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Originally Posted by demonrail666

Colombia ... probably no James, but even with him, I've seen nothing so far to think they're objectively better than England.
Switzerland, Sweden, Russia ... how many of their 1st 11 would get into England's?
Croatia ... OK they've got Modric but in a single game I'd still take our XI over theirs. I would.

The final's obviously a different matter. Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, France. They all worry me, but the teams we'd face getting to them don't.

i know what you mean on paper, which is why i commented. on paper spain beat russia 5-0 and on paper croatia was gonna wipe the floor with denmark.

here’s the thing: colombia survived having a man thrown out on minute 3, then gave their overrated group head a 3-0 drubbing, then had a good contest with senegal whose team is not shabby at all. you have kane, but senegal had mané. poland had lewandowski—but ok poland sucked. compare vs. facing tunisia—and panama which is such trash.

colombia has struggled to get here. the question about struggle though is— does it consolidate a team? or does it fatigue it?

my issue with england is not with the players on paper— on paper they’re awesome. but their easy qualifier group (per the questions above) was either not enough challenge or was a great way to train together and stay fresh.

it’s a question, not a declaration that “this is this way”. i don’t have answers but i think it’s a true factor here. how will it play out? i’m lacking a proof so i can’t tell either way.

as for colombia: i don’t think james is that vital to be frank. sure he’s creative but ultimately a bit of a pussy. his year at bayern was sorta meh, at least what i saw (the last half), in the champions, which is the only real test bayern faces these days. maybe he was already injured—apparently it’s an ongoing thing with him. which is a pity. but colombia can cope. he’s not indispensable.

colombia are a team. cuadrado, quintero, mina are more important to the squad i think, as is ospina. this is probably the most difficult opponent in this bracket after what we’ve seen. spain gone lololol.

then again if they’re fatigued and unfit it should be a cakewalk for a fresh-legged england to beat them.

but they don’t concede easily and have mega-huevos (except maybe james who apologizes for scoring and cries a lot).

https://www.balls.ie/football/james-...i-final-388077