cup they'll set the
14:06all-time record for the longest ever unbeaten competitive streak in international football
14:11so you know to think that that would actually overachieve this the 2010 team is is is pretty
14:17remarkable yeah that'll be interesting when just comparing those two generations of spain go on
14:22and when i was looking at some stats earlier of the last eight teams just touched because you touched
14:27on possession and spain keeping the ball spain are by far the most possession so far in the tournament
14:33of any of the quarter finalists they like nearly 60 percent averaging possession belgium of the
14:39least so they're 49 they're the only one with a negative possession so i just wonder if that indicates
14:43like a team in belgium who might be prepared or might be happy in some ways to let spain have
14:49the ball
14:49and then kind of feed into that position as a counter-attacking side they've created a lot of chances
14:55on the counter-attack this tournament so far so yeah it'll be very interesting to see how it works
14:59miggs as a keen spanish follower where do you see them right now and their prospects have you changed
15:05your opinion on on them at all over the last few days they're in good shape very good shape and
15:10i
15:10think actually if they do get true that is look at that this is not to say it's the quote
15:16quote real
15:16final but france spain does does feel the match between the two highest quality teams also with
15:21different qualities in them you pick you've picked up one there which is possession and i suppose this
15:25is the thing with spain that like if you're going through that team in comparison to the french
15:30team you're not picking out as many players but obviously the whole idea is more coherent it's
15:36more complete in fact they're probably the only team in the in the competition really with such a
15:40kind of a an integrated and applied ideology that everyone else feels a bit more fractured the issue
15:49with spain and like i mean this is where i suppose this long run could break because that long run
15:54has been connected to the players who've given spain another dimension namely yamal but also
16:00kind of complimenting yamal uh nico williams now lately uh fermÃn lopez michael marino
16:08two of them are injured fermÃn lopez didn't make the team at all like there is attacking quantity
16:12there he changes spain nico williams i mean there's hope he comes back it feels very unlikely
16:18bayin is good but he's not nico williams as we saw from the euros although marino does like
16:24marino gives you end product i mean he's essentially a striker really but i do wonder if in that sort
16:29of
16:29game is that is that what might ultimately cost spain just that especially if say if belgium do go
16:36deep or if they get past france and england or argentina play the same sort of game that's
16:41potentially where there is the challenge for them but i do i do think they're in good shape i would
16:46be
16:46surprised if belgium beat them i think it could be similar to this morocco game but not maybe not as
16:51quite as much of a gap in the names again coming back i'll give it up morocco it's not just
16:56that
16:56they've been talked to i suppose they have looked very good certainly in in distinctive halves they
17:00probably never played a complete game which is maybe what caught them a bit here as well because
17:05really fred the french just went to another gear whereas belgium they've got a bit of emotional
17:09momentum now especially after what happened on monday there is also something just a final point on
17:13belgium is that they do have one of the most informed premier players of the season and jeremy
17:17docker who'd be up against poro or kukurea and if they're sitting deep and on the counter-attack
17:22you've there's not many better players in in in the world really that jeremy docker to try and
17:27run in behind so that that's the obvious avenue for belgium to do something but you can't i just
17:32can't look past spain's defensive record i mean it's just outstanding well that's if docker gets in
17:36the sea of course given the way it has gone sure yeah he didn't even didn't even start the last
17:40game
17:40which was which was amazing really yeah yeah i do think just on morocco i do think that perhaps part
17:47of
17:47why they didn't give them a good game which rich mentioned was saibari not playing yeah and some
17:51of the balls forward to brahim diaz like he just wasn't able to bring them but he had a good
17:55game
17:55when the ball was at his feet but he just wasn't able to bring them down or hold up the
17:59ball in any
18:00way uh yeah i wonder like you said if belgium would just be a slightly different prospect but we'll see
18:04okay let's take a quick break and when we get back we will probably get into england v norway in
18:10miami
18:11which miguel is off to watch on saturday
18:20all right so we have discussed france morocco spain belgium we've touched on argentina switzerland
18:26and the other quarterfinal is england v norway miguel you are heading is it tomorrow you head
18:32down to miami beautiful 7 a.m flight so little sleep and then a lot of heat we've already been
18:38looking at the forecast i think it's going to be 32 33 degrees but with something like over 70
18:42humidity and that means it's going to feel like according to this this new weather measure it's
18:48going to feel like 40 to 45 degrees i don't know what that is in Fahrenheit because that's not a
18:53measurement that should be used i think it's something like over 100 that was apparently the
18:57ground temperature it wasn't a temperature today but the ground temperature when ireland played
19:00mexico in that infamous match in florida that saw you know john aldrich succumb to the heat in terms of
19:06as a temper steve staunch succumb to the heat in terms of uh wearing a cap and vaseline the eyebrows
19:11think it was there's obviously been a lot of talk that actually for all the kind of glamour around
19:16brazil and what a game england brazil would have been actually norway are the tougher challenge but
19:20in that sort of scenario given you are playing a country with some some of some of their land in
19:26the arctic circle it is probably better not to play brazil because like the humidity is it's going to
19:31have a massive effect on this game yeah the kickoffs are is it 5 p.m local time yeah so
19:36it'll still be
19:37it'll still be warm yeah still be hot interesting and england i mean in terms of the team do we
19:44envisage many changes do we think anything tuchel's going to pull out any surprises or are we just kind
19:49of quite locked in now on what the england lineup is and how they're going to play so it looks
19:53like
19:53reese james is going to start and i i think he might bring in john stones for the experience and
19:58also just i suppose knowledge of holland holland as a i should say cons has not had a good tournament
20:05and like obviously stones fitness is a bit of a question i mean rich has covered them a lot this
20:09season well i was gonna say rich hasn't covered them a lot this season for manchester city because
20:12he hasn't played that much but this is one maybe where you know experience is so necessary because
20:18well i've done a piece in this for the for the independent today on on just you know because this
20:24is really of the tournament's many stars this is the first that england have really faced like they
20:28played moderich but like it's not moderich what he used to be this is one who's performing at a
20:32maximum so i've done a big piece on this and this whole dynamic of holland and how even though he's
20:38the star he doesn't feel it in the team he's one of the a bit like bale wales in 2016
20:42he's very much
20:43into the greater cause but obviously it does feel like he is the even though england are a better team
20:49than norway overall holland is the uh the gravitational center of this game because everything england do is
20:56basically going to be have to be dictated by just keeping the ball away from him or because you can't
20:59fully stop him but you have to ensure that he doesn't get quality chances that he doesn't have
21:05those openings in the area and yeah it's it's it has such a kind of enticing dynamic to the match
21:11yeah concert i was reading today has got a very good record against harland i think or certainly
21:17recently as well villa have have done some good results and kept him out rich would you endorse
21:22john stones replacing concert in the starting 11 or would you stick with the back four or stick
21:28with the back two that we've seen so far i think it probably makes sense to bring in john stones
21:34yeah
21:34i've seen one or two statistics saying that harland actually has quite a poor goal scoring record
21:38against newcastle and obviously there is the possibility of dan byrne heading the ball from
21:43the six yard box of the halfway line with great regularity though admittedly i think he's actually
21:48played left back in some of those games one of the things with stones is stones is best is better
21:55than any of the other defenders best and that's one of the reasons clearly why tuchel was almost
22:01hoping against hope and taking him to the tournament because realistically you wouldn't take someone to
22:07the tournament on that little first team football normally i mean he last completed 90 minutes in the
22:12premier league in august he ended the season as in effect manchester city's fifth choice center back
22:18even when they had the carabao cup final and mark way he was ineligible and josco quadio was injured
22:26and then ruben diaz pulled out late on quadio still turned to nathan ake which i think was just a
22:33sign
22:33he trusted nathan ake's body more so yeah i think i think they probably would go for john stones part
22:39of
22:39it is also obviously the question of limiting the supply but one of the things that i think is
22:44quite interesting going back to what miguel was talking about with the heat for these um poor
22:49vikings from the arctic circle was the halftime change that actually um stel sold back and made in
22:55the brazil game where he took off two wingers in antonio nusa and alexander saulot one of whom is very
23:02much a dribbler one of whom is really a six foot four six foot five target man playing on the
23:07wing
23:07because they've already got harlan and he brought on two players who are much more possession players
23:13to play on the wings in oscar bob and skelder up and skelder up ended up with two assists that
23:19day
23:19but i do wonder if with those conditions of heat and humidity that might be the way that norway looked
23:25to start the game because one of the oddities of the brazil game was it was norway who had two
23:30thirds of the ball and brazil who had one third and so for all our visions of norwegian football from
23:35egil olsen in the 1990s i do wonder if if maybe again in in the quarterfinal norway will be the
23:42team who have more of the ball and england look to play on the counter-attack with players like
23:46anthony gordon and bukayo saka and so whether they go with bob and skelder up to actually keep the ball
23:53yeah when you lay out their attacking players like that they've got really really good options haven't
23:57they very good players i think it will be a step up for england do we i mean i guess
24:02the wider
24:03question here if england were to beat norway do we really genuinely think they can win this world
24:07cup i mean that we've seen france and spain the level they've brought and miguel you mentioned
24:13that potentially being the real final in inverted commas i mean is there is there a world in which
24:19england could be a france or a spain or do we just feel like it's a completely it is just
24:24another level
24:25i mean watching france tonight i found it hard to imagine england being able to keep them quiet being
24:28able to beat france in a in a world cup final albeit you know it can be a one-off
24:33and anything
24:33can happen it just feels like another level to me but i don't know kieran what do you do you
24:37sense
24:38this is genuinely happening or is everyone just getting a bit carried away with with one or two
24:42wins uh well it's definitely that for sure um but uh i i struggled to to see a world where
24:49england
24:49could could beat france in this form i mean who's to say france number one get through the semi-fire
24:54number two maintain their form i think i think there's a chance that france are playing so well
24:58that can they really keep it up for another two games we'll see i think there's much more chance
25:02england somehow inching their way through a final against spain but i've just come back to the
25:06norway game i've got this horrible image in my head of noosa coming up against a reese james with a
25:10half-fit hamstring like it's you know i i would be i would be really worried if england starts reese
25:17james i think say noosa does start on the left i think you just want someone who you know is
25:21fully
25:21fit james hasn't played for two and a half weeks it's and noosa is extremely quick so you know the
25:25last
25:26thing you want is someone with a with a precarious hamstring i think it'll go with jed spencer there
25:30i think it'll bring spencer back in i know he struggled against dr congo but i think he played
25:35well when he came on against mexico albeit from the left and if margay he does have a slight
25:39hamstring strain then i think it is likely stones comes in alongside concert in the middle i don't
25:44think you'd want to shift conser out on the right and then bring in down burn and stones i think
25:48you
25:48need to keep at least one center back there so yeah i would really be surprised if he starts james
25:53although he he obviously does really like james so like i i said before the tournaments i think
25:58more so than any of you that i was more bullish on england potentially winning it but behind france
26:03and spain and yeah like i can very much see england get into the final if it's against france and
26:09spain
26:10i think they'd probably be beaten but again i wouldn't be as strong as that on it like it's it
26:15is a
26:15one-off game i mean we don't we don't need to go far too far back think of countless examples
26:21like
26:21it's funny i noticed there's been some big debate in the states this week and then like obviously
26:25now they're out some of the kind of anti-football stuff has kind of risen and one about like
26:30they've been going on about how the favorites don't often win well that's a good thing um but
26:35obviously that feeds into this final the one thing i suppose is maybe because the the stakes of the
26:42game are so acute and the meaning is so pronounced i don't know if that does something to application
26:48performance there are very rarely upsets in world cup finals and like they happen every four years
26:53and maybe that's not that's not the best grounds for any sort of statistical sequence but like when
26:59was the last actual it does feel like generally even on penalties actually surprisingly enough the best
27:04team has one of the better team has won the team with the momentum and the last well when was
27:09the
27:09last time you could maybe consider where the lesser side has won 74 and even 74 and i got skewed
27:15because like although like the netherlands total football team had had gone to another level during
27:20the uh during the world cup itself germany were the european champions in 72 and they were considered
27:24brilliant european champions like a real kind of the team of the era before the dutch came along
27:29before that 54 maybe and i suppose 1950 being the famous one but i mean we're talking about
27:35an era of football where the mechanics of the game aren't really applicable or aren't really relevant
27:42anymore so if england look we're getting ahead of ourselves here because they have they've got
27:46two games to play and have to have to just win on saturday but i mean england have an emotional
27:53momentum it it does matter like tournaments at this point do become something else it's not all about
27:58quality and tactics it's like because of what especially what the world cup represents and you
28:03can see in the emotion of so many games that that sort of thing does matter we've seen it with
28:07argentina as well yeah there is there is a flip side to it though as we discussed after the mexico
28:12game ago is that england have spent so much emotional energy already getting to the quarter
28:16final is it was a there are 15 minutes from going out against dr congo and they had the the
28:21cauldron of
28:21the azteca to get through in that last 25 minutes down to 10 men and i've seen england getting into
28:26deep in the last two european championships and spending a lot of emotional energy and it does feel
28:30like they run out of steam by the end whether it be you know against denmark in extra time in
28:352021
28:35and you know singing sweet caroline at the end as if they'd won it and then they haven't they don't
28:40quite get it done against italy whether it be in 2024 scoring in the last minute to save themselves
28:44against uh slovakia and then a last minute goal against the netherlands and penalties against
28:49switzerland you know what does that emotional energy take its toll out the team we've already seen a few
28:55injury knocks a suspension but that's the flip side of the argument but argentina would be would be the
29:00prototype just to say that the momentum is is bigger than the energy you you spend yeah and i
29:06was going to point to argentine actually is the counter example to that given but maybe there's
29:11something about the argentine team and the culture around and that kind of feels like that that sort of
29:15emotional energy is actually a good thing and it kind of it kind of feeds into this element to fight
29:21about them but the one thing i would say is and we we discussed we discussed this a little bit
29:25previously if these games do end up becoming chaotic and about emotion as we talk in that way
29:30they also and the hydration break is so crucial to this they give tuchel an opportunity to actually
29:35show he's the best remaining coach in the in the competition like i actually of every single coach
29:39left and that certainly includes that includes a world cup winner like scaloni includes a european
29:44championship winner like de la fuente and includes a world cup winner like de champ i i would say tuchel
29:51is
29:51actually the best at in-game management and because i think he's he's the most tactically
29:55intelligent coach here i mean he's got the best club record out of all of them which speaks to
29:59that and i think so while there are obviously questions about kind of we've spoken about this
30:03before about how you actually build international sides if we're talking about applying acumen to a
30:08game as it's happened i think tuchel is the best on the tournament that could actually end up as much
30:13as bellingham and kane scoring for him could end up being a trump card for for england but even
30:18tuchel is um as as dashing as he looks in in this tournament doesn't look as good as the swiss
30:23manager
30:25no handsome chap and before we go maybe we should throw out some predictions if you should hear what
30:31you guys think england norway i'll start with you rich prediction for england norway scoreline
30:38yeah i think i'd go england 2-1 as i say i find i find it hard to see england
30:44keeping a clean sheet
30:45but i think they might just about do enough kieran yeah i i've got a little uh predictions
30:51league with my mates and i went one all england on penalties uh so i kind of matches the quarter
30:57final of 2024 one all england win on penalties i don't know just a little hunch i think it'll be
31:02the tightest quarter final i think harlem will score he scored in 13 straight internationals i don't
31:06think we keep him out but i think i think we'll score two and i think i think it'll be
31:10tight
31:10miguel england 3-1 i think the higher quality of the squad overall will tell now it's a quarter
31:17final yeah i'm gonna i think it'll just be slightly too good for norway so i'm gonna say
31:25i don't want to say the same as rich so i'll say 2-1 after extra time there you go
31:29this is this this is disastrous when norway win yeah it's very embarrassing they clipped up on
31:35norwegian websites yeah i mean i've already written off the prospect of norway playing on a semi-final
31:40that's gonna yeah well we'll um we'll eat some humble pie once norway go through all right very
31:47good good to see you all enjoy your respective quarterfinals thank you very much to producer
31:51jamie and we will catch up in a few days time
31:55jamie and we will catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
31:55catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a
31:55few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
31:55catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a
31:55few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
31:55catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a
31:55few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
31:55catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a
31:55few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
31:55catch up in a few days and we'll catch up in a few days and we'll
Comments