World Cup: England Through & Miami Melts Lloyd

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0:30at Whole Foods Market. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number, 10 ,000. That's the number of new businesses that join Odoo per month. Join Odoo today at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. The Football Daily Podcast at the People World Cup 2026 with Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Hello and welcome to the Football Daily with Rick and Lloyd. although on this occasion we are not together and it feels weird Lloyd feels weird and I've got to say I think you're in a better place than I am I'm having a nice time and I'm so sorry I know you're in the garden but I'm not in a hotel room in Miami with um you know some horrible modern art behind me am I I made that earlier what do you mean it's horrible no it's lovely they give me some Tank brushes are checked in and I've just whipped that up.

1:27Look, England are through to the semi-finals for the fourth time in their history. First time since 2018. They beat Norway 2-1 in extra time. They're going to face Argentina on Wednesday night. Just finished watching that game. Absolute disgrace, in my opinion. We'll come on to that. There'll be live coverage of the semi-final across all of the, literally all of the BBC. So whether you're watching BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, if that exists anymore, BBC Four, no idea. iPlayer, BBC Sounds Radio 1, Radio 2 Radio 3, Radio 4 5 Live, 6 Music they will all be showing that semi-final or you'll be able to listen to it, probably so we'll break down the game in a bit Lloyd, you were there I mean, look watching it in our golf club across the road which you're very familiar with, of course it was incredibly stressful it really was not a um it wasn't a pleasant watch what was it like in the suffocating heat first and foremost i think it is the hottest game i have ever ever been at it was so ridiculously hot i think the hottest game i've been to before that was and you're gonna you're gonna get annoyed grimsby town versus braintree in the uh second leg of the second leg of the playoff semifinals years and years ago.

2:48But today, you mentioned suffocating. It felt at times like we were struggling to breathe and we were just walking up the steps to go to the stands. How the players felt after even just like two or three minutes of playing that is, I mean, everyone was just noticing it. As we walked out, people were just dripping in sweat. Everyone was just sweaty. I wear my lucky shirt. You can just see it behind me. it's just over there my lucky Grimsby Town shirt have you washed it? this might sound a little bit rank I could have wrung it out after the game that's why I've changed into this shirt it was so, so hot everyone was absolutely dripping can you answer my question please?

3:28have you washed it? I've washed it since the last game but I've not washed it now I'm in a hotel room Rick I'm not hand washing it in a basin do something in a sink you monster well I'll just put it on the side and I'll get you to wash it and then put it out when I get back for the hotel furniture. You're an animal. Do you know what? Leave me alone. It just seems like you're a little bit jealous. No, of course I'm a bit jealous. Of course I'm a bit jealous. You know I am. Everyone, everyone was really, really sweaty. It was the most ridiculous game, but it was unbelievable. And then, you know, we sat down after the game as we were waiting for our car to pick us up.

4:06And we're like, do you know what? That wasn't that enjoyable. it was nice until they scored but actually looking back going that wasn't that enjoyable at all like it was really really stressful i know you talk about hating the fact that you know we have quarters now you know up until that first hydration break it was unbelievable the atmosphere was fantastic i think it was the best stadium atmosphere i've seen for a long long time especially this world cup since that grimsby braintree game i guess thank you you're slowly learning it was proper England versus Norway today. There were obviously neutrals today, but we talked about Spain and Belgium the other day where you couldn't really tell who was where and stuff, whereas there was just a sea of England fans and a sea of Norwegian fans.

4:52And it was brilliant, just like a proper nice little sing-off. And there felt like a bit of an edge today, like more so than there's ever felt like a game. Yeah. And it just felt, oh, actually, this is, you know, the Mexico game, obviously, I wasn't at the Azteca, But in the stadium, it just felt like, oh, this is actually worth something here. And I just think that the influx in England fans, especially behind that goal that we saw at the end singing Wonderwall, there just seemed like a different energy to what I've seen at the rest of the games. Obviously, we've only really been to the L.A. stadium, but we've seen a number of teams play there.

5:28But lots of singing, lots and lots of singing. So many flags. Unbelievable. Crikey. What's the stadium like? The stadium, like, fine. Do you know what? Actually, I think it's the most European stadium within this tournament. Oh, like a normal football stadium, kind of. It was like the stadiums that we went to together in Germany, very similar to that. It was very, very European. Even when you're walking out, like the spiral staircases, very similar to the San Siro. So the whole atmosphere leading up to it, like the Norwegian fans absolutely loved them. They were so lovely. so many in Miami so many Norwegian fans in Miami all coming up being like do you know what we hope that we win today but if we don't win we'll be supporting England and we're like oh god that's so lovely thank you so much like you know we hope that we win today but if you win I mean we won't be watching the World Cup that's right just to let you know you know we'll be watching reruns of we'll be watching reruns of Wimbledon just to see how we did how we did in that I'd say what I really I mean we've met some Norway fans I had a bunch of Norway fans on breakfast yesterday.

6:36Really good fun. We did a bit of rowing. I felt a bit like a traitor, but it was enjoyable. What I don't like, it turns out, is so where I was watching, there was a lot of people supporting Norway, but they were just Americans, and they were just sort of doing the rowing. And I was like, now that is not for me. That can **** off. I think that might have to be beeped. They might have to be baked, but yeah. No, no, no, no, no. It's funny you should mention that. So we had quite nice tickets. We were relatively towards the front of the pitch. And then about four rows behind us, there were some Americans.

7:16Okay. And I mentioned earlier there weren't that many neutrals, but there were a smattering. There were some Americans in England tops supporting Norway. Oh, God. It's a mess. It's an absolute mess. And I have never been more gaslit in my whole entire life, apart from that time where you said you never played table tennis. It was, they, and they were telling us to sit down. What? We were like, no, we're not sitting down. Oh, it was ridiculous. Everyone started standing up and, you know, every time England got on attack, we just started standing up. And they were like, sit down, sit down. And then one of them went, it's Matawake, sit down.

7:54And we're like, oh, I really don't want to agree with him, but he's got a point. he has got a point he really has got a point it does come to nothing and I was sat with my friend Jack Jack Whitehall and he was like oh that's probably the worst moment of the World Cup for me I was like yeah a bit incorrect by an American yeah but it was really weird it was like a really really weird cosplaying of an American wearing an England top but supporting Norway so yeah quite mad but I tell you what England fans absolutely fair play to them because they came out in their absolute droves that end that you saw where everyone was singing Wall of the Wall at the end where you just saw Jude Bellingham just in a, I don't know, in a kind of like a haze.

8:35This tournament has been obviously heavily talked about, not a cheap tournament to come to, so absolutely fair play to them for coming in their numbers and absolutely giving their all. What I thought was amazing, and I'm not sure if this came across on the TV, the rowing chant. An American lady about three rows behind us went, it's boring now! Okay, fine. okay we kind of read with her but whenever this is quite a funny thing that the england fans are doing the rowing chant is brilliant it is brilliant but it's a bit it's a performative piece okay so it takes a long time and there's large gaps in it so whenever the england fans realized that they were doing the rowing chant england fans would just start doing the

9:23England yeah actually that's not even the right one that's not even the right clap I've just done the Grimsby Town Fish chant was anyone else doing that yeah come on up the Mariners no one else I couldn't see any Grimsby Town flags I just saw that Sheffield United one which we can't which we can't talk about but yeah everyone was just chanting England almost like drowning ironically drowning the the rowing chants really so but yeah look amazing that we won it but by far an absolute rollercoaster and didn't enjoy the majority of the game. Well, no, I mean, certainly in the 90 minutes, I thought Norway were probably better than us.

9:59Yeah, it was just a few of the decisions. You're kind of going, what's... Like, sure, Norway were better. Go on. From your nice seat, did you see the ball hit the spider cam cable? No, we weren't aware of that until we were being kettled out of the stadium and everyone was like looking at their phones and oh apparently the ball hit the cable and the keeper kicked off. A few of them did. Did you see it? Certainly not in real time and only after the game became aware that it was a thing and now loads of people are sort of trying to analyse it. The chip in the ball registers no contact but when you look at the flight of the ball so you kind of go okay but then you look at the flight of the ball and something's happened.

10:44You obviously can't see the ball hit something but the trajectory appears to change quite a lot. And when you look at the way that it comes down to, is it either Gordon or Anderson? It does appear to just sort of drop from the sky. It's quite, I don't know. It's peculiar. I'd be fuming. I would be fuming, yeah. I'm going to mention Grimsby again, because it's all I know. There was a game this season where, I think it was George McEachern launched a ball, and he hit a seagull. It hit a seagull. And the ball just came down dead, to David Gazzatore. It just landed perfectly. And it's the most Grimsby thing in the world where we got an assist from a seagull, which was absolutely brilliant.

11:23And also, again, the first game that I've had emotional involvement in, where we couldn't tell whether there were fouls or not, or whether things were offside. So it offered the other element of jeopardy and going to the VAR screen and just being like, I've got no idea what's going on, and texting my friends and stuff like that. Is he off? Is he on? Is it a pen? Is it not a pen? Well, I'll answer those. He was off. Looked like a pen to me. There you go. Those are the two, aren't they? Just really quickly, first time I've watched a football match where two or three of us in our party couldn't properly watch the game because our eyeballs were sweating.

11:59It was that hot. It was such a hot game. I cannot get over how hot this game was. It was ridiculous. And you are, at the best of times, a sweaty man. Yeah, I mean, I'm an athlete, sure. But I am a sweaty man. I would have said, but yeah. Lloyd, while I was waiting for you to exit the stadium, I caught up with John Murray. Well, John, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't easy. But England are through. Yeah. And, you know, I cannot understate. And I know before this World Cup, we knew that England were going to have to play in sweltering conditions. And I know it's exactly the same for Norway. But, you know, being in the stadium, this really brought back memories to me of being in South Korea at that World Cup back in 2002, which have been some of, I think, the most humid conditions that I've watched football in.

12:47And it was like that here today. So I think that played a really big part in what happened, how the match developed. And in the end, you know, England managed with the conditions slightly better than Norway. Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Norway, I thought, actually were really good. You know, they had that goal ruled out. They hit the bar. They had that moment in the first half where Sordlott and Haaland had a two-on-one and he didn't play across to Haaland. It absolutely should have been 2-0, I think. And so England had to ride their luck. But then when it came to extra time, I think Norway just kind of ran out of steam.

13:27And I don't know if that was conditions or good substitutions from England, maybe a bit of both. Yeah, I think so. and obviously they lost Sterling Haaland from the point where he was substituted I think it was at half time, an extra time wasn't it that he went off and actually Stola Solbaken the Norwegian coach said that maybe he should have taken him off 10 minutes before because what happened was Haaland suffered a dead leg in the second half he told us combined with the fatigue of today playing at the World Cup and he actually said Stola Solbaken he said it was not a tough decision because Haaland was finished in the match.

14:05So that's what happened there. And they've had a brilliant World Cup. They've gone further into a major tournament, World Cup European Championship, than ever before. But there's also this bizarre episode in the build-up to the England goal, the equaliser, Jude Bellingham's goal, when, I mean, they are adamant. They are adamant, Norway. I've just been sitting, listening to Stola Solbak in his media conference, that the ball struck one of the cables that suspends the spider cam above the pitch. And I know that FIFA have had a look at this. The chip in the ball has shown up nothing, no contact. But Stola Solbach and said that his coaching staff were, he said, the ball suddenly dropped from heaven.

14:51He said it dropped straight down from heaven. And he said it was pretty clear what happened, but the chip hasn't shown any contact. And of course, if it had, play should have been stopped and it should have been a dropped ball. I mean, it was interesting. As soon as it happened or once the goal had gone in, all of the Norway players like Nijlan, the goalkeeper was pointing up to it. They'd seen something or they certainly thought they saw something. I've looked back at the footage of what there is available and it's fairly inconclusive, to be honest. Well, he was adamant the other way. he said that his coaching staff saw it drop straight down.

15:31He said he wondered what happened, but his staff were adamant that it deviated, it struck the wire, and it helped England in the build-up to the goal. But actually, I should say as well, he said he was quite phlegmatic about it. He said, listen, it was a bad moment. We can't do anything about it. And I know that this match is not going to be replayed now. So they've basically taken their medicine. But I know if that had happened to England, And also they were unhappy about the VAR stepping in and disallowing the goal for Harlan's push on Elliot Anderson. They weren't happy about that either. So they feel as though things have not gone with them today.

16:10And I think on the other side of the coin, Thomas Tuchel was quite open about the fact that England had had fortunate breaks of the look. But, you know, as I said during the commentary today, I really remember him clearly saying on the day that the squad was announced when he was asked about England winning the World Cup. He said two things will have to happen. We'll need nerves of steel and we'll need a bit of luck. And they've got a bit of that luck today. Pickford looked not quite as authoritative as he has in previous games. Yeah. And this is off the back of him having possibly his best game for England in the Aztec Stadium.

16:47When he was so dominant, the saves that he made. You know, he was a pivotal figure in England getting to this quarterfinal. but for whatever reason it did look as though he was affected by that goal which really had the opening goal for Norway by Sheldrup which had definite echoes of Ronaldinho scoring over David Seaman what it did was it called for a bit of character again and they found a way through a little bit like Gareth Southgate I know we've mentioned this before in Germany two years ago it's just about negotiating your way through And we still have this kind of almost a promise from Thomas Tuchel that at some point it will all come together.

17:31That they are relying massively on Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. And I mean, Jude Bellingham in particular, he just seems absolutely determined to drag England through this tournament. He looks like a man on a mission. He looks in absolutely prime condition as well. the way that he scored that second goal. I mean, we're in Miami. That had Miami written all over it, didn't it? The skill, it was so smooth. And the way that he just rolled it in, the touches that he had, that was right off South Beach, wasn't it? Tuchel spoke after the game and again, not like massively happy with what he saw, I don't think.

18:11I think this was the one where I thought, you look a little bit frazzled here. And whether that was part of it. I mean, I feel frazzled having commentated on the match because it was draining. It was draining sitting in the stands, commentating on this match, never mind playing in it or trying to mastermind it. And he said, Thomas Tuchel, he thought they were very, very good in central defence, he said. He said with Kane and Bellingham together, he just puts them together. They do the rest. He said, we need to be better attacking. And he said, I'm not upset with the result. and the team he said my heart in my heart I'm proud and happy because this team refuses to lose he said we want to bring out the performance so because of that he said my head is not 100 % happy he said I want faster clinical football there's been too many errors errors and today mistakes in crucial moments so you know there's there's a lot of areas there to improve for England but they're still in the competition and they have the potential and the opportunity to do that that's great john thanks so much and uh yeah i think we will need to go and have a little lie down don't we i think so i think so yeah

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20:54Five Live Sports. The Football Daily Podcast at the People World Cup 2026 with Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Listen on BBC Sounds. Now, something unusual here, Lloyd, is that our plan was to talk to Chris Sutton about the England game, about the football. But we've had some horrible technical issues that mean we can't get a hold of him. and the direct corollary of that is you are now going to play the role of football expert and I'm not saying it's going to be easy but you are an actor so I believe in you so I can introduce you if you like sort of separately so what would your title be? Football analyst?

21:51BBC's football analyst? BBC's football fan BBC's football fan, okay delighted now to be joined by BBC's football fan what a game hang on sorry delighted to be joined now by BBC's football fan Lloyd Griffith hi Lloyd thanks for having me on Richard you were at the game but you were really you weren't really consuming it as a fan you were just doing this kind of deep analysis sort of technical analysis of everything you saw that's why we've got you on today for that Yeah. So talk to me about the way that Norway set up. Well, very tricky, actually, the way in which Norway set up. Obviously, they went with the goalkeeper in goal.

22:37Yeah, yeah. And then Haaland up top. Conventional so far. Yeah, and I think he just gave free licence to everyone else just to play where they wanted to play. They just had those nine other players just roaming, didn't they? Exactly. Yeah, and I think he just said, look, what are positions? Yeah, quite a philosopher, the coach. The manager. and I think England struggled to break that down yeah so we're like why is I thought that guy was playing right back but he seems to be on the left wing exactly well actually we do joke about it but some of the substitutions that Thomas Ducal did make I had no idea who was playing where quite regularly during that game so he brought off Maduweki and he brought Saka on and he kind of go yeah fine and he brought off Rice and he brought on Eze You kind of go, okay, yeah.

23:23So CDM for an attacking move. Bellingham drops back a bit. Does Bellingham drop back? I'm not entirely sure. And I think everyone was still a bit like, oh, what's going on there? And then he brought off Princess Gordon. Yes. And he brought on Rhys James. So a left winger for essentially… A right back. A right back. But then he played him in like… Sort of a midfield? Central defensive midfielder. kind of like a almost what Rice was playing. And you kind of go, okay, well, I'm sure he can do that. Then he brought on Jed Spence for O 'Reilly, and you kind of go, okay, that's absolutely fine. And then cons it off for Rodgers.

24:08But it worked. Yes, it did. It did work. In the end, it worked. And some of those did shuffle around into their natural positions and stuff. It took a while, though, didn't it? It felt a little bit like Tetris. where you're kind of going, I think it's going to be game over here soon. But we managed to get rid of the layers and we completed the game. Yeah, I don't think it's a perfect analogy, but we'll leave it in anyway. I don't know how it felt in the stadium, but I would argue that Norway were the better team probably in the 90 minutes and should, I think, should have been 2-0 up. So they scored their goal that is a bit of a freak goal.

24:52But if you remember, after that, so they're 1-0 up, and they have that break where I think it's Sourlot has it, and it's two on one, Sourlot and Haaland. And he just, mate, give it to Haaland. If you give it to Haaland, give it to Haaland, which surely is the game plan, and he will score from that position. And the fact that he didn't is, I mean, only he knows what he was thinking. It's mad. It was so funny because when he went off on the right side and you could see Haaland basically just stepping up a couple of gears and all I could think of was your impression. Just the kind of the... Give me the ball.

25:30I think it was Ryder chasing him. I need the ball. I'll score with the ball. Yeah. Ryder's really fast and he's kind of going, he's getting nowhere near him. Of course not. And then he didn't give it to him. And he's going, you should have absolutely been two-in-it up there. It felt, and I'm not sure if this was an instruction from the management team from both sides, but for the first definitely like 20, 30 minutes, it felt like I was watching walking football because none of them were going into like second or third gear. Yeah, because it was so, as you've said, so bloody hot. It was. It was so hot.

26:05It was so hot. And you do wonder, was it hotter in the Azteca or is it a different kind of heat here? I'm not entirely sure. Much hotter in Miami, I think. Was it actually? Is that generally the case? Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the good stuff from England then. Jude Bellingham, he's just a force of nature when he puts on, and I know he's been, you know, he had one in particular fantastic season for Real Madrid, but when he is in that England shirt, he is something else. He really, really ran himself into the ground. And you could see there were moments him and Harry Kane, I'd say from about 65, 70 minutes onwards, clearly exhausted.

26:46Clearly exhausted. But he just did not stop running. He just did not stop running. He was chasing stuff down. And we saw at the end of the Mexico game, there were lots of clips during the rounds of what it meant to him. You know, like as soon as that final whistle went, he just dropped to the floor. you can tell that it's a player that doesn't leave anything in the tank. I know that is a bit of a cliche thing to say, but he just ran and ran and ran and he did what he needed to do. And I think what also is quite telling was, you know, that the interviews post-match from Thomas Tuchel and then also from Jude Bellingham, you know, where Thomas kind of criticises the team a little bit.

27:24And you can see Jude going like, no, no, no, I'm not having that. And you don't know how friendly they are behind closed doors. I think, you know, fair play to Jude for standing up and going, no, we gave everything. You do not realise how hot it was. And the bit where he says, maybe he just doesn't know what it's like playing in those conditions. It's pretty good. It's like, you're going to have to give us a break there, actually, Gaffer. Because that was hard work. Not many people will know how to play in those conditions under those extremities on a world stage at that level. So, I mean, fair play to him.

27:57But just going back to it, and I've said it a few times now, he ran and ran and ran. and so too did Harry Kane and you could see at the end of it they were both absolutely exhausted but Harry Kane I noticed there was a there was a close-up of Harry Kane after about 15 minutes and that guy was red in the face and dripping with sweat and I thought it's going to be a long game and I thought actually what I thought in my head was well let's just hope he doesn't go to extra time and lo and behold I just think a lot of the players watch the part and the bit where Guillaume Balaguet just talks about Lionel Messi walking for 65 % of the game and they've gone might try that actually Yeah.

28:31Might just try that. If it works for him, it must work for me. So we now know that England will face Argentina in that semifinal in Atlanta after Argentina beat Switzerland 3-1 in extra time. So I was slightly conflicted here about whether I would rather Argentina or Switzerland in the semifinal. there will be something sweeter about beating Argentina. Emotionally, I think I will really enjoy that for various kind of footballing reasons over the years. I would love us. And I also think we've got a pretty good chance because I basically don't think Argentina are very good. So it's got back into the game and we're having a really, and deservedly so, and we're having a really good go at them.