Possible Quarterfinals

[ZexyZahid]

I went ahead and I went to check how the quarterfinal schedule would look like if all the major teams would win all their matches. And these major teams are of each group: France, England, Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy and Spain.

In the second round there are possible other big encounters:

Argentina vs Mexico (in the World Cup 2006 there was a great match between these two countries).
Spain vs Portugal.

This is how the Quarterfinals could look like:

The Netherlands vs Brazil
France vs England

Winner of the teams above will face each other in the semi-finals.

Argentina vs Germany
Italy vs Spain

Winner of the teams above will face each other in the semi-finals.

Let's see how much of this comes true.

 

[drainpipe32]

Wouldn't rule out an Australia v France quarter, we could definitely beat England.

 

[mattfb]

Yeah, but first we need to get out of our group...

Could turn out good. This was my predictions in the knock outs:

1 France vs Greece
2 England vs Australia
3 Germany vs USA
4 Argentina vs Mexico
5 Holland vs Paraguay
6 Brazil vs Switzerland
7 Italy vs Denmark
8 Spain vs Portugal

QF 1 Holland vs Brazil
QF 2 Greece vs England
QF 3 Germany vs Argentina
QF 4 Italy vs Spain

SF 1 Holland vs England
SF 2 Argentina vs Spain

Final Holland vs Spain

Winner Holland

-------------------

Very similar QF except I have Greece sneaking in there instead of France.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

1 France vs Nigeria
2 England vs Australia
3 Netherlands vs Paraguay
4 Brazil vs Chile
5 Argentina vs Mexico
6 Germany vs Slovenia
7 Italy vs Denmark
8 Spain vs Ivory Coast

QF 1 France vs England
QF 2 Netherlands vs Brazil
QF 3 Argentina vs Germany
QF 4 Italy vs Spain

SF 1 England vs Brazil
SF 2 Germany vs Spain

Final Brazil vs Germany

Winner Brazil

This is what I'm going for. Brazil seem to have the perfect side at the moment. Every player is perfectly suited for their role. They're defensively very solid (playing a counter attacking game) and lethal on the attack.

England have a pretty steady road to the Semis where I can't see them beating Brazil. France can't get their formation right at the moment and Domenech looks like he doesn't know what to do. However, with Johnson being defensively nervy and Lennon hardly offering anything at the back either, the wide left trio of Ribery, Malouda and Evra/Clichy/Abidal could undo England. Interestingly that seems to have been France's problem with this new formation. The left side gets too congested.

Spain has the best squad in the tournament, and most people are tipping them to win it. However, can they find the right balance in their line up? Dropping Fabregas and Torres seems like a shock, but it looks like del Bosque could be heading that way and going for a 4-5-1 formation with Busquets and Alonso dropping deep. With Alonso, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva and Fabregas in one side, all of them being playmakers, could there be an unbalance in Spain's side. I can see Fabregas being dropped because of the need for balance of width (Silva and Iniesta offer that) and del Bosque's liking for 2 deep midfielders (Busquets and Alonso) but with lots of players carrying niggles and not being 100%, I can see him rotating the players.

Germany seem the dark horses in this tournament. There's not much hype about them but like every year, "you can't write off the Germans". They seem to be a much more fluid, attacking team this year with flamboyant, young players such as Kroos and Ozil getting into the side. Also the goalscoring records of Klose and Podolski are ridiculous. Klose is the only player to have scored 5 or more goals in 2 consecutive World Cups.

 

[Covvy]

Australia needs to get out of their group then we might have a chance of getting somewhere.

 

[chelsea boy]

we could definitely beat England.

Dont talk out of your poo hole!

 

[War]

Dont talk out of your poo hole!

:laugh. Well said.

 

[m_vaughan]

Well Spain and 7 other teams.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Losing the first game has put you up against it a bit though, eh?

As far as the Aussies are concerned, I'd be more worried getting out of your group first, before dreaming about beating us at a World Cup!

The way I see it, the standard is so low anyone can beat anyone.

 

[ZexyZahid]

Because of Spain's loss against Switzerland, there is a possibility we could see a second round match of Brazil vs Spain.

 

[ZexyZahid]

It's sure that France won't go the quarterfinals. And either England or Germany won't make it to the quarterfinals. Italy or Spain could still not make it to the second round.

 

[ZexyZahid]

I can see Uruguay reaching the semi-finals. The will have to face South Korea in the second round. After that they will play against the winner of USA vs Ghana.

 

[ZexyZahid]

A website has an engine that makes predictions. Here is the current Tournament predictor.