Rob1981

SOMEBODY SCORE A FREE KICK FFS

Japan have got to try and go up a gear surely. Crazy if they beat Germany and then slip up here and leave themselves with a job to do against Spain.

Yeah, if they keep four games a day but put the tournament back to its usual length... then I think they can fit it in without any more KOs in a day then we’ve had this time. Time differences are going to be a killer for us though. Assuming they have to go 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm local time then some the later matches are going to be in the dead of night for us.

This feels like good practice for 48 teams at 2026. Both sides mediocre, no big names, commentators barely know anything about with of them. And an antisocial kickoff time because there are so many games to fit in.

Still fancy this group to finish 6-6-6-0 Everyone beats Costa Rica, then Japan beat Germany, Germany beat Spain, Spain beat Japan. Someone to win two out of three matches and still go out... which would be a World Cup first.

Mexico going to pay the price for not having a proper go at Poland last week. At least it might break their run of consecutive R16 exits.

Pougatch still plugging this dreadful ITV competition Surely everyone stupid enough to be taken in has entered already.

Christ, Matterface and Messi is an awful awful awful combination. Sycophantic nonsense.

Guardado starts for Mexico \o/ Sixth player to appear at five different World Cups.

Yeah, barring injury he should be playing at least two more tournaments. Only 23 years old, and already he just needs one more goal to draw level with Rudi Voller and Maradona on 8

Taken him nine games vs Messi’s 20

France the first team to book an R16 place if it stays like this.

7 WC goals for Mbappe already.

6 WC goals for Mbappe already.

Michael Oliver has got Japan v Costa Rica tomorrow, Anthony Taylor still yet to be assigned to a game.

Yeah, Denmark have almost got a free pass here. May as well have a good go... if they can beat France then they will only need a draw against Australia instead of having to win. But the difference between a draw and a loss for them here probably isn't too significant... they can go on and beat Australia and qualify either way.

I don't think we "wrote off two points" at all. We set up with a more defensive mindset, and still had few decent sniffs of goal in the first half. But we also knew that a draw all but qualified us, and the USA knew that a point against us kept it in their own hands when they play Iran. So the longer the game went on, the less likely either team were going to bust a gut and risk leaving themselves open at the other end. Everything that Gareth and his backup team have done to prepare for previous tournaments has been meticulously detailed. I'm not saying he's always got it right, and I get why people are frustrated when we've got loads of attacking players and he sets up to avoid defeat. But the idea that he is winging it game by game and doesn't have a plan for the tournament overall is ludicrous. It was clear that he was happy with a point last night. We take it and move on. Said this during the Euros... it's about time we got a bit more street smart during these group stages. Look at the final day permutations for some of the other top teams. Being through unless we somehow lose 4-0 to Wales is the stuff of dreams But if we'd gone harder at the USA and lost 1-0 then suddenly we need a result in what is basically a derby match. No point taking unneccessary risks just to keep the Twitter detractors happy.

Has anyone scored a decent free kick yet?

Put one away ffs

Peter Walton backing the ref. Who would have thought it.

Christ, how big is Herve Renard’s tongue?

Poland settled a bit now. Saudis should just keep running at Matty Cash, looks like a second yellow waiting to happen. He is lucky not to be off already.

Amazing that Saudi Arabia could be the first team to book a R16 place here, nobody would have predicted that. Need to pick up where they left off though and not sit back. Get the job done so they aren't looking for a result against Mexico in their last game. Poland flatter to deceive every time. Looked awful the other day. No reason why the Saudis can't take the game to them and beat them.

Really disappointing from Tunisia that. Gave themselves a right chance after the Denmark draw and with their easiest opponent still to come. But just didn’t offer enough. Best hope for them now is a big France win against Denmark later, and then France swap out a load of players on MD3 because they are already through. They have got form for that though.

Big call to make on Kyle Walker over the next couple of days. Hasn’t played since 2nd October, I don’t see how you can suddenly throw him straight into the starting eleven for a huge R16 or the QF if he’s rusty and if he’s not had any other matches under his belt. So Southgate either switches things around and gives him some minutes against Wales. Or maybe we start thinking about going through the rest of the tournament against bigger teams but still only using him off the bench. Still think that’s probably what last night’s approach was about. Using the four at the back but with a gameplan to try and contain the opposition instead of letting the handbrake off and running at them. Maybe we were looking at how a Walker-less England sets up in the later stages. Remember that Southgate left Henderson out of the starting team right through the Euros, even though he got over an injury mid-tournament. And even though Phillips had only got a handful of caps going in.