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Just ask football fans from England and Belgium, many of whom would prefer that their team lose the G group match on Thursday night.
The two countries have already secured their qualification for the knockout stages of the World Cup, thanks to victories won against group rivalries, Panama and Tunisia.
What is at stake is what team takes first place – a position that would traditionally ensure an easier path through the final parts of the tournament.
Except that this time around, with a lot of big underachieving teams, and half of the draw with a dangerous opposition, it's actually the opposite that's true.
While the winner will face Brazil and France en route to the final, the losing team could reach Luzhniki stadium on July 15 after surpbading Sweden and Denmark, more than weak in the quarterfinals. and four last.
Belgian manager Roberto Martinez certainly seemed tempted by this proposal at his press conference. pre-game, openly acknowledging the victory against England. 19659002] "We qualified and it was the priority," Martinez said. "Now we have to look at our individual players, we want to perform well but the priority is not to win, it's the reality, we put ourselves in this situation, we wanted to qualify and we l & # 39; We did. "
Martinez, who has already stated that he will be the top scorer of all time Romelu Lukaku, added: "I think tomorrow will be a holiday."
"Two teams can celebrate their qualification for the knockout phase."
Gareth Southgate was more pragmatic, although his words could be considered naive if a breeze from Belgium beat to the finish.
After all, all the screenings would be made immediately and embarrbading irrelevant. Both teams fail to defeat their last 16 opponents: one from Japan, Senegal or Colombia. "We have not won a knockout game since 2006," Southgate shrugged. "So, why do we start in the best place for our semifinal is beyond me really."
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"The Winning Mindset"
[19659002] According to the Gracenote Sports Data Society, Southgate's men have a 24% chance of reaching the last four if they become group winners, but they will have a 35% chance of finishing second.
But the other side of the argument is that the value of instilling a "winning mindset" and generating "momentum" can not be underestimated.
"We build a team that everyone can see is pbadionate about playing for England, who wants to win every time she goes out and always improve, "We want to win, which means that we will be ahead of the group and we can go forward, I come back to the fact that we are trying to develop a winning mentality and I can not imagine a situation. "Where I talk to others, it just would not be genuine for what we've been trying to build for two years."
While it's indeed difficult to Imagine a manager who orders his team to lose it's not unprecedented.
The winners of an infamous Tiger Cup group stage competition between Thailand and Indonesia in 1998 will have to face Vietnam, relative power, in the next round, while the losers will face the Singapore, apparently weaker. As a result, both teams tried to start the match.
With a score of 2-2 and a time that has elapsed, Indonesian Mursyid Effendi turned around and deliberately kicked the ball into his own net to ensure defeat.
Both teams were fined $ 40,000 by the FIFA governing body for "violating the spirit of the game". Effendi has been banned from international football for life.
And there are other unfair game warning signs in the pursuit of eventual fame. Thailand and Indonesia have lost their semi-finals anyway.
Singapore, the outsider, continued to raise the trophy.
Fair play?
Although the two sides are probably not so cheeky, a result that could happen at the Kaliningrad stadium on Thursday is a draw.
And since both teams are level on points, goal difference and goals scored, first place would then be decided by fair play.
In such a scenario, the team that accumulates the most cards during the group stage would finish second. Can we then see a fault in the dying stages end up determining the fate of these football nations?
According to former referee Mark Halsey, who officiated in the Premier League for 14 years and who was in charge of many
Halsey remembers a Premier League match of 2011 when a player literally approached to ask a yellow card.
"He just said, listen, listen, we have a game on Tuesday, if I do not get a warning now and I get a Tuesday, the big derby will miss me on Saturday," he said. Halsey at CNN.
"Then he just asked me if I could show a yellow and I did it in fact
" I told him: "Okay, we have 10 minutes to to do, when I give a free-kick against you – and I knew I would do it because it's that kind of player – I'm only beating the ball at 50 yards and I can put you on guard against dissent.
"If you have big games ahead and you're on four yellow cards, one more means you are suspended. Do not do stupid things. "
" He came to me at the end of the game and said, "Thank you for this Mark." "
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