2006 World Cup Quarter Final Predictions
The World Cup is shaping up nicely, with most of my pre-tournament and second round predictions holding true.
Now, two days to the world cup quarter finals, let’s take a look at the matches and try to figure out who will win.
Quarter Final Match Predictions
Match 1: Germany vs Argentina
Winner: Argentina
Klinsmann knows that their first four matches in the tournament have been against easy sides (no disrespect to either Ecuador or Sweden). Germany’s first real test is against Argentina, and more importantly, Argentina have the experience in playing tough matches already.
Will the young German defense hold up against Messi and Tevez? Highly doubtful.
Heart to Germany, head to Argentina…
Match 2: Italy vs Ukraine
Winner: Italy
There really shouldn’t be any discussion here. This Italian side is bloody lucky - 1-1 draw with the USA, the Czechs were 10-men down, Aussies got sucker-punched with a 93rd minute penalty.
And now they have Ukraine - a side that by all accounts is the only team in the last eight to have played worse than England.
Italians with a free pass to the semis.
Match 3: England vs Portugal
Winner: England
England must be the only team where progression to the quarter-finals is met with criticism and abject despair. If anything, England have gone from mediocre to bad to absolutely pathetic as the tournament has progressed, and at the current rate of decay should be ranked 150th by the time they reach the World Cup final…
Portugal, on the other hand, are gutted but standing proud after a toe-to-toe match against Holland which they (not so surprisingly) edged. Without Deco and Constinha they will need to reshape their midfield but Figo is still there, so is Maniche and if Portugal are lucky Cristiano Ronaldo will be fit in time as well.
Form points to Portugal, heart goes to England.
Match 4: Brazil vs France
Winner: Brazil
Mouth-watering clash - two of the oldest teams in the 2006 World Cup going all-out against each other. This is a match where tempers are bound to flare, and Brazil will have to be at the top of their game defensively to get through.
France are good, but they need space to work with the ball and the attacking Brazilians won’t allow them as much room as Spain did yesterday. Their counter-attacking strategy could work, but I wouldn’t bet against the magic quartet putting a few past Barthez, who is prone to losing concentration.
And it’s Arsenal vs Barca and Real Madrid here, so that should be fairly interesting as well.
Head and heart are both with Brazil, although if France win England are through to the final.
Semi Final Matches
Match 1: Argentina vs Italy
Match 2: England vs Brazil
What do you think?
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i was googling trying to see if germany and argentina played sometime this or last year excluding the world cup and stumbled onto this page…i find it funny how all your predictions were wrong apart from the italy match! good on ya! would you like to try trashing germany for the euro 2008 cup? or has their qualification matches not impressed you at all yet? yeah they playin’ some easy teams but still they’re rippin’ the teams up with style. wonder why everyone hates germany? i think everyone should drop the history of the whole nazi movement and stop holding a grudge cause they’re an awesome team that almost always perform and reach to a decent spot atleast in almost every competition they’re in. afterall they have the second most appearances in the world cup, and have only been pushed down recently to the 3rd most world cups on a team to their previous tie at second with italy before they won the last world cup in germany. all in all i think history shows us that yeah germany can fall, germany can have their bad games and when they have their bad games they’re usually BADDD but they usually have awesome games and always push out there and create trouble for almost any team they play!