There's going to be a halftime show 💅

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cge1q41np7go

Feel like the world cup is about to start now when the beautiful yellow kit takes to the field, should be a good game to

41 minutes ago, L/H White said:

Feel like the world cup is about to start now when the beautiful yellow kit takes to the field, should be a good game to

Something seems slightly non-traditional about the kit, think the coloursseem lighter than normal.

Really rate Shearer as a co-commentator btw, much better than a pundit. Hes good on radio too.

On 08/06/2026 at 07:36, Cheese said:

I only managed the first episode. Found the writing embarrassingly bad. Felt like I was watching Doctor Who or something.

8 hours ago, L/H White said:

Feel like the world cup is about to start now when the beautiful yellow kit takes to the field, should be a good game to

..and it did. Top class game from two excellent teams. The comparison with the other match in the group? Scotland have done enough to get one of the best losers spots it seems. Not quite sure how they managed it.

.

Edited Sunday at 11:011 day by London Wanderer
wrong thread

This group stage is all a bit lame so far. The amount of poor teams involved and sheer size of it means I've not worked up any excitement yet and missed most of the games, when I'd usually be watching as much of it as possible.

When you do finally get 2 good teams there's such a lack of jeopardy with 3rd placers going through.

Absolutely no chance of it happening but I'd love the world cup to revert to 32 teams.

I quite like a world cup with 64 teams

it genuinely feels like a global tournament

and always the chance of an upset

because of the times I just wait till my evening and have 4 lots of match highlights to get through

I also like the Europa League, conference League and nations league format for the same reasons

everyone gets a competitive game, no matter how shit

19 minutes ago, Stig said:

This group stage is all a bit lame so far. The amount of poor teams involved and sheer size of it means I've not worked up any excitement yet and missed most of the games, when I'd usually be watching as much of it as possible.

When you do finally get 2 good teams there's such a lack of jeopardy with 3rd placers going through.

Absolutely no chance of it happening but I'd love the world cup to revert to 32 teams.

It's basically just an extended qualifying round isn't it. Feels like it's dragging already.

Canada been my fave team so far.

The quantity over quality cup

56 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

The quantity over quality cup

much better than euro 92 when only 8 teams qualified

and the one who won it didn't qualify

Can understand the importance of getting the smaller nations a chance. They come & do a playoff. But maybe that wouldn’t work either with teams coming for just one game.

The third place is nonsense- maybe it’ll excite a little later on in the group when some teams need to go & win. But it’s been lame so far. Usually the groups are the most exciting part of the tournament for me.

Looks like Tunisia sacked former Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi.

I'm sure someone was tipping a mid-tournament sacking, cant remember if it was on here.

12 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

Can understand the importance of getting the smaller nations a chance. They come & do a playoff. But maybe that wouldn’t work either with teams coming for just one game.

The third place is nonsense- maybe it’ll excite a little later on in the group when some teams need to go & win. But it’s been lame so far. Usually the groups are the most exciting part of the tournament for me.

Yep, when the likes of Curacao, know they have to go for it and win by 5 clear goals 😁 - I do get the point though, it'll mean there aren't actually any dead rubbers, as you can lose the first 2 and still qualify for the next round

31 minutes ago, Sweep said:

Yep, when the likes of Curacao, know they have to go for it and win by 5 clear goals 😁 - I do get the point though, it'll mean there aren't actually any dead rubbers, as you can lose the first 2 and still qualify for the next round

It doesn't tend to be more exciting this way though from experience. Look at the last world cup in Qatar - the final games of the group stages were pretty much all on a knife edge with teams going out on goal difference, goals score (yellow cards nearly came into play on one). Proper drama throughout.

Whereas when you start allowing third place through, so many teams will have already qualified there becomes more dead rubbers, and you don't even get the immediate knowledge of whether the third place is through quite often and they just have to wait around for the other groups to finish. The euros group stage has had this since 2016 and it's much less exciting than the last WC group stage.

I've watched every game I've been awake for and watched the highlights in the mornings for the silly kick offs

Korea and Canada the best teams to watch so far

Wasn't sure on the extension but watching some of these lesser nations get draws against Spain is great, this is just a nice warm up for the last 32 onwards

7 hours ago, Stig said:

This group stage is all a bit lame so far. The amount of poor teams involved and sheer size of it means I've not worked up any excitement yet and missed most of the games, when I'd usually be watching as much of it as possible.

When you do finally get 2 good teams there's such a lack of jeopardy with 3rd placers going through.

Absolutely no chance of it happening but I'd love the world cup to revert to 32 teams.

I’ll question this for debate.

You say it’s a bit lame, yet you’ve missed most of the games!

Getting the negative stuff out of the way, I’m still dubious about the 48 team WC. I’ve spent the last 4 years being nothing but critical about all of this (and there’s still lots to be critical of)

But I’ve given it a go from the off, watched all pre early hours games live and tuned in for highlights in the morning.

If anyone else has done this I’d be interested to know if they’ve found it lame, because I haven’t so far.

These minnows have brought lots more to the party so far. Some great games and goals too and the fans over there seem to be loving it.

Building nicely to Wednesday, I’m looking forward to it.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by desperado

3 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Looks like Tunisia sacked former Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi.

I'm sure someone was tipping a mid-tournament sacking, cant remember if it was on here.

Has that ever happened before?

4 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

Has that ever happened before?

I dunno, sounds like something some oil rich despot would have done in the 70s/80s!

Was apparently chaos agter the game, players fighting etc

What are we making of the early BBC v ITV coverage?

ITV streets ahead for me at the moment,

3 hours ago, desperado said:

I’ll question this for debate.

You say it’s a bit lame, yet you’ve missed most of the games!

Getting the negative stuff out of the way, I’m still dubious about the 48 team WC. I’ve spent the last 4 years being nothing but critical about all of this (and there’s still lots to be critical of)

But I’ve given it a go from the off, watched all pre early hours games live and tuned in for highlights in the morning.

If anyone else has done this I’d be interested to know if they’ve found it lame, because I haven’t so far.

These minnows have brought lots more to the party so far. Some great games and goals too and the fans over there seem to be loving it.

Building nicely to Wednesday, I’m looking forward to it.

Oh I've caught the highlights of all the games I've missed and watched the early kick offs. And the games themselves have generally been good (tonight's Egypt v Belgium game was very good).

It's the general bloated nature of the tournament that's the issue, there's just not the usual importance riding on the individual results and it feels like we're just waiting for the knock outs to start, rather than the group stages previously being some of the most exciting games.

42 minutes ago, desperado said:

What are we making of the early BBC v ITV coverage?

ITV streets ahead for me at the moment,

BBC for commentary, ITV for (some not all) pundits so far.

Emma Hayes gets some right stick online but I guarantee if thats someone like James Horncastle saying the exact words she does, people would be saying he's an underrated genius.

Not convinced with Man Vs Food guy yet, and Olivier Giroud is absolutely awful every time I see him.

Hayes and Ange been the best of the lot. Giroud and Walcott both terrible.

I’m a bit of a hypocrite on this as like Zico I will watch most football but a grouping where you can finishing 3rd in a 4 man group and qualify is bullshit.

Removing the jeopardy just doesn’t work.

3 hours ago, pfk505 said:

Hayes and Ange been the best of the lot. Giroud and Walcott both terrible.

That bit with her chalkboard mid game will take some beating😂

Anyone is better than Neville and Keane