Pukey

****ing hell having to agree with Peter ****ing Walton

Yeah feel a bit for Croatia, not really done a great deal wrong but a couple of moments and there you go, 2-0 down. They've got fight about them but feel they need a goal somewhat quickly.

That bit from Messi is an absolute joke ffs Like McCoist said, he looked like he lost it free times but just didn't and ends up winning a free kick.

They don't play on boxing day People thinking this is over clearly haven't been watching this world cup

Pundits discussing that like it's ever getting given as a handball

That's so lucky

Not sure why so many are confused that's penalty. He's come flying out and got nowhere near the ball. Yeah, he stops himself but that's always getting given as a foul. All part of Croatia's gameplan anyway, they love going behind

Backing Livakovic here tbh

How often does Matterface say things just for the pundit to correct him

Some of the passing in the final third is making me very sad

This has been good control from Croatia so far

I know passing isn't easy, but ****ing hell Paredes that was awful

McCoist will at least add some positivity instead of Dixon's dreary awfulness

Only bit I watched was after Japan vs Spain at it was so mesmerisingly terrible

Learn your lesson man! Always watch as little of ITV's coverage as humanly possible. Suffering through Matterface is more than enough.

And this is why I don't watch the build up, especially on ITV

Argentina 11

No idea what happens here. Croatia are gonna fight like hell as always, but are we gonna get some Messi magic again?

Surely Odegaard and Smith-Rowe will play there far more that means Saka stays out wide? Not that I've watched Arsenal properly for ages mind you so I'll trust your judgement more

Lampard would be such a god awful choice, think I'd give up watching England if he got the job

Not even sure who we'd get in if Southgate does leave tbh. Wouldn't be against Howe or Potter but will they leave their roles? Ngl I'd ****ing love us to go for Bielsa That's a bit of misty eyedness though.

Messi was good against Mexico and dragged them through with a great goal, can't remember much about the Poland game except his penalty miss, but then against Australia and Netherlands he's been excellent. Nearly every decent thing Argentina have done has gone through him. You can think another player has been better or whatever but he's very very clearly been at the very least a contender.

Very interesting, it seems to me like having a huge football culture, even in such a small county, combined with an attitude of "**** off, we'll prove everyone wrong" kind of thing leads to a relative overperformance. And clearly this impacts on other sports too as you mentioned the other day. The genetics side of it is interesting too but I know absolutely nothing on that

In fairness this wasn't just down to Walker and I think he'd be the first to point that out, and Mbappe still had a couple of dangerous moments because of course he did, but yeah Walker did about as well as anyone could against him.

Why do you think you've consistently produced at minimum capable and at best incredibly dangerous teams? This is a record not massively dissimilar from a lot of the biggest teams yet it's coming from a small country with such a small population. Small nations can produce a gifted generation now and again (see Iceland) but you've only been a country since the 90s yet have consistently produced a lot of talented players and while the likes of Modric aren't gonna be around much longer there still always seems to be another couple of players on the way. Is it just because there's always been a history with football in that region or is there anything else behind it?