Dark Munster

They already lost it when they replaced Costa with Morata.

If Saints win a few games in a row next season I hope the U21's don't then lose and ruin our momentum.

I think you mean tot ziens.

True, I can't see Belgium scoring. And no-one is deliberately going to get a yellow and risk a ban (or at least get closer to one). At the end England may say sod this, we're going to finish top anyway, let's try to get a goal or two for Harry.

Another success for VAR.

That's the same type of logic as "there's no point in practising penalties because you can't recreate the pressure of a real shootout." An easier path to the final means you have a better chance of winning. Period. And that's true whether you're England or Brazil.

Two questions. Grateful for any answers. 1. Why is Steyn being "rested"? 2. Why do England Lions (i.e. B team) play at the same time as Division 1 matches?

If Japan wins group H (very possible) it would be insane to want to finish first and be on the left hand side.

....

Absolutely this. We've needed one for close to 2 years now, and the clown's donkey hasn't filled that void.

I think we should ditch all cars as well, because there are so many bad drivers out there.

God help us, Glasgow has discovered animated gifs.

I predict 0-0 with 22 yellow cards.

It promises to be a cracker. Two very good attacking sides, with both needing to win. I'm really looking forward to this one. Edit: Correction, Senegal only need a draw, but Colombia need a win. So still set up very nicely for a great match.

I for one won't be writing him off until he's played at least one game for us.

To put this in perspective, we bought the clown's donkey for close to £20 million.

VAR doing its job well again. Iran putting up a good fight though.

But if it falls through we didn't want him anyway.

Germany absolutely crap. Just a matter of time before they score.

Probably. Have to say Mexico are playing well though.

Hopefully before the window closes this summer we'll be able to bring in a U, X and Z. Pretty discriminatory that we've haven't done so in our history. I'm sure we can find an X and Z at least in China.

No, teams save those for the knockout matches. Plenty of exciting group matches in the past, but dour, safety-first matches afterwards (often with both teams content going to penalties). Of course FIFA have addressed this in 2026 with groups of 3 instead of 4, so fewer group matches and more fear of losing in them too.

That makes no sense. 32 teams will qualify for the knockout stage, whether it's 16 groups of 3, or 12 groups of 4. The only thing farcical is having 48 teams in the first place.

12 groups of 4 teams. Top 2 from each go through, along with the 8 best 3rd place finishers. Not ideal, but better than 16 groups of 3.