I'm not counting on anything. Yesterday I assumed both Croatia and Spain would get easy wins but quite the opposite happened. Its would be keeping for this world cup if Japan and Mexico end up going through. Do think Brazil have too much quality though, and they - unlike Spain - will attack relentlessly. Belgium seems the likelier slip up. But then they are very adaptable. If Japan defend ultra deep they can start pumping it into the box for Lukaku.

Both Spain and Croatia very tactically poor tonight. Outrageous really when you consider the wealth of talent each side has. What a bizarre world cup. All the most talented teams are having stinkers, except Brazil, Belgium and France. Spain needed to get the ball into the box far more often, while Croatia lost their midfield shape totally in the second half. Croatia scraped through but I don't fancy them against the Russians who will defend even better than the Danes did. Never thought I would say that. It is looking very tempting for England as the one thing we do have if we end up playing a ultra defensive side like Russia is Harry Kane to get the ball into. And we're also pretty good at set pieces. So we could make it happen against the likes of Sweden or Russia. That said we have to negotiate a tough opponent in Colombia first.

If I was a Spanish fan I would be livid. All that quality on the pitch but tactically Spain were poor. Kept on with the same ineffective patterns right up until the las.t ten minutes. Game like that where the opposition is so deep you need to get the ball into the box, ideally with two strikers in there. Instead they kept on playing on front of the Russian defence. Taking Costa off as early as he did seemed very strange to me. If they go out they've got themselves to blame.

I read up on Wikipedia and youre right - Xhaka, Behrami and Shakiri were all born in the the former yugoslavia. Plus the squad has a further six or so players born in Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia, so all ex Yugoslavs.

I think those Swiss players like xhaka and Shakiri are Albanian, so would not actually have been from the former yugoslavia area. Anyhow agree both Croatia and Serbia are good teams, plus you would have Dzeko from Bosnia in there too. But its not a new thing - yugoslavian national football team was a big beast of international football. Made two European championship finals, finished third and fourth at the world cup, and won gold and three silvers at the Olympics. Great pedigree.

Yup them and Croatia really shoe that being a small nation doesn't need to be a hindrance.

I think that's all fair. We are miles off the standard of players that Brazil, Spain, France and Belgium have, and lack the kind of individual quality of Croatia or Uruguay, but we're competitive against anyone else who got through. The target remains the quarter finals. That's a good tournament.

For me today has really emphasised that France and Brazil are the teams to beat. France blew Argentina away, and while Uruguay are fantastically organised and very effective on the break they lack creative quality and the ability to control games. Not sorry Portugal and Argentina are out. Neither of them should have got out of the group stage.

Hey look, I'm not saying we don't have a chance. Just that in any particular game it's 50-50 against the likes of Colombia, and maybe 25-75 against us when we play one of the big hitters like Brazil, Spain or France. Of course we can win it - a poor Portugal team and Greece (!!) both won the Euros. It's just probability wise pretty low.

I genuinely don't think he is. Expectations are low, he's got a poor selection of players. As long as we aren't embarrassed he'll get another two years easy. The FA have done the merry go round of managers. From their perspective it's better just to stick with what they have. There's no indication spending she'd loads on a fancy manager (plus the payoffs when you sack them) actually helps you win anything .

Yes, Trippier, Kane, Lingard and Alli would have all made a huge difference. But then you do have to temper that with Belgium were not playing Hazard, De Bruyne and Lukaku... If anyone was losing quality Belgium were losing a lot more of it....!

Could say the same about us and Kane...

It's coming home till we play someone decent. Think to be brutally honest it's a 50-50 against Colombia. Player for player they are a similar team to us in terms of quality. Theyve got one world class player like us, three or four genuinely decent players like us, and a lot of triers like us. Can't really see how we go in expecting to win. Should be a good game though.

Pickford, Stones, Cahill, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Rose, Dier, Delph, Loftus-Cheek, Vardy, Rashford Big game for Rose and Radford to stake a claim. Everyone else probably won't retain their place even if they have stormers.

Disappointed by that. Who stays in? Sterling to get a goal, Pickford as he's the keeper and maybe Stones?

Have to agree. It should be a draw. You could still have first seeds and seconds seeds based on finishing position to mean that there is an advantage to finishing first in the group, but just not have it all mapped out. Also means extra excitement for a draw each round.

I know mathematically it's not complicated, but team spirit, self respect, the respect of the supporters and momentum will all take a significant hit if we deliberately throw the game. Also Belgium are the first really decent team Southgates side has played competitively. Probably first England have played full stop since Uruguay in 2014. They need to establish their credentials to themselves, let alone anyone else. Not really the time to bugger about. I'll be very surprised if we don't go to try and win the game.

Is it unkind of me to suggest the reaction of the German players ,and the thousands of German fans in the stands, was a third superb reason? I'll never say a bad word about VAR again.

We have to play to win. We need to build a head of steam, and I could see anyone knocking us out, so I wouldn't get too clever in trying to pick which half of the draw we are in.

Although they are dull as dishwasher France look a good bet to me. Very very difficult to score against, probably the physically strongest team at the tournament, and have half a dozen players who can score goals out of nothing. They could grind it out I think.

I think the key is the referee has to be strong. The guy in the Iran Spain game got overwhelmed and it turned into a mess. In Argentina Nigeria referee was strong and nipped the dissent and calling for VAR etc in the bud and it worked reasonably well.

Nope it's two way at the moment. Ref can request a review as well as be advised to review by the VAR team. I'm suggesting the option for the ref to request is removed to make the ref more decisive and remove the incentive for the players and managers to demand VAR from him.

Well yes if the four blokes in a room are biased we have a problem. But then isn't that just as valid with 1 bloke on a pitch? Why would that be any less biased?

I think potentially the best route out of this is to set out a clear rule that says the referee cannot request VAR, he only gets notified and has to review. Any players who asks him to go to VAR gets booked. That should stop the players following him around, and also kill off this issue of he ref beginning to doubt himself and requesting to go to VAR all the time. It's up to the full kit VAR room guys to buzz the ref immediately if something is clearly and obviously incorrect. Then the ref is obliged to review the video and remake the call. Bosh done. If you take it out of the refs hands it cleans a lot of the indecision out. But absolutely key is the VAR room can only invoke it for something clearly incorrect.

Thought VAR was doing okay till saw that Iran vs Portugal game. It was utterly utterly farcical.