 |
| Quality Literature |
By Toutatis, the sky is going to
fall on the heads of one of these teams tonight.
Due to the underperformance of
both these teams, we can anticipate a mouthwatering clash between, Les
Escargots, who always fancy a nice bite out of a Brussel Sprout.
In Ceasars commentary on the
Gallic wars circa 50 BCE, what is today known as France and Belgium was all
part of greater Gaul. In the over 2000 years which have passed since then, the
froggies have tried to occupy the area today known as Belgium with varying
success.
Belgium gained independence in
1830 from the Netherlands rather than France and there are still issues between
those two countries. The Flemish were mainly Catholic and wanted independence
from the Protestant Orangemen but also independence from Bourbon France.
Both these countries had large
colonial empires in Africa which today is reflected in the composition of their
squads. It has been very apparent when you compare teams such as France and
Belgium, to say, Hungary and Poland, the lack of ethnic diversity in the latter
mentioned teams.
This is a very hot potato in
current European politics and indeed an election is being held in France at the
time of writing, in which the far-right anti immigrant party is expected to win.
There is no doubt that the
addition of players from their former colonies, and the fusion of styles this
has brought, has been beneficial for both countries. Since 1998, Les Bleu has
won two world cups and one Euro and the sprouts should have won something, but
never did.
Belgium is a boring country,
very grey in character and their football has often flattered to deceive, this
is an aging team, and it is probably its last chance to have some success
before they must rebuild. Can they do it. They have created plenty of chances,
Lukaku their central striker has had three goals disallowed, and how they did not
score against Slovenia was beyond belief.
They last met in the world cup
semi-final in 2018 which the Les Bleus edged 1-0 in a very tense game, so
expect a repeat type of game.
The froggies despite all that
flair have not been firing on all cylinders as yet, will this derby clash wake
them up or will the Brussels sneak it? I’m going for a draw at 90 minutes and
then it is impossible to call.
Two to look out for:
 |
| Can he pull a Rabiot out of his hat? |
 |
| Can he score a legal goal? |
I
In the second game we have
Cristiano Ronaldo and ten others from Portugal against another of the surprise
packages in Slovenia. CR7 as he is known is now thirty-nine years old, he
really should retire but is insanely competitive and is sort of a brahmin who
is untouchable so to speak. This is a big problem for the navigators, as he is
holding them back. He is almost not droppable, and this stops them from
probably picking their best team. They
won their first two games in a not very convincing manner and fielded a much changed team in the loss to
Georgia (although CR7 still played).
Slovenia drew all their group
games and are a very solid unit. They are very similar to Slovakia who came so
close to knocking out EnGerLand last night (we shall get to that when we
preview the quarter-final)
However, this has been a
tournament for the underdogs, the form book has been ripped to shreds by those
dogs much like the proverbial homework, that the dog ate and spat out.
The Slovenes will try and follow
the same method that Slovakia used last night. Keep it tight and nick one on
the break, the navigators do not have the same mental fortitude as EnGerLand
and will start to argue amongst themselves, if it starts to go wrong. I’m still
going to go with the intrepid explorers to win this one.
Two to watch out for:
 |
| Bruno, annoyingly good |
 |
| Oblak, a human wall |
As expected, Espana convincingly and EnGerLand by the skin of their teeth advanced to the quarter finals. The Shermans await Espana in a mouth watering clash and the Yodelers await EnGerLand.
Enjoy the fare on offer today.
No comments:
Post a Comment