Houdini

They couldn't do it again could they?

I remembered this today and have thought about it quite a lot today. It feels like the one year has flown by, one of the most shocking things I've ever seen to do with football. It didn't fully sink in when I first heard about it but it will forever remain such a tragedy. It was a touching tribute by the Portugal squad after their match against Croatia holding up his number 21 shirt. Also the same sentiments for his brother Andre Silva.

As soon as Salah scored from the Panenka I knew that would have psyched out whoever the next Australian penalty taker would be and unfortunately it was the young teenager who took it. Hopefully people in Australia will not go too hard on him. It definitely took a lot of guts at 18 to step up in that high pressure situation.

Hopefully they don't move Brazil Vs Norway to an awkward time instead because that could potentially be the best match of the Round of 16.

R.I.P to the concept of people drinking at 4/5 AM on a Monday morning I guess

No problem Mack!

Sorry @Mack. but I think you may have left out my 3-0 win prediction for Spain against Austria.

Thomas Tuchel asking parents to let their kids stay up to watch the match saying "There will be a big match in four days, and we need the support of everyone, especially the children." How is that going to help England? the only people who can have an influence on the match will be the people inside the Azteca stadium. Literally all 58.6 million people in England could be watching this match on TV or whichever device they use and they will all be watching on helplessly at whatever unfolds on the pitch. It's only match going fans that can have an impact through the atmosphere that is created in the stadium.

Apparently Germany want Jurgen Klopp next!

Wow that was possibly the biggest VAR decision so far in this tournament. It didn't look like the Croatia player touched the ball tbh. I was kind of hoping that this would go to a penalty shootout but it didn't happen in the end. Spain Vs Portugal will be a lot of fun!

Yeah there's a wild range of kick off times in this World Cup which is a problem of 3 different countries hosting it that don't all have the same time zone. The next World Cup will be in Portugal, Spain & Morocco and biggest time difference between those countries is 1 hour so the matches should be at more appropriate times 😂

Yeah this was a walk over for Spain. Portugal Vs Croatia later will be a much more intriguing match and one that could go either way.

I missed England's match against DR Congo yesterday but will tune in for this one. This is bound to be England's toughest test so far and they will have to put in a good performance to win, no way they can win by playing lethargic football.

Portugal 2-2 Croatia Switzerland 2-0 Algeria Australia 1-1 Egypt Argentina 4-0 Cape Verde Colombia 2-0 Ghana

No worries Mack! I'm sure we all understand how hard it is to run this competition, especially to update it on a daily basis. Hope you will be in better sprits soon also.

@Mack. I went through my predictions and I should actually have 102 points instead of 104.

Senegal just capitulated in the blink of an eye there and probably might end up regretting that for years to come.

Hopefully France will be stopped, I'd love to see a major surprise happen at this World Cup. Doesn't look like that will happen at the moment though.

Just as an experiment I tried to search for betting websites outside of England and came across this one from Italy and the order of favourites seems to be similar, so maybe it's not just an English thing. The past 60 years have taught them nothing obviously 🤣 https://www.snai.it/scommesse/quote/calcio/mondiale-2026

England are always among the favourites in the betting at major tournaments. It feels like it may just be a thing in England itself and not in the World/Europe in general.

In the "Who will win the 2026 World Cup?" thread here I used FIFA's bracket challenge to make pre-tournament predictions and I had Morocco beating Netherlands there. I also had a strong feeling that the match would go to extra time as they are two evenly matched teams. Netherlands continue to be the biggest underachievers in international football, all the great players they've had in their history and still no World Cup title to show for it.

Holy shit!

It's just delaying the inevitable with Brazil, someone will knock them out of the tournament. They played much better in the 2nd half though today.

Enzo Maresca is confirmed as the new manager of Manchester City.

South Africa the first team to lose in the group stage also become the first team to lose in the knockout stage. A lack of urgency cost them big time today.