DE.

Typical England. No issues, then suddenly self destruct. We can score again but our defence worries me a lot. We keep trying to pass it around like we're Barcelona and losing possession.

Belgium woke up!

Belgium are playing like it's extra time and they're knackered from the first 90 minutes. If this half is anything to go by we should definitely be aiming to top this group.

Indeed, just ideally not 95% of the time! Belgium been poor as well tbf. The pair of them look like they're contesting a friendly.

Panama blatantly playing for a 0-0, just what you want to see at a World Cup. Unfortunately we're only going to see more of this when it's expanded to 48 teams.

Brazil looked awesome in the first 25 minutes or so, then lost their rhythm and never got it back. Great result for Switzerland.

According to the BBC only one team have gone on to win the tournament after losing their first game (Spain in 2010), so Germany have given themselves a mountain to climb already. The Mexicans worked hard and Germany looked clueless as to how to break them down.

Maybe not! Nigeria played the first half like they were collectively stoned. Second half slightly better but still poor considering some of the players they have in that team.

Denmark were very poor. Peru fantastic in all areas except putting the ball in the net, which unfortunately for them is the most important thing. They could have played until this time tomorrow and not scored.

There was contact but it was very slight. With the momentum of his body he would have found it difficult not to go down, although I could see a ref without VAR waving play on for that. Horrific penalty though. Baggio-esque.

Argentina are so weak outside of their attacking options. It's little wonder they're struggling internationally these days. Iceland showing again that they have some serious belief and don't get overawed by reputations. Good luck to them.

Regardless of whether the defender got a touch I felt it was a penalty. The touch hadn't taken it away from the attacker and he still would have been through had he not been taken out. A poor game from a French perspective though. They'll need to be a lot better going forward.

People can love or hate Ronaldo, but he really is some footballer. He drags Portugal up two or three levels purely by himself. As soon as they got that free kick at the end you knew exactly what was coming. They'll instantly become a much worse team the second he retires from international football. There will be parties in the streets of Iran tonight!

Have to say the BBC VR stream has been perfect, so fair play to them for that. It's a lot of data to send, hence the lower than usual quality.

Have watched the whole thing in VR, it's pretty awesome. BBC have done an amazing job with the implementation. Once they're able to provide slightly clearer feeds it'll be a game changer for sure. It's great now but I am glad they have the TV above you showing the game in clearer quality.

The Saudis seem to be a pretty odd team in general tbh as far as results are concerned. Narrow losses against Germany, Italy and a draw against Ukraine, plus victories over Greece and Algeria, contrasted with defeats to the likes of Oman, Iraq and Peru. Then their heaviest defeat in the last six years comes against a woefully out of form and injury-ravaged Russian side. This is not a team you'd want to put a bet on.

One of my worst memories of WC 2010 is turning on the TV ten minutes into an England match and hearing "Heskey runs down the right wing". You knew it wasn't going to end well. I always felt like Heskey could and should have been so much more, but he seemed to lose courage and conviction the older he got. A shame.

I was a bit surprised when I heard no world cup host nation have ever lost their opening match, including giants such as Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, the USA, South Korea, Japan and South Africa. If Qatar avoid defeat in their first match in 2022 I'm calling conspiracy and putting my tin hat on. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Russia's opening game was against an extremely poor team whose defence looked like it had been purposefully bribed to play as if drunk.

Saudi Arabia are well below the average quality level. I feel bad for them, losing 5-0 to a poor Russian team is very embarrassing. You wouldn't see that kind of defending in the Conference. It could be a very painful, albeit brief, tournament for them. Once the tournament expands to 48 teams the average overall quality will dip far lower, though, which is good news for teams like Saudi Arabia. Not so much for the fans, but when has that ever been a concern for FIFA?

The reason Sol Campbell doesn't get work is because he comes out with stuff like this:

Just saw Jason Lowe moved to Bolton. Apologies if it's already been mentioned, I did breathe a sigh of relief though.

FFP is doing a good job then.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/inside-story-behind-aston-villa-12655774 Not too dissimilar to how Venky's have been running us tbh. As soon as their money stops coming in (as it appeared to the season before last) we're @#/?ed and end up using emergency loans to cover the costs. Still not entirely sure what was going on there as they appeared to continue funding us again shortly afterwards. Sounds like Villa could be in huge trouble next season if Xia doesn't sell the club or begin funding them again.

Looks like failing to go up this year is going to be pretty brutal for Villa. Apparently they need to raise £45m through sales just to avoid sanctions. They've spent £150m in the last three seasons. Wage bill is horrific. They could be in pretty bad shape next season.

I can see Derby's slash and burn financial scenario clashing badly with the appointment of Lampard as manager. For our sake I certainly hope so!