#madrid fans are never beating the allegations | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

iamred-iamyellow · 22 days ago

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⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ Paddock Princess

♥ masterlist | request rules

♥ pairing: jude bellingham x fem!black!f1driver!reader

♥ synopsis: your boyfriend jude bellingham is welcomed with open arms by the f1 community and becomes the people’s paddock’s princess

♥ smau - fc: tyla - as always none of the pictures are mine <3

♥ warnings: swearing and suggestive comments !!!

♥ a/n: never let em know your next move WAPOW jude fic.

-Jude Bellingham Replies to Fans on the Internet | Actually Me | GQ Sports-

“We know about your inspiration in football, but which athletes outside of football do you look up to—if any?” he read off a laptop screen.

“Uhm,” he scratched the bridge of his nose. “Probably Y/n L/n,” His face lit up with a smile as the camera crew giggled in the background. “She’s done quite a lot in her sport in such a short amount of time and I really admire her driving style, if i’m being honest. Yeah, I’ve been spending a lot of my time watching F1 recently, so probably her.”

He sent the reply and leaned back on the chair, “This is peak journalism.”

✧˖ °. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁‧₊˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁˖°✧

liked by oscarpiastri, carmenmundt, judebellingham, and 1,494,027 more

yourusername i heard someone say my name?

view comments

realmadrid you heard correctly

user1 exposing him 🙊

user2 @/user1 I'm sure she's seen the video by now

user3 I wish he said my name instead tbh

user4 I wish he would do more than just say my name

user5 @/user4 SO REAL

user6 the someone in question who said her name being the hottest madrid player

yourusername @/user6 that's debatable

judebellingham @/yourusername ???

user7 have you and jude met before? I know you spend a lot of time watching madrid 🤔

yourusername hopefully I'll see him soon !!

user10 @/yourusername that doesn't answer the question...

carlossainz55 @/yourusername I can take you to meet him under one condition

yourusername @/carlossainz55 I already told you I can't give you the Ferrari seat back 😭

carlossainz55 it was worth a shot

liked by scuderiaferrari, charles_leclerc, judebellingham, and 1,409,582 more

yourusername first race with you 💋

view comments

scuderiaferrari we're happy to have you ❤️

user7 @/scuderiaferrari did... you buy her those flowers? 😭

user2 @/scuderiaferrari she wasn't talking to you lil bro

user1 I thought she was talking about a secret partner in this post but maybe I'm crazy

user3 @/user1 now I'm confused because I thought the same thing

user5 f1 core is not knowing if y/n made a romantic post about ferrari or a secret lover

scuderiaferrari who's not in love with us? we're hot, fast, and Italian 😉

yourusername @/scuderiaferrari OH 🫣

user6 😨

user8 RAW NEXT QUESTION

user9 why am I blushing

user10 we're not beating the car fucker allegations with this one ��🔥🥶

user11 ugh I hate admin. its like why do you post silly comments? what's your @? are you single?

-jude bellingham’s story-

view replies

user1 those flowers look familiar…

user2 ME WHEN

user3 i actually need him so bad

user4 @/yourusername

user5 yn we all know it’s you

liked by judebellingham, charles_leclerc, landonorris, and 2,059,043 more

yourusername I regret to inform you that I am not dating ferrari admin and instead with the lovely @/judebellingham

view comments

judebellingham "regret"? 🤨

yourusername I called you lovely what more do you want

landonorris we all knew you were dating the second he said your name

user1 new lando lore drop he watches jude bellingham videos by himself

landonorris fuck I've been caught

user2 LETS FUCKING GO HARD LAUNCH

user3 oh how I love them

user4 they are the perfect couple

scuderiaferrari I forgive you

liked by yourusername, charles_leclerc, landonorris, and 1,492,5028 more

judebellingham dw princess has arrived

view comments

yourusername glad you're here 😘

♡ by judebellingham

user1 yes he has 👏

user2 he's so cunty

user5 he wears her jersey hello?? 🥹

yourusername one that still has the tag on it...

judebellingham @/yourusername you didn't see that 😬

user8 wheres the rest of the madrid team?

judebellingham 🤷‍♂️

vinjir @/user8 he didn't invite us

judebellingham @/vinjir wowww snitch 🫵

liked by erling, judbellingham, landonorris, and 502,684 more

yourusername its always great to meet a fan 🫶

view comments

judebellingham I don't really consider myself a "fan" 🫤

yourusername idk you seemed like a pretty big fan of me last night 🫤

user1 oh!

user9 judeyn >>>

user10 god bless these two and all the pr training they ignored

user7 hes so fjdsjkskfj

user6 I need him so bad

yourusername @/user6 same

user8 I'm gonna need full time wag jude from now on

judebellingham quitting my job rn 🏃‍♂️💨

472 notes · View notes

tchouameninga · 9 days ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/tchouameninga/775376127188434944/httpswwwtumblrcomtchouameninga77537536610054

Yes our season went to shit because haaland told arsenal to be humble and definitely not because rodri did acl. Real Madrid fans are never beating the brain dead allegations

yea you can’t beat the arsenal black magic

#live: tumblr anon learns about football banter for the first time

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tkmedia · 3 years ago

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FIFA 22: 20 of the best teams to manage in Career Mode

FIFA 22 is here, and Career Mode remains one of the most popular features of the series.Whether it is returning a fallen giant to their former glory, building a small club into a big one, or taking on a fashionable team that everyone loves, there is always a challenge out there.And with FIFA 22 dropping, you can run into a brand new career and feel the innovation of HyperMotion technology with whichever team you choose. HyperMotion implements 11 vs 11 motion capture and adds a new animations - as many as 4,000 of them - to make the game feel more realistic than it ever has.Which team should you choose, though? Here’s a look through 20 of the best teams to manage in FIFA 22 Career Mode…Related Articles

Icon / VideoCreated with Sketch.FIFA 22 Review: Gameplay, FUT, Career Mode, Pro Clubs & MoreIt feels as though EA Sports have really put the work in to improve the most important aspect, gameplay, after a few years of decline - and they've managed it.Sep 29, 2021

Barcelona predicted lineup vs Benfica - Champions League A Barcelona predicted lineup ahead of their Champions League meeting with Benfica. Matt O'Connor-Simpson|Sep 28, 2021

Twitter reacts as Barcelona are humiliated by Benfica in the Champions League The best from social media as Benfica beat Barcelona 2-1 in the Champions League.Matt O'Connor-Simpson|Sep 29, 2021

Champions League results: Matchday 2Results for Champions League matchday 2 - including Juventus vs Chelsea, Man Utd vs Villarreal & Porto vs Liverpool.Jamie Spencer|Sep 29, 2021

Athletic Bilbao only use local players / Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty ImagesBeing in charge of Athletic Club comes with the caveat of only signing players from the Basque region - otherwise known as its cantera policy.It is the ultimate home-grown challenge.

Gianluigi Buffon is back with Parma / Nicolò Campo/Getty ImagesParma are the epitome of cool because of the cult teams they had during the 1990s. They've had several financial meltdowns over the years and are yet to properly recover from the most recent six years ago.They have been back to Serie A after starting out in Serie D in 2015, but relegation last season means starting 2021/22 in Serie B.

Malmo are Sweden's representatives in the Champions League / David Lidstrom/Getty ImagesSweden has produced countless outstanding footballers over the decades and their national team is a staple of the knockout rounds at international tournaments. Yet their club sides have fallen behind.Malmo have flown the flag in the Champions League a few times in recent years, including this season, and remain the only Swedish club to have played in the final - but that was nearly 45 years ago.

Famalicao are Portuguese minnows / Quality Sport Images/Getty ImagesWith a stadium holding barely more than 5,000, Famalicao are Portugal's minnows and are arguably punching above their weight just being in the Primeira Liga alongside the likes of Porto, Benfica and Sporting CP.Success in Portugal is a notoriously closed club. Only five teams have ever been crowned champions, with two of those just one-hit wonders. Adding a sixth, especially a tiny club like Famalicao, would be historic.

Restore Independiente's glroy days / Marcelo Endelli/Getty ImagesHaving won it seven times, Independiente are the most successful club in the history of the Copa Libertadores. But the last of those titles was back in 1984 and the modern hype is for Boca Juniors and River Plate instead.Why not build a team capable of restoring the glory days? You could even try and persuade Sergio Aguero back - he left for Europe when he was 18 and has said in real life he would like to return.

1860 Munich have disappeared into the shadows / Christof Koepsel/Getty ImagesFounded in 1860, obvious when you think about it, 1860 Munich are one of Europe's most historic football clubs. They've been German champions, won domestic and European trophies, but things haven't been good.1860, now completely overshadowed by city rivals Bayern, haven't been in the Bundesliga since 2004 and were briefly in Germany's fourth tier recently. They're now back in tier three, but can you take then back to the top?

Paris FC split from Paris Saint-Germain in 1972 / DAMIEN MEYER/Getty ImagesUnlike other European capitals like London or Madrid, which have numerous top flight football clubs, Paris has just one: Paris Saint-Germain.But Paris FC exist as a result of a split from PSG in 1972 and have been a longstanding fixture of France's lower leagues. Currently in Ligue 2, they have previously threatened promotion to Ligue 1 and French football needs a top flight Paris derby.

Malaga have fallen on hard times since their 2013 peak / SOPA Images/Getty ImagesRemember when Malaga were in the Champions League quarter-finals and on the verge of reaching the semis? It was only as recently as 2013 but decline since those brief glory years have left them in Spain's second tier.The entire first-team squad was released in 2020 to stave off insolvency. There's rarely a blank canvas like it in football.

Hibernian were Scotland's third best club in 2020/21 / Callum Landells/Getty ImagesThe challenge is simple: break the Old Firm dominance of Scottish football. The reality is probably quite a bit harder but worth a good go.It was 1985 the last time a club other than Rangers or Celtic was crowned champions in Scotland. That was Aberdeen led by a young Alex Ferguson.Hibernian were comfortably third in the Scottish Premiership last season so are probably your best bet.

Sutton United are the newest club in FIFA 22 / Christopher Lee/Getty ImagesSutton are the newest addition to the EFL, so taking them further up the English leader ladder would be an ultimate rags to riches tale.This is the first season they have been included in a FIFA game.

Forest Green are a completely unique club / Pete Norton/Getty ImagesForest Green are a unique side that deserve plenty of attention. They became the world's first vegan club in 2015, before they had even reached the EFL, and have kitted out their stadium with eco-friendly innovations.The New Lawn sadly isn't available in FIFA 22, but the club's jazzy home and away kits are not ones to miss.

Make Rochdale interesting / Nathan Stirk/Getty ImagesMake an extremely unremarkable club...remarkable.Rochdale once spent 26 consecutive seasons in the EFL's bottom division without getting promoted or relegated. They've recently had a spell in League One but are back in League Two for the 2021/22 season.Yet this is still the club that had had big names like Rickie Lambert, Grant Holt and Adam Le Fondre pass through in the past.

Blackburn have been out of the Premier League for too long / Alex Livesey/Getty ImagesBlackburn remain one of only seven clubs that have held the Premier League trophy aloft since the new competition was formed in 1992.Yet Rovers haven't been in the top flight for 10 consecutive seasons following their relegation in 2012 and it's about time they returned.Plus there's Chilean sensation Ben Brereton Diaz to manage.

Generations of Nottingham Forest fans haven't seen their club successful / James Williamson - AMA/Getty ImagesTwo-time European Cup winners Nottingham Forest haven't played top flight football for over 20 years since their 1999 relegation from the Premier League. What's more, a good number of those years have seen them finish in the bottom half of the Championship.Restoring the glory days is first and foremost getting back in to the Premier League. Then it climbing the table, challenging domestically and, perhaps ultimately, reigning Europe once more.

Benfica have been cursed for 60 years / PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/Getty ImagesBreak the curse of Bela Guttmann.Achieving domestic success with the Portuguese giants shouldn't be an issue, but the club hasn't experienced European success since 1962 after supposedly refusing legendary coach Guttmann a pay rise.He is alleged to have 'cursed' the club, vowing that they wouldn't be European champions again for 100 years. Given that they have lost five European Cup finals since then, the 'curse' has stuck.

Ajax are a hugely popular club / BSR Agency/Getty ImagesAjax remain one of the most popular clubs in Europe. Historically, they are also tremendously successful but their last Champions League title was back in 1995, although they came close to the final in 2019.Build your own Ajax golden generation and make Amsterdam the heart of Europe once more.

AC Milan need someone to deliver success / Marco Luzzani/Getty ImagesFor being the second most successful club in Champions League history and the third most successful club in Serie A history, AC Milan are currently nowhere near the status they want to be.A sleeping giant for the past decade, the Rossoneri are underdogs in Europe when they were once feared and it doesn't sit right.

Tottenham have been starved of success / Marc Atkins/Getty ImagesA major trophy of any description has eluded Spurs since 2008. They have played in finals in that time but the drought goes on.In 2021, having missed the trophy boat under previous manager Mauricio Pochettino, there is also a rebuilding project to complete, which will make any future successes all the more sweet.

Arsenal are in the midst of an exciting rebuilding project / Clive Rose/Getty ImagesArsenal fans demand success and it will take a skilled manager to deliver it, successfully rebuilding a squad capable of the ultimate goals.It didn't happen right away, but the Gunners rather unsurprisingly fell apart after Arsene Wenger left the club. The rebuild has started and taking over the Emirates Stadium means inheriting some potential, but the process is going to be long and ongoing to yield real success.Arsenal haven't won the Premier League since 2004, haven't seriously challenge since 2008, and have never won the Champions League. Read the full article

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expatimes · 4 years ago

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What happened to football in 2020 – and what is next?

Empty football stadiums resound with their histories, argues Uruguayan historian and football fanatic Eduardo Galeano: “There is nothing less empty than an empty stadium. There is nothing less mute than stands bereft of spectators,” he writes.

His maxim has been tested repeatedly across the world this year, as football has been poleaxed by the pandemic.

“COVID has massively affected every aspect of football; from how the game is played, to how it is watched – with no fans, or restricted numbers – to the economics of the game,” journalist and author James Montague told Al Jazeera.

As COVID-19 spread rapidly in early 2020, nearly every professional league around the world was suspended.

Fans who were used to organising their lives around the regular rhythm and rituals of football matches were left with the option of rewatching old games or watching the likes of FC Slutsk take on FC Smolevichi-Sti in the Belarus Super League, the only European league to play on by late March.

Euro 2020 – with its particularly pre-pandemic friendly format of 12 host cities across the continent – was postponed to 2021, as was the Copa America.

Empty seats are seen in the stands prior to the German first division Bundesliga football match in Dortmund, western Germany

“It’s been a big x-ray and it’s been a big wake up call,” said sportswriter, broadcaster and academic David Goldblatt.

“On the one hand, the deep and profound importance of football to innumerable numbers of people and its reliance as a spectacle and a social phenomenon on a real human crowd, interacting with the thing on the pitch,” he told Al Jazeera.

“And then of course it’s revealed all the madness of the business model, at the level of individual clubs and in the game as a whole.”

FIFA estimates that COVID-19 is likely to cost football $14bn this year – about one-third of its value. It has posed an existential threat to many clubs often already floundering under debt and mismanagement amid wider inequality.

Even some of the world’s richest clubs have deferred salaries and payments, taken on huge loans, asked players to take pay cuts and furloughed or laid off staff – Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil even offered to save the club’s mascot Gunnersaurus from redundancy.

Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent at Inside World Football, told Al Jazeera smaller clubs who rely on matchday revenue have suffered most. Many clubs and entire leagues facing the prospect of collapse have been forced to seek bailouts.

“The biggest problem is really in the lower leagues and non-league football, because these clubs are struggling even to exist. They don’t have the TV revenue to fall back on,” he said.

The Olympic Stadium in Caracas is seen with empty stands due to the coronavirus pandemic, taken before the start of the closed-door 2022 FIFA World Cup South American qualifier football match between Venezuela and Chile

Empty stands

Reservations over the safety and wisdom of playing on during a pandemic were generally overruled by the brutal truth that the sport could not afford to forfeit the colossal broadcast revenues at stake.

While some countries cancelled their seasons, many leagues and competitions returned in May or June to play in empty stadiums – under strict testing and distancing protocols.

Liverpool saw out their first league title victory in 30 years playing in empty grounds. Continental club competitions returned in abbreviated formats – Bayern Munich won a Champions League that was packed into a couple of weeks in August.

Matches without fans – what the Germans call “Geisterspiele” (or ghost games) – played out to eerie soundscapes; whether from the cries of players made audible amid an ambient hum of absent fans or the artificial crowd noises added by broadcasters that jarred with shots of empty seats and often failed to compute with the messiness of real matches.

Montague says tensions between the idea of football clubs as institutions rooted in local communities and their status as globalised brands have been brought into even sharper relief this year – and the longer restrictions are in place, the greater the threat to fan culture.

“At the beginning of the pandemic I thought: it’s terrible how fans aren’t there but it’s also showing how important fans are – not just to the atmosphere, but also to the business model of football,” Montague said.

“But as it’s gone on, you start to see how people who run clubs, who run organisations in football see the need to exploit this window of opportunity to try to push through the reforms that would never have been possible before.”

Some clubs and officials – including Real Madrid’s President Florentino Perez – appeared increasingly determined to push for an elite breakaway European super league during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, English Premier League clubs in October rejected the controversial Project Big Picture plan devised by Manchester United and Liverpool, which had proposed more revenue and a financial rescue package for lower league clubs in exchange for the concentration of power among English football’s elite.

Playing on

The pandemic has often produced erratic football matches and wild score-lines, as well as more penalties and goals in many leagues.

Aston Villa beat reigning champions Liverpool 8-2, Bayern Munich humbled Barcelona by the same score in their Champions League quarter-final – leading to a thoroughly disgruntled Lionel Messi. Arsenal could not win a league match for almost two months.

“I think the fact that fans have not been able to attend home games, and the lack of pressure of having to perform in front of a packed audience, has led actually to free-flowing football by most clubs, and that’s why you’re getting these strange, bizarre results every other week,” said Warshaw.

Research by the Institute of Labor Economics found that in many leagues home advantage prevailed but was often less marked in empty stadiums and that referees awarded fewer yellow cards to away teams.

Many players tested positive for COVID-19 – including Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Mohamed Salah – and picked up injuries amid a congested fixture list.

AC Milan’s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic already played a lot pre-COVID, but having to squeeze all these games into such a short space of time is bound to have an impact on players’ physical and mental wellbeing,” Warshaw said.

Women’s football has also taken a huge hit, with many leagues cancelled in 2020. In a report on COVID-19 published in November, the global players’ union Fifpro found that in 26 percent of surveyed countries women’s clubs were not included in the return to play protocols.

Fifpro General Secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said wage cuts, job losses and a lack of support meant there was a “real danger that progress towards gender equality in parts of world football will be set back years”.

Meanwhile, debates over altered offside and handball rules, as well as the application of the VAR (video assistant referee) technology system, have become noticeably more acrimonious this year, Montague said.

“Having more people watching in front of televisions and screens is exacerbating that problem somewhat I think,” he said.

There were some heart-warming football stories this year; Japanese football legend “King Kazu” aka Kazuyoshi Miura, 53, set a new record in September when he became the oldest starter in the history of the country’s elite division. Celtic player Ryan Christie was overcome with emotion in an interview after Scotland qualified for its first major tournament since 1998.

And, while athlete activism is nothing new, footballers in 2020 have increasingly spoken out on political, social, and environmental issues. “This is on a scale, depth and reach that is really unprecedented,” Goldblatt said.

Footballers joined a FIFA and World Health Organization campaign against domestic violence during lockdowns. Many players repeatedly demonstrated support for the racial justice movement Black Lives Matter.

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has become a powerful force for social activism in the UK against hunger – twice forcing the British government to back down and reverse its policy over free school meals – as well as promoting reading and literacy.

Barcelona’s Antoine Griezmann cut his ties with Chinese telecommunications company Huawei over its alleged role in the surveillance of the persecuted Uighur Muslim minority.

But of course it has also been a year of profound loss in the football world.

Iraqi football legend Ahmad Radhi died after contracting COVID-19.

In 2020 the world also mourned the deaths of legendary Italian striker Paolo Rossi, former Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier, England’s 1966 World Cup winners Jack Charlton and Nobby Stiles, and Argentine great Diego Maradona.

Diego Maradona, then Argentina’s coach, waves to supporters prior the 2010 World Cup quarter-final match Argentina vs. Germany in Cape Town, South Africa

Looking ahead

Fans began returning to many stadiums across the world in the latter months of the year until surging infections and mutant strains emptied many stands again in December.

“ human cost – physically, mentally, and financially – is going to linger long after vaccines are rolled out worldwide,” Warshaw said.

Meanwhile, other trends loom on the horizon.

“A big story of 2021 will also be Brexit, and how that affects the Premier League,” said Montague, “and how much of a benefit there is going to be for other big clubs in Europe who can take advantage of the chaos.”

From January 1, 2021, all foreign players in the UK will be subject to a points based threshold, and British clubs will no longer be able to sign foreign players below the age of 18.

Goldblatt, meanwhile, pointed out that the pandemic is linked to environmental factors and the climate crisis, which will have increasingly stark implications for football and which the sport has to address now.

His research has found that the stadiums of 23 of the 92 English Football League clubs will experience partial or total flooding by 2050.

“Grimsby Town better take up water polo ASAP,” he said.

Goldblatt says football – as a sport of comebacks, shock victories, and deep cultural and political reach – generates collective hope and can play a vital role in climate activism.

“Maybe I am being too corny, but hope is a precious commodity. I don’t actually experience it in most of my life, spiritually or politically. But I do in football.”

#sport Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=16236&feed_id=26000 #coronaviruspandemic #europe #football #news #sports #unitedkingdom

#Coronaviruspandemic #Europe #football #News #Sports #UnitedKingdom

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visionmpbpl-blog · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://www.visionmp.com/2018-world-cup-what-the-last-friendlies/

2018 World Cup: What the last friendlies taught us about contenders

The last time Brazil faced Germany before Tuesday was in Belo Horizonte in the semi-final of the 2014 World Cup. The home team’s starlet, Neymar, was missing due to an injury and the game ended in a 7-1 win for Germany—Brazil’s worst ever defeat.

This week, the game was in Berlin and once more there was no Neymar. Brazil again scored once but they managed to keep the home side scoreless on way to a 1-0 win.

Much has changed since the last World Cup, and one of the definitive transformations have been in Brazil’s fortunes. The team under manager Adenor Leonardo Bacchi, better known as Tite, is stacked with talent in all areas of the pitch, so much so that they can not only cope with the absence of Neymar but also thrive.

An ageing Julio Cesar was the best ‘keeper Brazil could manage in goal in 2014. Now, Tite had to drop one of the best custodians in the Premier League, Ederson Moraes, in favour of Roma’s number 1 Alisson Becker.

Fred became one of the scapegoats of that Belo Horizonte massacre never to play for Brazil again. But in Berlin, Tite could trust Gabriel Jesus—the game’s only goalscorer—and have the luxury of starting Roberto Firmino on the bench.

Brazil now seem well-equipped to bury the ghost of 2014 and make a serious dent in their quest for a sixth World Cup in Russia this summer.

As the South Americans overcame their trauma of the past, their arch-rivals Argentina were left contemplating their own. Lionel Messi couldn’t take any more of the mauling his team were receiving at the hands of Spain in Madrid and as the sixth goal in the 6-1 defeat went in, he made a move away inside the bowels of the stadium, having seen the game from the stands.

Argentine manager Jorge Sampaoli has the difficult task of sorting out his chaotic defence that played like amateurs at times. Willy Caballero, 36, will definitely not cut it as reserve ‘keeper and Javier Mascherano is unlikely to get the kind of rigour that would prepare him for a World Cup assignment in the Chinese league. In his Argentine record 141st cap, the former Barcelona man looked a shadow of his former self.

Reports suggest that Ezequiel Garay is not keen on call-ups for the national team but on the evidence of Tuesday, Sampaoli will need to convince the Valencia defender to accept the call for Russia.

For all the shellacking, Argentina started well and moved the ball decisively, attempting to play a passing game. Had it not been for an inexplicable miss from Gonzalo Higuain, La Albiceleste would have taken an early lead with a beautiful flowing move that started all the way at the back.

It leaves the question of whether Higuain is worth trusting with another important assignment. The script of the 2014 World Cup as well as the last two Copa Americas could have been vastly different had Higuain shown the same finishing capabilities that he does at the club level for Juventus. But his potency seems to desert him whenever he puts on an Argentine shirt.

Sergio Aguero was injured and Diego Perotti remained an unused substitute. But Sampaoli needs to give a serious thought about taking Mauro Icardi and Juventus’ starlet Paulo Dybala to Russia, having dropped the two for the twin friendlies.

Argentina are running short of time to fix their side in time for June.

Spain, on the other hand, look in great shape and are the favourites to add to the title they won in 2010. Manager Julen Lopetegui is blessed with a hugely talented squad that is stacked in all areas of the pitch.

Tuesday’s demolition job was completed without David Silva, Javi Martinez, and Sergio Busquets. There were combined 90 minutes for Andres Iniesta and Saul Niguez, while one of the best defenders in the Premier League, Cesar Azpilicueta, had to contend with a cameo.

The core of the side is well-experienced and the gifted youngsters make Spain a potent force and the team to beat this summer.

One team that would relish the challenge are the reigning world champions Germany. The two teams played out a 1-1 draw in their friendly last week, displaying how evenly they are matched.

There are some similarities between the two sides as well. Germany has plenty of experience in Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Toni Kroos, and Mesut Ozil, and some outstanding youngsters in Leroy Sane, Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka et al. Although none of these players, Sandro Wagner, Timo Werner and Mario Gomez, give the same potency as a Miroslav Klose of yesteryears.

Belgium, too, have rich pickings in all areas of the pitch but doubts remain about manager Roberto Martinez’s ability to come up with tactics that gets the best out of the talent at his disposal. Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne openly criticised Martinez’s tactics during the November international break. It’s never a good sign when the team’s best payer doesn’t profess full faith in the manager.

The Red Devils do have shortcomings in wide defensive areas and the deployment of Yannick Ferreira Carrasco as left wing-back left them exposed whenever Saudi Arabia attacked that area on Tuesday.

Belgium secured a 4-0 win over the Saudis, but better teams will punish them. They have the squad to challenge for the World Cup but a lack of tournament-winning experience and managerial tactical nous may prove their undoing.

Belgium’s group opponents England also have similar concerns with Gareth Southgate at the helm. The England manager opted for a three-man defence in both the friendlies and employed Kyle Walker as the right-sided centre-back. It stifles the best qualities of the Manchester City defender, who thrives on bombing forward and delivering crosses.

A 1-0 win on Saturday over the Netherlands, who have failed to qualify for the World Cup, was relatively easily secured. But Italy would have won on Tuesday by a handsome margin had Ciro Immobile taken his chances—the 1-1 result flatters England.

The arrival of Harry Kane will shore up the Three Lions’ attack and they do have a serviceable midfield but that defence doesn’t look like it could bring the World Cup back to ‘the home of football’.

The match between reigning European champions Portugal and Egypt was billed as a Cristiano Ronaldo versus Mohamed Salah showdown. The latter seemed to be winning the battle with his 56th minute goal but the Real Madrid star had the last laugh with two headers in the injury time that settled the match in Portugal’s favour.

But Portugal had a calamitous first half against the Netherlands, going three goals down before the referee blew for half-time and eventually lost 0-3.

Portugal’s Euro win in 2016 was down to a collective effort and manager Fernando Santos will do well to rally his troops—especially with important players, including Andre Gomes, Andre Silva and Renato Sanches struggling at their respective clubs—if they are to add the World Cup to their Euro win.

France remain hit and miss. They let slip a 2-0 advantage against Colombia at home to lose 3-2 last weekend before beating a ramshackle Russia 3-1 away on Tuesday.

Didier Deschamps has one of the best squads in world football at his disposal. It’s up to him to find the balance. Paul Pogba has been struggling for consistency at Manchester United but Deschamps seems to trust the midfielder more than the United manager, Jose Mourinho.

The French team are well-equipped in attack with Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann, while the centre-back pairing of Raphael Varane and Samuel Umtiti—who despite making a rare mistake that gave away a penalty against Colombia—will be hard to get past. It’s the midfield where Deschamps need to get the right balance with a plethora of exciting options to choose from.

France’s game against Russia in Saint-Petersburg ended with reports of alleged racist chanting from the stands which football’s governing body FIFA is investigating. Russia has a history of such nasty stuff in its local competitions as well as European club championships and there were fears that such unsavoury incidents will tarnish the World Cup as well.

Football fans would hope Tuesday’s incidents are just a blip and those fears are not realised on world football’s biggest stage come summer.

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