Suedehead2

Argentina's xG figure is still 0.00 as we approach the second-half ad break.

Anyone else forgotten who is playing and what the score is?

It was on the BBC as well. The hat-trick fact referred only to the knock-out stage. Kane's hat-trick against Panama was in a group match.

At least it's entertaining for an utterly pointless match.

Both sides seem to be making it interesting!

England's attitude seems to have been "If we have to play this match, let's just enjoy it".

This is how England can play in a match that doesn't matter. If only they had pretended that the semi-final didn't matter.

Ed Davey has said that the English FA, and the whole of UEFA, should leave FIFA. He's right, but it will only achieve anything if the whole of UEFA leaves, preferably joined by Brazil and Argentina.

I would prefer to see more empty seats. This match really is pointless, and should be dropped.

England 2-2 France Argentina 1-2 Spain

Best Propaganda - Dr Mabuse The Cure - The Caterpillar Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Locomotion Blancmange - Don't Tell Me Queen - I Want To Break Free Worst Roland Rat Superstar! - Love Me Tender* Julio Iglesias And Willie Nelson - To All The Girls I've Loved Before Kool And The Gang - (When You Say You Love Somebody) In The Heart Tie-break Depeche Mode

The totally unnecessary byelection in Clacton will have 34 candidates, a record. Just think of the amount of paper wasted on this nonsense. VOTE BINFACE.

We can say the 50s are represented by I Believe, which is about to lose its record as the single longest-running number one of all time. Oh, and the 30s are represented by a completely different song about the same subject. All we need now is a 40s reference to complete a full century.

This week's ramblings can be found from the Blogs page or the Forums Index page.

At the beginning of the chart week, Sam Fender and Olivia Dean looked all set for a seventeenth week at number one with Rein Me In, putting them just one week behind the all-time record. However, that changed in the early hours of Sunday morning when England reached the World Cup semi-final. As a result, various football-related songs got a hefty boost. Even by the time of Monday;s update (which uses incomplete streaming data for Sunday), three of those songs were in the top five. It was a slight surprise to see Rein Me In comfortably ahead in Wednesday’s update. Later on Wednesday, England lost the semi-final against Argentina. This meant that streams of the football-=related songs will have taken a tumble.However, as most of Thursday’s streaming figures are estimated (because only one major streaming provider seems to have worked out how to report streams on time), that drop-off may not have been reflected in the estimate. This all means that Rein Me In is at number one yet again. With seventeen weeks at the top, it is now the second longest-running number one in UK singles chart history. It is just one week behind Frankie Laine’s I Believe which set the record in 1953, less than a year after the first UK singles chart was published. What, then, of the football-related songs. The word “related” is important here, as the highest placed one is not actually a football song. At this World Cup, England fans have finally joined the rest of the world in getting fed-up with Sweet Carolin and have decided that a song by an English act might be more appropriate. They have started singing Wonderwall, by the football-loving Gallagher brothers and the rest of Oasis. It climbs to number two, matching its peak from 1995. Three Lions, by The Lightning Seeds with help from David Baddiel and Frank Skinner is at number three. This is the eighth year in which the song has been in the top ten. The official song of the 2026 World Cup, Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy, climbs eight places to number five. It is Shakira’s first top ten hit since She Wolf in 2009.Shakira also recorded the official song for the 2010 World Cup, held in South Africa. Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) is back at number 26.There are still some people not fed-up with Sweet Caroline, enough of them to see it back at number 35. One of the best performers for England was Jude Bellingham. As a result The Beatles' Hey Jude, written by Paul McCartney to comfort John Lennon’s young son Julian, is back at number 24. It spent two weeks at number one in 1968. Vindaloo by Fat Les (including Lily Allen’s father Keith) returns at number twenty. It reached number two in 1998. ANOTR and 54 Ultra climb to number four with Talk To You. Olivia Rodrigo has a new entry at number 30 with Honeybee. In the 1930s, diminutive comic Arthur Askey recorded The Bee Song whose chorus went “Bzz bzz bzz bzz honeybee honeybee / Bzz if you like but don’t sting me / Bzz bzz bzz bzz honeybee honeybee / Bzz if you like but don’t sting me / Bzz bzz. This is not a cover of that song. Last week Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler died after having been seriously ill since early May. Her best-known song is probably the Jim Steinman power ballad Total Eclipse Of The Heart. It reached number one in 1983 and is back in the chart this week at number 29. Alyssa Grace’s Bloodstream entered the top forty last month at number 25 but dropped back out again the following week, tumbling all the way to number 65. After a four-week absence, it is back this week at number 36. When The Rolling Stones released Hackney Diamonds in 2023, there was widespread agreement that it was their best album for decades. It is, therefore, something of a surprise that their new album, Foreign Tongues, has been described as even better, and with good reason. Hackney Diamonds spent ten weeks in the top ten, two of them at number one. Foreign Tongues, the Stones’ 25 studio album, also tops the chart, giving them as fourteenth chart-topping album. Among the guest musicians are Paul McCartney, Robert Smith and Bruno Mars. One of the finest moments in the career of My Chemical Romance came when the Daily Mail was less than kind to them on the release of The Black Parade and its chart-topping single. Last week they released a new version of their fourth studio album Danger Days: The true Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. The original release, in 2010, reached number fourteen. This reissue is a new entry at number two. My Chemical Romance are not the only act to get a high entry with a new edition of an old album. However, Bring me The Horizon have gone more down the Taylor Swift route and have re-recorded their 2006 debut album Count Your Blessings. The original version of the album fell well short of the top forty. Count Your Blessings: Repented is a new entry at number six. Olivia Rodrigo is still at number three with You Seem Pretty Sad For A Girl So In Love. The Essential Michael Jackson stays at number four. For many years, Simon Cowell made a lot of money after being given many hours of primetime television to promote acts signed to a record label he just happened to own. Eventually, increasing numbers of viewers lost interest in X Factor which has now been off our screens for some time. However, last year Cowell announced a new show called The Next Big Act. This time, though, the show was on Netflix which made it less of an event watched by millions at the same time. Therefore, when the winning act - a boyband called December 10 - released their debut single, it failed to reach the top forty. Two subsequent singles did even less well. Now, December 10 (who came up with that name?) have released an EP, On Your Side. Under current chart rules, it qualifies for the albums chart, and it is a new entry at number five. This means that Olivia Dean’s The Art Of Loving has left the top five after 41 weeks. Future is at number 27 with The Real Me. Jack White is at number 29 with his seventh solo album Frozen Charlotte. The Specials enter at number 39 with their final album Life From The Cathedral, recorded as a tribute to their late singer Terry Hall. As mentioned two weeks ago, I shall be on holiday for the next four Fridays. So, thanks to Popchartfreak for filling in for me last week, and thanks also for agreeing to cover for the next four weeks, with or without a new chart record for Rein Me In.

The press hates Miliband because he is to the left of Farage.

Burnham isn't particularly left-wing. Don't let the Tory press define where people stand.

Madonna's version lost all the emotion of Julie Covington's excellent version.

Julie Covington's version is sublime. Madonna's version is adequate at best.

Maybe, but I'm not sure many people would know that the chart had already been published. A full rundown of the chart om Sunday would be outside the hours where the playlist is key, so there would be more scope to play the whole chart.

Part of me wonders whether the real plan is to play the Official Chart top 40 on Sunday. Delaying the chart would mean that all of Thursday's streams are included. Back in the 1970s and beyond, the chart was announced on Tuesday with the Radio 1 Chart Show on Sunday. Might they announce the full chart on Saturday with the Chart Show on Sunday?

The Laws of the game state that the half-time break is a maximum of 15 minutes. Therefore, FIFA have unilaterally decided that that Law doesn't count if ignoring it provides a way of making more money. It means that the match will go beyond 22:00, even if there is no "real" stoppage time.

There is renewed speculation that the World Cup could be expanded to 64 teams. I'm guessing that the plan is to continue expanding it until Italy manage to qualify.

France 2-1 Spain England 1-1 Argentina

The police have said that there is no evidence that there was a political motive in this awful murder. Naturally, that hasn't stopped Farage from portraying it as a political attack without offering any evidence whatsoever. The frog-faced fascist will never miss an opportunity to stir up hatred.