World Cup 2026

[alfie]

Germany gone...and followed quickly by Netherlands. Deserved win for Morocco , who were much the more aggressive side in the second half (and "aggressive" on more ways than one though ref was lenient on cards !). Dutch rather sat back after taking the lead and it cost them : and then that shambolic penalty shootout concluded with three misses being one too many for Netherlands. Their penalty record in WC is probably worse than England's !

Morocco will be pretty confident about facing Canada. But as we have already seen no one can be guaranteed success in these knock out rounds ...

[mikesiva]

Germany and the Netherlands are out!

Well done, Paraguay and Morocco.

[Durhamfootman]

:lmao Germany.

Foof

I'll tell you what, fluffy, I can see Congo using the exact same 120 mins playing for penalties tactic against England and coming away with a similar result. It was terrible match, the Erics were awful and Paraguay showed almost no ambition. It was awful. Dreadful game of football, so bad that when it went to extra time, I switched it off.... I couldn't face another 30 mins of it. I can't think of another time when Germany have lost a penalty shoot out. Missing 3 of their 6 feels impossible for a team with a penalty taking pedigree like theirs

It genuinely felt as though this was a dry run for Wednesday to me

[Durhamfootman]

I've only seen the highlights, but it looked as though Morocco gave the Dutch a full throated thrashing despite having to take it all the way to penalties to get over the line

It's a shame this and the Germany game weren't played the other way around, because this one looks like it was a belter, compared to the snore draw that I watched a bit of.

Another poor penalty shoot out though

[bigfluffylemon]

:lmao Germany.

Foof

I'll tell you what, fluffy, I can see Congo using the exact same 120 mins playing for penalties tactic against England and coming away with a similar result. It was terrible match, the Erics were awful and Paraguay showed almost no ambition. It was awful. Dreadful game of football, so bad that when it went to extra time, I switched it off.... I couldn't face another 30 mins of it. I can't think of another time when Germany have lost a penalty shoot out. Missing 3 of their 6 feels impossible for a team with a penalty taking pedigree like theirs

It genuinely felt as though this was a dry run for Wednesday to me

It wouldn't surprise me either

[Gingerfinch]

Germany can feel hard done by. Hopefully (probably) France will get rid of Paraguay!

It was a nice moment when Gapko scored but unfortunately Morocco went through. I say unfortunately as the Netherland were one of my sweepstake teams!

[sussexpob]

So many teams struggle to be more than the sum of their parts, but Morocco are the complete opposite. They just play well together and have a really defined way to play, and its going to take a very good team to send them home. I can't see them winning the tournament, but its possible.

Its an indictment to Belgium football that Mohamed Ouahbi has never coached in the Jupiler League. He's working wonders at Morocco, but spent 20 years at Anderlecht as a minor coach of the B and youth sides.

Hell, watching Morocco in the last couple of tournaments, I'd even give him the Belgium job. He's been clear in the past that he considered himself Belgian first, Maroc second. So he'd surely be up for it?

[sussexpob]

Germany can feel hard done by

Karma for Frank Lampard?

Jokes aside, the referee won Paraguay the game. The disallowed goal will take some beating for the worst VAR decision of 2026, just an absolutely crazy decision.

But Germany should never have let it get to that. They were so, so poor for 120 minutes.

[sussexpob]

I do genuinely wonder if Jonathan Tah's penalty has dropped back into the Earth's atmosphere yet....

[Gingerfinch]

I do genuinely wonder if Jonathan Tah's penalty has dropped back into the Earth's atmosphere yet....

Easy to say afterwards but he didn't look like scoring!

[Durhamfootman]

Germany can feel hard done by

Karma for Frank Lampard?

That was my first thought, when I saw the ruled out goal, but equally, karma for every England fan

Having to watch a perfectly good goal, where the ball bounced half way between the goal line and the back of the net, only to be ruled out for not crossing the line was far worse than a soft nudge on the keeper, but we have to remember, South/Central America teams teach their kids how do this con everybody stuff from an early age at their academies, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone when they prove to be rather good at it

Germany seem to be going nuts about the decision. I do feel a little sorry for the fans, but not that much.... 'we wuz robbed' has been a part of England's story for decades. They've been the other part of that on occasion and now they get to taste that feeling of frustration, injustice and impotence too.

Boo Hoo! At no point did it feel as though they deserved to win that game last night.

and I still think we might be having this same conversation on Wednesday evening

[Durhamfootman]

France's route to the SF's has become more straightforward after defeats to Germany and Holland. I'd still have backed France to progress, even without those two shock results

Spain still have a bit of work to do, but expecting them to come unstuck en route feels unrealistic to me, even though they haven't really got going yet

Argentina started the R32 with the easiest looking route... even accounting for their ageing players

In the remaining quarter of the draw, England can have no complaints about their route to the SF. It would have looked eminently do-able to me, but they're struggling to beat teams setting up a low block, they look more defensively frail even against weaker teams than they have done for a while and the less said about extra time and penalties, the better. They'll have to improve markedly if they are to beat Congo, Mexico and perhaps Brazil to secure the remaining SF berth. I'm not sure they have it in them

[Durhamfootman]

I enjoyed the CIV v Norway game, although I missed the first half an hour

Either side would have been a worthy winner, I think, but Norway came out on top thanks to a tap in from Haaland that he very nearly made a complete horlicks of. He looked a bit sheepish when it went in... he had no need to be... he was in the right place at the right time when it mattered, despite very little involvement in the game

the CIV equaliser was a cracker and they were denied another last gasp equaliser with only seconds remaining by a terrific save from a great free kick

all in all, very enjoyable

[Durhamfootman]

can't watch France v Sweden sadly. Mrs DF has the telly and it's on ITV, so I can't watch it on my laptop

pity really. France are thumping Sweden. 2-0 up, had a goal disallowed for a tight offside, hit the post, hit the bar, keeper has made 6 saves

one way traffic.

[Durhamfootman]

Poor old Alex can come home and get some rest.... he's had a long hard season, doing *modded* all instead of preparing a bid to become a world cup star, and needs all the rest he can get.... but hey... he's on 350 grand a week instead of a paltry 120 so I'm sure it was well worth squandering a world cup at his peak age where on his best form he might have become a world cup great, for a bunch of money that he didn't need

3-0 now

Enjoy the extra money you won't be physically able to spend.... knobhead!

one goal against the worst team in their group and fewer goals than Elanga who's had a pretty awful season of his own

What a guy
Makes you cry
Und I did

pfft!