Thing is Uruguay are the Wales of South America who consistently produce good players from such a small population. They play hard and push the line but no more than many others including European teams. I'm trying to work out why a German ref was so anti them .....

When he's doing co commentary I move to watch via Fox/ FS1. No way I'm listening to that twat.

It also missed a stamp on Suarez. It's not all one way. This ref is fecking useless.

Netherlands 2 USA 2 Argentina 4 Australia 1 France 3 Poland 2 England 3 Senegal 1 Japan 2 Croatia 1 Morocco 2 Spain 1 Brazil 2 South Korea 1 Portugal 2 Switzerland 1

Decided. I'm off to bed to make sure I don't miss the Tests 2nd days play have slept through most of the first day. Plus the football is shite. Often when I do this the football I miss turns out to be spectacular. Liverpool at HT comes to mind. If that happens thank me tomorrow. Nighty night all.

I've just seen that over as I found a 12 minute highlight show on YouTube. Great stuff. Stokes will go full monty tomorrow.

I have watched so much friggin football that I slept in and forgot the game and only got to see the last 4 overs but at least saw Stokes get 18 in an over. I will set the alarm now for tomorrow, midday start here.

You simply couldn't make that up. They couldn't organise a fart in a toilet.

I would rather be called Blackburn Bastards than Blackburn Fairies, which would have been more accurate post game.

A match fit Lukaku would have buried a couple of the chances he had. I'm ok with Belgium gone and would have been more pleased if it had been Croatia.

The first 90 seconds were ok, then it went downhill, fast. Belgium captained by a guy who publically states that they are too old and can't be bothered to even mime their national anthem. Not a good look.

Me too. From Taylors position he probably thought he did. VAR acted correctly and picked up on the first error, the offside. BBC co commentator bitching about it but VAR was spot on, imo

Messi went up a couple of gears with, imo, more to come. He wants this WC. He will be messimeric in the games to come.

Allardyce worked with what he had available. The myth of hoofball persists and to dispel that look just at the quality players he brought in at Bolton. He would have a solid base for sure but would have utilised the emerging youth like Foden and Grealish a lot more. He's also a winner which helps.

As the PL developed and it's top 4-6-8 became established under foreign and sovereign wealth ownership having a foreign manager/ head coach became even more of a status symbol, an elite competition in itself. This has progressively reduced the pathway for British born managers/ coaches to climb the pyramid all the way to the top. That is unlikely to change anytime soon if ever. Ok Toon went for Howe. Why? To stay in the PL that season of his appointment. If they hit a sticky patch of form my predictions that they go foreign. There is no longer a deep pool of British managers considered name enough for the elite PL clubs. The knock-on effect to the England job is there for all to see. For a manager who I do not rate that highly Southgate has done a good job and his England record shows that. My belief is that this is mainly down to the excellent squad that he has at his disposal. If a big fat bloke has not been a dick then England may well have actually got a trophy by now.

We started with walking football, CBs passing to themselves or out wide who then go back to the CBs rinse repeat. That low intensity spreads throughout and we struggled to go forward and it made speed merchants like Rashford look redundant for long periods in the first half. Wales were doing nothing to break the cycle. No wonder Kane drops deep. We did have 3 or so good moves creating the Rashford shot and one by Foden following sublime flicks by Bellingham. It all changed when we got the first goal and we just dominated from then on. I've watched Senegal games, we will need to start the game quicker. They are a bit unpredictable so a danger for sure.

In the prediction thread I went for a 5-0 England win and it should have been, so Bellingham and more so Stones go to the naughty corner Great win. Up the Welsh, as in right up the jacksy.

When push comes to shove so will I, and we have an attack looking starting lineup to go for it.

Very true. It also shows footballs nationalistic stance at international level, quite understandable.

England - Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Rashford, Kane, Foden.

Your opinion, to which you are entitled, is noted and put in file 13. Study some US history and indeed British.

I will start with the England game but keep a close eye on the other. In fact as I'm typing I think I will watch both, one on PC and one on the phone. If the US go behind I will definitely get it on a US channel for a laugh.

You've been watching too much English TV propaganda.

That US stunt with the Iranian flag has pissed me off with the Septics. That and following US political pantomime for the past 7 years. Iran will be so up for this but a ref could spoil it as a contest early on. If the ref follows FIFA instructions to ignore most fouls similar to the ref in last night's Uruguay game it will be a hell of a game. For the Iranian people and most certainly not their regime I would be ok with an Iranian win and it might even shut the American loudmouths up for 5 minutes