That concludes the blog for today. We will be back tomorrow. Here’s where the last 16 begins.
Reuters have put together a piece on the Duke of Lisbon pub in the Juarez neighbourhood of Mexico City, where “Mexican cooks turn out fish and chips that homesick Brits insist are better than some versions back home. Behind the bar, the venue’s British-Mexican management team is keeping things amicable.
“By kick-off time, the pub, which has a long wooden bar and copies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the walls, will be awash in green shirts and white shirts, with staff weaving between fans of both sides with pints of bitter and plates of chicken tikka masala or bangers and mash.”
Sounds heavenly.
Transfer news: It’s widely reported a fee has been agreed between Besiktas and Arsenal for Leandro Trossard, who has been a useful player for the Gunners. No deal is expected to be completed while Belgium are still in the World Cup. They next face Team USA on Monday evening local time.
Teams from Canada v Morocco
Canada: Crepeau, Johnston, De Fougerolles, Bombito, Laryea, Buchanan, Sigur, Stephen Eustaquio, Ahmed, Jonathan David, Oluwaseyi. Subs: St. Clair, Goodman, Jones, Waterman, Choiniere, Larin, Millar, Cornelius, Shaffelburg, Davies, Osorio, Promise David, Saliba, Nelson.
Morocco: Bounou, Hakimi, Diop, Halhal, Mazraoui, Bouaddi, El Aynaoui, Diaz, Ounahi, El Khannous, Saibari. Subs: Mohamedi, Tagnaouti, Amrabat, Saadane, Talbi, Rahimi, El Ouahdi, El Mourabet, Yassine, Sbai, Riad, Belammari, El Kaabi, Amaimouni-Echghouyab, Saleh-Eddine.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
The co-hosts now playing away from home kick off the last 16 against the African champions* (Cas permitting?). Join Scott Murray for the latest.
Here’s today’s Football Daily. By me, actually, and celebrating the world’s new friends from Cape Verde.
News from Ireland, a corner of these isles that is for ever Cape Verde, where a homecoming reception for Pico Lopes has been called for.
Sinn Féin Councillor Ciarán Ó Meachair told RTE, the state broadcaster, that he has written to the Lord Mayor of Dublin seeking a homecoming for Lopes.
“The whole country has been behind Pico and his teammates,” he said. “Over the past few weeks, we have seen Pico put in exceptional performances as Cape Verde recorded historic results against Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and current European Champions Spain to reach the knockout stage and a game against defending World Champions Argentina, where they fought until the bitter end.
“Pico has inspired another generation of kids playing grassroots football in Dublin to dream to achieve bigger things.”
Lopes was born in Crumlin, plays for Shamrock Rovers, and was recruited via LinkedIn, as the whole of Ireland now knows.
More transfer news: Al Ettifaq have pinned down centre-back Jack Hendry to a new two-year deal. It’s reported Hendry has becomes the highest-paid member of Scotland’s squad.
Some quotes from Nathan Aké as he leaves Manchester City. “It’s been a privilege to represent Manchester City over the past six years and I’m so grateful to have been part of a special team. I’ve grown so much here, as a player and a person, and I’m thankful for the time I’ve had at the club.
“I’ll always cherish the memories, particularly of winning the Treble, being part of all four Premier League titles in a side that made history and triumphing in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in my final season at the club.
“While I’m moving on, I’m very proud of everything we’ve achieved together and City will always be special to me.”
Transfer news: Aké leaves Man City for Fenerbahce
Nathan Ake has joined Fenerbahce, for a fee of £7m with add-ons taking it up to £8.5m. Ake joined City in 2020 from Bournemouth, and won four Premier League titles and the 2023 Champions League.
Reader questions for Luis de la Fuente, the Spain coach?
Sid Lowe is due to interview the Spain coach, and he’d like your help. You, the reader, send in questions for him to ask? Email john.brewin@theguardian.com or post below the line.
Addendum: You now have a bit longer, as Sid and Luis de la Fuente will be speaking later than planned. Keep them coming.
Updated
Players at the World Cup are enduring a “growing pattern of abuse” that includes racist and discriminatory attacks both online and in person, global players’ union Fifpro said on Saturday as they demanded urgent action.
With the tournament entering the last 16, Fifpro called for collective action to protect players from increasing abuse linked to media scrutiny and the fallout from matches as teams get eliminated.
“In recent weeks, players have faced abuse online and in person, much of it racist and discriminatory,” FIFPRO said in a statement. “There has been intimidation and hostility beyond the pitch. These incidents are not isolated; they point to a systemic pattern that cannot remain an accepted part of football or society.
“Players shoulder the expectations of a nation, but this must never come at the cost of their safety, dignity or wellbeing, nor should abuse be dismissed as part of the game.”
(Reuters)
An important piece from the excellent Nick Ames.
There are none of these bright lights and adornments in Port Arthur, 100 miles east of Houston. This settlement of 55,000 inhabitants is on its knees. A study in 2021 named it the poorest city in Texas, with a median household income of £27,700 and home value of £49,800. Almost 30% of its population live below the poverty line and then there is the dire public health outlook. Cancer diagnoses here consistently exceed the state average: figures vary but it is widely held that the cancer mortality rate for Port Arthur’s predominantly black community is 40% higher than elsewhere in Texas. Childhood asthma rates are estimated to be almost double the national average. It is in the country’s 90th percentile for heart disease; skin problems, benign or worse, are rife.
Here’s how to get your fix of World Cup action.
We’re up to match 90 of 108.
Good afternoon/good morning/good evening (?). The last 16 is here, already. The business end.
With just under three hours to go until Canada and Morocco get the last-16 matches underway, I’ll hand you over to John Brewin. Enjoy.
Mark van Raaij has an idea about watching highlights packages (14:12). “Apart from not scrolling news on the phone, it seems you need to put the summary on full-screen, not touch anything so the completion bar disappears and not check the time - so you don’t know how many minutes are left on the video.”
Sounds good but I seem to have an internal clock that knows how long these packages last. I’ll try it though. Thanks Mark!
Sorry for some confusion (utter incompetence) earlier over the last-16 fixtures. With England’s game scheduled for early Monday, then moved back to late Sunday before returning to early Monday no wonder we’re befuddled. It’s all amended now.
Back in 2020 when sport stopped, Barney Ronay re-watched that classic clash between England and Argentina in the Azteca. Jog your memory with this highly-entertaining read from the archives.
“The Fifa archive film comes in vivid, slightly grainy square-screen. The pictures capture a world that was still pre-modern: cotton shirts, adverts for Camel cigarettes, skinny men in Union Jack shorts frazzling in the midday sun. The players’ heads flash up on screen and you remember how young and handsome Maradona was in those pre-meltdown days. England are in white shirts and light blue shorts.
The names of the starting XI are: Pete, Gary, Kenny, Terry, Terry, Trevor, Glenn, Pete, Steve, Pete, Gary. Little wonder that in this company being called “Glenn” could mark you out as a bit of a maverick.”
A quick look at the last-16 fixtures. All times BST:
Saturday, 4 July
18:00 Canada v Morocco
22:00 Paraguay v France
Sunday, 5 July
21:00 Brazil v Norway
Monday, 6 July
01:00 Mexico v England
20:00 Portugal v Spain
Tuesday, 7 July
01:00 USA v Belgium
17:00 Argentina v Egypt
21:00 Switzerland v Colombia
If all those matches go to form (ELO Ratings), we get Morocco, France, Brazil, England, Spain, Belgium, Argentina and Colombia in the last eight.
If those ratings keep playing out, we get a quarter-final line-up of:
France v Morocco
Spain v Belgium
Brazil v England
Argentina v Colombia
And, with England ranked 4th to Brazil’s 5th we’d get these semi-finals:
France v Spain
Argentina v England
You can play around with the permutations below.
Updated
Fancy some more Cape Verde content? This is a great read from Mart ten Have in the Netherlands. Rotterdam is home to 25,000 Cape Verdeans and 1,600 of them gathered in a beer garden to watch the unforgettable game against Argentina.
Jordan Pickford should be careful what he eats and drinks between now and kick-off against Mexico. A new Audible podcast, ‘Foul Play’, explores the mystery of how England goalkeeper Gordon Banks fell ill ahead of the 1970 quarter-final defeat to Germany in Mexico.
“It was a story that sounded too fantastical to be true. When Ed Jervis approached journalist Gabriel Gatehouse at a podcast festival more than three years ago, it was to tell him about his grandfather, England’s legendary 1966 World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, and how he went down with a mysterious illness in the subsequent tournament, Mexico 1970.
“England lost the game that Banks missed – a crucial quarter-final tie against West Germany – despite taking a 2-0 lead. And Jervis told Gatehouse, a former international editor of Newsnight who had become something of an expert in US conspiracy culture with his podcast and book The Coming Storm, that he’d heard that his grandfather had actually been poisoned. By the CIA.”
While Mark in Switzerland has got it sussed, I’ll admit I’ve run into a bit of a problem with my own World Cup highlights viewing. In the group stage, watching the BBC/ITV 8-10 minute packages worked perfectly. Wake up, don’t scroll on phone and watch the footage with no clue as to what happened. But in the knockout phase it’s different. If, say, one side is leading 1-0 and I know there’s only a minute left of highlights, it’s obvious the other team hasn’t equalised as there wouldn’t be time to show the extra-time or penalties. So when Croatia ‘equalised’ deep into injury-time against Portugal, I knew it would be ruled out by VAR.
Help needed. Any ideas?
Mark Bennett gets in touch: “So far I’ve been doing a pretty good job here in Switzerland, watching the games in the early evening and maybe the 22:00 KO here (21:00 in UK) and waking up to the Swiss TV Kompact show with a 30-minute round-up of all the night’s action and no spoilers… that was until Switzerland played at 5.00am and I was awoken at 7.00am by horns blaring so I thought, ‘well the Nati won then’.. until my wife reminded me that the school kids do this on their way to the last day of school before summer break!”
Another angle of Mo Salah’s Panenka penalty in Egypt’s shootout win over Australia. This is what he said about the calculated gamble:
“If somebody was going to do it, it would be me. I am more experienced than others, and I wanted to give them confidence. I decided [in the] last minute, I don’t know if it’s my last World Cup or not, but I had to do it.”
Watching Mat Ryan hurl himself early left or right with Egypt’s first two penalties may also have factored into Salah’s thinking.
And then there were 16. It’s fair to say that if you saw the remaining teams, it would be fairly easy to guess which part of the globe the tournament was taking place in. The Americas (CONMEBOL & CONCACAF) are definitely feeling some home continent advantage.
Here’s a breakdown, by region, of last-16 teams at the 2018 (Russia), 2022 (Qatar) and 2026 (USA, Mexico, Canada) World Cups.
2026: Europe 7, Americas 7, Africa 2, Asia/Oceania 0
2022: Europe 8, Americas 3, Africa 2, Asia/Oceania 3
2018: Europe 10, Americas 5, Africa 0, Asia/Oceania 1
Forget Argentina ‘78, Kevin Dwyer takes us furher down memory lane: “I was very fortunate to be in Mexico for the 1970 World Cup (saving for four years on an appretice wage). I remember the hostility and noise-making outside the England team hotel was all part of the build up back then, without the availability of noise cancelling headphones.
“In 1970 I had just turned 21 and was very fit, but the effect of the sudden change in altitude was brutal. Climbing the steps of the Azteca up to our seats in the gods had me breathless. The altitude will play no small part, perhaps oxygen tanks instead of drinks bottles in the ‘hydration’ breaks might be Tuchel’s best strategy.”
Rick Harris emails: “Paul Haynes (12:32) has made me think that for the minimal cost of hiring a coach and a few player lookalikes dressed appropriately the FA might be pulling off a massive decoy trick while the actual England squad has quietly crept into a different hotel elsewhere.”
Funnily you should say that, Rick. At last year’s Open Championship, I was speaking to a veteran Scottish journalist who was part of the press pack at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. At the airport, the Scots journalists boarded a beautiful plush coach while Ally McLeod’s squad were driven away in an absolute wreck of a thing. Why? The posh vehicle was far more likely to be hijacked.
In a random chat with Will, the name Herve Renard came up. And that got me thinking about that strange bunch of coaches who seem to get gainful employment at a World Cup – often with a completely different country – however badly they’ve done at a previous one.
Off the top of my head, this list includes Bora Milutinovic, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Claude Le Roy, with Herve Renard and Carlos Queiroz more recent entries. Renard jumped before he was pushed after Tunisia’s abysmal showings in this World Cup but you know he’ll be back. I’d venture that Julen Lopetegui will forge himself a nice multi-nation career at this level after leading Qatar to a 6-0 defeat against Canada.
Milutinovic and Le Roy remain personal favourites. Milutinovic has the look of a man who won fencing bronze at the 1976 Olympics and, as for Roy… not a conventionally good-looking man but an absolute player when it comes to attracting managerial work. After a couple of spells with Cameroon, this is Roy’s CV since 2004. Remarkable.
2004–2006: DR Congo
2006–2008: Ghana
2008–2011: Oman
2011: Syria
2011–2013: DR Congo
2013–2015: Congo
2016–2021: Togo
2026–current day: Congo
The Congo double (twice!). And before all this, he was manager of Cambridge. Chapeau, monsieur!
Thanks Will. An extra-time and penalties of a shift that one.
Thank you very much for joining me. David Tindall will now take the reins.
Will Anthony Gordon be brought back into the starting lineup against Mexico? I would assume so after his impressive cameo instigated the turnaround against DR Congo.
From the archive …
Mexico last hosted the World Cup in 1986, but the competition was almost cancelled several months before the start when an earthquake struck the capital, Mexico City, leaving at least 5,000 people dead, 30,000 homeless and much of the city flattened, in one of the worst earthquakes to hit the country.
Gareth Southgate is at Wimbledon today, enjoying that life is far less stressful during a tournament when you are not a manager.
Obviously, you can follow all the action here.
Paul Haynes gets in touch to say: “Just a thought, but perhaps England could’ve kept their arrival at the hotel more of a secret by not getting into a coach with a big England flag and the words England World Cup 2026 emblazoned on the side?”
I would have helicoptered in personally.
Steve emails: “In answer to “how are you planning to watch” - with the kids at the utterly civilised time of 8am here in Indonesia. Nearly every game I watch during the season is late evening or more often middle of the night so it cracks me up to see complaining about 1am starts - I have an untold amount of 2.45 and 3.45am games during the season - so welcome to the club everyone!”
Maybe we should all travel to Indonesia …
I imagine I will get a message from Mrs Koutsouvelis suggesting my daughter does not stay up because reception class in July is really important.
I’ve just asked my five-year-old daughter if she wants to watch the football at 1am BST on Monday or sleep. She says she wants to watch the Mexico v England. I cannot imagine it will go well.
One element of the physicality of the game may fall in England’s favour. Opta use two metrics to assess a team’s style of play: direct speed and passes per sequence. The former is defined as “average speed of ball movement towards opponent goalline during sequence (in metres per second),” with a sequence being “passages of play that belong to one team and are ended by a defensive action, a stoppage in play or a shot.”
Cape Verde’s goalkeeper, Vozinha, was left crumpled on one knee, his World Cup dream slipping away. The 40-year-old had become a sensation after playing brilliantly to shut out the European champions, Spain, in Cape Verde’s tournament opener. Vozinha, who plays his football in the Portuguese second division, made $53,000 last year. Messi made more than that for every five minutes he was on the field with Inter Miami last year.
Wonderwall is a far superior song to Sweet Caroline, so I am all for it.
The three-way relationship between a travelling English support, the group of players they were cheering on and a three-decade-old hit by a Manchester band started with a DJ in Texas and a crucial win over a Croatian team that has stood between England’s men’s football team and glory before.
It is been an intriguing past 24 hours at the World Cup.
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There was plenty of confusion of whether Mexico v England would be moved
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Klopp has opened talks about becoming the new Germany head coach
Sid Lowe on Lamine Yamal. We may be hearing more about this young man.
Lamine Yamal is just 18, but he has said before that he has taken on “too much” responsibility for almost as long as he remembers. In a recent interview with El País, he said he first felt something like fame, exposure, when he was 13. At the start of this competition a video did the rounds of him walking round Walmart. Much was made of it, too much you might think and you wouldn’t be wrong, but it wasn’t meaningless. It mattered, and to him particularly: a rare opportunity to do something normal. Or not quite: the video appeared, which said something too.
Gilberto Mora has earned rave reviews in this World Cup and rightly so. The teenager looks a quality player, superb technique but I was speaking to someone who has followed him closely and is suspicious he will struggle physically against England. I reckon he will embrace the challenge.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has signed a new one-year contract to stay at Celtic.
The former Arsenal and Liverpool midfielder, capped 35 times by England, joined on a short-term deal in February after being released by Besiktas last summer, impressing in a Celtic shirt as he helped them to a league and cup double.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, 32, made 12 appearances, scoring two goals including a match-winning strike on debut against Livingston.
“I’m delighted to be staying at Celtic for another year,” Oxlade-Chamberlain said.
“It was an incredible time last season and to be part of that success in winning the league and Scottish Cup was so special.
“I’m really excited to be back and I’m looking forward to meeting up with the boys and getting to work ahead of what will hopefully be another successful season.” PA Media
Jacob Steinberg has some advice for Tuchel, too.
The answer is using the tactic that has so often disrupted Tuchel’s England: stifle Mexico with the dreaded low block. The worst way to approach this game would be allowing it to become chaotic. England cannot give Mexico space to run in behind. Mexico have pace on the flanks and would love to play against a high line.
From stopping Mora to keeping the home crowd quiet, Nick Ames tells the England team what they need to do to beat Mexico.
Lars Sivertsen, meanwhile, talks of Norway’s new golden generation and the hope they have brought to the nation.
Norway’s first golden generation qualified for two World Cups, soared to second place in the Fifa rankings, beat the likes of England, Italy, Netherlands and Brazil, but never won a knockout game at a major tournament. And they exited both 1994 and 1998 World Cups with a sense of regret and unfulfilled potential. The current players know this story well. Three of them have fathers who played at the World Cup in ’94. The current manager, Ståle Solbakken, knows it intimately. He played just over an hour in that defeat by Italy. “Historically in tournaments, Norway have played well in qualifying and then performed worse at the World Cup,” Solbakken mused in a Netflix documentary released before this tournament. “Now we have to see if we can raise our game”.
Messi is massive in Munshiganj. Thousands came out in Bangladesh to watch Argentina take on Cape Verde clad in blue and white.
It is Brazil v Norway tomorrow. I do not think Gabriel Margalhaes will be too excited about facing Erling Haaland again. It should be a fine battle.
Thiago Rabelo takes a deep dive into Carlo Ancelotti and what he has brought to Brazil.
Ancelotti has not been afraid to make important decisions, such as leaving Neymar out of the starting XI. The 34-year-old is not the player he once was, nor is he fully fit. But other, less experienced managers would not have cared about that; they would still have picked Neymar plus 10 other players. Under Ancelotti, however, Neymar has played only 14 minutes at this World Cup, against Scotland, and did not feature against Japan. Neymar, in turn, has understood his role in the squad. He knows he is no longer Brazil’s star player. That status now belongs to Vinícius Júnior.
England get hostile welcome in Mexico City
England received a hostile welcome as they arrived at their Mexico City hotel ahead of Sunday night’s World Cup last-16 tie against Mexico.
England had been hoping to keep their location undisclosed after Mexico supporters used loud speakers, horns and motorcycles to try to disturb the sleep of Ecuador’s players before their last-32 tie, which the co-hosts won 2-0 on Wednesday night.
But when England’s coach arrived at their hotel, hundreds of fans were already there, with many booing while others chanted “Mexico”. At least one supporter within the crowd could be seen holding up an England shirt.
Security has been increased outside the hotel after events earlier in the week, which led to complaints from Ecuador’s football federation. There has also been an increase in security in the city after four people died during the celebrations that followed Mexico’s win over Ecuador.
Thomas Tuchel’s men take on the co-hosts in a mouth-watering clash at the Azteca, with kick-off scheduled for 6pm local time (1am Monday BST).
Fifa had considered moving kick-off forward due to a forecast for storms in the region but, after five-and-a-half hours of uncertainty on Friday evening, the decision was made to stick with the original schedule. Both England and Mexico had voiced opposition to rescheduling the game less than 48 hours before kick-off. PA Media
Updated
Marc Guehi considers Mexico favourites for England’s World Cup last-16 clash at the Estadio Azteca.
The reward for Wednesday’s 2-1 comeback win against the Democratic Republic of Congo is Sunday’s mouthwatering last-16 tie in Mexico City.
A hostile atmosphere and high altitude await Thomas Tuchel’s men in Mexico, where England defender Guehi makes the Euro 2024 runners-up underdogs against the World Cup co-hosts.
“We know they’re a good team and they’ve got the fans on their side, so it’ll be going into the cauldron,” the England defender told Fifa. “But it’ll be a fun test. I’d say they’re kind of favourites. They’re at home and they know the environment a lot better. They haven’t conceded so far and have got a perfect record.
“You come to these competitions to play against top teams, in top atmospheres. It’s a match we’re all looking forward to.”
Alexander Abnos on why this USA team is worth celebrating.
So in the US, what is our reason to cheer the US at a time when we are led by a government despised at home and abroad? How do we put the ICE raids and the attacks on other countries and the mistreatment of so many of our fellow Americans aside and allow ourselves to feel patriotic for 90 minutes, plus extra time, and – God forbid – penalties too?
I’m half-English on my mum’s side and half Mexican-American. This [game against England] is probably the worst of all scenarios for me. I was born in the US but grew up in England so have always been an England supporter as well as Mexico. But the older I get, and the more I visit Mexico, the greater appreciation and pride I have for my Mexican roots. I don’t recall there being as big a level of excitement or togetherness as there has been this time. Mexico don’t have any world-class players, so team cohesion is key. And the Mexico fans have truly been a 12th man, more than I’ve ever seen.
Were some of these written at 5.30am by a man questioning his life choices? There’s only one way to find out.
What do you do as an England fan in Mexico City with some time to kill? Of course you go to watch the wrestling.
It was a striking image, the picture that best captured France’s World Cup campaign to this point. Not the one that caught Michael Olise in full flight as he executed a perfect bicycle kick that only sprang ungratefully off a Swedish post. Nor the one of the squad posing together on their private jet, turqoise hoods drawn tight to their chins. Instead it was the one of the hug, first between Kylian Mbappé and Didier Deschamps, and then with the rest of the squad too, as they celebrated the opening goal of their 3-0 last-32 victory over Sweden in a purposeful manner.
More Messi magic yesterday. That man knows the way to goal. Who is challenging him for the Golden Boot? Find out here …
I’ve always thought a Saturday Kitchen Live live blog would do good business on a weekend. People could argue over the recipes, rate Matt Tebbutt’s intros out of 10 etc and so forth. If Lifestyle are reading, I am available.
We had fish tacos last night and I am now using the leftover guacamole with some eggs. I assume I will be deported before the match against Mexico because I am showing my true colours.
As it looks like the England match is not moving from a 1am kick-off on Monday. Do send in how you are planning to watch. Out and about? At home? Will the kids be allowed to stay up? Have you booked Monday off or will you be WFH?
Declan Rice says England are ready to cope with whatever Mexico throw at them in Sunday’s World Cup encounter at the electric Estadio Azteca.
From unabated hostility to playing at high altitude, Thomas Tuchel’s side expect to face a variety of obstacles as they seek to keep alive their quest to join Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1966 heroes in immortality.
England dealt with an additional headache just before flying to Mexico City as Fifa discussed whether to move the last-16 clash to an earlier kick-off time due to the risk of weather disruption.
Tuchel’s team landed on Friday to news that the game would stay at 6pm local (1am on Monday in the UK) rather than be brought forwards six hours, with more fun and games potentially in store before the tie starts.
“It’s kind of going to be like an away game for us,” England midfielder Rice said. “They’ve played every game in Mexico so far, been at home the whole tournament, so for us it’s just being able to go there and deal with what’s going to be thrown at us.”
Mexico boast an astonishing record at the Azteca, having lost just two of their 89 competitive matches at a ground England play at for the first time since Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ helped Argentina to a 2-1 quarter-final win. PA Media
How does altitude affect performance? Nicola Davis has the answer.
Max Rushden on Bolivian farmers and altitude.
The Azteca is around 2,200m above sea level – which means Dan Burn will be 2,202 metres above sea level. Presumably the Mexican hotel will give him a toddler single bed, legs poking out of the open window as the home fans’ car horns beep all night. We saw what happened to the Ecuador lads. How noise cancelling can noise-cancelling headphones get? How many decoy hotels do England need to get a good night’s sleep?
Barney Ronay is primed for the big one in Mexico City. Is this when England finally come good?
Croatia were physically overwhelmed. Ghana were not. Panama took England down into a pit of pain. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were slick, fearless and a bit unlucky. Through all this the lurking feeling has been: OK, when will it start? No, I mean really start. When will it hit the groove? When do they need to actually be good?
We shall have a look forward to the England game. Yesterday was all a bit silly as rumours began circulating about the change to the kick-off time in Mexico. My phone was pinging with school dads excited to not to have to stay up until 3am BST to watch the game in its entirety.
Now the plan for one father is to watch Brazil v Norway and then Mike Bassett England Manager before England starts. Other ideas can be found here …
Jonathan Wilson has taken a look at the African teams in the tournament and whether they have, in fact, underperformed.
Nine African sides made it through their groups, and those who had insisted Caf deserved better could claim vindication. Uefa and Conmebol, the South American federation, got 13 and five sides through to the last 32 respectively. It was Asia and, surprisingly, North and Central America who underperformed, only Japan and Australia making it through from the AFC and only the three hosts from Concacaf. In that regard, this has been an excellent World Cup for Africa, even if Tunisia did turn in one of the worst performances by any side in history. By falling behind after seven minutes then four minutes and three minutes in their three games, they broke Mexico’s 96-year-old record for most time spent trailing in a World Cup, taking the mark from 240 minutes to a remarkable 256.
The latest World Cup Daily has landed. Get Max and Baz in your ears now!
Australia lost to Egypt on penalties in one of the more disastrous shootout cock ups. Changing goalkeepers is a bold move, especially when Mat Ryan made a right Shilton of himself.
Jonathan Wilson was there.
Some comforting words from Zlatan.
Jack Snape was left to ponder what could have been.
Jurgen Klopp is the obvious – and best – choice for Germany. They were pretty mediocre throughout the competition, getting lucky against Cote d’Ivoire, then succumbing to Ecuador and Paraguay. I am impressed than Nagelsmann felt it could carry on.
Klopp confirms talks over Germany job
Jürgen Klopp has confirmed he’s in negotiations to take over as Germany coach and says he’s “recharged” the energy he was missing when he left Liverpool.
Klopp is the German soccer federation’s preferred candidate after Julian Nagelsmann resigned Friday, four days after Germany lost on penalties to Paraguay in the World Cup round of 32.
“Julian has stepped down and the (federation) is working on the succession and has approached me in the course of those considerations,” said Klopp, speaking from New York on German broadcaster Magenta TV in his role as a World Cup commentator late Friday.
Updated
We will move along to Fifa kick-off tombola in a bit but we shall run through the rest of Friday’s action.
I think I speak for many football fans when I celebrate Ghana’s elimination as they were pretty much unwatchable.
Ed Aarons witnessed their demise to Colombia in Kansas.
Thanks David. Total Editorial from the Guardian sports desk this morning as we react to the situation. We can play in many positions and it often bamboozles the opposition.
In an early tactical reshuffle, Will Unwin (better adjusted to altitude) will now take over while I catch my breath. Lots more to come from last night’s games, including Australia really botching their penalty shootout against Egypt.
A game like that deserves its own photo gallery so we’ve obliged. Some crackers in the set below.
“We did our best and we did it with bravery. Never did we fail to stay true to our identity, which is why I am so proud of what my players did.” The words of Cape Verde coach Bubista after his team gave Lionel Messi and Argentina a mighty scare in Miami.
Rival boss Lionel Scaloni, taking charge of his country for the 100th time, was a relieved man. “We suffered a very difficult game, we are still here but it won’t be easy, this is a very difficult World Cup. I hope the fans can have a drink now to relax for a bit.”
More quotes here from last night’s 3-2 epic.
Cape Verde out after classic with Argentina
There’s only one place to start – that World Cup classic between Argentina and Cape Verde. Here’s Barney Ronay (who watched it unfold at the Miami Stadium) on how the tiny island nation took the World Cup holders to the brink.
“Cape Verde, once again, were not done. They pressed, won three corners in quick succession. And with 102 minutes on the clock made it 2-2, with a moment of startling brilliance from Sydney Lopes Cabral, a goal that felt like one of the great World Cup moments, shades of Josimar ‘86, mixed with François Omam-Biyik, 1990 and all that.
“Cabral took the ball way out on the left, nipped inside, measured his strides, and produced the most beautifully pure right foot shot into the far corner past Emiliano Martínez, the ball seeming to hang in the damp Florida air, a perfect white orb, following that delicious parabola into the far corner.”
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of day 24 at the World Cup. We’ll have reaction to a thrilling day 23 and build-up to the first matches of the last 16: Canada v Morocco and Paraguay v France.
