Gareth Southgate’s team have reached par in Qatar – but defeating the world champions will require something differentTowards the end of Gareth Southgate’s post-match press conference, deep in the harshly lit fibreglass bunker that is the Al Bayt Stadium media suite, England’s manager was asked by an Argentinian journalist for his thoughts on the prospect down the track of having to face Lionel Messi. “Well,” Southgate frowned, making a show of giving the question all due consideration. “He’s a good player.” As super-dry wee-hours press room one-liners go, it was pretty good.After that Southgate just kind of shrugged and said something like, yeah, he’s a genius but we’ll worry about that if it happens. England have to play France first...
Manchester City’s young attacker delivers his best work yet on the biggest stage for his country in his preferred roleA very normal thing happened on Sunday night. Phil Foden was sensational. I do not want to oversell this. There is no deep or meaningful theme here.There are no hidden layers or wider significances, no political or cultural context. It rests almost entirely on a single argument, and the argument is that Foden is sensational. If you are not on board with this idea, the next 840 words may not be for you. Continue reading...
The fans would not forgive failure to defeat South Korea in the last 16 of the World Cup but Tite’s squad will not be afraidFootball is a whole world in itself, a democratic sport that brings some feelings that are impossible to describe to people who do not follow it. Within football there are also things that are passed down from generation to generation, just like in a country in the real world.Each great football country has its own characteristic, its own way of seeing football and that, in turn, forms how football is being played in that country, how a national team relate to their supporters, how the media analyses the games and much, much more. But one thing...
England’s midfield sensation was magnificent in difficult moments, a source of control when it was close to the edgeEngland’s second goal just before half-time at Al Bayt Stadium, the goal that killed this World Cup last-16 tie, was a pure Jude Bellingham moment. Watching the three white England shirts surge and veer like an aerial display team across that wide-open lozenge of green, it almost felt like a moment of show-Bellingham, a gloss to go with all the close-quarter moments in between, the moments of graft that had kept England in this game in its early stages.This, though, was pure cinema. England had been flat at times in the first half against Senegal, had seemed to be playing with a...
Giroud scored his 52nd goal for his country and deserved the ovation but Mbappé scored twice to ensure win against PolandA couple of days ago the France squad posed for a photo in which each player returned to their roots by donning the shirt of their first amateur team. For Olivier Giroud, now France’s all-time male record goalscorer, it was the red of Olympique Club de Froges, whose clubhouse 20km from Grenoble in south-east France is appropriately decorated for the World Cup. For Kylian Mbappé, the man who will surely overtake him, it was the green of AS Bondy, a team in a northern suburb of Paris. Even on Giroud’s big night, the masterful and electric Mbappé was able to...