Flops are a part of sports. For every person or team that thrives exists an antithesis to balance the world. There will not be any standouts if there aren’t any parties to drag through the mud. There wouldn’t be any “6-1 Brazil” memes if the Canarinha weren’t a great disappointment in 2014.
While there should be no way that Brazill will perform as terribly during the World Cup 2018, but no one thought they’d lose to Germany by that much back then. Anything could do in a strong team at a tournament as big as the World Cup. Injuries, a couple of poor plays or an opponent telling rude stuff about your sister (something Zinedine Zidane can attest) can undo a nation’s hopes in many ways.
You can make a case for almost any contender in the competition, but there’s bound to be a nation that will not make it as far as what their fans expect. There will always be a nation that people will be talking about the same way we did about Brazil for months after the World Cup.
Yes, this article is a list most fans would like their team to not be a part of: which nations will flop in Russia?
Portugal
I will concede that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best footballers to ever step foot on a football pitch, but Portugal supporters that think the Real Madrid talisman could carry the team to the World Cup trophy the same way LeBron James brought the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals are mental. There’s no way CR7 could carry a 23-man team all on his own.
Sure, Portugal robbed France of the 2016 European Championship with Ronaldo on the bench, but there is absolutely no way that Ronaldo can will his way from the wing to force Portugal to another final.
Doing what they did in France would have worked if Renato Sanches built upon his impressive performance at the Euros, but he has since fallen off after being acquired by Bayern Munich. It’s gotten so bad that Sanches wants to return to his old club for a season and rediscover his form.
Ronaldo also did most of the scoring for Portugal’s World Cup qualifying campaign. He scored 15 goals in nine games. This means that all Spain, Morocco and Iran have to do to hamper Portugal is to prevent Ronaldo from getting any free looks at goal.
Portugal may have found help for Ronaldo in the form of Milan attacker Andre Silva. The 22-year-old scored nine goals in 10 appearances for Portugal’s qualifying tilt, but his form at Serie A was far from satisfactory. He is a big question mark coming into this competition.
Sure, we can dream that a Messi-Ronaldo final will happen in Russia, but football is a harsh sport for a lonely star.
Croatia
It does seem like Croatia will make it through the group stages playing second fiddle to Argentina in Group D. After all, they have Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Ivan Perisic among other impressive names ready to suit up for the Vatreni. However, things only look good on paper.
Croatia had a rather dodgy qualifier, drawing with Finland and Greece and unbelievably losing to Turkey. Their other defeat came at the hands of Iceland, the newest giant killers of England. And unfortunately for Zlatko Dalic, they will be facing the Strakamir okkar in the group stages. One of their latest friendlies ended in a 2-0 loss to Peru, only raising concerns even more.
Of course, they can simply brush off the odd defeat to Iceland and play their usual football game, but their usual game leaves a lot of question marks for the casual fan. Why would a team with talented players all over their roster struggle to get things done?
Dalic will need to sort out the issues that plague his team if he wants to make the knockout stages. However, I don’t think they’ll be able to even make it out of the group stages without suffering a knock or two from Iceland and Nigeria.
Poland
This may well be Robert Lewandowski’s final World Cup appearance at his peak, so it is quite a shame that Bayern Munich’s goal machine would have to play such a strong group in the World Cup.
Poland are pretty much like a more Germanic version of Portugal: Lewandowski is the one that will bring fortune or undoing to the Bialo-czerwoni. The entire Polish economy would collapse under a great panic should Lewandowski do as much as sneeze. Without Lewandowski, they are nothing.
This factoid is pretty evident in their World Cup campaign. The 29-year-old striker is responsible for 16 of the country’s 28 strikes. He outscored Cristiano Ronaldo in the qualifier, and that just emphasises his gravitas on this Poland squad.
Poland will be facing Sadio Mane and Senegal, a revitalised James Rodriguez and Colombia, and Shinji Kagawa’s Japan. All of these teams will provide a tough test for Poland, and Lewandowski will likely have to do it all.
If their Group H opponents manage to clog the supply chain to Lewandowski, their hopes of making it past the group stage are as good as dead. The Bayern Munich star needs someone to step up, and he has to show up fast. SBOBET has reviewed Poland’s post-qualifying friendlies, and their form does not give them any favours.
It sucks for them, but we may see Robert on a quick plane back to Poland after the group stages. That is a sad thought for Poland, but a great one for the rest of the world. It only means football is developing all over the world to the point that even these three European nations are at risk of missing out of the group stages.
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