Eddie

Whatever, let's just see who gets further. There is no doubt in my mind that England have the better team, a better first 11 and a better squad. No, the fact that Northern Ireland beat England doesn't makethem better, that is actually exactly my point in terms of this knee-jerk reaction to a decent performance making people think Spain are suddenly one of the best sides. Spain are a good side with some very good side with some very good players, don't get me wrong, but still behind the likes of Brazil, England and Argentina.

Why doesn't everyone wait and see how this world cup pans out and then see who was over-hyped and who was underestimated. No point trying to sort it out after one game. Get over the fact that England are actually one of the favourites for this tournament. If you are English, enjoy it, if you aren't then either turn off your tv or shut up. It is exactly the same hype here in France and exactly the same I'm sure in all the big nations. I'll tell you that they talk as highly here in France of the England team as they are on the BBC, biased frogs. (what happened to the language filter?)

3-1 Italy

It was only Paraguay, which is why I didn't get so excited as to think we had already won the World Cup. The Ukraine are a decent outfit, but after beating them 4-0 in a game that certainly didn't deserve to be 4-0 you aren't suddenly transformed from a good team with a chance to shoe-in favourites for the semis.

Ukraine may have qualified first but you aren't going tell me that you expect them to get any further than the second round? Serbia and Montenegro finished above Spain in qualification and only let in one goal but you aren't going to say that they are one of Europe's finest, nor will you hold it against Spain that they didn't win their group. I still do not think that Spain's squad is as good as England's. They have a very good squad, but I think that England have the better defense and midfield. Very little seperates the keepers and up front I would rather have any strike force with Rooney in it, especially when you throw in Owen.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. They were only playing Ukraine and everything went their way. Scrappy first goal, huge deflection on the second and a wrongfully given penalty for their third, not to mention the number of times that the Ukraine got through their offside trap only to be incorrectly given offside. They are always a good side, but much like England they always fall short, I think they will do better than usual but I can't see them winning it or making their final, while I don't believe you can say their squad of players is as good as the England team.

They aren't happy here in Paris, I can tell you that.

Just waiting for the moment to strike.

Not our fault, they have Hansen and O'Neill on there to represent the rest of the Isles.

For me the thing is that England looked pretty untroubled at the back. The only other team that has done well going forward without having too much difficulty defending are the Czechs.

If Leanardo spoke better English? I have to say I have been amazed at the fact that the man speaks perfect English.

Have to say that was worse. France totally lacked creativity. Very poor.

My new favourite player is Pimpong...shame he was actually crap. I suspect he was put in the side just because of his name.

I would say it was Japan that was wasteful. As for the goal, I can understand how it was given and I think more blame should be placed on the keeper, that was a horrible attempt at collecting a cross and I think his reaction said it all.

As I said, the coverage is probably exactly the same all over the world for the big nations. Last night I watched USA v Czech Republic and Italy v Ghana on French tv, during half-time in both matches all the analysis they had was showing the goals and then they cut to a reporter at the French camp who said what the French side would be for the game against the Swiss and that Ribery was to get his first cap and is the man of the moment. At the end of the day there probably isn't an interest for the analysis of most of these group games, it is when we get to the knock-out stages that the build up and focus will be on the individual games. I've enjoyed the BBC coverage.

Already sent mine to Roy.

It's all going wrong for me!

Very controlled performance from the Czechs, but the USA were very unimpressive. The Czechs just sat back and with the exception of the Reyna shot and a couple of half chances at the end they created nothing. For me this was a combination of the USA not showing up and the Czechs showing that they are what they usually are, well organized with enough talent to be a threat.

You looked good up until the final third I thought, but ran out of ideas and were unable to put in a good final ball once you got to around the penalty area. Midfield played well though and you dealt quite well with the larger Aussies at the back.

Hm, great game, don't know how Australia won that 3-1 though. In the end I think they got the rub of the green. In my opinion the goal Japan scored was a good one, but given the standards today the Aussies were certainly unlucky not to have it ruled out, but that was a definite penalty at the end there, no doubt about it. Australia pressed well, though Japan had plenty of opportunity to kill that game off and wasted the ball when they had it in good positions and must be kicking themselves now. Australia are now in a great position to go through to the second round as long as no one springs a surprise result against Brazil.

No other player touched it.

I think the BBC coverage has been very good, beats the French coverage hands down (they love England on there too though). I like the pundits, I think they know their stuff and review the games well while also being interesting and entertaining. Rover6, guess you missed Leanardo yesterday then?

2-1 Japan. Part of me wants Australia to win, with Neill and Emerton and obviously having the links to England, but also I want to see Neill score and own goal and be sent off so he'll sit down and sign that contract. If Neill can have a stinker and Australia still win I'd be happy.

I've yet to see a truly convincing performance by any of the big guns, though I'm sure there will be one, but it really does show England fans why there is no need to jump on the teams back just because they had a poor second half, but looked comfortable and won.

You got to see him sulk like a 5 year old boy.