Italy’s Disgrace & Our World Cup 2026 Predictions! | World Cup Daily #1

[00:00:00] Italy have won the World Cup four times. They won't be here this one, they weren't here last time, or the one before that. Three tournaments in a row gone. The most embarrassing decline in footballing history, maybe? Not many people are talking about it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to FUT IN REVIEW, World Cup Daily. I'm Shaq, joined here with John and Nathan, and we will be here every day. And for Patreon supporters, you'll be able to listen to this podcast straight after recording.

[00:00:34] And as Patreon supporters, you can also jump in the predictors of the Predictor League and the sweeps that we have going. So, the World Cup kicks in, 11 days, and we are not calm. Neil, John, what do you guys have to say about the World Cup? Firstly, thanks for having us on. This is a really exciting idea, and I'm very happy to be bringing this to everyone that's listening. World Cup is around the corner, as you say. The friendlies, the buildup has started. I'm starting to get the chills. I love World Cup time.

[00:01:04] I love watching real-life football. I think this is going to be a really fun period and hopefully quite a few shots to come along as well. Yeah, and I'm happy to talk real-life football instead of game football this time around, Shaq. Daily has put on some heavy schedule for us, though. So, daily content, that's pretty hefty. To be fair, until this weekend, I wasn't looking forward to the World Championship or World Cup, as people like to correct me.

[00:01:34] So, and then as we say World Championships, I'll try to make a World Cup in the coming weeks. But making this content daily and looking at all the, doing all the research for us, it's, the hype is getting there. But still 11 days to go, though. So, let's see. Ah, I'm hyped. I'm hyped. And also, I think, let's just address the elephant in the room. Well, the World Cup in the room, essentially, this is the biggest World Cup we've ever had. We've had 48 teams, 104 games played in three different countries, USA, Canada, Mexico.

[00:02:04] 11th of June to the 19th of July. It seems like a really long World Cup. Gents, we've got everything. We've got halftime shows. We've got BTS, Madonna, Shakira at the World Cup final. I just can't believe all this is happening in one. And it's just all, I think we all knew the World Cup was coming, but it's just really snuck up on us. And I think we are here for a really, really exciting World Cup. I know 48 is not something that we're used to, but let's get used to the boring stuff first. Gents, we all know the big teams. We all know the big ones.

[00:02:34] We've got the Spains, Englands, Brazils, Argentinas of the world. Any thoughts on any of them? And then I would love to hear from you, Neil, who do you think is this year's golden ticket holder? So, I'm going to be really boring. So, to be fair, I've got a vested interest in two teams at this World Cup, being English, living in Scotland since I was six. So, I'm very happy that Scotland have made a World Cup. I tried to get tickets. I kept my bank balance, thanks to me, that we didn't get

[00:03:02] because I applied for the Haiti game and the Brazil game. So, that would have been very expensive. But England and Scotland, I've got, obviously, a lot of time for. I have to go be a sheep of all the herd. I do think that Spain have got a very good chance if they can combat the conditions. I watched a bit of Brazil and Panama last night. Brazil also, I think, will be up there. We also have a slight dark horse when I was doing my research. I've watched a couple of their games recently.

[00:03:32] Some of the players I've been scouting in my other job. I think Japan are going to surprise a lot of people. They are, technically, they're incredible. They're press resistant. I just think that, you know, I don't think they're going to win it, but I think they're going to be the team. There's always a team that caused a few upsets and kind of, I think, was it the last Euros everyone expected Turkey to be phenomenal? And I don't know where that came from because they were absolutely shocking. But I think Japan will be a team that make people sort of set up and go, actually, they're very, very good.

[00:04:01] So, I don't know what you think. John, what's your ideas on it? Well, Japan is a dark horse as well. So, there's that. Of course, since I'm Dutch, I'm watching a lot of Japanese players play every single weekend here in the national competition. So, the striker way, of course, is from Feyenoord, which is the club I support. Watanabe is a defender. He's also a defender at Feyenoord. There's a couple of players from NACA Nijmegen. And these guys are insanely good. So, I think what you said is correct.

[00:04:30] I think this might be the only team that presses. That presses, and let me rephrase that a little bit, because what I'm a little bit afraid. Shaq started hyping up the World Cup 48 club, biggest or whatever. Because of 48 clubs, most teams, like, top three in the group stages go through, right? Hence why I expect them to be very, like, not every team will win, but you don't need to win everything.

[00:04:57] If you need one or lose very marginally, you might actually still proceed. Does that make sense to the next phase? So, I'm expecting a lot of these smaller countries to just park the bus, basically, and just go for draw. And if you get one or two draws, it might actually be enough to go through. Yeah. And that's why I select Japan in the group stage of the Netherlands. In the group stage where the Netherlands are in with Japan, I think we have actually three pretty decent teams where you need to get scoring in.

[00:05:27] Japan will go through. The Netherlands will go through easily, because I don't think Tunisia is... Unfortunately, they're going to be the ones that just holds the box and see how few they can concede, right? So, that gives Japan a good stand. And I think that Daphne is... Like, Nate says Spain, the winners. I think everyone says France, basically. I think there's two teams in the top six, which I think we can't underestimate. One is Brazil. Yeah.

[00:05:54] Because they have got a coach who actually knows how to work stars this year, right? Ancelotti might just make sure these guys don't fight each other and they go through. But my bet would be Portugal, actually. They've got a golden generation there. Oh. Oh, this is going to be exciting because I disagree with you. I fully disagree with you. And although he's one of my favourites of all time, the reason I disagree with you is Cristiano Ronaldo. He's not going to play, I think.

[00:06:24] Well, I don't know. They like to try and shoehorn him in and they play worse with it. Just to flip it around a little bit, we've mentioned how big the tournament is. So traditionally, we've always had a group of death. We've always had one group that has got three, even four phenomenal teams that anyone could beat anybody. Looking through the tables this year, what do you think about it? Obviously, the expanded World Cup. All these groups have, I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone, but they all have a dud team in it, if you like. A team that you're expecting the other three to beat.

[00:06:54] Do you like that? Do you like the fact that you could potentially, say, Scotland could theoretically win a game at World Cup, which is exciting? But would you rather have close groups or would you rather have a guaranteed win almost? Look, I think from a World Cup point of view, we always have one team that is not up to the standards in most groups. And it's something that we're kind of used to. I think it's going to be spread across. And look at the countries that we have right now, Curaçao.

[00:07:22] For them, just being at the World Cup is such a monumental occasion that I think even if they... Don't go through now. Do you think? Ooh, that's a red-hot take right there. Red-hot take. I mean, I do love the fact that there will be some easy games as well for some of the teams. Because, look, we can't really circumvent the fact there's 48 teams playing this World Cup. We can't really turn back time.

[00:07:47] So, at this point in time, we might as well see some open-ended games where we can get some more new members to jump in and enjoy and enjoy the World Cup and what it brings rather than seeing a 0-0 game. But let's see. I'm hoping for some high-scoring games. I know teams would like to sit back and be defensive. But against some of these guns of France and Argentina and Brazil, I don't know if they can actually hold off for a whole game. Well, I think that's the only interesting group.

[00:08:14] The group that France is in with Senegal, Norway, and Iraq. Of course, Iraq is just going to defend and probably not be able to hold it. But that Norway team is really good. I think Senegal just fights until the last minute, right? And they're used to the heat. Don't underestimate that. I think they can take the literally heat there as well. So, I think that could be an interesting group. And France usually likes to play compact. They'll go through, of course. But there's two things which are really bothered by this whole group stage this year.

[00:08:43] It's the fact that 48 teams, I don't care too much. But the problem is that means three teams go through in most groups, right? Yep. That also means, like, the whole group stage is so, it's already sort of sorted. That makes sense? Like, I wouldn't say Japan is like an outsider to go through. If you look at the group stage itself, of course, there will be Tunisia. And everyone else in the group will probably make it so that they will go through anyway.

[00:09:12] So, and the other thing I don't like is the way they set up the knockout phase afterwards where they put countries in a certain brackets already. So, they can't face each other really early. So, you can't have, like, Spain, Portugal really early on. It has to be like a final or a semifinal at the earliest, right? I don't like having that set up. I like the fact you could draw in or... Yeah. A little bit.

[00:09:36] And those two things, this World Cup is set up to feel as the biggest World Cup ever. But I'm afraid it might start off, except, of course, if you have our own countries and we'll have outlier matches. But I'm afraid we'll have a lot of dots at the start. Just getting more people involved. I'm all for it. I'm just talking about from the sense of a small country just getting involved, getting a chance to be there. I know we talk about qualifying, being the be all and end all.

[00:10:04] But if that team gets through, just imagine what the impact it has on that particular nation just to follow their team. I know we would love for it to be a 32-team World Cup as always, but it is here. Or make it 64 and at least make proper groups and say, too, goes through. True. That's another option. That's another option. I think we touched upon Spain. We touched upon France. We touched upon Brazil. I think two teams that you guys haven't touched upon is maybe England.

[00:10:29] Any, as native, well, half-Englishman, Nate, any choice words on Harry Kane's maybe last World Cup? Thomas Tuchel in charge. But a German being manager of an English national squad, it just sits a bit awkward. I think the last time we had an international manager was Capello. And I don't think that went well, did it? No, I didn't. I didn't at all. That I'm not bothered about because it's all about results for me. Which is how they're lined up. So, yeah, exactly.

[00:10:58] But the selection of the squad, I think, is interesting. When you look through the squad, you know, even being united by us, no Maguire, no Shaw. I think that, you know, he's got Rashford and Gordon both. Like, Gordon's obviously been signed ahead of Rashford at Barcelona now. But he's probably going to go with Rashford over Gordon, going by his team selections, taking Jordan Henderson instead of the likes of Adam Wharton.

[00:11:25] Just, I think that it's not a good blend. I hope I'm wrong, but I also... Nate, this team has just built the arsenal right, isn't it? Just throwing the ball and crossing the ball from corners. Yeah, but you say that, you've got your best, probably the best header of the ball, Slabhead, who's not going. Exactly. And he's also, on form, he's probably been the best defender in England, like, over the last 12 months. Even objectively speaking, yes, they didn't, United as a team didn't play well under Amorim,

[00:11:53] but Maguire's been phenomenal, especially since Christmas. You know. Can't believe I heard that sentence this year. Gahey's potentially up there, but he's still got a mistake on him. I don't think you've got a solid 7 out of 10, 8 out of 10 plus from anyone else. That is a shocker from a... I'm not talking from a biased point of view, but I think genuinely leaving Trent out is another thing that I really... He's a head scratcher. I know he hasn't played much, but he genuinely, in that particular position, in the right-back

[00:12:23] position, I don't think there's anyone that can actually provide the game-changing moments that, from that right-back position, anyone else in world football, from a right-back position, can't change a game as much as Trent can. Yeah. And when you talk about the low blocks, you need somebody like that. Exactly. You need somebody that's going to be able to pick that pass, even hit the long ball, hit a set-piece delivery. I just think that... You don't need a Tucana in Panama, don't we? But later on... But then, England do kind of...

[00:12:51] The players you've got, they've not got a lot of genuine creative... Like, you've got Jude, who isn't creative. He's very clever, but he's not going to just pick a pass out of nowhere. Fair enough, we've got Anderson there, who's decent. You've got Saka, who, in my opinion, is one of the most overrated players in the squad. Other flank, I'm like, Rashford has his moments. Gordon has his moments. But do you know what I mean? There's not that person. He's not taking Foden, who's had a poor season. So I get him not going.

[00:13:22] But again, we've not got that little bit of magic. Parma has been shocking, I think. He's been injured, but I think he's been poor. So you look at the squad, they've not got a lot of the in-form players or the players in the right form at the moment you'd like them to be. So hopefully the few weeks break and work into them can kind of reignite the spark. But from what you're seeing just now, usually I'm quite confident. I've kind of been there through all the golden generations we've had and thinking, this is our year. This year, I'm like, we're probably going to be a quarterfinal team.

[00:13:54] Now, I think it'll be interesting to see how England turn up because for the first time in a long time, I think, well, they've been a team that was overhyped to a team that actually performed really well to two, three tournaments back-to-back under Southgate. They did really well. And this time around, I think the expectations are really low. So let's just see where they end up. I think the only other team is the defending champions, Argentina. I have no idea what a mixed bag it could be. It could be a really good team, Messi's last World Cup, or it could just be Fizzle out.

[00:14:21] It's really hard to know because they've got some really good players all across the pitch, but they don't really have that. I can't think of one center back that just sticks out in my head there, apart from maybe Lissandra Martinez is the only one that sticks out. I'm missing someone. Maybe Romero? Is he injured? John? Well, I don't want to insult all the Argentina fans on day one of recording this show. I was sort of in doubt should I comment on this one or not, but I saw the last couple of matches for Messi.

[00:14:51] I think the last one was Timbaland Wolves or something. What is it called? Portland. I think first Portland I played. Messi walks less than I do on a day in my office here. I don't see. Sure, it saves energy during the match, but you have to be. They are so dependent on getting him the ball, and I think what Nate says about Ronaldo, it's the same thing with Messi, except that if you look at the individual qualities of the Portuguese squad,

[00:15:20] I think those are way higher than the current Argentina squad. Sure, they're fighters. Sure, they're used to the heat. Yes, they got Austria in their group, and the rest is in that path. So they'll go through anyways. But I just don't see it happen. I think it feels a little bit like those days where you have Bayern Munich, and they have all top players still there, but you actually know you've got to make a selection. You've got to push through.

[00:15:49] I think it's cool to see him once more. But if I saw him play in the MLS, sure, he still scores, but he doesn't walk anymore. You can't do that. I don't think you can do that against top teams. Yeah, I fully agree. They've also got quite a lot of players that are currently injured, so it'll be interesting to see. Like you're saying defenders, they've got Molina and Cristiano Romero that are still injured. Romero who played his worst season ever, I think, as well. Yeah, exactly. And then even in the attack in Nicolas Gonzalez,

[00:16:16] Juve and Julien Alvarez are still currently injured as well. Martina's got a great Netflix special, though, if you haven't seen that one yet. No, we've not. But then going forward, they've always had firepower. You've got Solitaro at Inter. You've got, obviously, Messi. But the one player that I'd be excited for to watch in Argentina, I scouted him years ago at my club.

[00:16:44] We almost got him and then an Italian team nicked him, which is very annoying. But Nico Paz, I love Nico Paz. You see when you watch him, he is an absolute dream to watch. So I've not seen a lot of him since he's gone to Como. But in his younger days where he was sort of a lot more raw, he was very, very good. And I believe he's had a good season this time around. So he's one that I would really like to see. And I hope he thrives because he's got everything to be a very top attacker. Yeah. Fingers crossed. We'll just see what happens in Argentina. So essentially, let me just take it.

[00:17:14] Nate, you say Spain. John, you say Spain as well? Oh, Portugal. You say Portugal. And I say Portugal as well. So yeah, we've got two Portuguese here and one. And what we'll do, listener, is during the first time we introduce the show, each one of our hosts will just actually mention who they think is their eventual golden ticket winner. And I think from a dark horse, I think, Neil, who do you have as your dark horse? I've got Japan. Japan. And John, you had Japan as well?

[00:17:42] Yeah, but I'll go Netherlands then because they're in the same groups. Oh, look at this man. That's a first world problem, trying to make Netherlands as dark horse. Well, look, fair enough. They're not at the scaling heights that they used to be. But for me, I think I'll choose Norway just because they put Italy out of the World Cup, I think. They have France and Senegal in their group, but I think… Technically, Bosnia did. Well, true, true, true.

[00:18:08] But I think Norway had eight wins in eight qualifying games. They scored 37 goals. They beat Italy home and away. Highland scored 16 in those eight games. And, look, I just hope for their sake, for their country's size sake and for Invy's sake, that they do a really good showing at the World Cup. I'm just really hoping that they do something. Do you think heat will have an impact?

[00:18:33] Because some of these areas where they play are, like when I see the Netherlands play, I think the coldest it will be is going to be like 35 degrees or something. Could be. Could be. Although Belgium, I saw Belgium got a cold and tickled. I think they play in Seattle most of the times around 18 degrees Celsius. Yeah, but I don't see Belgium doing an awful lot. Me neither, but at least they got the weather. They do. But no, the heat and the climate is going to be a massive factor, I think, this time.

[00:18:58] I think that's why I was kind of hesitant for Spain and thought maybe someone like Brazil could potentially do it because they'll be more used to it. It'd be interesting to see how the African teams get on as well because Senegal, I think, have kind of, they've got a shout to at least put a lot of pressure on them. Yeah, like I said, it was it. Morocco, maybe? Morocco. Morocco. I always like Morocco, but I always tip them for the African Cup every year. And it's a bit like... You can't swap towels this year, though.

[00:19:28] Well, it's like when Ivory Coast had the dream team when they had like sort of Drogba, Kulu, the Tauris, always thought they were going to go far into all these tournaments and they always bottled that. So that would be quite interesting to see how they get on. So, yeah, it's really hard to call because there's so many different factors. There is a lot of factors and there's a lot of games as well. So we talk about the games in terms of the teams you're up against, but we don't talk about the number of games in terms of injuries as well.

[00:19:57] Because, you know, over the last two years, you've had a lot of very top elite level players complain about the amount of domestic football that we have to play. So it's interesting to see if they still have the same problems representing the country with the extra, however many games, at least 10 games or whatever as well. The likes of Rodri, who's injury prone, but he would be key to Spain. It'd be interesting to see how these sort of players hold up in the climate of 30 degree plus heat for that consistent basis. Can go the other way around as well, though.

[00:20:26] If you look at the Netherlands, many people, many players got injured like Frankie de Jong. Now on the way back or back and they start off refreshed and eager to go. So it could be the other way around. I think this is always hard to say. What I do think going to be an issue is when I look at some of these last group stage matches and when the next round starts, I don't know, half the team, but like 40% of the teams will have like two days rest. That's it. That's going to be hard, though. Especially if there's something to play for.

[00:20:55] You'd still take two days rest for a 300 grand a week pay packet. Yeah, like, let's be honest. I don't buy into the whole complaining about fixture congestion when you're on that amount of money. You just make yourself be fine. No, but still, no matter how you... Even if you would not get paid, you play with 35 degrees, you play a full-on match. The day after will definitely hurt. And the day after that, you're already playing. I mean, or at least you've got to prepare for the next match. And the next day after, when everything sort of starts feeling a little bit refreshed, you've got to play again.

[00:21:28] I don't know if all the pitches are even regular turf pitches. There are some that are not really the astroturf, but they are the hybrid. So that could have an impact on people's legs as well. That's something that always happens. It can, and they've only just laid a couple of the pitches as well. There was a friendly on one of them last night. I can't remember what game it was, but I saw the video of it last night where they were doing the warm-up and they were throwing the ball in the air and bouncing it and testing it out. That was on the threading pitch, by the way. I was going to say, there was absolutely no bounce on it at all.

[00:21:56] So it'd be interesting to see how these recently laid pitches kind of go on because I know that traditionally it takes quite a long time for these pitches to net together. When they roll out differently, they've obviously just rolled out one roll, another roll, sort of wedge it together and hope that it nets and grows together. So, yeah, we've seen in the past that fresh pitches also tear up really badly. You do get a lot of sort of joint injuries. So, yeah, it's fascinating. I'm excited because I just love watching football, even if it's going to be at,

[00:22:25] you know, I think Scotland game in a couple of weeks is at two o'clock in the morning. So that's going to be a very late night. But you can't complain when there's lots of football on the TV and Scotland are at a World Cup for once. I've got to admit, I'm very much curious to Congo, Texas, Pakistan. Hey, you never know. In the World Cup, sometimes these games produce the most fun, fun events. And for me, speaking from myself and a selfish point of view, this World Cup is amazing because I get to watch 2 a.m. for you guys. It's 12 in the afternoon for me.

[00:22:53] So I'm looking forward to bring it on. Gents, before we move on quickly, we just have to acknowledge that this tournament actually is Messi and Ronaldo, both playing their sixth World Cup. They debuted on the same day on June 17, 2006 in Germany, 20 years ago. And here they are again for the last time. If the bracket plays out, they could meet in a final. A Messi versus Ronaldo final.

[00:23:18] Look, I wouldn't put it past some of the organizers to try and get this done for a Messi-Ronaldo finale, but that could always happen. But look, this is one of the times that I think we just said as football fans need to sit back and just look at what they've done for us for the past 25 odd years, 20 odd years at least, and what they've done on the international stage and just respect what they've done and just enjoy them for one final time on the big grand stage. So yeah, let's keep that going. Right.

[00:23:46] Any thoughts about Messi-Ronaldo at all before we move on to? Just briefly. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out because I think both players have got phenomenal history. They're probably the two best of anyone's lifetime in the history of football. Everyone's got their views on who's better and what way. We can't go into that just today. But shoehorning them into a team, like you say, Portugal, if they don't play Ronaldo, I think will be up there.

[00:24:15] If they try and shoehorn Ronaldo in as the starter, I think that'll be detrimental or as much as I love him. Same with Messi. I don't think he's half the player he was before. It's going to be very interesting to see how they both perform, if they perform, if they get minutes, and if they're going to be the focal point of the World Cup being their last ones or whether there's going to be a new story emerging. All I could say is if you saw the man celebrating the victory with Al Nasser, he wants a big title. He is going to be up for it.

[00:24:43] And let's just hope for his sake that he does something. He does something. Right. Gents, the World Cup starts in 11 days and we're going to be here for every single day for it. All the daily recaps, talking points, the moments you can't miss, three things before you go. Follow us on Instagram at Foot and Review and on TikTok at FUT IN REVIEW Podcast. Two five-star reviews on the podcast right now would be great. It takes 10 seconds and helps us reach more people. And send this episode to a mate of yours who watches football. Just one.

[00:25:12] That's all we ask. We just want you to be here with us along with our journey. We'll be back here tomorrow. See you then.