LogFAQs > #904841972

tbh there should be a reward for finishing 1st in your group. And usually there is. Belgium/England was just a really freakish situation that Belgium COULD have worked to their advantage but chose not to. They had way more yellow cards than us and a 0-0 sent us through top, so Januzaj scoring is what has cost them. Nothing else.

Again, such a completely freakish situation shouldn't really be treated as a norm. It's really a non-existent problem brought about by Germany's awfulness and Spain's freak sacking of Lopetegui.

Germany 2002 also had a freakishly easy run to the final, but that was because other good teams lost. Mexico won their group over Italy, then lost to the US, so it "should" have been Germany/Italy, then Korea beat Spain - their would-be SF opponents.

These freakish runs happen. Games are played over 90 minutes, start at 0-0 and there's pretty narrow margins between the players. Upsets are inevitable and lead to easy runs. Doesn't mean we need to change the WC over it. Spurs have gotten to the FA Cup semi-final two years running playing lower division teams almost every round. Over two years. And that's with random draws. It's inescapable no matter the method.
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Not to be confused with XIII_Stones.