Morning.
A very quick Sunday round-up for you, starting with England’s 2-0 win over Panama last night. Bukayo Saka started, Declan Rice did not, nor did he feature at all – which is sensible, at the very least. It was not a particularly compelling game, Saka did provide an assist for Jude Bellingham to open the scoring, before he was replaced by Noni Madueke. Eberechi Eze came on for Bellingham not long afterwards, and England now face DR Congo on Wednesday.
The other game in that group saw Croatia beat Ghana 2-1 to finish second. Colombia drew 0-0 with Portugal, and the Guardian report says ‘Ronaldo toiled against DR Congo and was comfortably kept quiet here by Colombia’. I thought he was back, but it seems he’s back to not being back. When will he make up his mind? In a World Cup of veteran goalkeepers, I remembered we used to have a Colombian on our books, but David Ospina was only on the bench.
DR Congo beat Uzbekistan 3-1, and I’m going to guess that Uzbeki Man City lad who steams around the place like a bull (on PCP) in a china shop and who always looks like he’s about to burst into tears, looked like he was about to burst into tears. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a good cry, but he’s got the biggest case of RWF (Resting Weep Face) I’ve ever seen.
Argentina beat Jordan 3-1, and there was late drama between Austria and Algeria, with Iran needing one of those teams to win to progress as one of the best third placed teams. Riyad Mahrez put Algeria ahead in the 92nd minute, but with basically the last kick (which was a header), Austria equalised. That meant Austria finished second in that group, and Algeria squeezed in as one of the third place sides at the expense of the Iranians.
Iran didn’t lose a game in the tournament, and it’s worth pointing out again that the sporting integrity of this World Cup has been compromised by the way they were treated differently from other teams. Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei said:
“Their [The US government] behaviour towards us has been really terrible and we hope the world will be aware of that. I urge FIFA to not let the hosts treat teams and players the same way in the future. I hope Mr Infantino will actually stand up to such behaviour.”
As the old saying goes ‘Hope in one hand, and shit in the other. See which gets full first’, because we know Infantino is a cowardly, obsequious little creep who talks out of both sides of his mouth and would do nothing to damage the relationships he’s worked so hard to cultivate with his brown-nosing and pathetic toadying. He doesn’t care about the sport or the game, and he really doesn’t care about Iran. He’ll probably come out with something about how if it wasn’t for him and his ‘influence’ they wouldn’t have even been there in the first place, but we all know that’ll be him covering his mealy-mouthed little arse. The prick.
So, we now know the full line-up for the Round of 32, which is as follows:
South Africa v Canada
Brazil v Japan
Germany v Paraguay
Netherlands v Morocco
Ivory Coast v Norway
France v Sweden
Mexico v Ecuador
England v DR Congo
Belgium v Senegal
USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina
Spain v Austria
Portugal v Croatia
Switzerland v Algeria
Argentina v Cape Verde
Australia v Egypt
Colombia v Ghana
Teams in italics have Arsenal players involved, and there are still lots of our boys at this World Cup. Maybe all of them who went are still there? I think that’s the case. Some of them will be coming home after this round though, that’s inevitable, especially with the France/Sweden match-up, so let’s see how it all pans out.
Right, let’s leave it there. I hope you all have a great Sunday, more here tomorrow and we’ll have an afternoon Arsecast Extra for you as well.
