*who

El Sha, De Rossi, Belotti, Immobile, Barzagli, Rugani.

it's not a team full of world class names but there are tons of great players a lot of which are still quite young. would be very upset to see them miss out on the WC.

while i will obviously be cheering for Belgium, i think a semi-final spot will be a solid achievement this year, especially without Radja. aside from that it's England and Brazil who i'm pulling for. ofc England won't win, but just imagine in early round upset over a team like Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. for Brazil i just hope they win it.

brazilian football > german and spanish football

Agreed. They are just better. More of an aura. I also want revenge for 2012 & 2014.

So do I mate :). But it will be the same old story for England.

I would settle for a QF elimination if we beat one of the big hitters in the 2nd round KO. A QF is the 'par' performance for England imo.

speaking of england,



very good interview from the . on why england never made it further during his run and where he thinks they need to go now moving forward.

he makes a really good point in regards to how england always seems to take players who do great in a certain position for their club, and then force them to play somewhere else rather than trying to change formation and tactics.

i think it's coming. it's a while away but goddamn is there some exciting youth coming up through the system.

*what
Don't know any of those guys. Who do they play with?

all of them play in Italy except for Veratti, he plays for PSG. Buffon is arguably the best keeper of all-time and Donnarumma is expected to take over for him.

Surprised you're not familiar with Buffon tbh. He is a footballing God.

Yeah now you mention, I do know that name all right. I'm not into Italian Serie A or B so I guess I wouldn't know the others; just thought they might have played for a Spanish or even English club. Do you reckon Italy still have it then?

game is still 0-0 atm, meaning that they're on par to be sent home. can't imagine that happens though. anything less than semi finals would be a disappointment for them.

They always have a chance really. They don't have a squad that wows me but they have enough quality and pedigree to not write them off. They weren't fancied in 2006 when they went on to win it.

I wouldn't have them in the top 3 favourites though.