Finally today they played a game they actually deserved to win and did so without the benefit of a PK.

Because of crass shit like this

And by Belgium, we mean The Netherlands, right?

Maybe I should have lead with a disclaimer that I’m Scottish?

Croatia advances to face lose to England in the semifinal.

Ahem. That’s Ian Wrighwrightwright to you

Nobody thought Wigan had a shot to win because he inherited a solid, organised team that had just finished 11th in the Premier League, preceded to dismantle it, and then presided over the consistently worst defence in the league year upon year and never made any attempt to address it. I just defended him when another…

France & Belgium are the two best teams left, but in Modric & Rakitic, Croatia have a top class midfield. Can play anyone off the park on their day.

I was a big fan of Spain-Portugal.

I wouldn’t say his Prem record showed him to be tactically unsophisticated at all. When he first unveiled his favoured 3-4-3 formation in 2012, nobody in the Prem had an answer to it. They won 7 of their final 9 games that season, including victories against Liverpool, Man Utd & Arsenal. But he didn’t allow himself to…

I wouldn’t say they’ve only got 4-8 “good” players, but yeah, I’m taking France, Belgium and (on paper, at least) Germany before Brazil.

But they’ve got the greatest left back of all time!

No one makes this argument for him and very few will agree, but here goes: Kevin De Bruyne is the best footballer on the planet right now.

He’s the perfect player for the modern era, equally adept at sitting deep and dictating the tempo of the match with his passing game or playing in a more advanced creative forward…

Counterpoint:

You can actually pause in the run up, but not once the final stride is completed and your non-kicking foot is planted, I believe.

That is genius. Definitely no need to limit it to under-30s though.

It is slightly worrying for them that they haven’t created more chances in/scored more from open play. However, the only reason they’ve had so many penalties is that their set piece play has been so dominant. If teams had played them straight up from corners and free kicks, they could have easily had an extra 2 or 3…

Firstly, that is the flag of England. The union flag is the flag of the UK.

England were fantastic for the first half hour or so. Arguably the best football an England team has played since beating The Netherlands 4-1 at Euro 96, lacking only the finishing touch in front of Colombia’s goal. For the other hour and a half, your take is a decent one.

You’ve got to hold and give