Hell, in the end the commentators were getting well bored, and some of the glory hunting crowd too. . . . Rafa v Djokovic has been a classic so far. Especially towards the end of the 3rd set. Just a pity about that stupid 11pm license. Rather like the World Cup the strongest semi-final has essentially become the final - with a near formality awaiting.

4 wins and 3 defeats or even 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats doesn't sound so good does it. That's bang average mid-table.

Makes it worse when you know the next World Cup is going to be in a pure non-football land in Western Winter (good luck with those outdoor fan-zones when it's 2c and pissing it down) and as you said, the one after that . . . ridiculously over killed - and in 3 different countries. The World Cup as we know it is over. And whatever anyone says - we will never get a better chance of getting to a final ever. Stats say, next semi-final for England should be about 2046 - by that time there might even be golf handicap type matches including in play game boosts, power-ups and plays and refereeing decision public votes etc. It will be interesting to see if people start changing their minds about how it ended for England after the euphoria has died down a bit. I'm certainly more Graeme Souness than Ian Wright about the whole thing. BeIn Sports in general was far more grounded and sobering than BBC or ITV. The pundits there were pointing out England's weaknesses rather than getting on the whole 'it's coming home' bandwagon. I had people offering me World Cup Final tickets several days before the semi and I was like, "Steady on this game is 50/50, I'm not making any plans until Wednesday night at full-time". As for the youth (i.e. under 17 winners etc. that people are blabbing about). Well firstly most youth players fade away into relative obscurity, they just don't reach anywhere near their early potential. Secondly, as some have already mentioned in previous posts - the Premiership will end up ruining those players that do manage to push on a bit further - as we've said before - due to the foreign invasion - they will be less opportunities for game time as they will be 2nd in line to all the foreign players. Then there's the foreign owners and managers that couldn't give 2 hoots about the England team and constantly push the club over country line which some of our supposed Golden Generation admitted was a problem for several reasons. Then you add in the materialism of modern life (which seems more apparent these days than ever); i.e. - the money grabbers and their agents (that of course don't care if their baby is sitting on the bench at a club paying more money rather than actually playing every week at a less rich club). It's a recipe for more of the same mediocrity we've seen during the last 20 years.

I can't believe Kane missed that absolute sitter. Certainly not World Class. Had that been Sterling then everyone would have been all over it, . . . forever forever ever!!

Certainly. But I know where he's coming from. I think it was more the first half second half (and some) shocker rather than the closeness of the final result. I'm sure if it was Rovers we would all have been wondering what the hell 'Bowyer' said at half time to then come out after dominating and be a completely different (useless) team.

Maybe it's just me. But I don't have any interest in the 3rd placed match or the final. . . and that's after watching pretty much every game, give or take a missed start here and there. Perhaps it's because normally when England go out there's still half a tournament still left to play. This time it's pretty much all over, so it is basically all over.

I hope Gareth isn't going to become England's Bowyer or the National Team is going to go sideways.

Most of us knew that foreigners taking over the Premier League would have a negative impact on the England team. It's just slightly bizarre how it's panned out this time. Though I heard Shelvey is a bit 'hard' . . .comparatively.

8 years until the next summer World Cup. 8 YEARS! ? 2026!!!! Hands up all of those who will probably be dead by then.

Shouldn't blame just the ref then. But he has overall say. Counted 17 times when the ref gave incorrect and poor decisions against England. Then as you said, there were those 3 times when the ball went out of play. Add to that the persistent fouling and breaking up of the whole game by one or two players in particular - they should have been carded early on to stop them in their tracks. It was just a very poor refereeing performance that had anyone seen at Ewood Park would have been bemoaning. I can only presume that those that didn't see that spent most of the game mostly staring at their phone, internet or yapping to some fish wife. Hoofball was also appalling, it really was just like watching the old clueless England. Ali and Lingard were really soft...knocked off the ball far too easily. Given all that...you just can't afford to miss chances....as we all feared....Kane brought his Leyton Orient game to the semi. All in all the only ones to come out of this with any credit are Pickford, who most of us including me were worried about, and a couple of the defenders. Apart from that we were bang average in the end.

You're one of the BBC drones here aren't you. Stick to MOTD highlights.

Those that actually watched the full game without any distractions will see we got nobbled by a poor Turkish ref in the end.

Seems a bit like pot-luck. Occasionally a ticket might come up here and there, but the internet is full of pikeys scalping for 1500USD+ (final more like 2500USD+). I don't expect there to be too much pot luck for the final though. Word is the scalpers are hoping an England win tonight will make the prices sky rocket even further.

The new Pele? More like the new Neymar.

The real flat track bully turned up in the last 2 games, like a headless chicken v Brazil and anonymous tonight.

I meant THE semi-final. Not that tin pot game that's on tonight ? Also what the heck are FIFA doing with all those 'unsold' tickets? Are they gonna scalp those to touts too? If they can offer final tickets to the Thai kids that got trapped in the caves then they obviously still have some they are keeping from real fans (i.e. - those 2 countries that will make the final). The whole thing is all very Blatter.

I see FIFA and the usual skumbags are letting the touts take-over the competition as per usual. Take a look at the prices for the semi-final . . .when I checked the cheapest one was over £500 and for the final it's shocking - the cheapest one was £1,900. I suspect the vast majority of these touted tickets are ones that filthy FIFA lobbed to their football disliking corporate buddies. I have an associate that has a flight to Moscow, but no ticket. It seems you have to be super rich or go bankrupt to witness history . . .I wonder how many people from Blackburn are over there. Talk about the working man's game. It's a disgrace really.

James not playing. Colombia saving him for the QF. The arrogant ****s.

At the train station, heading towards an ex-pats bar. Just seen a group of Colombians with their yellow tops on. Nerves starting to kick in...the World Cup is here again.

I heard a rumour there's another game on . . . CRANK IT UP!

Add number 4. - The crowd - they will be largely against us (ironically we might even have more 'Russian support' than English). The Colombian fans will be screaming loudly for VAR at every available opportunity. I hope the ref is strong.

It's all media hype as usual. I don't suspect they were outraged at the Spanish TV and them having a piece about the murder of Escobar (the football player) and the connections to his namesake.

So that's why Belgium were so crap.

Just watch it in a bar. They save you with 'three lions' as soon as HT and FT hit.

Costa Del Crime.