World Cup 2026

[Durhamfootman]

Meanwhile, it seems Embolo's red card has caused a storm with people claiming Argentina are being given special treatment all tournament.

It was a pathetic and clear theatrical dive, so he can't complain about the yellow card for it. But one does wonder why we are nearly 100 games into the tournament with 15 dives a game like this occuring, it was moments after Switzerland rocked Argentina and had them on the rack that a referee finally decided to implement the new rule.

As always, its consistency that is the problem. And the fact that consistency always favours the bigger team

it was a stupid thing to do on a yellow. Madness. VAR rather the ref, of course. The ref booked the Argentine player for the foul initially, but I take your point aboout consistency

This is my big fear for the Argentina SF..... it is a road well travelled that has left me scarred

apparently it's been 21 years since England and Argentina have met.... blimey!

[Durhamfootman]

Not sure there is a perfect arrangement for a 48 team competition but this one has definitely got some flaws...

Doubtless Infantino will use this as an excuse to expand the next WC to 64 teams

I thought I was taking the ssip

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... 9gm31jwg8o

All Infantile is doing is bolstering his support in the continents not called Europe. He's rapidly turning into Dr Evil and trying to take over the world........

except that Infantile will demand more than "one MILLION pounds, mwah, ha ha"

[sussexpob]

By success he means more money in untraceable bank accounts.

[Gingerfinch]

I said earlier that if Spain win tonight then we'll win the world cup. Having seen Spain tonight, I'm not quite as positive.

[sussexpob]

Yeah, played some excellent football, and completely shutdown a generationally brilliant French attack so far.. but we have seen two games end 3-2 last round from this position

[bigfluffylemon]

Well well.

[mikesiva]

Spain 2-0 France

A brilliant defensive performance. Peaking at the right time.

[Durhamfootman]

I said earlier that if Spain win tonight then we'll win the world cup. Having seen Spain tonight, I'm not quite as positive.

I also would have preferred Spain to France, so now I'm worried that having got that part of my wish, I may not get the other

I'm scared witless for the match tonight and the shenanigans Argentina will come up with to cheat their way to victory this time. This has not been eased by FIFA's choice of an American set of officials, who to my mind may not have the quality or the experience to avoid having the wool pulled over their eyes.

[sussexpob]

Football can be a brutal game at stages. All the talent that France side has, only to have a subpar game and all go to waste.

Spain were scary good yesterday after a tournament of being pretty meh.

[alfie]

I imagine all England fans will be extremely nervous tonight : are they not always ?

Never mind referees (or conspiracy theories about FIFA favouritism for Argentina) - any game with Argentina is going to be full of drama. I do think England have the stronger team this time , but they'd want to play better than they did against Norway , otherwise things might get tricky. Argentina have sort of squeaked through so far but they are still alive so have to be capable of taking advantage of any weakness.

The good thing being I reckon England might be ready to produce that 100% performance : no altitude or super heat issues this time ; and having reached the semi final - which was the "expected" target - perhaps the mental pressure will be less and they can play with more freedom ?

Will worry about Spain if/when they get through this one !

[sussexpob]

I am relatively confident for tonight. It wont be easy, but Argentina have scraped through all the knockout games against inferior sides, and could have gone home 3 times. Some very generous and timely refereeing decisions along the way.

England need to be patient and bide their time.

[Gingerfinch]

I'd say we're slight favourites but we cannot rely on Jude and Kane all the time. Messi was superb in the groups and still good in the knock-outs but others, including Alverez, have stepped up. I do think Alverez will cause us problems along with of course Messi but I also think our pace on the wings will be too much for the Argentine defence!

[Gingerfinch]

As for referee calls

Both teams have had favourable decisions during this tournament.

[sussexpob]

Slightly bored of reading press articles hyping up the Argentina v England hatred. I have been to Argentina three times and literally no one in the vast majority of the country remotely cares about the Malvinas/Falklands stuff, the chants are all jokes or subtle mocking, the same crap that we have when we sing ten German bombers rubbish. Argentinian's if anything are crazy about English music and football, the latter more so than anywhere else on the planet. In this regards, we couldn't be more similar people, a fact that becomes obvious if you ever met an Argentinian rather than lame stereotypes in the press.

Admittedly, there are part of the extreme South around the Atlantic Coast where there is hostility, and where you enter towns to signs saying "No British Pirates allowed". But the Argentinian government drafted their army from these small remote communities around the Islands, and it was their blood spilled. Some smaller towns were left devasted.... so I sort of get the anger.

[Durhamfootman]

I don't know what the 10 German bombers rubbish is

Obviously I can guess, but I'm not familiar with it