And journos everywhere scream with frustration as their perfect narrative stories they’ve just finished and ready to hit send on need to delete and start again.
I only just became aware of Jordan qualifying for the first time ever. Huge achievement for them.
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Stolen from Reddit so not sure how accurate it is, but supposedly these are the potential projected pots for the draw.
You could have a group of
England
Australia
South Africa
New Zealand
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Not even close at this stage. Europe is only on week 4 of qualifying, they still have 6 weeks left plus playoff rounds. 6 of the European groups haven’t even started yet
Very presumptuous to assume Italy will qualify!
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Polish coach just resigned. He came to blows with Lewandowski. Lewa requested leave from this qualifying round due to coming back from injury and stated a mental toll on him from the previous season. The coach accepted but stripped him of his captaincy, they then lost to Finland. Lewa came out saying he won’t play for the National Team while the current coach is employed.
I’m in sort of two minds on this one, the coach definitely hasn’t impressed, but then Poland had a ridiculous history of pinning all of their hopes onto a single player, to the detriment of the wider team. They set their tactics to focus on the player, once they get marked out of the game that’s it. I’m not impressed with Lewa’s ultimatum, but then at the same time, he’s literally one of the best strikers in the world.
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Its probable that Italy won’t make direct qualification. Their group includes Norway, Israel, Estonia and Moldova. Top team goes through and Norway are already 4 wins out of 4 with a 3-0 home win over Italy. Italy have just sacked Spaletti which means they’re looking for a new coach too, and can’t afford to drop any points for the rest of qualifying (assuming Norway don’t fuck up either). If it is the case that Italy don’t top the group, its off to a single match playoff against another second placed team.
Club World Cup starts in the coming days - I think I must be one of the few with a passing interest in it - but not enough of an interest to sign up to the streaming service that has it or even to start a new topic here.
I have grave concerns for Auckland though…
Given it’s a Saudi-Infantino mutual backscratch, and given the Saudis have unlimited and unaccountable money, DAZN seem to have it on for free all over the place, though I haven’t sufficient interest to check whether that applies here too.
I will read the results on FotMob.
When the fuck did this nonsense go from 6-8 teams (actual continental champions) to 32?
When Gianni decided to try to take down UEFA’s Champions League. Aussie Alireza reffing the opening game.
And Faghani has just absolutely bottled the first really big decision he’s had to make. Miami should be down to 10 men.
Great game so far.
1st half showed that the incentive is there for the players.
Italy has a new coach. Not Ranieri or Pioli cause they both turned the opportunity down. Nope. They’ve gone with Gennaro Gattuso.
So maybe good, maybe shit?
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I guess beating the African Team of the Century isn’t for everyone.
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Maybe sheet. As a manager, he lasted 12 months at Hajduk Split, six months at Marseille, seven months at Vallencia and 22 days at Fiorentina. He won stuff with Napoli but even they sacked him before the result.
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Amazing. Gattuso will never change 
Oof