Football Previews

The 2018/2019 season is less than a month away and clubs have started preparing in earnest for a successful campaign. Most teams have been playing pre-season games, but it doesn’t get bigger than the International Champions Cup. Manchester City won the Premier League last season by a record 100 points, 19 more than 2nd place Manchester United and Pep Guardiola ...

France have reached the finals 3 times in the last 6 major competitions while Croatia are in their first ever World Cup final after reaching the semifinal of France 98. France went through their group stage in an unconvincing manner, but they turned on the style when they reached the knockout stage. After beating Argentina 4-3 in the round of ...

Belgium and England suffered heartbreaks in their semifinal matches to setup this third place playoff in Russia, but these teams can hold their heads high and be proud of how far they have come. The Belgians were one of the dark horses of the competition but we all felt that they lacked a little bit of experience in these situations ...

With no hype and not many egos to manage, England have stormed to the semifinal of this World Cup and there is a real sense that this group is destined to write their names into the book of history. The English men started their campaign by beating Tunisia and Panama in their opening two group games. They scored 8 times ...

France are the only team who were deemed favourites to win this World Cup who are still in the competition, and Les Blues will be hoping to show the world that they are not over-hyped as they bid to beat Belgium to reach the final. The French team started their campaign with a 2-1 win over Australia and they managed ...

Russia has surprised everyone with their resilient performances in this competition so far. The Russians have made it this far despite being the lowest ranked team when the competition began. They started their campaign with a solid 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia and followed that up with a 3-1 win over Egypt which guaranteed their qualification to the next round. ...

Sweden is one of two remaining teams that have surprised many of us at this World Cup and the Swedes are organized enough to keep going until the finals. They started their World cup campaign with a 1-0 win over South Korea. Their next match came against World champions Germany and they started brightly by taking the lead. However, they ...

This is arguably the biggest match of the quarterfinal bracket as Roberto Martinez takes his very impressive Belgians out to try and stop Neymar and Co. Brazil, like most favourites, started their World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against Switzerland. They followed that game up with a hard fought 2-0 win over Costa Rica with all the goals in ...

This World Cup will go down in history as one of those World Cups that the big boys could not go far and the unfashionable teams went maybe too far. Uruguay and France remain two of the biggest teams still left and this game would be a worthy final but unfortunately one of them has to go home after this ...

Colombia are England’s next obstacle as the Three Lions look to get to the quarterfinals of this World Cup. The Colombians started their campaign with a shocking 2-1 loss to Japan, however, that result was influenced by the fact that they had gone a goal and a man down inside the opening three minutes. Their next game offered them the ...

This game brings together two Europeans in almost identical form as they both look to make a mark on this year’s competition. Sweden started their campaign with a 1-0 win over South Korea. They had built a reputation as a defensive side in qualification and that match was all about keeping the Koreans at bay. Their next game was against ...

Belgium were placed in an interesting group with England the only obstacle to them topping the table. The fixture list even made it easy for them as they were made to play the Three Lions in their last group by which time they should have qualified. They started their campaign with a 3-0 win over Panama with all the goals ...

Brazil came into this World Cup as favourites once again, but their campaign started on a shaky note as they were held to a 1-1 draw against Switzerland. Their next game against Costa Rica was even more shocking as they had to wait until added time to finally score against the underdogs.  That game eventually ended in a 2-0 win ...

Croatia are one of the most impressive teams in this competition so far. They were not considered favourites before the tournament began, but they look like they can go all the way. The Croatians started their competition with a 2-0 win over Nigeria. They followed that victory up with another against Argentina which was supposed to be their most difficult, ...

Spain is one of the many heavyweights who have not really impressed in this competition and it will be interesting to see how they perform against this Russian team that has been impressive so far. Spain started their campaign with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Portugal with Diego Costa twice pulling them back from being a goal down before they ...