this game has been wildly entertaining but I hate that Mbappe is taking the golden boot from Messi in what’s basically been a glorified friendly
Saka’s answers in that interview were pretty revealing, I thought. Said he wanted to play more, could have played more, and is fit. Then asked about the noise around Tuchel, he just said “That noise is part of the game” and didn’t back Tuchel up.
It was odd early in the tournament where Saka said he was fully fit and Tuchel or others has suggested he wasn’t. And then him not playing at all versus Argentina when he’s said he was fit. Tuchel has bigger problems, and I know Saka has been hit and miss lately, but very clearly he should’ve influenced our campaign and didn’t.
The thing with Saka is that he didn't look right in the early games either. He looked back to his best last night. Tuchel's comments were strange too. He also said that fitness hadn't been an issue with Saka. So why the hell weren't we playing him then? That Bellingham goal to finish it nearly gave me a heart attack. He waited so long to finally got the shot away. I thought the chance was gone 2-3 times by the time he finally buried it. The smug bastard. I really hope Tuchel figures this out now. We've got a very good squad for the Euros in 2 years still, but if he suddenly leaves now, I think we'd be in a really tough spot in terms of finding someone who can keep the team spirit together and still improve in terms of results.
Rabiot called out two players, pretty obviously Olise and Cherki, calling their attitude “shameful” in a French TV interview lol
Not watching any of the pregame and will arrive to my friends place right around kick off. Honestly feel this game could be ugly and slow and one moment of quality or luck from either team could settle it. BUT, sometimes those match ups can also explode into unexpected openness. I still vividly remember last years world cup final and how after about the hour mark, it being one of the best games I've ever watched. Finals typically aren't that good in this sport (in just about every version of it) but last year was an exception so hoping for another one.
I wasn't expecting yesterday's game to go as hard as it was in that second half so I'm hoping we get some excitement like that to close out the tournament. What a fun past few weeks this has been.