I hope Dack's and Buckley's recent showings in the first team aren't just for next month's shop window. The pair of them have shown recently that they can fit into JDT's style, and perhaps they have just needed time to adapt. Buckley has an arrogant confidence about him which I like. He's correct when he suggests there aren't many better than him in this league when he's on his game. I hope he gets a start today, along with Dack.

Whatever anyone's thoughts are on our chances against France, it's shaping up to be a great set of quarter-final games. Holland v Argentina England v France And hopefully... Brazil v Croatia Portugal v Spain You could call any one of those a final. 😋

This has to be the worst half an hour of football I've ever watched from professional football players.

🤣 People never learn, do they?

I've caught all of them so far in between flexi-work, of course. 😄 There have been some absolute stinkers of games so far, too. Morocco versus Croatia was scrappy. There were also a couple of goalless draws yesterday. And the second-half of the opening game was arduous. Other than that, enjoying it. Almost making me forget the circumstances surrounding the whole tournament!

Feel sorry for all those who said they weren't bothering to watch the fixtures that didn't look appealing. Who'd have thought Argentina v Saudi Arabia and Germany v Japan would have been absolute stonkers? 😄 Learn your lessons. A fixture on paper never determines how good the game is going to be.

Some good shouts. I've just thought of another: France 0 - 1 Senegal 2002 This was the opening game of that World Cup. France came in on the back of winning the previous World Cup and the European Championship. Senegal were World Cup newcomers.

Can anybody think of a bigger upset than this at the Finals?

Oh my word! This is no more than Saudi Arabia deserve!

Saudi Arabia are doing a good job at catching Argentina in the offside trap. They're not as bad as I expected. Much better than Iran. Teams are going to think twice before rugby-style manhandling opponents in the box during corners. That's two penalties given so far for that type of offence. Argentina should still win this at a canter, but it's not as one-sided as I expected (so far).

Professional and enjoyable display without breaking a sweat. Good to see us scoring six goals and not relying on Kane to stick them in the onion bag. Some open defending by us at the back could have seen Iran with three goals in spite of how abysmal they were. That's a slight concern, although perhaps we were playing a little too confidently as the game wore on. We won't have it as easy as that against USA and Wales.

Enjoy collecting your winnings!

Just seen more articles claiming thousands left at half time. At 2-0 down, I can only conclude they're all Rovers fans and decided to call it a night. This was the strangest World Cup game I've ever watched. In that sense, I suppose it was somewhat entertaining, with plenty of comedy gold. But I couldn't help but think how wrong it was. It stinks of bribery and corruption. It'll take a decade or two for things to come out of the woodwork, by which time FIFA will have kept a lower profile, and people will care less than they do now while it's fresh.

Did anybody else notice how the stadium was emptying rapidly after the 70 minute mark? Edit: just seen a Sky News article suggesting the same. I don't mean to be presumptuous, but unless it was prayer time, it says a lot about how much Qatar deserves to host a football tournament of this magnitude. None of them really give a toss about the game.

Yes. Even Saudi Arabia would have dismantled this lot today.

Will England's players be as up for it in the group stage games as our opponents will be?

Preston will be a much tougher prospect than last season. Ched Evans will give us problems at the back because, like Barnes, he is another aggressive centre forward that can bully a defence. 1-1

Slight chuckle and shake of the head at the football fixture snobbery. I'm an avid watcher of tournament football and have witnessed many games between top international sides that turned out to be dull and devoid of entertainment, and many games played involving minnows that turned out to be great to watch. As football fans, surely you know it works! FIFA must be dying for this tournament to be over. People will forget about FIFA for a while once it is, and I suspect nothing will ever change. After all, they're not elected by us, which I think is the only way it could ever clean up its act. Give the power to the people that truly care about the game - the supporters - instead of the few who personally gain money from it.

In spite of possible corruption and being hosted in a country that isn't physically suited to the World Cup, I suspect we (Rovers) are quietly happy about it. A lot of our players look fatigued, and this break could well be a blessing in disguise.

Yes. We were humiliated by our most bitter rivals who, at least in my lifetime, had their most comfortable victory against us yet. It's about extremes. This season has been an absolute rollercoaster. We've had some appalling performances and defeats, yet we are somehow third in the table. And to go from believing that we might finally have had a level playing field before yesterday's game to being embarrassed on the pitch by that lot is the pits for me. Kean's reign of tyranny was like being slowly boiled in a pot. Mowbray outstaying his welcome the same. The ups and downs of this season, and not knowing whether to feel confident or to give up before we even kick-off, all came to a head yesterday. Burnley summed up the worst in us this season. Of all the games I didn't want us to put in our worst performance, yesterday was it, and we got the worst possible outcome. So, yes, it's the worst I've ever felt as a Rovers supporter, in spite of our league position and the belief that JDT will work out.

This is the worst I've ever felt as a Rovers supporter. I'm just really annoyed that it was inflicted upon me by JDT. I cannot believe how lacklustre we were. I thought JDT understood what this meant to supporters. I was never expecting a victory, nor even a draw, but the manner and embarrassment of the defeat is what really hurts. Tactically, we sat off them for the entire game. We didn't press once. It's not the first time that JDT heralds intensity, and yet we see none. It was clear that JDT set us up to sit deep to try to nullify their pace down the flanks. I thought we did OK in the first half, but I expected us to be more adventurous in the second-half. It never materialised, and our infamous lack of being able to earn anything after a goal behind saw our heads drop. We know the rest. For a derby, the absolute minimum you expect is for the players to show fight and audacity. It doesn't matter about quality. Blood and thunder is what is needed in a game like this, and I still cannot grasp that we just weren't up for it. I'm sat here really struggling to forgive JDT for this. You cannot philosophise your way through a derby game, particularly when the quality of your squad is inferior to that of the opposition. It's going to take a long time for my anger to settle down. It hurts - a lot. In spite of all that, I cannot deny that JDT has, overall, exceeded my expectations so far this season. On the one hand, I'm not totally convinced that we will maintain our league position with the way we've performed, overall. On the other hand, this league isn't necessarily about performances, but about grinding out wins. It may be cliche, but I've seen the Championship enough to know that playing teams at good times and bad times has a huge bearing on things, more so than Premier League. I'm still in support of JDT. He's still done enough for me to believe that we will improve. In context, the club went through a summer of staff restructuring, which I can accept hindered our transfer window, and although that had zero bearing on the manner of our defeat yesterday, he's still earned the right for time to truly mold the squad with another couple of windows. I'm not one for being too critical of how the games have gone if we are sat high in the table, but yesterday was an absolute bombshell. It will take some time to get over it, if ever.

All the soundbites from JDT told me we were going to fight today, even if we were going to be outclassed. How wrong was I? Tomasson appeared to sheepishly walk off the pitch at the end, and I'm not surprised. It was abysmal in the second-half, even if we were defensively astute in the first half. Putting our first half of the season into perspective, I'm delighted that we're third, even if I don't feel it today. But he got it absolutely wrong today. He said we were going there to win - that we were going to be brave. Neither of those things happened. I've bitten my lip when I've seen unfair criticism of him up until now, but today was embarrassing. As the Dingles put it, we were "f*cking sh*t".

Am I missing something regarding Mola? I understood him to be a centre-back, and while he played there against West Ham and was very good, everybody seems to be putting him at left-back, left wing-back, or midfield. 🤔

Fully agree with that. Pickering is a solid Championship left-back, but the Dingles have very pacey players down the flanks. I think it makes sense to leave him out.

Mola was class against West Ham in central defence. I think it's a back three of Hyam, Ayala, and Mola. Brittain will be at left wing-back, and Hedges at right-wing back, I think. I'm not averse to having Garrett in there to add some bite to the derby, but he needs to learn from his previous sending off. Anyway, time to kick back and soak it all up! Come on you Blues!