Tony Bazball | 2026 FIFA World Cup

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1:37Luke Moore: No diggity, no doubt, everybody. Welcome to the Football Ramble. England and the US march on and Belgium shock Senegal. It's Thursday, 2nd of July. I'm Marcus Speller. I'm Luke Moore. And I'm Jim Campbell.

2:03Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease! Ease!

2:12Luke Moore: Come on! It was not, but we'll take it! Dr. Congo, you've been discharged from our care. Yeah, get out of the World Cup hospital. We don't want to see you anymore. My goodness. What a result. My giddy aunt, everybody. England 2, Dr. Congo 1. Football, eh, Jim? Bloody Nora. Bloody Nora. How do you sum that game up? Well, actually, there's a way where you can sum it up. And if anybody perhaps isn't an England fan or for whatever reason didn't see the game, if I describe it like this, England conceded first, had loads of shots, forced the goalkeeper into loads of saves and came from behind to win it with a brilliant late goal, it sounds like we all had a great time.

2:56Yeah, yeah, yeah. You missed out the bit that the goalkeeper was amazing until he got hit in the cock. Yes, of course. And then he was really shit after that. Which is an amazing tactical approach. Thomas Tuchel is the knockout specialist and that will apply to your nuts as well, apparently. Yep. Target the willy. But yeah, clearly that's not the full story of the game, is it? No, no, no. Because a lot of England's frailties were exposed. It was a sort of worrisome watch and you can't help but feel that we got away with it a little bit, especially with that Yohan Wisse miss that we'll come on to later.

3:31It took me a while for the sort of euphoria to come in. It was a mild euphoria, if such a thing can be the case, because I was whelmed. I was whelmed. I was perfectly whelmed. It's hard to look at that performance and not think that England don't really know their best way of playing and that they're not

3:52Luke Moore: really anything special. A bit disjointed, I think we can agree. Luke, what were your immediate thoughts on the game? I thought they got caught cold. I thought that it was really difficult to see what instructions Tuchel had given them, which is confusing because Tuchel would have given them instructions, obviously very detail-driven, he's a good coach at the very top level, and he cut a very frustrated figure on the touchline again, particularly early on. They couldn't get going. A lot of the errors that were made, the reason they were so worrying is because they were so basic. And I think that what was interesting for me is I was driving back about half four getting home for the game I've been out I was listening to Five Live on the radio and they had a DR Congo expert on the assistant coach of the other 21s or the other 20s or something and they were saying I think the kind of lazy-ish interpretation of how the team looked like it was going to be set up on Congo so it was going to be like Ghana right a 4-5-1 and that guy said don't be surprised actually if they do ostensibly set up like that, but when they're in possession, they flip to a 4-3-3 and they show a lot more ambition than Guardi, which is exactly what happened.

5:02And I don't think England were expecting it.

5:03Luke Moore: No, they weren't. And it got them flustered. They were miscontrolling the ball. They were doing what Tony Baz said the other day. They were going long and they should have gone short. They were making the wrong decisions. And it took them ages to shake it off. And the thing that made them shake it off was the hydration break. Do you know what? I don't like the hydration breaks. for those reasons. But from a selfish England fan point of view, I thought that was the most welcome hydration break. And it was unfair on Dior Congo, as it is. We've talked about that and we're all agreed on the hydration breaks.

5:35Luke Moore: I mean, you know, this game, I agree totally what you're saying. I mean, England, the way Tuchel was speaking about Dior Congo was exactly as you say and what the chap was saying on Five Live. Yeah, they're going to do this, they're going to do that. And there has been a feeling that we've got to get past these games, but when we play the bigger teams, we'll do this. And it's like, you've got to put these games away. And that was the thing in the previous England regime. It was all about putting those games away. It was, they came unstuck when they played the bigger team. Whereas I think Dougal's come along and gone, ah, okay, I see what we are.

6:10Luke Moore: The bar is here. Well, those games will probably take care of themselves. I doubt he's that careless. No, he won't be. That would be very, very unlike him. And look, England did win this game of football. Okay, so we're not talking about an England, you know, embarrassment, which it would have been with respect to Dior Congo. But I did think that some of the stuff, there is an assumption here, as there is with other teams. You know, we do expect France probably to reach the final. We do expect Spain to go for, you know, obviously you do that. So it is understandable if you do start looking ahead in the tournament.

6:40Luke Moore: But Tuchel's been very open about that and saying, well, these teams are going to set up like this. And this idea that, you know, when we play the better teams, it will be easier for us to play our game, which is an interesting idea. It's also a complete it's also at this point completely fanciful. There's no evidence to support that. People have just decided that because we've been sticky in the group stage and because we've flirted with danger here that actually, oh no, well he's picked a squad that will play better against the better team. Someone's basically just said that and it's become groupthink and everyone's agreed with it.

7:09Luke Moore: There's no evidence to support it because there's no evidence at all. You could explain that away in the Ghana game, but England, when they played say Costa Rica in that pre-tournament friendly, and it's a pre-tournament friendly, so I understand the intensity is different and so on and so forth, but the way England played you saw, ah, there's the identity of the team. And you saw it a little bit for a little bit of time in that second half against Croatia. I think you saw it in sort of little flicks and spurts. We saw it in fits and starts in this game. Yeah, exactly. It is worth pointing out that the goalkeeper had a really, really good game.

7:38I think England had was it six shots on target, ten off. They were going for it in a way that we probably should have scored in that first half. England could have won that game 4-1. And that would have further papered over cracks. Those cracks are still there. But I completely agree with what you're saying, Luke. This idea that we're going to be better as the tournament goes on is, for me, fanciful. And the reason I think that is that outside of crosses, we didn't really create much. And I think against a really good team, they'll just eat that up all day. I think we were kind of quite uncreative.

8:11The understanding would be, to put a little bit more meat on the bones for people listening, is that the understanding would be that if a team England plays against that have got serious ambitions and play in a much more attacking way, they'll leave gaps for us to exploit. So ultimately what we're looking at is some kind of basketball game where we have a go, they have a go, and we come out on top because we've got better players. That's essentially what's being said.

8:31Luke Moore: And that's okay against Croatia and to an extent DR Kong. But that's what will probably happen in Mexico, which we'll come on to. But the reality is, you're right to point that out. The goalkeeper had a world-class first half. He did. I mean, you know, it's not a conversation anything like what we're having now if the keeper doesn't make two and possibly three genuine world-class saves I mean one of them Bellingham he grabs him he can't believe he saved him and he's almost like hugging him saying fair play he's a brilliant save and he did that time and time again until he got hit in the cock and balls and then he went to shit and that's maybe as people say on WhatsApp that's a tactic we can look to exploit but ultimately not just for the goalkeeper no maybe not maybe that should be a KPI for the team We've got to hit every other person player in the cock.

9:14But the other thing I would just say is that if one of those early chances goes in, it's a different game entirely. And I've said that against Ghana. If we score early against Ghana, it's a different game. Sometimes it doesn't go like that for you, and you've got to dig in. And also, aside from the point you guys are making about, oh, England will be better against better teams, and there's no evidence.

9:35Luke Moore: That's the chat. No, it is, and I think it's bullshit. But another thing I think is bullshit is that people... I don't think England have been great defensively. I think there were a lot of basic errors yesterday. I thought that the work Rashford got through was a shocker. His defensive work was so poor yesterday. Which is the argument for having Anthony Gordon start. And his technical execution, the final ball and the final shot, was really bad as well. But that aside, we need to get over the idea that as England fans, the other team, whoever they are, aren't going to have chances. I get your point about the fact that we look shake at the back and all the rest of it.

10:07But you've got to look at it in the context of this game particularly, Ingen had to open up. It was the worst thing that could have happened. They made mistakes early, which can happen. Pickford makes a mistake. I think it's Madueke, or Anderson, doesn't track back. Spence is left exposed. It's not really Spence's fault, and then Pickford should save it. So there's a compounding of mistakes there. And then you're a goal down against a team who don't really need to show a massive amount of ambition after that because their game plan is, as we've discussed. Ingen have to come out then. So you need to, people need to get comfortable with the idea that the other team are going to have chances.

10:39They just are. You're not going to shut out a team. In every game,

10:42Luke Moore: France have played. They've conceded chances. I thought that as well. It's exactly what I was going to say. That happens. And yeah, we dodged a bullet with the Visser thing. I mean, he's got a score there. He has to score. 2-0 down. And then 2-0 down, you're facing a Belgium-Senegal situation. Yeah, where we would have needed extra time to go through. Yeah, quite. So I do think there's lots to work on. There's lots to be better. I think that Gordon, you know, he's forced his way in now probably. I'll be surprised if he doesn't start against Mexico. But again, it depends how the game transpires.

11:09A couple of the players look tired as well. So you've got a lot of things to take into account. But I think sometimes we overanalyze England because it's England and we spend so much time thinking about them compared to the other teams that are at the World Cup who have also got their own problems. And we just don't focus on it as much. We're forensic about England.

11:29Luke Moore: But I think that's a fair comment because if you think about, say, when France play or on any other side, a team will come forward and someone will have a pot shot from 25 yards and it will go comfortably over the bar and you're sitting on your sofa going, yeah, I mean, that was never going in. With England, it's like, oh my God, we've given away a shot. We're emotionally invested. So I do take your point. Yeah, I mean, we're never going to just batter every team without conceding a single chance. It would be a charmed life. But why not, Jim? I was thinking about this during the game. Like, it's, you know, there were objectively a lot of good moments that England had in that game and I know that doesn't tell the full story of it as we've discussed but I'm like I think I need England to win 3 or 4-0 and score early and be really comfortable and blitz a team for me to truly like get like the blood pumping and truly sort of believe we're about to do it it's such a stressful experience it's such a stressful experience it's such a stressful experience you have to do three goals up or you can't do that but I think that is just the nature of it and we have to fight against our own kind of alarmist perhaps fatalistic nature sometimes in games like this having said that you know I stand by what I said earlier that I think this is a team that has some limitations in it that really need to be fixed in both the defensive shape, because they don't look like they know what they're doing at times, and also just they need to be a little bit more creative up front.

12:38But that said, Harry Kane put in an absolutely world-class performance right when we needed him to. He's done what all the other big players in the tournament have done and stepped up. That was absolutely massive from him. I suppose it comes from a real sort of shuffling at that point, because when Tuchel took off Spence and put Declan Rice at right back, we're all thinking, well, this is going to be the story, isn't it? People are going to be like, why on earth has he done that? How can you say we've got problems at right back when Declan Rice is playing? Well, it was Anthony Barry's idea. Was it?

13:09Yeah, there we go. Tony Baz. Tony Baz gave another rocket at halftime. It's brilliant. I'll tell you what, people are saying Harry Kane's a star on the single team. It's Tony Barry. Do you see how quickly he exited stage right? Love it, love it. He just ran away. Yeah, we're playing Tony. We've got bollockins to dish out. Yeah, it's Tony Bazble. It is Tony Bazble. And the disdain for the interview. I'll do it, but I'm going to be really aggressive and I'm going to fuck off as soon as I can. His interview style is Sleaford Mods. It's great. I'm into it. It's Sleaford Mods combined with having to go to a house party you don't want to go to just to show your face.

13:42Luke Moore: The funny thing is about Deglar Rice going to right back, there's now genuine chat. Do we put him at right back, although we need him in midfield? But you're right. I mean, the subs work and so on, but staying with Harry Kane, because we must. because we can talk about the negatives about England and that's fair. And we can talk about them all the way through until the next game. But Kane, I mean, he's now sixth on the all-time World Cup scoring chart with 13 goals. He's ahead of Pelé and he's a level with Jose Fontaine. Jose Fontaine, again, we need to remind everybody. He did that in one game.

14:09Luke Moore: He did it in one tournament. 13 in one tournament. And also the only other European man to have scored 20 plus goals in the Euros in the World Cup is Cristiano Ronaldo. Kane's in there. So, you know, Harry Kane, we know he's marvellous. He is, I think he's probably the best England player of our lifetime. Oh, easily of our lifetime. I mean, the way he's dug him out. Now, I know with that header, you know, the goalkeeper could do a little bit better. I suppose you just simply say... They've been hitting the cock, haven't they? Yeah. He's been hitting the bollocks. And also, by the law of averages, you know, you put enough pressure and the goal goes in.

14:43Luke Moore: The second goal is just magnificent. And he's dug England out there because the previous chances weren't put away. You know, Bellingham will be annoyed at himself that he didn't score, really. Even though I thought, yeah, Bellingham did well. The first one, at a slight angle. The second one, I think Bellingham would have probably fancied scoring. But look, he didn't do it. It's a sensational save. It is. But ultimately, Bellingham's not scored. You're not doing the Gary Neville, are you? The inverse Gary Neville. No, no, no, no. No one should ever score.

15:12Luke Moore: But Kane, you know, bearing in mind, you know, he would have cut a frustrated figure in a lot of that game. and thinking, well, am I going to get my chances and so on and so forth. He really is just stepping up and it is so difficult. I mean, England have got to be careful for all the reasons you've just said because you don't want to be a one or two man team, which is currently what they are. Now, Tuchel, going back to the kind of the tactics and the shape and the setup, he said early on, I want to play like a Premier League side. You know, slow and steady wins the race, basically. Let's just get through these games.

15:43Luke Moore: He said before this game, this is not going to be pretty. it's not going to be a swashbuckling performance. He is tempering expectations, he's saying, but don't worry, we're going to go. Now, he's also talking about, going back to what you said about England fans, how we stress over everything, and every other fan will do that with their relative teams, of course. The players also do that with England. I think there is that tenseness around England, and Tuchel sees that. Tuchel is comfortable under the pressure. That's his real value to this team. And you saw it, and England have got away with it.

16:13Luke Moore: makes a subs and he's thinking, okay, fine, we're 1-0 down with 20 minutes to go. There's still 20 minutes to go. Do you know what I mean? There's still time. And he kept saying, what did he say? Keep pounding the rock. Barry said that at half time as well, didn't he? Yeah, exactly. It's no time to go. Now, it's all very well to say that after the game when you've won it. But ultimately, England have won it and they showed character. I mean, much was made of the fact it was the first time England have won a World Cup match after conceding first since the 1966 World Cup final. Now, these stats can be sort of, I mean, obviously it is a stat, it is correct, it's a fact.

16:47Luke Moore: But, I mean, England came from behind against Cameroon, you know, even in the last Euro, Slovakia scored first, I know it wasn't a World Cup. So, you can shape and mould these things. But the fact is, they did show character, ultimately, to come through this. Yeah, they did. And I think you can kind of wrap all those points up in a neat package by saying that one thing you haven't mentioned about Tuchel, which I really like, is that he's got an amazing kind of devil-may-care confidence about him. Some of the stuff he says, I'm not trying to compare and contrast him with Southgate because they're different characters and they achieve different things, but he says stuff that Southgate never would say.

17:21When he was interviewed after the game last night talking about the Mexico City game, he was like, bring it on. He was literally like, bring it on. We're excited for it. We want to be there. We want to do it. And Southgate maybe would have had that sentiment, but he would have said it in a far more measured kind of task-turned-type kind of way. And so I think that helps a bit as well, especially given he's such a detail-driven top coach with experience at the cut and thrust of the very, very top of club football, which you couldn't say about Southgate. And the second point about Kane is that, you know, he is generationally good, right?

17:53He's world-class. I think he's having a goal-scoring season. I think in modern times, only Lionel Messi has beaten. So you're talking about the very cream of the crop. And I don't necessarily subscribe to the kind of one - or two-man team argument because what I do think is that, you know, sometimes you do want the best players in the world to dig you out of something. And some of the chat around the game is that Gordon comes on to replace a disappointing Rashford and registers two assists and sorts it out. I mean, the second assist, Kane's got a lot to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a nice pass. It's quick feet from Gordon though.

18:25It's quick feet. And it's a fairly basic six, seven yard pass. Yes. And Kane turns it into one of the goals of the tournament from like nowhere. Not many players can score that goal in the world. It's phenomenal.

18:37Luke Moore: It's incredible. Who got the assist for Maradona's second against England? Exactly, exactly. It's that time. It's not quite that, but it's similar. I know what you mean. It's a Shelton-owned goal. And the 86 comparison is interesting, right? Yeah. Because a lot of people will say, well, Maradona has to be the best player of all time because he won Argentina the World Cup single-handedly. He fucking didn't. Of course he didn't. Yeah, yeah. Because they had other really good players. Yeah, and they're just not as famous or not quite as good, but they still did it. He did only use a single hand, to be fair to me.

19:03Boruchaga was a great player. Yeah, no, no, sure. He had a fucking amazing career. There's loads of players in that Argentina who were great. So ultimately, you're talking about, I suppose, a player like Kane or a player like Bellingham making the difference. But I would say, I think Anderson's been really good. The one thing I like about Anderson is that, and there were a couple of sloppy ones yesterday and I think he had a couple of sloppy ones maybe against Ghana perhaps, but he always wants the ball. You can't underrate how much it is, how amazing it is for a midfielder player in that position to always want the ball never hiding he always goes and looks for it and if he gives it away he still goes over and over again so there's a lot of people making contributions and I do think you can spin it each way you want you can go that looked a bit shaky fucking hell if you dance with the devil long enough sooner or later he's going to follow you home right or follow you to Mexico City probably in England's case or you can say as you said earlier Marcus they got it done they found a way and the best teams do find a way

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21:17Luke Moore: You know, if I am going to spin this positively, and I think, you know, perhaps, you know, one should, is that had England have won this in a similar way to say Panama where they've kind of gone through the motions and won again 2-0, fine. Obviously that would have been better, I think, for all of our nerves. But actually they've had to suffer here and they've had to show character and that's the kind of thing that builds confidence. That's the kind of thing that really builds a team together and you think, yeah, they know what it was to stare elimination in the face there for a reasonable amount of time and to try and overcome that adversity.

21:52Luke Moore: yes against the side that are ranked 41st or whatever they are in the world but they are no mugs, DR Congo, as they showed. Of course England were favourites for this game and they ended up winning it but I think that the manner of that performance and the manner of how the game went that is this kind of thing where England go right, you're in the knockouts now lads. Anybody who thinks... Yeah, well, I mean there will be some people suggesting that England went into this game a little bit too relaxed or a little bit too confident maybe or presumptuous that, right, okay, everyone's already looking ahead to Mexico.

22:23Luke Moore: You can't do that now. You know, the pundits on the BBC were saying, this idea of, right, right, well, we'll rest this player for the next round and so on and so forth, that has to go now because Mexico are a good side and we all know about the Azteca, blah, blah, blah, blah, and we'll talk about that game much more in depth when it comes around. But right now, England have got to think, right, what is the team, you know, the best team we've got? How are we going to play? Because as you said earlier, Jim, there are concerns about that defence. Who's going to be playing at right back? I mean, that just seems, you know, a mad situation now.

22:54Luke Moore: To the point of Wayne Rooney said, if he was Thomas Tuchel, he'd have probably phoned up Karl Walker on the eve of the tournament and said, you fancy it, mate. And I thought, do you know what? You know, that's probably, because there's not a load of right backs. No, there's not a lot of options, are there? Trent. Trent is the obvious one. And clearly Tuchel, you know, doesn't like him. Yeah, but the thing is with the Trent conversation is that, like, it's really difficult to have the conversation about him now because none of the defenders that I can defend anyway. Yeah, well, indeed. You might as well put him in.

23:19Luke Moore: I mean, I felt a little bit sorry for Spence in some regard because I thought he was very harshly criticised, but... He had an erratic game. He had an erratic game. Some of his game was good, though, and I think that's been missed. And I agree with Luke. I think it's not really fair to blame him for the goal. He's got two men to deal with. Fine, he deals with neither of them, but he's at the odds of against him. So what do you think of the centre-halves then? Because they're too high up, aren't they, in that situation? Well, I just look at Gay and Konza, and Konza's probably more of a leader than Gay, you might say.

23:50Luke Moore: But the guy who's marshaled that England defence for a number of tournaments for that is John Stones. Now, I know Stones played against Croatia and they looked shaky at the back and I know there's been chat about his match sharpness and so on because he hasn't played that much. So I understand those arguments. But with the situation at right back now, you don't want to start just shuffling the pack and go, okay, let's try this because that does smack of desperation. you know as I say the last Euros it was a case of right Declan Rice we'll try Trent next to you in midfield or Connor Gallagher or Kobe Maynard you know that's not what you want to go down however there are problems with that England defence and if England are going to go deeper into this tournament and if they are going to beat Mexico and so on they have to be better defensively there's no two ways about it so I wonder if he's got a few days now does he think Stones and Gay know how to play together because Gay was excellent yesterday despite that one moment he thought I think Gay's got that position on the left side of the centre.

24:47Luke Moore: It comes down the other side anyway. Yeah. So I think, I do wonder, having said about shuffling the pack and so on and so forth, does he play Stones and Gay, who have a whole tournament playing for England together? Yes, under a different manager. And you play Esri Konza at right back. He hasn't done it for a season at Villa. He has done it in the past. He's got, you know, he's got a better eye for defending. You don't get the overlapping runs, but I think that's a thing of the, you know, that's not going to happen. Nico O 'Reilly was very good on the left. That was a plus. And he's the one who's going to push forward.

25:17Luke Moore: But I don't think you do get the overlapping runs that much from the fullbacks, the way England play. The other side of it is that just a couple of points in response to that, but referencing the Mexico game. Quinonez for Mexico is a problem. And he plays off the left. And he's really good. And so that's obviously a flashpoint for England. But I think the second point I'll just make is that people need to get real. you've got to strap yourself in. This game in Mexico City is going to be a fucking rollercoaster. It's going to be an absolutely... A really high one. It's going to be... Yeah. It's going to be a...

25:50For that reason, partly, it's going to be a horror movie.

25:52Luke Moore: But defensively, what do you think he should do? I like the idea of it being a bit more cautious. I don't mind the idea of having a more robust right back in there who doesn't look to overlap or even underlap all the time. Because the way they go is Nico O 'Reilly pushes up and they form that sort of back three. That's the style. But it depends. But then if you look at the last 15 minutes of the game last night, when Rice goes to right back, they play almost like a 4-1-4-1, with a four behind Kane, and that looked quite good. But then, again, like, part of the reason this conversation is really difficult to have is because we don't know the situation we're going to be presented with.

26:27By which I mean, you go and play Mexico at the Azteca, after five minutes, we could be a goal up or a goal down. It could be that kind of game. And then it's almost a bit like, who can execute best? Who can deal with the situation? I was reading a load of stuff last night after the game of people saying that, you know, when you go and play at the Azteca and you've got no chance to prepare, the general scientific consensus seems to be that it takes between two and three weeks to acclimatise. You're not going to do that. You have to go in a certain amount before because I think it's a FIFA director.

26:58Luke Moore: Oh, I thought you were going last. No, I don't think they can. I think they've got to be in there. It's either 24 or 48 hours before or something like that. And then after about 60 minutes, it's literally like who are the fittest players who still feel like they can do it. And so it may well be that it's not going to be, these situations aren't going to be solved by little personnel tweaks. They're going to be solved by, you know, it'll be great to be fucking three-nil up after an hour because it's going to be hanging on by your fingernail stuff. So lots of stuff could happen. I just think, as I said, I think it's going to be a horror movie.

27:29I think it's going to be, you know, and maybe the bad guy wins or the bad guy doesn't. I'm also not sure that I, you know, subscribe to the idea that because, let's say, Edwin Konza, for example, didn't have the best game, that he then becomes sort of persona non grata and has to either shift position or come out for John Stones because you've got to have that consistency in the team. And I think actually we're really lacking that in the defence. And I think you can see that this is not a defence that's played together very much because we're so used to that consistency under Gareth Southgate and it's going to take a while to sort of mentally shift away from that, especially in a tournament setting.

28:02So I think there's certainly an argument, is there not, that they just drill it in the training ground and they try and secure those partnerships a little bit more. You know what the key is to playing at altitude, apparently, is Viagra. Right. Apparently... It's always been my argument. I don't know if it's a banned substance under the FIFA directives or whatever, but apparently Viagra massively opens up the blood vessels and makes it easier to deal with altitude. So does it not make you more vulnerable to getting the ball kicked in your balls? That's why Pasi was hitting the cock, yeah. He's had a much better chance of being hit of it because he was on Viagra.

28:33Luke Moore: Well, yeah, there'll be telltale signs if England have gone for that approach. It's another way to score. Can't rule it out. It's another limb. You can't rule it out. Look at it that way. You can't rule it out. Oh, blimey. Yeah, whatever they decide to do. I mean, Gerald Kwanza may well be back for that game, but we shall see. Cosmic. Rhys James, I mean, I don't think we're going to see him for wherever England go. He calmed Jude Bellingham down at one point, though, so James has still got a role to play. He did calm Jude Bellingham down. You're absolutely right. So we'll talk about, as I say, we'll preview that game when it comes around.

29:08Luke Moore: But look, England, it was a tough watch at times, but they did ultimately, as we say, get the job done. It wasn't the professional job that we all wanted. Well, I think it was in the end. But as I say... We triumphed over adversity, right? Which is a good thing. And I said that earlier. I think that's absolutely it. So again, you have to kind of spin this in a positive way. There's no point in England. you don't want to go to the England cab and they're all set around going, you can't have that attitude. And Kane said after the game, and this is really consistent with the messaging from Tuchel himself and from Tony Baz, he was asked what he said to the players after the game as the captain.

29:44He's like, I'm just telling them to enjoy it. Yes. You know, it's really important to be present in these moments. And the consistency of that messaging is, to me, it suggests that this is a problem that the kind of senior players and the manager have identified and are working on. And actually, if it is a problem, you can't really ask for more than for them to be addressing it and working on it. Well, indeed.

30:03Luke Moore: And also as well, I think actually, again, to try and spin everything into a positive for England, if they were to have gone through, and say they did play Ecuador rather than Mexico, it'd probably be more of the same. Okay, Ecuador, dogged opponent, they're going to sit deep and defend, but England are a better side. It would be the same chat. Now it's, oh, hang on, it's Mexico. In a stadium where they know what they're doing. Not conceded a goal yet. And I think it's sharpened. Go first. Well, indeed, I think it sharpens the mind. And, you know, in a weird way, I'm pleased that that's the fixture.

30:34It's better suited to the way England perhaps see themselves wanting to play. Special mention, because obviously I know we've got to move on, but we haven't mentioned Congo yet. Amazing tournament for them. They were great. They carried themselves with great credit. They could have gone 2-0 up. On a different day, they could have gone, probably would have gone 2-0 up. So, amazing by them. I mean, I know it sounds arrogant.

30:56Luke Moore: It's a shame to see them go. It sounds arrogant, but it would have been the biggest win in their history if they won that game. Of course it would have done. And so they came very close to it. The other point I really wanted to make quickly was, you know how many times in total, in total, throughout the whole tournament, four games, Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been dribbled past? Are you going to tell me it's none? It's zero. Wow. The answer's zero. Yeah, well, maybe... Not surprised. Maybe he should have been better when Karl Walker and Kieran Trippi were playing for England. He'd be so handy now, man.

31:22Luke Moore: I know, I know. Just grab him over the other side. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Oh, if there could be one transfer. Hands across the pitch. I know, but look, Diarco have been great. They've been one of the stories of this tournament. It was a shame that, you know, the fan wasn't there doing his thing. We spoke about that the other day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they've been brilliant and it's been great to see them back at the World Cup because, I mean, it's been decades since they were there and they gave a good account of themselves and actually, at times in that game, they went toe-to-toe with England and, as you say, on another day, yes, they could have been beaten 4-1.

31:51Luke Moore: On another day, they could have gone through without Johan Wissler chance. And that's knockout football, baby. That is, that absolutely is knockout football. Talking about England in Azteca, you mentioned Viagra there, Luke. George on YouTube pointed out that Viagra could lead to more offside. That's true. It could. That's very true. You could take his score from it, so yeah. Has a willy ever been offside? I imagine, I imagine it has. I don't know. Steve Lomas that time. It might have. That was a celebration there, wasn't it? You'd be disappointed to be flagged offside, but a little bit of you would be like, yeah, that's right.

32:21Do you want me to, do you want me to, yeah, do you want me to, I'm quite proud. Do you want me to explain the Steve Lomas thing to people watching live? Sure. No. Okay, all right. Well, you say no. You say no. Rory, can I or not? Yeah, he says yes. Steve Lomas scored a goal for West Ham, jumped up on the advertising hoardings over the fans and was celebrating and had what I would call a medium-sized chubby on while he was doing it. And you can see it through his shorts. Was it a stonker? Yeah, I think so. I thought it was like a chubby. Well, it's kind of a mini Mars bar. It's kind of why we're still talking about it today.

32:47It's an iconic moment of chumescence. It is absolutely true.

32:51Luke Moore: I think we can all agree it was fun size. Now, before we move on, remember that you, yes, you, can be the lucky winner of an England 1990 World Cup shirt signed by Paul Gascoigne and framed and delivered by our friends at icons.com. Sign up as a friend of the Ramble on Patreon or YouTube and comment on our competition post to be entered into the draw. You have until midnight tonight, so you better be quick. Well, one thing we haven't mentioned, because the game went as it went, and I know it's going to be an oversight if we don't mention it is that I'm not apologizing to Rory I don't care how much he wants us to move on bloody Scotsman hey he's a beautiful British boy like the rest of us this whole island is right behind England one thing that would have dominated this discussion had it gone differently for the first 10 minutes today would have been the Harry Kane penalty incident yeah we haven't mentioned it do you know what we haven't mentioned that and for me that was a definite penalty Jim I thought I'm glad you mentioned that snappy let's be snappy because we have got to move on I thought because he looks like he's looking for it.

33:49And then absolutely the keeper takes him down but I think the referee thinks he's engineered it and I'm not sure that he hasn't to be honest. I thought it may be I'd be annoyed if that went against England. I agree with Jim kind of but only using weirdly your rationale even though you said you thought it was a penalty. You did say at one point yesterday if he just carries on normally it's a definite pen.

34:09Luke Moore: But if he carries on normally I mean then you get a whack. But it's partly because his toe kicks the turf on the way, doesn't it? The refereeing... I took lummox, didn't he, Kane? Well, look, I'll tell you what we can do. We can move on to Belgium versus Senegal because we're going to talk about a penalty there. Okay, fine. And we can talk about the refereeing there. Oh, because ultimately the Kane thing doesn't matter, does it now? No. But it would have been a massive flashpoint had it gone to extra time and penalties and gone out or something like that. It would have been a big, big chalking point.

34:33I agree.

34:33Luke Moore: So, coming up after this, we're going to talk about Belgium 3, Senegal 2.

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35:23Luke Moore: Belgium 3 Senegal 2 I fell asleep for a bit and woken up thinking Senegal had gone through and they hadn't they had not gone through I mean Senegal how have they not gone through I mean they've lost three games at this tournament out of four which you look at that that's obviously bad but yet they are a better side than this. Going forward, they look good. Yeah, they do. Do you know what? And that's another thing I will say is I was so glad that England didn't get Senegal. I wasn't like glad they got Diocongo as we saw, but I was very happy that they didn't get Senegal. That would have been a proper test.

35:58Luke Moore: Well, I hate to think what would have happened. But they would have come out more again, so we're going back to that whole chat again. But look, I'm glad England didn't face Senegal because they got quality and they incredibly, they showed it in this game against Belgium how they've gone out again. Belgium pulling off a stunning comeback. But for so long in this game, it looked like Senegal were going to do it. I mean, Diara puts them 1-0 up. You know, they might have been a goal up ahead of that. Ismail Assar, who's had a great tournament. He hit the woodwork twice, didn't he? Well, he did. Before his goal.

36:25Luke Moore: But he scored a magnificent goal. He's a great player. The way he takes that ball down with his chest is superb. And the finish as well. He's such a funny player, isn't he? On the run. Yeah. He's great. Gorgeous. But he does miss sitters here and there. It's like, oh, God, he could be absolutely like a proper top class, real like one of the best in the world almost, if he could just put some of those extra chances away. He'd score so many goals. He scored, was it 21 for Palace this season, something like that? And there is a sense with him. It's like he could still be better. Well, yeah. But I mean, Palace and Sunderland, as we know, are the two most influential football clubs at this World Cup.

37:03Luke Moore: And on it goes. But yeah. Stop playing down Fulham. I feel the phone got a little bit going there but Raul Jimenez is not a Fulham anymore sadly but Timothy Castagna is and he went through with Belgium he did you know but anyway less of that nonsense yeah Belgium I mean 2-0 down and you could see them I mean there was that moment wasn't there between Trossard and Tielemans where they had to must be separated they were really pissed off with each other I think Trossard was it Trossard I forget who started it it looked like it was Trossard had some strong opinions about something Yuri Tielemans was doing or not doing.

37:37Luke Moore: Yes, and again, this looks like, oh, okay, we've seen this with Belgium before. I mean, was it in the last Euros where their fans berated them and Kevin De Bruyne went over and was just like, what's going on? You know, they're a funny side and it's an odd situation. You go all the way back to 2018. I'd ask that, isn't that good now? Well, I'll tell you something. I think the US would rather face Belgium. Well, it's great because it's a re-up, isn't it, of 2014? Oh, blimey. When Tim Howard makes all those record-breaking saves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. US go out to Belgium, want an extra time. 2-1 I think in actual time yeah but I'll tell you something now the US are better than they were then and Belgium are much worse than they were then I would agree with you that's why it's so frustrating that Senegal have let this slip in the way that they did because you know Belgium they remind me a little bit of England in the sense that they haven't quite sort of got going but I'm not sure they have or certainly prior to this result I wasn't sure that they had the gears to go through but to dig this out is impressive obviously the penalty is a bit of a gift but what about the subs though Jim you know 2-0 down he takes off De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku now you could argue well De Bruyne's obviously a bit older De Bruyne's a bit more understandable than Doku was yeah but when he did that but he had a quiet game Doku he did but still though you think that's the kind of thing that a coach does that and you're going to get flack maybe I'm over looking at it maybe I'm my Premier League biased maybe Belgian fans are going well actually everyone thinks Garcia's a klutz anyway he spent most of the last game in the group's days getting covered by the sprinklers and looking sad but what have they done they've drawn against Egypt, luckily, they drew against Iran, and they've walked New Zealand, and then they've had this.

39:10I mean, they're not great.

39:11Luke Moore: But I tell you what though, again, you've got to say they showed character. I mean, Romelu Lukaku, who I was tempted to go for him for top scorer at this World Cup, because he loves an international goal. It's a phenomenal record. Amazing record. And then you heard he'd only played just over an hour's football last season because of injury, and even Garcia himself said, you know, he's a bit out of shape but I mean if he's available he's just so powerful right well he is he's always got a physical advantage over the defenders he's playing against even if they themselves are absolute units but that goalie score well the technical execution is clearly there he's amazingly sharp in the moments when he's had to be called upon in this situation despite you know playing 69 minutes of club football this season it's timed quite well for Belgium really and also Jim the forward that's being selected ahead of him has not done anything no De Catelare He looks like a student, like a kind of foreign exchange student.

40:01He does. He absolutely does. He will turn out to also be a serial killer.

40:05Luke Moore: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can't really push back on that. I mean, clearly, again, Lukaku, you've got to manage his time on the pitch. Yeah. Because he can't get through. But they've almost got a Dennis Sundar situation. Yeah. Where it's like, Lukaku does come on. Even if he doesn't score, he has an impact. The idea of him is frightening to the fences. His international record's amazing, as you said. He's got a lot of weapons. and he'll take a chance. And with Undav, I guess the Germans, who obviously eventually went home, thought he's earned his right to play. He plays, does nothing, seems to upset the balance of the team, actually, and they go home.

40:40Belgium against the US are going to have to make a decision on that. And I think the US... We'll talk about them in a bit. Yeah, they'll smell blood. I do think they deserve an amazing amount of credit. It was a combination of really poor game management from Senegal. Yeah, it was. Because ultimately, you are 2-0 up with five minutes left.

40:57Luke Moore: And you're breaking and you're looking likely. Exactly. And then the second goal comes from absolutely nowhere. That's poor keeping. And I think, yeah, and I think that, absolutely. And I think their heart's broken after that. And I think they did pretty well, actually, to get as far as they did. And I think, again, they give the free kick away and you think, oh, no, it's going to happen because I think they had just already mentally thought it's going to be a penalty shootout now. Which, by the way, I think they would have lost anyway because I think they were down on their luck. Well, yeah, but I mean, you don't know how well prepared they would have been and so on.

41:25Luke Moore: But the penalty is given when the defender is adjusted to have failed Juri Tielemans. I mean, I forget who the Belgian was, who has the chance. I mean, just stick that away when it flicks the top of the crossbar. But anyway, the referee had a long time looking at it. Now, there did seem like there was some sort of a foul. I thought it was, I mean, you said it was a gift. I actually thought it was a foul. I thought it was probably a foul. I mean, there seemed to be a bit of a chat. I don't want to misquote, but if I'm right in saying, forgive me if I'm wrong here, but Roikin or somebody seemed to suggest, well, but Tielemans wasn't going to get on the end of it anyway.

41:58Luke Moore: It kind of went past him. It doesn't really matter. I'm not sure that matters. I mean, it's a gift in the sense that it's just really avoidable. I mean, I can see why the defender's gone in because you would think that Tielemans, if he doesn't make a challenge there, I mean, he's got a tap in from six yards or whatever it was, how many yards out. So I can see why the defender's just gone, ah, I've got to do something. And on another day, you don't make contact there. I can totally see why it's given. and Tielemans steps up and I tell you well that's how you put away a pressure penalty right in the top bit that's how you do it no keeper can save that you know fair play to Tielemans because and that pressure as well one had also been a gamesmanship from Senegal one of the players going down I hurt myself I'm just going to lie by the penalty spot for a bit it's a classic oh my goodness I was always a big fan of the shoelace oh yeah get your knee on the penalty spot just so you rough that up a bit and take ages doing your shoelace well they know they can't rough up the spot now because you get punished.

42:54No, they do it with your knee, they don't even notice.

42:56Luke Moore: Have you got chalk on your knee? I called it a free kick earlier. Obviously I meant a penalty. I thought apologies for the misstep. But the way he scored that, he had a lot of time to think about it, as you said, right in the top corner. But we didn't know who was going to take it. And that was quite good. I thought Lukaku was going to take it actually when he grabbed the ball at one point and then eventually it goes to Tielemans. Which I thought would be funny if someone tried to put it in and it got saved again. if they had done it that would have been oh god if it hadn't been saved that would have been equally awful oh man imagine that it must have gone through his mind the take out it must have do you know what he must have been like Brahim Diaz must have been going through his mind do you know it did go through my mind actually I mean I think Tiel Amon is such a good you know well what he is is an amazing striker at the ball absolutely he's one of the very best at striking the ball and so he's providing his nerve is good which obviously it wasn't that case you can't ask for anyone better really Yeah, no you can't.

43:49Luke Moore: So yes, Belgium will be playing the United States of America in the next round because the US beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0. I think the US have got all the tools to beat Belgium this year. They won't have Florian Balogun though. No. That's so annoying. It is annoying. I mean, presumably we start with that because I think it's ridiculous that FIFA don't have a mechanism in play for their great showpiece event where they can't appeal that red card. I think it's, you know, there's nowhere else for Balogun to put his foot. There's no intent behind it. I think it's a poor decision, and he's going to miss the biggest game of his life, really, because of it.

44:23Just how complicated can it be for you to have an appeal system?

44:27Luke Moore: Well, I mean, to me, it was... Do it in one of the hydration breaks. Exactly. It was somewhat reminiscent to that Lionel Messi one against, was it Algeria, where they won 3-0. I think that was really different, though. I think the Messi one was a foul. I just don't think there was enough force in it for it to count. The reason why I think it was similar was because Messi clearly doesn't mean to rake and do what he did. I think it was a foul because of the clumsy nature of it, but Messi wasn't given a red card, despite Piers Morgan describing it as a war crime on the Algerian defender. Thanks for that, Piers.

44:56Luke Moore: But this, to me, had sort of similar energy about it in that Balogun. He doesn't know much about it. He's clearly not meant to do that. It's a tangling of the legs. It looks painful. It was incredibly lucky. I can't believe that's a red card. I really can't. It's frustrating because you want the referee, who's obviously looked at the screen, to understand just a little bit about what it's like to be a football player. He's got to put his foot somewhere. And he's jumping up to head the ball. He's not looking at where his foot's going. He's planting his foot to land safely, ultimately, because that's what he's got to do.

45:24And it happens to be on the back of the Bosnian player's leg. He's just getting a bit of common sense in there. But I don't understand how you can look at that. And the one thing, it was a particularly bad example of when the footage is slowed down, it looks worse as well.

45:39Luke Moore: Would you like to know what Mark Clattenburg said? Not really, but I presume you're going to tell me. Well, he said, I don't believe it's good use of VAR. It's just an accident. This happens. You can see he's upset by it. Yeah, I mean, the last bit you probably don't take into account. Yeah, I just... Yeah, stop rid of the one that's... I hate to go on about refereeing because, you know, in the Premier League we go on about VAR all the time and so on and so forth. But the refereeing at this tournament... See, in the Premier League, I think that actually most VAR decisions, I think people are ultimately, they do agree on.

46:10Luke Moore: or you have a distinct majority of people I think agree on stuff and often with the more controversial ones you can have again it might be a bit of a 50-50 there's very few decisions where we all go I don't know what the referee was thinking there to me at this World Cup there's already been too many refereeing decisions and vile decisions where we go I just can't understand that I think the reason for it is a little theory I'll put it out there and people obviously have their own say is that I think with the way the theatre of VAR culminating in a referee being mic'd up and saying to the whole assembled crowd, you know, thousands and thousands of people saying his piece, having referee view cam, all the rest of that shit at the biggest tournament for everyone, including the referees, I think has given the referees far too much main character energy.

46:59And I think what's happened as a result of that is that each individual referee that in many cases come from completely different confederations, but a game style is completely different, have been essentially stamping their own style on all these games far too often, which has resulted in what we're seeing. There's absolutely no consistent way of refereeing to the point now where you can't even instinctively know what's a foul, which is actually quite a big part of watching the game. You watch as many games as we do. I think that's the problem. You instinctively know when a foul, and it's really difficult to nail it down here.

47:31And the reason is, I think, as I said, because there's just far too much main character. They've got names on the back of their shirts. You know what I mean? It's too much of that.

47:38Luke Moore: I personally wouldn't go too much into that, but I think it is relevant to say. I think it's more that Pierre-Louis Di Colina, the head of the referee, said, right, we need to raise the bar because we can't be giving stuff willy-nilly. And I think they probably looked at what has happened in leagues around the world, and we'll take the Premier League, that's where we watch the bulk of our football. They don't want situations like the West Ham equaliser against Arsenal and the death that was chalked off, where seven or eight minutes and everyone's going, they basically go right quick decisions let's get on with it and that's fine then so if you you know in a pre-var world that's obviously how it was but we have var now and and i think that something there was a decision that i can't remember the nuts and bolts where i thought the referee actually just saw it from one angle i've heard it had he seen it from another he would have probably made another decision earlier on in the tournament but i think the problem is they kind of go no i've made my decision but like the harry kane on to me that's a penalty you know mbappe against senegal or that was a penalty.

48:34Luke Moore: You know, there's some of these decisions where you think, I genuinely can't believe it. And do you know what else? Is when, again, we watch Premier League football, whoever the refereeing expert is, you know, the consultant on TNT Sports or whatever broadcaster it is, I'd say nine times out of 10, they agree with what the referee decides on the pitch. Right here, you know, and also Christina Runkel on ITV, I think she's brilliant. In the previous World Cup, I can't remember a time where she went against what the referee said on the field. it was always well actually if you look at it blah blah blah blah we're seeing Darren Cowan on the BBC and Uncle on ITV and one or two others saying consistently I would have gone different you can see it is all in complete disarray it's main character energy why has the referee got a name on the back of their shirt there's no read for it the referee the referee's name but it's all part of the overall milieu the referee's name is irrelevant the accountability for referees is done completely internally anyway I think you're pushing too much into that point Yeah, I think it's more about FIFA's inconsistent directives, I would suspect.

49:37I think you might be right that there's a sense like, just get VAR done quickly. We don't want to be confident in your decisions. We accept that some of them will be wrong, but just make sure it's quick because that's what people complain about all over the world. It is faster than it is, but I think that is certainly with VAR leading to some of these decisions. Balogun's probably a victim of that as well. We've also got hydration breaks to clog it up the plate. We can't let VAR do it as well. I wonder if referees are being told to referee the game in their own personal style. Because some are letting loads of stuff go, and some are really, really kind of strict.

50:08And what is a foul in one game is really different in another, as you've alluded to. And I think that must be FIFA just giving referees leeway, which is leading to this kind of baffling situation where you don't know what's a foul and what's not.

50:20Luke Moore: But how many times do we say during a season where we say, well, in European football, say, Champions League or whatever, that's a foul. but in the Premier League it's not now I sometimes think Champions League free kick etc exactly yeah I think sometimes that's slightly overblown now I'm honestly at the point where that's a foul in the Premier League but at this World Cup it's not and the Premier League is seen as one of the more robust sort of leagues in terms of physical leagues the Garner game the amount of fouls in that game I mean Konza the penalty how Konza never gave away a penalty so I want to say you know this is not me being an England fan going oh Hurricane should have had a penalty I do think he should have done I take the point that he goes down a bit too easily and what not but Esri Konza got away with that.

50:59Luke Moore: You know. Yeah, he did, but that's ages ago. Look, we just about the US game here. Let's talk about the US. They, deserve an amazing amount of credit for regrouping and obviously getting the job done because I thought Eden Dzeko looked pretty canny. He had an amazing passage of play towards the start of the game where he brings another player in and they should have scored. For them to go down to 10 men in their home World Cup, the pressure that would have put them under to then go on and score a second was really impressive. I don't know if it's something that the US would have done in previous World Cups, I think it would have been another...

51:29They've got a bit of an underrated kind of England energy about them in the US. It was a bit like... A nearly man thing. Don't worry. Now we really love football. And so we're going to show it. And they come so close and they fall short. And I think this was a perfect excuse for them to have actually... Do you know what? By the Man City office, a really unlucky decision. We conceded the late equaliser. Now we've gone home against a team we should have beaten. That could have happened all day long. But they doubled down. But they're a proper team though. That's the difference. That's the difference.

51:56And Balogun's a big star for them. and again that is why it's such a sort of tragic misfit and they've got a proper coach as well well they are

52:01Luke Moore: and they look like they are a coach side you know they are greater than some of their parts you would say the free kick was poor though yeah it should have been saved such a slow free kick but they've shown character you know because you know they're playing against a side who I don't think are great to be honest I fancied the US to do it but down to 10 men you know you could stumble it was a positive for them that Christian Pulisic played the game obviously so he's back in there they had a couple of disallowed goals didn't they as well like a couple of they were both quite far offside. Pulisic one was.

52:26I don't think the other one was that far offside.

52:27Luke Moore: He was quite far. He was Balogun again. He was offside, but I think... He did his celebration, didn't he? He had to redo it. It is a shame for Balogun. It really is. But you would think that Pochettino, the way they've gone, he'll be a huge miss, but they'll still be confident going into that game against Belgium. I think Belgium are there for the taking. I think if you're US, you're very, very happy with that draw. Well, again, the US also look fresh and fit. Yes, they do. And that's going to, that always comes into play at every single World Cup going into the latter's end, which is why France is so terrifying because they all look fresh and fit as well.

53:02Luke Moore: But the US, they do, and they're having a great time about it as well. So, yeah, I would fancy them against Belgium, even though Belgium clearly have some quality in there, which individual quality, which you might say that the US don't, although maybe that's a touch harsh. Marcus, a little out of respect for you, quick word on a potential Anthony Robertson, Timothy Castagna matchup. Oh, no, you're talking. Eh? and former Fulham man Tim Ream rolling back the years you know did you just hear him say that he's the oldest player in the squad isn't he so apparently all the other players in the US national team call him gramps is that right well he's so old he's even older than Jordan Henderson there we go that really puts it into perspective he certainly does chief cheerleader Jordan Henderson get him on the pitch I can't wait to see him with his Zimmer frame at 7 ,000 feet Trent Alexander-Arnold needs some sort of life coaching of Henderson and just get him into that squad however you can.

53:54Yeah, I think that's it. I mean, if Hendo plays some minutes against Mexico in the Azteca, you've got to hand it to him. You do. He's so tired. Just be so tired.

54:03Luke Moore: Oh, deary me. Well, there we are, everybody. Tonight, or today, I forget the timings of these, Spain versus Austria, Portugal versus Croatia, and Switzerland versus Algeria. Let me put it this way for you. You might wake up tomorrow hearing about a Croatian masterclass and some Cristiano Ronaldo tears. What could motivate you more? Oh, there's some old boys playing in that game, I tell you. Yeah, there are. Incredible stuff. I mean, Spain, we're waiting for them to click, Jim, against Ralph Rangnick's Austria. Respect. Get the Castanets out. Yeah. And they themselves, you know, are more of a cohesive unit than they showed maybe against Algeria.

54:42Yeah, and they're also waiting on the fitness of Lamin-Yamal and Niko. Spain are not Austria. Yeah, sorry, of course they are. I mean, Austria, yeah, they are, again, they've kind of found their rhythm a little bit. But yeah, I think that's going to be an exam. That's going to be an MOT against Spain, isn't it, of what you're made of.

55:01Luke Moore: Will the people of Lawrence in Kansas, though, be cheering their brave boys Algeria back home? I would hope so. I don't want them to abandon them now against the Swiss. I think they'll be consistent on that. I think this is a really, really interesting matchup as well. And you know what? one good thing about the expanded World Cup which I think is ultimately was a mistake and has led to a bit of fatigue and too many games etc etc but it is brilliant how many African teams there are still here because you know obviously Congo go out and Senegal go out it's like it's an Ivory Coast the other day as well but there are still four or five left and it's always been underrepresented I think there's four left I think it's forced to play isn't there and Morocco through Morocco already through it has been under under represented in the World Cup in the past, so that correction is good.

55:46Luke Moore: Agree. No, I do agree with that. Look forward to the games tonight. Indeed, indeed. Well, there we are. Thank you very much for listening to the Football Ramble, part of the ACAST Creator Network. Thank you to everyone who's joined us live on YouTube. Myself, Luke and Pete will be back tomorrow. See you then. See you then. See you then, everybody.

56:12Football Ramble is a stack production and part of the ACAST Creator Network.

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