DON’T MENTION THE VAR
What the Human Rights World Cup lacks in equality, dignity, human rights and Scotland, it’s greater than making up for in drama. The remaining staff video games had been popcorn-gorging, brain-melting belters, with one thing for everybody: schadenfreude addicts, conspiracy theorists, historians and diversifications junkies. Belgium and Germany went out on Thursday, and for a delirious short while, by which it was once past the wit of guy to utter anything else rather than “Oh my God!”, it gave the look of Spain would possibly sign up for them. Belgium’s go out was once at the playing cards after their defeat to Morocco on Sunday, however no one noticed the style of it coming. Poor Romelu Lukaku produced a tragi-cameo for the ages, with a non-public xG of one.98 and a G of 0.00. His simplest shot heading in the right direction was once when he rammed his fist into the dugout after the sport.
Germany adopted Belgium to the airport a couple of hours later regardless of beating Costa Rica 4–2. That’s as a result of Japan beat Spain, with a profitable purpose that, to start with look, perceived to contain the ball going out of play ahead of Kaoru Mitoma minimize it again to goalscorer Ao Tanaka. Everyone shouted “Over the line!” like Walter Sobchak till, a very long time after the development, someone stumbled upon an perspective that confirmed the curvature – do not faux you would ever heard that phrase ahead of it got here out of Peter Walton’s mouth – of the ball won’t had been totally To set up over the road. This was once no longer sufficient for ITV pundit Graeme Souness, who muttered darkly about cover-ups and stopped simply wanting pronouncing that Fifa was once accountable for a psyop referred to as Covid-19.
Friday’s suits will make a decision the remaining 4 puts in the second one spherical, which starts on Saturday. England play Senegal on Sunday night time, which is dangerous information for the viewing figures of Countryfile on BBC1 – to not point out Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies at the History channel, this time with visitor presenter Graeme Souness. Before all that, there is the small subject of Ghana v Uruguay to make a decision who joins Portugal within the remaining 16. There’s a small probability that South Korea may end above them each, however the chances are it is going to be a struggle to the loss of life, simply find it irresistible was once within the quarter-final 12 years in the past. Luis Suárez, whose handball at the line stopped Ghana turning into the primary African group to succeed in the semi-finals, pointedly held court docket in entrance of the clicking on Thursday. The gist of his message was once, smartly: chew me.
“I didn’t say sorry because I did the handball but Ghana’s player missed the penalty, not me,” he mentioned. “Maybe I would apologize if I tackled and injured a player but in this situation I took the red card, the referee gave a penalty and it’s not my fault because I didn’t miss the penalty. The player who missed it said he’d do the same. It’s not my responsibility to take the penalty. The Ghana coach Otto Addo agreed with Suárez, pretty much, but such reason is unlikely to be evident when the game gets going – especially if Suárez again demonstrates his win-at-costs-you-can’t-imagine mentality. Popcorn please!
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE!
Join Rob Smyth from 3pm GMT for MBM coverage of Ghana 1-1 Uruguay, while Barry Glendenning will be on deck for South Korea 1-2 Portugal at the same time. Then Scott Murray will be your guide at 7pm GMT for Cameroon 0-0 Brazil, when Will Magee will also be at the wheel for Serbia 0-0 Switzerland.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Ousmane is scared of cats. There are cats strolling around and he’s scared of them. It makes everyone laugh” – France’s Randal Kolo Muani is brief on sympathy for teammate Ousmane Dembélé, who’s it appears suffering to handle the choice of stray tom cats at the streets of Doha.
“So, there we were, on a winter sun holiday in Tenerife, and decided last night (of all nights) to go to a lovely restaurant with no TV and no football. Good food, good wine and good chat with Mrs. Smith. A romantic evening. On our way there I caught a glimpse in a bar, of the early scores, 1-0 to both Germany and Spain. You’re a genius Mike, the best night not to watch. About an hour later and well into food, wine and chat, my phone receives lots of WhatsApp messages from friends back home in freezing Wiltshire. ‘Hope you’re watching this mayhem, bedlam, carnage, chaos, ridiculousness …’ I then spent 30 minutes or so constantly refreshing the scores. Romance went out the window when I excitedly told Mrs. Smith that, at one point, Spain and Germany were going home. All is fine here, we love each other – I’ll make it up to her on Sunday when we get home to freezing Wiltshire. Oh no, it’s England v Senegal” – Mike Smith.
“’Denmark as the HRWC’s biggest disappointment (yesterday’s Football Daily)? Roberto Martinez has entered the chat” – JJ Zucal.
“So, like any Football Daily pedant, I was intrigued by your crafty line that the Danish team took ‘flight DO1 to Copenhagen’ (yesterday’s Football Daily) after their poor runout at the HR World Cup. Well, that’ll be a long travel day. ‘DO’ is the international code for Compañia Dominicana de Avia. I’ll assume they have a quick layover in the Dominican Republic and be home by nightfall” – Mike Wilner.
“Liverpool’s 2,500 new rail seats (yesterday’s Beyond the HRWC) won’t be much use for any fans wanting to travel to Anfield with Avanti West Coast, given they’ll struggle to get a rail seat, rail stand or rail hide-in- the-toilet to get there” – Jim Hearson.
Send your letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Mike Wilner,
