BritBill

My teenage years were 1993 to 1999 so my musical outlook was influenced by the 90's music scene. Mainly the indie and Britpop genre. Oasis The Charlatans James Ocean Colour Scene Blur Manic Street Preachers The lost could go on but those bands and similar all formed a basis of my music tastes for the rest of my life.

There isn't really any rivalry between France & England when it comes to soccer. Or in anything else in life for that matter.

Excellent. The mood of the nation has lifted since Sunday. It shows the power of sport.

To try and reduce the collusion between teams at the end of the group stage I.e if one game finishes before the other and the teams in the second game knew a draw would be enough for both teams to go through they'd probably play out a very, very drab affair. Of course in this day and age it's fairly easy to find out a soccer score but FIFA have to be seen doing the right thing and kicking the final group games off at the same time.

Following your local team does have more meaning and you do feel more in common with those players. The lows do massively outweigh the highs unless you follow one of the top 5 Premier league teams. However, a World Cup win for England would mean a lot to more people and the whole nation would celebrate. How they would celebrate and for how long is a worry! ? As for international football, I used it to follow England and see some of the world I wouldn't get to see following my club side. I'm not as patriotic as I was 15-20 years ago but I'd shed a tear if England were to win.

Without a doubt. Throw in the amount of money it's going to cost me helping my son complete his Panini sticker album it's going to be a long summer that year!

I don't mind Germany as a nation and the Germans are very decent folk. Probably as culturally close to us Brits as any other nation really. The only thing that made me happy about them being knocked out early is they won't be the team knocking England out this time! I think the World Cup can be more competitive at the group stage if they were to invite the top 32 teams in terms of the FIFA rankings as opposed to teams qualifying via the regional tournaments. That would mean it would be even more overloaded with European and South American teams. You'll see more less competitive games when the competition goes to 48 teams.

I hope England play as strong a team as possible tonight. Beat whatever team Belgium put out and move on to the next stage with confidence and swagger.

That's a shame. Surely this is the game Germany come to life?

As luck would have it, I'm working at home this afternoon and Germany v South Korea kicks off at 3pm. What are the chances of that?!

I can't access the article as the WGR websites restricts users from outside the US. Please can somebody paste the article on here if possible? Thank you.

Yes, nothing is guaranteed in group H at the moment. Although it will be by the time England and Belgium kick off. Of the 3 teams which can progress from H I'd prefer England to play Japan.

Yes, it's definitely the game of that group although the fizz has been taken out of it a little with both sides being comfortably through top the last 16 already. Still, it'll be a decent yard stick to see where England actually are in their development.

I've taken next week off work so I can sit and enjoy all the earlier kick off games. It's going to be gripping viewing.

Its has 1-0 Portugal with Ronaldo scoring the goal written all over it.

Our Grandfather passed away early yesterday morning. He was a huge soccer fan and yesterday's result would have put a massive smile on his face. The sun was shining all day and our national soccer team brought us a moment where our grief stopped for a few minutes. I'd like to think that victory was for my Grandad Harold.

Argentina were piss poor from start to finish. It was brilliant. The goalkeeper error was horrendous but the finish to capitalise on it was technical bliss.

Morocco also failed to score versus Iran. That's all you need to know about them. The best teams move on pretty quickly. Portugal will now be celebrating the win and preparing for doing what they need to do v Iran in their final game. They've got through Spain and Morocco with 4 points which looking at how they reacted at the final whistle versus Spain is exactly what they wanted and expected. Portugal won the European Championships playing the way they did today. They won't be worried.

C'mon! Although how Morocco allowed Ronaldo to have that much space at a set piece is just criminal.

Hey Row, I'm currently reading this book https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529486630&sr=8-1&keywords=the+numbers+game I think you'll like it. It opens your eyes even more to the game. It's nice to have a lead in the game but 1-0 is just so vulnerable. Look at England the other night. Getting the second goal is so important. A third will seal the deal the vast, vast majority of the time. There's a chapter in the above mentioned book analysing it all. I'm happy to send you my copy when I'm finished.

There's more chance of Morocco turning over Portugal than Iran beating Spain. I'm expecting the possession count to be 80-20 in Spain's favour. If they get 2-0 up pretty quickly it'll become a procession of keep ball and low risk play. In reality, both games will be comfortable wins for the European teams.

Let's hope so!

I'm really looking forward to Croatia v Argentina. In fact, you could say Croatia have under-achieved a little over the years. They have some top notch players. Mordic and Rakitic are as good as any midfield players in the tournament. Argentina have their hands full. I went to Zagreb a few years ago. It was the game where the England 'keeper completely missed a back pass and the ball rolled into the empty net. There was plenty of blood spilled before the game at the hands (batons) of the Croat police force. The flight home resembled a hospital emergency ward. The fans are happy with Southgate in terms of lowering the average age of the squad and introducing some of the players from the successful U21's team. Also, results have been good. Qualification for the World Cup finals was in general a breeze. As I mentioned in a previous post, he's found a system which the majority of the players look comfortable in. Only one are two look to be struggling. To be fair to Southgate, there isn't a lot of quality to choose from these days. I'd say Harry Kane is the only true world class player in the squad at the moment. For the first time in, well, probably my lifetime an England team has gone to a World Cup and expectations have been low.

Without a doubt. A win against Panama on Sunday should be enough to see England through. A boring 1-0 will suffice. I think Dele Alli would have been replaced at half time had England gone in at the break 1-0 up. His looked the only injury problem for England. Today's games don't look like the greatest match-ups. Russia v Egypt (if Salah plays) is probably the pick of the bunch.

I'm obviously pleased with England's result last night. We've found it hard to win the first game of a tournament over the years so to get the points was the main objective, no matter how we or the opposition played. I think Southgate has found the correct formation but not the right personnel to play it.