Hasta

If Iceland win then Croatian will need to not lose to make sure they top the group and avoid France. Any other result and Croatia can probably do what they'd want in the last game.

If Neymar had done that to a defender and clutched his shirt, do you think the ref would have not given a free kick?

Wigan please. Boxing day is always Bolton away recently so that wouldn't surprise me again.

On the actual game, I thought for the first 30 minutes we did have the killer ball we usually lack. Some of the way we got players running in behind was exceptional. I think it caught Tunisia by surprise and, once they equalised, they got everyone deeper and became less adventurous. Then we struggled. Having said that, we also have seen Brazil, Argentina and Germany have similar problems but also concede goals and not be as dominant in the midfield. I don't think Tunisia had a meaningful touch in our box all of the second half. Loftus Cheek and Rashford gave us some much needed impetus back late on although their refusal to cross, to try that one extra touch or try a little flick frustrated. It's not normal to praise a former dingle but Trippier has it right. When your in a decent position get it in with quality as soon as possible. Many times, the best chance you get to put a cross in is the first chance you get to put a cross in. Sterling and Young were poor. At the moment I'd just consider swapping Young for Rose. Impressed with Maguire's determination to step out with the ball and try and force the team forward. That's got to be credit to the manager. Worrying that there is only 1 proper finisher in the side though. Kane took both simple chances well although I could see some players panicking at the end and heading it down and wide (Morten - I'm looking at you !!!). Vardy is the only other player that would probably have stuck most of the chances that came our way away but he'll be difficult to fit in that formation. Overall I'm quite pleased with how that went. Panama looked relatively harmless so a win should see us through next weekend. Final word on Southgate. I never wanted him to get the job and I expect he will fail like everyone else. However I find it hard to dislike the guy. Speaks sensibly, picks who he wants to pick rather than bowing to influences, and his goal reactions show a genuine passion.

There wasn't an absence of VAR. It was reviewed by the officials in Moscow and decided it wasn't a penalty. It clearly was. VAR will stamp out the contentious decisions. Like hell it will. Throw in the Argentina penalty not given as I said before and you've got blatant decisions not being given. Once upon a time you would say the referee can't see everything and doesn't have 50 angles like the TV viewer. They've taken that excuse away now so they simply have to get the decisions correct. When they don't it's actually worse than it was before.

I presume your talking about Tunisia?

How was that not an England penalty when he got wrestled to the ground ?

Argentina Penalty not given and the Swiss Goal immediately come to mind. It's slowly growing on me though if only for the novelty value.

If they'd have gone round the keeper they would still have turned back on themselves and squared it.

I removed my last line as when I reread it came across as a bit nasty but you quoted me before I edited. Sorry ? I dared to say on Twitter that Argentina looked shaky at the back and I got a load of stick saying why do you think England will be better, blah blah blah,. Almost as though an England fan can't comment on other teams now!

What has the quality of the Premier League, with the amount of non-British players plying their trade,got to do with the quality of the English National team? We're talking about the merits of the two leagues yet you put the England jibe in there.

VAR got that one right. It looked blatant in real time. However If I was Argentinian I'd be asking why their penalty wasn't even looked at in the earlier game.

There's an angle from the far corner flag where you can see the pattern of the ball change direction as he nicks it. It is subtle but definitely is there. VAR was brought in to ensure we got the big decisions right and eliminate controversy. Itsbeing used to look at margin calls and the same controversy arises. In my opinion,, plus that of a few members of the BBC team and many others it was not a penalty. Even more people agree that, with it being such a close call, VAR shouldn't overturn. Also, there were 5 minutes injury time. 6 substitutions gives 3 minutes. The ref played on for 35 seconds before then reviewing the incident, giving the penalty, booking the defender and so on. That whole incident probably took well over 2 minutes. Add in the other two VAR reviews, plus normal time added on and that game should have gone on for about 5 more minutes. Last night, Costa jumped and led with his arm for the first goal for Spain. That was reviewed and not changed despite the fact the majority of people would say it was a foul. Goal line technology has been an outstanding success. VAR needs a lot of work to avoid becoming the waste of time (literally) it currently is.

Tyrone - I give up. I'm just repeating myself.

He absolutely gets the ball. That's undeniable off one of the angles. And the point is whether it is clear and obvious to overturn the original decision. The debate around it says not.

Goal line technology is different than VAR and is undeniably a success. How did France celebrate? They stood around waiting whilst the referee checked for a potential offside 20 seconds earlier.

By current standards but not by the rules. Regardless it's the fact that VAR has overturned the on field decision that's controversial. So much for 'clear and obvious'.

He slides in and gets a slight nick on the ball. Therefore it's not a penalty. Dont forget that VAR is only to be used to overturn the on pitch decision if it's a "clear and obvious error". Refs had a bit of a 'mare there.

I dont know the Colombian players. I never said I did !!

I don't think saying that man for man we are probably better than Colombia is getting ahead of ourselves. The problem is we are certainly better man for man than Russia and Iceland and couldn't beat them last time. For whatever reason we fail to show it in tournaments. In previus tournaments (between 96 to 2006) people were saying we had the best team in the tournament which was getting ahead of ourselves. Fortunately that's died down now.

Disagree. I thought he stood out as one of the better players in the playoffs for Scunthorpe and was excellent for much of the season. Also scooped all player of the year always for Scunny. I think he would be a great signing.

I thought Sam Gallagher was a bang average Champinship striker who wouldn't cut it at a higher level. I told a Brum fan this and at the end of the season he agreed completely. As an option he would be OK. Problem is because he was highly rated and at a Prem club, he has an inflated transfer fee and wages around his neck for someone who is going to be a rotating squad player for any Championship club with ambition. As for Lowe, I see some Bolton fans trotting out the "he has Prem experience and has captained a club in the championship" line. They're in for a shock. ?

Add in Ferdinand and Collymore and we had some strikers available in the 90s.

To be fair at least it's on topic !! ?

I'm talking in general, not this season. It's because in the 80s and 90s the gap between salaries in the SPL and other major European leagues wasn't as great,so players in their prime like Laudrup and Larson may move there. Other clubs in the top flight wouldn't lose their players to relatively lower league English clubs just because they could pay seriously more in wages. However the stupid money thrown about by TV means that average players would rather turn up on £8k in the Champinship than in Scotland. That's not a fault or criticism of the Scottish league. It's just another side effect of the gross money in the game. I'm not knocking the competitiveness of the league outside of Celtic, just that the quality of players plying their trade in Scotland's is worse than in previous eras.