Today's Hors D'oeuvres serves up the clash between Les Bleus of Franc and the last remaining Eastern European team of Poland. This will be followed by a main course consisting of EnGerLand and Senegal.
An interesting thing that France and Poland have in common is that geographically they are the countries that sit to the East and the West of Ze Shermans, and this has caused them to live in fear for over two thousand years because of the rather rapacious nature of their neighbours. So, while the rest of the world rejoiced in the manner of Ze Shermans amazing exit, on Thursday night, there was an extra level of enjoyment and satisfaction felt in France and Poland.
Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the bright lights of gay paree were often the desired choice for Polish emigrees, who went on to find world renown in their adopted homeland, the composer Frederic Chopin and the physicist Marie Curie to name but two. All this shows that there is no real enmity between these two nations.
They have only met once before in the context of the world cup, when they played in the meaningless third place final back in Italia 82, a game in which the Poles ran out winners by three goals to two.
The French keeper had a bit of a mare.
The Polish have not been very good so far, to the extent that they nearly only qualified for this game because they had accrued fewer yellow cards than the Sancho Panzas of Mexico.
The Poles are a very grey team reflecting the weather of the country they come from, dour and miserable. They have one world class player in Lewandowski and are almost solely reliable on his ability to score. I think they will look to soak up the French pressure and try and catch them on the break.
The froggies on the other hand have lived up to expectations, they thrashed the Aussies and eased past Denmark, against Tunisia having already qualified, they fielded a very weakened team and surprisingly lost but it was really meaningless.
I expect Les Bleus, to roll forward like the columns of Napoleon's Imperial guard as they did at Austerlitz with Mbappe down one wing and Dembele down the other gliding along like a liberal splash of French polish, they should be able to outflank the stubborn Poles and then crush their center,so that they will move on to the Quarter finals.
Two to watch:
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| Cash will have his hands full |
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| Dembele will keep Cash busy |
Here we go, here we go, here we go, unfortunately it is happening again across the length and breadth of EnGerLand and anywhere in the world where there is a gathering of EnGerLand supporters, the fantasizing has begun as to whether football is coming home as the song goes.
There were five teams that were unbeaten in the group stages, and EnGerLand had the best record of the three who had two wins and a draw. They were the highest scorers along with Spain finding the net nine times and had the best goal difference of all the teams in the first round, having conceded only twice and one of those was due to a ridiculous penalty decision given in garbage time.
All these are contributing factors to the groundswell of optimism, which will only make the disappointment when it inevitably comes all the more difficult to stomach. However, that feeling of being let down will not hit today in my opinion.
Remarkably, the two sides have never faced each other in any form of football, so there is no history to look back on, so as football fans need some form of past rivalry to get them going, the fact that Senegal is a Francophone country will have to suffice for the English fans.
Although they are the current champions of Africa, you may remember that I did not predict that they would make it this far due to the absence through injury of their star striker. However, they are still a very capable, strong and fit side, and they have excellent players in defence and in goal so they must not be taken lightly,
Two to watch:
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| Foden, looked sharp against Wales |
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| Mendy will need to be on his toes |
As we saw yesterday, there were no surprises and The Orangemen and Don't cry for me Argentina, both eased through. I foresee the same pattern today and we shall have to wait until tomorrow and Monday to maybe see an upset or two.
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