Croatia will play Spain in the EURO 2020 Round of 16 Monday, June 28th in Copenhagen, Denmark. Spain finished second in Group E behind Sweden and are coming off a 5-0 win over Slovakia. This is not your father’s Spanish side though that won three straight tournaments 10 years ago. They couldn’t find the back of the net against Sweden in a 0-0 draw before drawing a lackluster Polish side 1-1 in their second group stage match.
The Vatreni have never in their history won a EURO knockout round match. Hard to believe but it’s true. They fell short against Turkey in 2008 and Portugal in 2016, when both of those matches went into extra time.
The Croatian side is riding high after an aggressive and emotional 2nd half vs. Scotland yesterday. Croatia and Spain each won their 2018 UEFA Nations League matches against each other on home soil. The Vatreni beat Spain 2-1 in the final group stage game at EURO 2016 in France to top the group. Ivan Perišić scored the winner with five minutes left. I was there. It was great!
Game on!
If Croatia plays France one thing will happen that Fanook Antoine Griezmann will dive in the box. If he does that stupid dance please Bronzo put him on his ass. That L dance he did was so disrespectful he should have gotten a yellow for it. I absolutely hate him.
Greece lucked out because they played Portugal when Ronaldo was a teen, Spain before they became a dynasty (Spain were notorious underachievers) and France after they won in 1998 and 2000. France shit the bed in the 2002 WC. The stats all aligned for them. You could argue that Croatia had similar good fortune in 2018. They beat one of the worst Argentina teams, then played lesser teams in Denmark and Russia. And England was inexperienced and not as good as maybe the Rooney/Gerard era teams. Then came France in the final, but they weren’t permitted to win.
Croatia did not beat “one of the worst Argentina teams”.
That team was stacked. Any team with Messi and Aguero is a contender. They were disorganized a bit, sure, but their talent level was high (and almost knocked out France).
I’m tired of hearing that was one of the worst ever Argentina teams, when it was arguably one of the most talented lol.
Messi is great. Aguero is overrated. The rest of the team was a mess. especially the coach. They were at least one of the worst Argentina World Cup teams in the last 30 years.
Ronaldo was just starting his career so your right about that but Portugal still had a nasty squad that year. Ricardo, Costa, Figo, Pauleta. The fact they managed to overcome Portugal twice at home wasn’t luck against a squad like that. Spain was just brewing that Championship dynasty but still had a good amount of talent. France was the defending euro champs and went to the final two years later at the WC. But they did shit the bed. Then the Czech weren’t that difficult and that match could’ve gone either way. I wouldn’t say Argentina were the worst but struggled for sure. They gave France a run for their money in the round of 16. It was just the coaching and goalkeeping. Romero was out and poor selection in the lineup by the coach. Denmark certainly wasn’t lesser. France drew them in the group stage. Russia I can agree with because they had home field advantage. England was inexperienced but that Rooney and Gerard era accomplished nothing. The Southgate side is better.
I think we can beat Spain if we want it more.
France on the other hand will be a lot harder. First thing Croatia needs to do to beat France is stop Lovren taking free kicks, second get a time machine and colonize Africa.
Done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-SFzIDPwwE
Lol
Anything can happen and only two team has looked like a contender and that’s Belgium or Netherlands.
Italy hasn’t face any quality opponents in that 30 win streak. Getting sick and tired of hearing that when nobody they beat was top class.
Germany struggled and clawed the way to get second after a draw and loss like us.
England drew Scotland and only has scored 2 goals.
Netherlands had an easy group too. No team was that hard to beat. Ukraine gave them a run for their money.
Portugal lost 4-2 and conceded six goals in 3 games.
France just never clicked and got calls in their favour like always.
You guys are also forgetting when Greece won, that was still when the tournament format was different. They only had to play 2 game to make the final, now it’s three.
I see a lot of comments referencing Greece of 04. Greece parked the bus after the group stage. They also drew one and loss a game until the knockout stages. Definitely played better later on as the tournament progressed. Back in Russia, we did the opposite. Played the best football in the group and then went to three extra times out of four games in the knockout rounds. We also chased the games and we’re down each game. No team wins a championship chasing games. Greece managed to pull a Spain in 2010. Win every game by 1-0 and ending up beating Portugal at home. Greece also squeezed by with having 2 goals more than Spain in the group. Spain tied them for 4 points for second. They had no easy opponents nor games that tournament. Playing Portugal twice, Spain, and France was difficult. They managed to win 3 of the four games. I’m doubtful we can do that. I don’t think we have the defence to obtain that goal. The fact that we have to play Spain, France then either Italy, Belgium, or Portugal. Then the other side of the bracket it could be the Netherlands, England or Germany. Personally for me it’s Netherlands making the final. Yes we’ve beaten Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. I believe we will preform but it will be a war to get to that final. I’m just glad we got through and that was the main objective. We weren’t even supposed to make second in the group or even get through, make it pass the group in Russia or beat Spain last euros. When we’re doubted we play better and when it’s a tough opponent. Let’s get the win Monday. Amjooo!!!!
GVARDIOL UPDATE: Seems sportske novosti reporting injury not serious. He should be returning to regular training soon, and will be able to play Monday.
https://sportske.jutarnji.hr/sn/nogomet/reprezentacija/josko-gvardiol-se-ozlijedio-lijecnik-reprezentacije-otkrio-kakvo-je-njegovo-stanje-uoci-osmine-finala-15083130
As far as soccer upsets go Greece is definitely at the top but I’ll put T&T knocking the U.S. out of the World Cup right up there.Denmark winning the euro after the yugos being barred and taking their spot would have probably been a 50-1 long shot as well I’m guessing?
If I’m a betting man I like this going into extra time.. us and Spain.
4-3-2-1(4-1-2-2-1)
———————Budimir———————
——-Perisic——————-Vlasic——–
————–Modric—Kovacic————–
-Gvardiol——Brozovic——Vrsajko–
————–DCC———–Vida—————
——————–Livakovic——————–
3-2-3-2(3-5-2)
————Budimir———Rebic————
——————————————————-
Perisic———–Modric————Vlasic
————Kovacic—–Brozovic———–
——-Gvardiol—-DCC——Vida———-
——————-Livakovic———————
I think its imperative starting our players who play in Spain or did at one point will be tactically best suited for this line-up… We need experience and players who can control the ball this will aggrevate spain.. and we need som pace up top
Vrsajko
Kovacic
Modric
Budimir
Shaqiri winner in the 91’
Upsets happen, you really don’t know who you are going to play in the next round… if the French catch a red card early, or the Swiss bunker and nip em in penalties the path might feel a little different, happens every major tournament (French also have two ties) extra time / penalties is not out of the question
Nah no way. The French always struggle in group stages. France has a tendency to not get max points or just draw winnable games. But they pick it up later on in the knockout rounds.
Our road to the finals will probably be Spain ,France ,Italy and i have a feeling Germany will find a way to win on the other side of the bracket. We need a payback against France.
The dream would be to beat Spain, France, Portugal and England. This way, you would have now beaten all of the teams you had never beaten until this tournament that you have played multiple times (Scotland, France, Portugal), get revenge for 2016 and 2018, and inflict more pain on England, in their stadium. That would be waaay too good to be true.
If we were to do that, that would be the biggest upset in football history, bar none. Would top Greece’s story in 2004.
No way. Come on.
Croatia HAS an excellent team. The key players we have are pretty much on par with the top teams in every tournament.
We just always seem to fall a bit short of a ‘complete’ starting eleven, where we always seem to have a few defenders who are average (at best) and a medicore goalkeeper.
The biggest upsets in footballing history is definitely Greece 2004 (by a large margin) who ended up beating a strong Portugal twice, France and strong Czech side to win it all. Nothing comes close to that.
Costa Rica in 2014 was insane too (people already forgot about that).
Some bush league CONCACAF team beating a strong Uruguay team, World Cup defending Italy, and then drawing England to TOP the group of Death…then almost beating the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
Nobody here could name two players from that Costa Rica squad, and they beat two elite teams (and drew a couple of others) on their way to the quarters.
Croatia is no such team.
Croatia actually has a winning record against Italy and Germany…they have an even record against Spain, and have a losing one against France.
– Germany is not that impressive at this tournament, and I think they would lose to us.
– Italy is playing great, but they have no star power. Our style of play would hurt them (like it always does) and our stars are better than theirs.
– Spain is a coin toss. I think it goes either way. They have great players but are also flawed in the same way we are.
– France is the powerhouse, but anything can happen (as Hungary showed us).
No way would us beating these four teams ever be considered some greatest-ever World Cup upset lol, especially since we are the World Cup runners up and have multiple top players in various top leagues (even on our bench).
Meh. It would be close I guess…
If we were to hypothetically beat, from R16 to Finals:
Spain (6th ranked)
France (2nd ranked)
Portugal (5th ranked)
England (4th ranked)
and win it all, when we weren’t even considered a dark horse this tournament (whereas in 2018 we kinda were…) I think it would be top 3 all time biggest shocks in a major tournament.
’04 Greece is up there, we definitely have more talent then they do, but we potentially would have to go through the FIFA Rankings top 5 to win it, Greece had a tough road too… I see it a closer comparison.
Greece was ranked 35th before 2004, so there is no comparison in quality compared to the current Croatia team. That was an utter fluke, as sometimes happen in soccer. They were outplayed in all of their knockout games. And they only had to win three knockout games, against France (who wasn’t very good, heck they should have lost to Croatia if it wasn’t for a gift handball goal and Mornar blowing the chance at the end), a Czech team that was good but not great and Portugal when Ronaldo was in diapers. Greek had the stars align for them and were more lucky than good. In my opinion, the biggest fluke in the history of sports. And they have proven that, since they’ve barely done anything since. And did nothing before either.
………………………..Budimir………………….
Perisic…………Krama/vlasic………Rebic
………………..Kova………..Modric………….
Gvardiol……….DCC…..Vida…….Vrsaljko
…………………………Liva………………………
Looking at who Spain still starts, they have liabilities on the wings. Jordi Alba and Cesar Azpilicueta are past their primes. The center of their midfield is still solid, but Kovačić and Brozović are much faster than their Spanish counterparts. The Spanish front-line with Morata and Gerard is dangerous and likely will score one or two against our D. I predict a race to score goals, with Perisić and Rebić terrorizing the Spanish wing-backs and Vlasić making life difficult for the center-backs while their front-line puts a few on us too…
Istarski Prsut
yea you bring up a fair point, that the likelihood of any team winning the tournament, even the favorite france, is not great. sub 25% lets say
I don’t deny that.. but if we are just talking absolute likelihood of an event occurring, it is fair to say Croatia has almost 0% chance of winning this tournament
true, Greece did win…but once, again…it’s rather rare for a Greece to win
you could make an argument that through a defensive, ugly bunker style of play, the lower teams increase their chances the most because by decreasing the opportunities to score by both teams through that style, they lower the sample size allowing random results to occur more frequently in short time periods
Portugal obviously employed a bit of a similar tactic… although they were greatly helped by an incredibly weak line-up of teams to the final
Croatia has never really bunkered… and they really don’t have the defenders to effectively do so either..
Not true.
Bunkering is not about the quality of your defenders.
Also, Croatia has arguably the BEST possible midfielders in the tournament if they wanted to employ a defensive strategy.
We tried it against Brazil in 2014 (with less capable midfielders), and without ref interference, we would have drawn that game.
We played for the draw, and it was a rather easy draw for us. Brazil at no point looked like they were going to score. Obviously, the ref had different plans (calling a weak penalty AND calling back Perisic’s goal).
Croatia CAN play the way Portugal played back in 2016, which would take us to extra time and penalties in every game (the same way they did).
But I doubt it’s the style any of our players want to play.
We’ll play for the counter…or try to take possession in spurts and try and score at those times.
Also, yes, Portugal did face weak teams on their route to the Euro 2016 title…but when you play in this defensive style, it’s pretty much a wash.
They seemed to dispatch France, much more easily than they did us or even Poland.
Who knows what opportunities will come when you play a bit of anti-football.
I think the odds for teams coming out of our side of the bracket have to be lower than the other side. |
From our side of the bracket you potentially have to beat a mixture of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th ranked team from the FIFA Rankings to make it to the final lol crazzy
Yes – the odds are such that I put money on Croatia to win in regular time. Odds makers are way over rating Spain and way under rating Croatia. This is not a pure “heart” decision. I really believe that the odds are too good to ignore.
Yea, the game can go either way. Even if you give the edge to Spain, the payout doesn’t reflect that. Lots of people will take that Croatia bet.
I predict a tough game. Low possession for Hrvatska but we will score on counter attacks.
We will come out like we did in Russia vs. Argentina and slowly Spain will be worn down and surrender.
Ajmo dečki!!!
Napred Hrvati!!!
S’ Bogom!!!
Somebody get on the phone and call Rakitic – we’ll need him for one shot – I predict penalty kicks and man I’d love to have Raki and Subi in just for that- this whole Euro seems to be going counter to obvious predictions so let it continue – it’s wide open now and nobody looks like their walking away with it
If it goes to penalties, you sub in Krama at the last minute
He is better than anyone in PKs. Ask Schmeichel.
Good call- I’m sure Modric knows the stats far better than Dalic- it’s Luka’s team as we all know.
Well if Modric is a true leader, he will sub himself out of the game prior to the PKs lol
Ouch- he can still walk on water but not if there is a PK – i agree -mali Luca – God love him
nah he will score. It will be a flukey/lucky goal but he will bungle it in through sheer willpower somehow 😉
If our midfield clicks the way they did in our last game, we may have more possession than we estimate. I don’t mind playing Spain. We have had a problem with motivation for a while and it is motivating to play a challenging team with a big reputation in a knockout match. Anything can happen.
The fact we had the last few knockout stages games in our hands and blew it just aggravates me. Portugal got lucky and that game was the worst game I ever witnessed yet. Don’t wanna even mention what happened in 2008. 96 we were robbed big time against Germany but then slapped them in 98.
Spain love the possession game and that’s dangerous for our d. The minute they expose the centre backs, we’re done. Gotta play stronger and more aggressive than we ever have. Play like we did against Argentina…fearless.
In 2018, we saw the draw we all wanted, and could see the clear path to the final.
This year, not so much.
Let’s enjoy this March of the Martyrs with heads held high, both guns a’ blazing, and take down a big scalp or two along the way.
I think the correct statement is croatia takes down big boys every now and then
Champions league was a great sample set
Croatian won one once against a big boy (Spain). Although spain still dominated possession (70 percent) and we needed two goals from jedva
Croatian then lost to Spain (6-0), to France twice, Portugal twice, England once, and tied England once, and Belgium in a friendly if you want to count
On a positive note, outside of first Spain game, i never thought Croatia looked out of place
But it’s still a 1-7-1. record against big boys in the past 3 years
So you can generously give Croatian a 30 percent chance in each game. .30^4 = .9 percent chance of winning it all
I don’t recall Croatia ever playing in Champions League. The things you learn from The truth.
PS your player nicknames are lame, like …. 12-year-old-clever lame.
Technically, you would need to assign probabilities to each match along the decision tree so that everything totaled up to 100% throughout the bracket/tourney. But even using your methodology, giving France a generous 70% chance of beating everyone along the way still ends up with them having just a 24% chance of winning the tournament (and they would be the favorites). Yes much better than the probability you have assigned Croatia but certainly not as strong as some people would think.. all this to say, the math can be funny. What would have been the probability of Greece winning the Euro when they got out of group stage? Probably lower than 0.9% Let’s just hope for the best
Didn’t anticipate Croatia being this big an underdog:
Croatia +558
Draw +272
Spain -153
You don’t anticipate Croatia being an underdog? We’ve always been underestimated. I’ve never once seen us as a favourite against big teams. We’re used to it.
Difference between “underdog” and “this big an underdog.”
Reading is your friend, try it.
I most certainly can read but I can see grammar isn’t your forte. You should’ve wrote “Croatia being this big of an underdog”. Grammar is your friend, try it. Croatia is a big underdog because Spain has a point more, scored 6 goals, managed to concede 1 goal and the stats are always in Spain’s favour.
yeah that is a bit of a surprise.. and a temptation to put some $ down too
Criticize Hajduk and their organization all you want, but without their player’s goal scoring creativity (Juranovic-Perisic-Vlasic on that first goal), Pasalic during qualifying with 3 goals, Croatia would be in huge difficulties.
Well Croatian chance Of winning the tournament is pretty much 0
Spain, then France, then Belgium, then Germany
Or something similar
Sure Croatian can take down A big boy every now and then but never four in a row
Wc 2018 worked for Croatia cause they got to play Denmark and Russia
The Spain game will be painful to watch cause Spain will have 70 percent possession like they did in the recent meetings so it’ll feel like we’re never in control
WC 2018 worked because they beat Argentina and England.
They actually had the most trouble with the weaker teams in Denmark and Russia.
Croatia doesn’t take down big boys “now and then”.
If you paid any attention, Croatia has a winning record against big boys and they take them down in every tournament.
France is the tough one, but Spain will be a coin toss. They are not clear favorites, and they know it.
Belgium will lose to Italy (since Belgium is a team that actually struggles to take down “big boys” in tournaments), and both Italy and Germany are more likely to lose to Croatia than vice versa.
Spain, Italy and Germany all have Croatian PTSD.
We’ll be fine. The only thing that can ruin our run is Lovren and Vida, or if Livaković pulls a Pletikosa.
@the truth and @Maminjo…Hello again, poturak “the truth”…! How are things in Beogradski pašaluk? Still shitty as ever, inbred f*cktards…?! Why don’t you recount from the days long gone when half-Turkey was in a World Cup and got pumped 6-0 by Argentina and 6-1 by Netherlands? Tell us more. Please just stop your pathetic serb trolling here on CROATIANsports.com
Also with Rakitic our hahaha nice observation maminjo
Can’t bullshit a dalmatinac
This is not a great Spanish side either no real superstars other than morata
Busquets maybe but we got this in the bag if we front up and take our chances
Please no more gaffes from our centre backs
It’s doing my head in now
This will be a close match, similar to the last two times we’ve played Spain at the Euros.
At least this time, we won’t have Rakitić purposely missing headers against his beloved Spain.
How do we stand if it goes to a shootout? Should Dalic Sub the kid out? Or will the kid be able to defend ? I don’t want a shoot out.We overcame the demons of the last Euro loss to the turks with big wins in Russia. We might be a little better now in shootouts. But will the kid hold up? and do we have the legs and stamina go the 120 min?
Look, Spain is a bad draw but obviously they can be beaten with the correct line-up, strategy and mentality. We are not great at pressing – so I can see a game with a lot of Spanish possession. For this reason – we need aggressive (fast) attacking up front to transition fast into scoring position and hit them hard on the counter. That means Petkovic cannot start… Rebic shows passion and runs but its too bad his feet are like boards of plexiglass. Kramaric a touch slower with less work rate but maybe a touch more quality. Either way, Petkovic cannot start for us. Put Vlasic, maybe Krama, maybe Rebic, and hope we spring Perisic on a counter to link up with Vlasic… We don’t need a hold up play specialist like Petkovic… Similarly, on defense, Spain will probe around the perimeter until they find a decisive through ball. Vida’s lethargic pace may be a liability so we need speed and decisiveness back there. But for the life of me I don’t see who fits that “mold” for us well… so we may well need to score more than one goal to beat Spain but it is possible. I believe mentality may be the deciding factor if Dalic gets the line-up right… and on mentality, I believe that falls on Modric’s shoulders and thus I like our odds…
We shoulda tried different CB partnerships prior to the tournament.
I think a Ćaleta-Car and Gvardiol CB tandem would have been interesting since Gvardiol has speed to cover for Duje. I don’t trust Vida as much as I used to.
Bradarić looked okay for us at LB, so he could have been an option if we slide Gvardiol to CB… But it’s too late to try things like this out now.
Hopefully they wear the red and white kits
I unfortunately highly doubt that. Spain is either red or white and checkers are both. Expect black.
Spain’s red is really burgundy with dark blue shorts and socks. They wore them against Poland who were wearing white tops, red shorts and white socks. So I guess it might be possible. Also, I’m not sure who gets first choice. If we do, then maybe we can wear the checkers. I also really hope that we do.
Chess match
https://www.si.com/soccer/2021/06/08/euro-2020-predictions-knockout-bracket-winner
they accurate it -> to predict | all teams – for knock out!
and guess what … we won’t go advance = 0
it makes sense since stupid Dalic always put -> Petkovic (upfront)
many chances and waste ball position because of him ..
And after Spain the French Cunts again and isn’t that in Russia. Do we have to relive that that?
Busquets was missing those first two games, so having him in the lineup makes for a big improvement.
At the same time, Slovakia was horrible. Most of those goals don’t happen under normal circumstances playing against a somewhat capable team.
I love this match up in neutral Copenhagen.
Modrić and Kovačić know la liga well.
The power of Perišić will be a problem for Spain.
I like Budimir for this one. No time to be conservative.
Come out with power and purpose.
Has anyone heard anything about Gvardiol? Is his injury minor? Will he be available on Monday?
Sweden has been in better form then Spain. They play a style that we do not match up well againt.
FFS that sucks, obviously they find form at the worst possible time, terrible, terrible draw : (
Oh shut up! Take some medication bro!
We match up way better vs Spain then we do with Sweden. They are not a physical team which we have trouble with due to our smaller players in mid-field. We go in with the advantage, and we always up our game against the bigger teams. This is the perfect type of team to play against when you have Modric, Kova & Broz controlling he middle.
ZDS
Hrvatska 4 – Spain 1
I want your drugs
We fell short euro 96 as well the worst ref in history against germany if some of you remember that game. So hey we beat scotland and finally won a must win third game this is a tournamnet of first times for us ajmooooo
It is amazing that for the second Euro in a row, Croatia was set to play an inferior Scandinavian country in the 2nd round (Iceland – 2016, Sweden – now) but both of those teams scored injury time goals to win their final group games and change Croatia’s matchup to play two Iberian Peninsula teams (Portugal – 2016, Spain – now). Since we got a horrible Spanish ref for the Portugal game, I guess we’re getting a horrible Portuguese ref for this one.
Wild thought? If Perisic doesn’t score, we’d have faced Dutch, then Denmark or Wales in quarters if we won…now we get Spain then Portugal, France or Germany…such fine margins 🤦♂️
Gonna have to beat Spaniards and the refs!
Don’t forget Belgium after that in the semis lol
Brother, we are due for some good luck at euro. Decades of playing well and bad luck in the round of 16.
Doesn’t really matter
We’d have to play a tough team eventually … sooner or later Doesn’t make a big diff.
But it does make a difference.
Rarely do teams ever have to to beat contenders in back to back to back games.
The probability of clean sweeping ALL the elite teams in a tournament is extremely low.
For example, Belgium did well at the World Cup, but were gifted an easy group and the easiest Round of 16 opponent (Japan) who actually came very close to eliminating them.
What if Belgium met a tougher team than Japan on that day?
They would have been eliminated.
Instead, they survived then went on to beat Brazil in a close game, but then narrowly lost to France in a close game right after that.
My point is, that against the top teams…most of these games are coin toss 50/50 matches.
You can’t avoid elite teams, but you want to avoid having to play multiple elite teams in a row.
Many tournament finalists, and semifinalists, have had a couple of B caliber teams on their run.
We don’t get one in this run, with having to play Spain, then likely France and Belgium in the next two rounds.
The good news is the games will be very exciting, and Dalic gets to save face by going out against an elite team (instead of Scotland)…or we just win the whole damn thing in epic fashion.
On the flip side, sometimes easy teams turn into tough games (Hungary should have been “easy” for Germany and they almost took them out. There’s also a psychological advantage going into semis/final if you’ve knocked out a couple big teams.
I think we can all agree an easy game conserves energy, though.
You make a lot of sense and your post has merit. I view it like this. Regardless of what group we landed it in! the path to the final would be difficult for us. We are not the same team we were in Russia. I do believe the squad we choose for Scotland was the right one. We showed desire to win , something I and perhaps most people have seen or sensed that was lacking. The commentator in that game made several remarks that were true. One is that we are a talented team filled with great individual talent , Our younger additions are very skilled and have a lot of potential. For us to advance. He said!, does the old guard still have the legs? Will the younger lads be able to perform against the bigger skilled teams? or will their inexperience weigh out? That was a fair comment . Our team is filled with talent yes. However we have been lacking and collapsed during the League event and had a rocky start to Qualifiers and friendly. This generation is nearing the end of its run and until Russia failed to live up to its potential. The road to final will be grueling. He finished by saying that some of our older player perhaps may lack the drive to continue on the national team. This is the case with many teams . Who player reaches that point they need to slide over or the team needs to cut them. He was right. Dalic needs to send the message anyone who does not give 100 percent or does not want to be here needs to go. If he sees it ,or thinks it, he needs to cut them. The only way we stand a chance is for the boys to give 100 percent all or nothing
Actually it makes an enormous difference, if the tough opponents are 50/50 then the more of them you have to play, the greater chance to be eliminated. It is simple math and i cannot understand ppl who say “oh who cares you have to beat them EVENTUALLY” – no, you dont, not if they battle each other.