Coulthard's Jaw

Annoyingly I suspect Lampard would be quite good at the job.

Yeah. Also stuff like Hazard being washed up at such a young age, when you're a country of that size you need a generational talent like Hazard.

I don't think they are exactly the same, 2018 was definitely an overachievement in terms of where we got to in the tournament. Martinez got three tournaments where winning was kinda expected before people ran out of patience with him and I suspect it will be similar with Southgate, 2024 will be his third tournament which we go into with a good chance of winning, if we come up short again I think he will step down (actually he will step down whatever, he'll have been in charge 8 years which is a decent stint).

Absolutely no one is celebrating reaching the quarter finals Everyone wanted Maguire dropped, so feel like Gareth needs some credit here. And finding and developing another centre back is as much about the system we have in place for player development (which is loads better than it used to be) than who the head coach is. But could they do a better job? Jamie doesn't say.

Lots of places for Asian teams in 2026, good chance they qualify.

Is that Alan Smith

Messi’s second of the game, 108 minutes in, restored Argentina’s advantage with Cristian Romero provocatively roaring his celebration in Mbappe’s face. As it transpired, and while there were no protests at the time, that goal should technically not have stood as two of the South Americans’ substitutes were encroaching on the pitch on the far side as Jules Kounde desperately tried to hack the forward’s attempt from the goal line. The subs had spilled on in anticipation of Lautaro Martinez’s initial shot finding the back of the net, only for Lloris to palm it out for Messi to convert. L’Equipe would quote law three, paragraph nine of the Laws of the Game in their morning edition, stating that if, “after a goal is scored, the referee realises, before play restarts, an extra person — a player, substitute, substituted player — was on the field of play when the goal was scored then the referee must disallow the goal”. Yet no one alerted referee Marciniak and he remained blissfully unaware of the encroachment.

BBC have had a good run of them, 2014 and 2018 were decent.

World Cup Final 5-Min Ratings Peaks: 2022: Argentina v France BBC1: 14.9m ITV: 4.4m Total: 19.3m Ratio: 3.4 to 1 2018: France v Croatia BBC1: 10.3m, ITV1: 3.5m Total: 13.8m Ratio: 2.9 to 1 2014: Germany v Argentina BBC1: 16.7m, ITV1: 4.0m Total: 20.7m Ratio: 4.2 to 1 2010: Netherlands v Spain BBC1: 17.9m, ITV1: 3.8m Total: 21.7m Ratio: 4.7 to 1 2006: France v Italy BBC1: 17.0m, ITV1: 3.5m Total: 20.5m Ratio: 4.9 to 1 2002: Brazil v Germany BBC1: 11.6m, ITV: 2.6m Total: 14.1m Ratio: 4.5 to 1

ok this a lot more fun

Saka

Sometimes life is about the journey not the destination. It was a fantastic match and moment.

It's Gunman's traditional post final meltdown :*)

The first couple of days felt really surreal and I was worried it just going to be an odd tournament, but then it just exploded into life with the Saudis beating Argentina and Japan beating Germany and didn't stop from there. And to top it off we had one of the great finals. BBC montage summed it up nicely

Yeah, would be like me boycotting the rugby world cup

PSG is a vehicle for the Qatari government, pretty big ****ing difference. Mbappe would definitely be at another club if he wasn't being paid all the monies.

Fair play to the people who done a proper boycott of this, you're a better person than I. Only thing I think is missing the mark is the "haven't missed it at all " stuff. I mean... the fact you've missed one of the great football World Cup's is something that gives your boycott it's power, it's fine if you feel like you've missed out.

Only been in the country since he was 18, not like he spent his childhood here ffs

Working though.

How ****ing tense is this

Have to say, Argentina have bossed this extra time.

What was that French defending? Awful

ITS ONSIDE!!!!