www.silverguide.site –

Lineups

Portugal: Diogo Costa; Mendes, Veiga, Dias, Cancelo; Vitinha, João Neves; Leão, Fernandes, Neto; that guy

Leão replaces João Félix.

Croatia: Livakovic; Perisic, Pongracic, Sutalo, Stanisic; Kovacic, Modric; Baturina, Sucic, Vlasic; Budimir

Both teams are estimated to be in a 4-2-3-1 by the agencies that believe everyone is in a 4-2-3-1. Others probably say it’s a 4-4-2. Or maybe a 3-6-1.

The jokes are already coming in …

“Hi Beau! So, Modric vs Ronaldo. There’s going to be a lot of old men jokes tonight, huh? Hopefully some of them won’t be inappropriate. Can we respectfully agree that this qualifies as Clash of the Titans, then? (Because, in the actual myths, the Titans *are* older than Zeus). Sorry, couldn’t resist.” – Vlado

When I made the trip from Troy back to Ithaca (see the movie about that), I helped advise them on how to create the ideal soccer player. But they didn’t listen to me, and Messi popped up in Argentina, which is far from Ithaca. Croatia is relatively close, at least.

“On Saturday we are off on holiday to Spain and Portugal for three weeks, and will be in Portugal for the semifinal and final. I can’t bear the thought of having that insufferable …. (I can think of any number of words to insert here, but poseur is probably the only one which would meet The Guardian’s editorial guidelines) Ronaldo thrust down my throat day and night. So to be on the safe side Portugal had better go out as soon as soon as possible, i.e., tonight. Besides which they need to be punished for leaving Fulham legend Palhinha out of the squad.” – Richard Hirst

Team news coming up next …

Preamble

Welcome to a match that will answer a very important question …

Who gets the honor of losing to Spain?

In the 48-team format (more on that in a bit), 12 of the 16 matches in the Round of Twice 16 are graced with a team that won their group. This is not one of them.

In fairness, Portugal very impressively destroyed Uzbekistan 5-0 in between draws with Colombia and a DR Congo side that seems rather dangerous in hindsight. Croatia lost to an England side that rallied past that DR Congo side earlier in this round, then labored past pesky Panama and beat Ghana 2-1.

And these are star-studded teams. No, I don’t mean that the players involved are older than the galaxy – to answer the question below about 1 March 2006, I was planning my 36th birthday party, so these people all seem young to me.

This match will provide a healthy diversion for us in the United States, where everyone in my social media feeds has opted for one of two messages today:

1. It’s unfortunate, but according to the Laws of the Game, Folarin Balogun had to be sent off.

2. That was the worst call in the history of officiating, even worse than the 1972 Olympic basketball final. (Told you I was old, though I don’t remember that game first-hand.)

Send in your comments, your diet tips and your Medicare advice, and I’ll get through as much of it as I can.

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s more on today’s matchup:

Can you remember what you were doing on 1 March 2006? Perhaps you were at Anfield, watching England beat Uruguay 2-1. You might have seen Switzerland put three goals past Scotland at Hampden Park.

Or you might have watched Luka Modric make his debut for Croatia. They beat Argentina 3-2, with Lionel Messi scoring his first international goal. The same evening, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in a 3-0 Portugal victory against Saudi Arabia, no doubt dreaming of the day he would live and work in the country.

While he and Messi have dominated football discourse since then, Modric has been there throughout too. In a more metronomic, less flashy, passing-more-often-than-scoring kind of way, granted, but as another constant presence at the top level.

The trio are in an elite group of four men who have accumulated at least 200 international caps. Claim a bonus point if you can name the other.

You can read the full article below: