I think they are the exceptions ie minnow improveing through the 3 matches, but on the whole the "upsets" have been in the first matches?liquidfootball2 wrote: ↑12 Jun 2018, 21:01Thanks, i see your thinking now - although you could probably pick out many examples where a stronger team playing a minnow first could have been deemed to have helped or indeed vice versa, so its possibly arguable either way.
I know England have had many pretty awful results in the past so this is potentially another, but playing them first shouldn't make too much difference. (hopefully )
Tbh I was going to ask why\how the hosts are opening this, when I thought it was the holders that was the tradition. Too any upsets, maybe? But why expose Mother Russia to it? (I'm not even getting into Russia buying off Saudi's...)