If they play like that then they’re going to get an absolute hoofing off Mexico at the Azteca
I've got Monday off , and every other day being retired but I shan't be losing sleep to watch it ,
Finish work. Sleep for a bit. Watch the game at 1. Kane's first dive at 1:03am. Mexico win.
… at 1am on a Monday morning? No way am I losing sleep to watch Engerland
You spend a lot of time telling us how you're not bothered about watching England.
Did anyone see the stat that since the manager took over DRC have only conceded 0 or 1 per game.
Anyone that thought they were going to be an easy game doesn't know what they are talking about.
Did anyone see the stat that since the manager took over DRC have only conceded 0 or 1 per game.
Anyone that thought they were going to be an easy game doesn't know what they are talking about.
Heard that stat yesterday. They achieved a large proportion of that stat whilst having to play homegrown players only.
Until they played us and Sir Harry.
Lesser nations will be quaking now!
Playing games mainly against the likes of Chad and Eritrea maybe?
Digressing massively but what’s going on at Spurs? £85m on Fernandes, now apparently agreed a £100m fee for Tonali?
I dont know how I feel about that. I really like him as a player, but he can go in and out of form a bit. But when he's on, I reckon he's as good if not better than Rice.
And I feel like he owes Newcastle after they stuck by and supported him really well through his gambling ban.
OTOH, £92.5M rising to £100M potentially is probably too good to turn down, having spent somewhere around £65M on him, and i hope that the directors at Newcastle have some decent and gettable targets for summer business to use that on.
But Spurs????
What if Guimares goes as well? Livramento and Hall have also been linked with moves.
Hope Senegal win this.
Belgium look lost.
Digressing massively but what’s going on at Spurs? £85m on Fernandes, now apparently agreed a £100m fee for Tonali?
Given their previous track record, it’ll doubtless be part of a barely-thought-through, totally scattergun transfer policy which, if it all works out, could see them finishing as high as 15th next season
OTOH, £92.5M rising to £100M potentially is probably too good to turn down, having spent somewhere around £65M on him,
isnt this sort of approach a little short-sighted tho? it reminds me of the 'house value' analogy. "i bought my house for £3.60 in 1954 and now its worth a million! yes, but if you were to sell it youd need to buy another house for a million or find another few hundred grand to upgrade. so in actual fact it would be better if your house was actually still worth £3.60 as youd only need to find a tenner to upgrade to a s****y mansion 😀 and the new value of a million is only realised when theres nothing else to buy and you chop in your assets.
so, back to football. what you have is a £100M player, no matter what they cost. and to sell them, even at a profit, means youve got to look around for someone else who now costs 100M. you might as well keep your player 🙂
anyways, i dont know what came over me, i never comment on football. sorry 🙂
'Playing games mainly against the likes of Chad and Eritrea maybe?'
Looking past the racism/clonialism I'd suggest that the world cup so far suggests that playing teams like Chad or Eritrea might be a good idea for friendlies for European teams as we seem to have limited ideas on how to play teams who sit deep and can run a bit faster than Scotland
I really don't give a monkey's f about the Premier league for the next few weeks
'Playing games mainly against the likes of Chad and Eritrea maybe?'
Well, given that several teams at that supposed lower level have priven difficult to beat for several European nations in this tournament, we may need to rethink it.
Several times I've been suprised that familiar Premier League names have been playing for lesser known African nations (entirely my own ignorance), but if you can build a solid and disciplined team around 2-3 players in the top European leagues, you aren't going to be a pushover.
England had a poor first 20 minutes and DRC punished us with their only shot on target. The rest of the game - their goalie made 4or 5 great saves and kept them in the game and earning him player of the match. Mexico look really good, and England will need to improve to win.
Kanes non penalty was more of a penalty than the Belgium one that won them the game.
Senegal were completely robbed, that must have stung.
England look a pretty ordinary side lucky enough to have an elite striker.
I enjoyed how abruptly Alan Shearer went from I WOULD PERSONALLY KICK EACH ONE OF THEM IN THE FACE at 1-0 down to CRY GOD FOR HARRY KANE AND ENGLAND! after Kane's second.
Mexico will be interesting.
Did anyone hear Danny Murphy's cat anecdote during the Norway game the other day? Brilliant.
Kanes non penalty was more of a penalty than the Belgium one that won them the game.
what you have is a £100M player, no matter what they cost. and to sell them, even at a profit, means youve got to look around for someone else who now costs 100M. you might as well keep your player
The intent I'm sure is to find a 60M high quality player, a 30M good quality and a 10M to develop either directly or out on loan.
This is where FFP has screwed some sides, from Newcastle's PoV they've had to sell Isak and now Tonali (maybe not strictly FFP but kind of) to build depth because FFP forcced them to sell Anderson, Minteh, etc. previously, all home grown or bought young and developed.
Anyway, back on topic. It's not just the game against Mexico at altitude, if (big if) they can get through that the accumulated fatigue will be hard to overcome in time to play again on Saturday
I enjoyed how abruptly Alan Shearer went from I WOULD PERSONALLY KICK EACH ONE OF THEM IN THE FACE at 1-0 down to CRY GOD FOR HARRY KANE AND ENGLAND! after Kane's second.
I was waiting for him to climb into a spitfire and fly it over the white cliffs of Dover, towing an enormous St Georges cross, while belting out Jerusalem at the top of his voice. They really need to tone that kind of nonsense down.
Something that did make me laugh was someone suggesting that if we're going to have hydration breaks then they should be conducted in the style of Gazza at Euro 96 🤣
Shearer has 1 more eye he'd have 1. Some of the crap he was coming out with last night was ridiculous.
Spain are just on a completely different level from what we were watching last night.
Having watched all those replays from all the angles, I can’t see any conceivable reason why that the Spain goal was disallowed.
I can’t see it making much difference, but it’s mad refereeing
A friend sent me an interesting stat, Mexico when playing at the Azteca in their last 88 games, won 69, drawn 17, lost 2.
Possibly the hardest game in international football if that’s correct
Engerland don’t have a cat in hells chance at the Azteca
Clear goal for Spain for me. I'd still have to pull Cucurella's hair though, its the razón de ser.
what you have is a £100M player, no matter what they cost. and to sell them, even at a profit, means youve got to look around for someone else who now costs 100M. you might as well keep your player
The intent I'm sure is to find a 60M high quality player, a 30M good quality and a 10M to develop either directly or out on loan.
This is where FFP has screwed some sides, from Newcastle's PoV they've had to sell Isak and now Tonali (maybe not strictly FFP but kind of) to build depth because FFP forcced them to sell Anderson, Minteh, etc. previously, all home grown or bought young and developed.
Anyway, back on topic. It's not just the game against Mexico at altitude, if (big if) they can get through that the accumulated fatigue will be hard to overcome in time to play again on Saturday
FFP has screwed everyone but the 'big 6'. Let's face it, that was the intention.
I'm very disappointed that the next England match is at 1am UK time.
It's been great going out road riding while the other matches have been on, I was hoping for more of the same.
A friend sent me an interesting stat, Mexico when playing at the Azteca in their last 88 games, won 69, drawn 17, lost 2.
Possibly the hardest game in international football if that’s correct
Impressive but when you actually look at who they've played in those games, it give similar vibes to people bigging up Toney and Ronaldo for the impressive number of goals they scored last season.
It'll no doubt be a tough game for England as the defence has been shaky and then there's how they are going to cope with the altitude, but you'd hope there has been some planning involved and they would have been preparing for the possibility of playing there and do whatever they can to help mitigate it.
Pretty shocking VAR last night - barely a clear & obvious error.
That's not correct though, because it's not an error of judgement, it's an error of fact where clear and obvious doesn't apply. Did he touch it or not, the VAR technology says he did (recent addition to VAR though, in-ball sensors that can sense a touch, in the past when it would have been referee's opinion I'd agree that was 'too close to call')
If offsides were only changed on clear and obvious then almost none of them would be because they're all marginal decisions, because in general the linos are absolutely brilliant at what they do and very very rarely make a mistake on a clear and obvious one.
But then it also bounces off the Portugese player?
Thinking about it - if VAR cannot produce a decision within say 2 mins, then I think the on field decision should stand. If it takes more than 2 mins to confirm the mistake then it's not obvious enough for the referee to have got it wrong.
But then it also bounces off the Portugese player?
Apparently, by the letter of the law, a player is not offside if they receive the ball from an opponent who deliberately played it, but not when it simply rebounds/deflects off them, so the last 'deliberately played' ball was the faintest of touches by the Croatian (the one who very almost nearly headed it on).
Doesn't matter that it bounces off the Portugal player, it has to be a 'deliberate' act to be considered. The key active phase of play is that when the Croatian player flicks on (granted, a really tiny touch with minimal effect on flight of ball, and only discernible with new tech) the other Croatian is offside. That it then touches another Portugal player doesn't change that he was offside from the flick.
Suppose the Portuguese player had tried to chest the ball back to the keeper without realising the opponent was behind him and he'd then run on to it and scored or passed for someone else to score, that would not have been offside. The Croatian wouldn't have gained an advantage in that phase of play, the ball would have gone to the Portuguese player, and in the NEXT phase the Croatian wouldn't be offside because he received ball from an opponent.
Re time taken, yes I sympathise but this isn't an opinion based decision as I said before, it is a matter of fact whether the ball was flicked on or not and to allow the goal just because tech takes time to operate would be wrong. If an opinion takes too long to work out - then I agree it's not a clear and obvious error.
I'd still be mighty miffed if I was Croatian.
British GP this weekend might be an ideal time to ride the roads of Northamptonshire if you can get to that area.
I'd still be mighty miffed if I was Croatian.
But it was the right call (only just), so they have to accept it.
I'd still be mighty miffed if I was Croatian.
But it was the right call (only just), so they have to accept it.
I've read the above and it's a still a technicality that has put a side out. So yes I'd be miffed. I'd also dispute the penalty that Portugal 'won'
Why's it a technicality? Received the ball from a team-mate's flick on while in an offside position. The correct decision was made. Portugal would be more put out if they'd allowed the goal to stand, gone to ET or pens and potentially went out, because it would have been a factually incorrect decision.
In the end offside is a technicality, at the time the ball was played to them by a team mate were they in front of the ball (yes) and were there 2 or more opponents between them and the goal line (no) - it's as simple as that.
What other technicalities are we going to relax because you don't like the result? It was almost over the line so we'll call it a goal? They were almost in the penalty area so we'll give a penalty rather than a free kick?
What other technicalities are we going to relax because you don't like the result? It was almost over the line so we'll call it a goal? They were almost in the penalty area so we'll give a penalty rather than a free kick?
Spare the sarcasm - social media is rife with this controversy so its not clear cut.
Yep, and they're all wrong on SM as well 😉
and then there's how they are going to cope with the altitude, but you'd hope there has been some planning involved and they would have been preparing for the possibility of playing there and do whatever they can to help mitigate it.
according to Google
>
The England national football squad is currently undertaking simulated altitude preparation, having most recently trained on Friday, 3 July 2026.
The squad is actively preparing for their high-stakes Round of 16 match against Mexico at the Estadio Azteca (located 2,240 metres above sea level) on Sunday, 5 July 2026.
Because the tournament schedule does not allow enough time to physically acclimatise on-site, England is utilizing advanced sports science methods at their base: Hypoxic Tents & Masks: Players are training inside low-oxygen tents and using hypoxic generators to simulate the thin air and replicate the feeling of breathlessness they will face at the Azteca.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: The squad is utilizing post-training oxygen chambers to accelerate cardiovascular recovery from these suffocating simulated sessions. "Fly In, Fly Out" Strategy: Rather than arriving early and entering a physiological "dead zone" of severe fatigue (which peaks 24–48 hours after arrival), England will fly into Mexico City just 48 hours before kick-off to "beat the clock".
...but they've only got two days so nowhere near long enough to start producing more red blood cells. I'm expecting the Mexicans to run rings round them!
I'm sure a few on here have been at high altitude before and know what it's like. I can remember being in Cuzco and had to leg it up three flights of steps from the bus outside back up to my hotel room as I'd forgotten my spare camera battery. As I was rummaging around in my rucksack looking for it I realised I was just totally breathless like I'd just sprinted 400m flat out. I had to sit on the edge of the bed for a minute to get my head together and my breath back, nearly missed the bus!! I was pretty fit back then as well, regularly doing military PT training, running a 40min xc 10K and racing mtb bikes. It makes no difference.
I don't understand that this being the likely route that they haven't been doing this sort of training since starting the World Cup - we all know runners & cyclists love a bit of high altitude training.
There was always a possibility of such a game, so why not prepare just in case & if you don't have to play at altitude you still get plenty of benefits.
Australia obviously didn’t practice enough penalties during training 😳
Going to be even hotter if the England game is brought forward 🥵
