Croatia snicked off late on and Ronaldo finally scores knockout goal – World Cup Daily

16:51Jonathan Wilson:Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Spain 3, Austria 0. At the time that this game finished, I wrote only two sides of one. emphatically I guess you can say Switzerland were pretty emphatic as well but Spain's win over Austria was very impressive Archie it feels like they're just sort of getting going now in this competition I'm not completely sold on Spain yet but this was their best performance of the tournament so far because previously they'd been a bit untidy and clunky I found in in in their style overall but having Dani Olmo at number 10 finally seems to have them ticking along and there was just some of the link-up play between Yamal himself, Pedri that made them really tick along in a really good way.

17:46There was a better rhythm in winning the ball back. My doubts are about how they go down for things where I think in La Liga they would get a foul but not in this tournament and I think they could get punished against better opponents. Rodri was better in this but as we've repeated on quite a few occasions there's still not Rodri of a few years ago and Austria couldn't really cause them enough discomfort which of course on the one hand you credit Paul Kubasi and I'm Eric Laporte but there were just one or two occasions where you thought if Stefan Posh has a better touch then Spain might actually have to do something.

18:24Jonathan Wilson:It's a big gift, isn't it? Oyezebal, I want to say Olathebo, but Oyezebal had a great game. Barry, your golden boot shout got a couple today.

18:34Max Rushden:Yeah, he's on four now, so he's on, I suppose he could conceivably win. It's hard to see past Kylian Mbappe at this stage, but yeah, he's probably the most underrated of these Spanish players. One club player. I think a lot of people in Spain were unconvinced or have long been unconvinced by him and wouldn't be too bothered if he wasn't included in the squad. But I think he's proved his worth. I mean, he'd probably be leading the golden boot if he had been able to hit a baron door in the game against Cap Verde. But he failed to score against them despite having several great chances. But he's hit his stride since.

19:20Max Rushden:I thought his two finishes today were really good. He's on 17 goals in his last 17 games for Spain, I think. And I thought before the tournament he'd probably be limited to substitute appearances, but he seems to be established as a starter. And long may he continue scoring goals, hopefully loads and loads of them against Portugal.

19:45Jonathan Wilson:What do you make of Spain so far, Wilson?

19:48Barry Glendenning:I mean, that was by far the best performance. I'd allow myself to think that they weren't all that. But now I think that France-Spain semi-final we could have, that could be a team that could stop France, which I've been struggling to see. So encouraged by them. I don't think it's Austria or all that. I do wonder whether that sort of Red Bull football is maybe reaching the end of its shelf life and needs a bit more zest.

20:15Max Rushden:I wanted to ask you, you and Archie actually, Johnson, and is Ralph Rangnick, is he any good as a coach? I know he has this reputation as some super guru, but he doesn't, anything I've seen of teams, his coach has been incredibly underwhelming. I saw Austria were pathetic today. It's like they had nothing.

20:40Barry Glendenning:I mean, his great sort of flush of innovation came almost 40 years ago. So you're not seeing him at his peak. And you're judging him on his performance at Manchester United, which is difficult. It's not fair on anyone, right? Yeah. So I think there's a touch of the Bielsa's about him, that he's probably a better theorist than he is actual winner of trophies. And also he's now past his best. But if you think of Austria at the Euros, certainly early on they were quite good. I don't think it's an amazing group of Austrian players. So, I mean, I'd be slightly more generous to him than many, but I think you've got to look at what he did in German football in the 90s, really.

21:27He's very popular in Austria for the job that he's done there and has reinvigorated them as a footballing nation at international level. You have to point out with this Austria team, the injury before the tournament to Christoph Baumgartner hit them very hard. He is by far their most creative player going forward and one who can beat players with a dribble. And they were lacking that in this tournament. I thought they didn't link up in the way you would have anticipated them to. And the reason I thought they had to come out with a bit of a quick approach today where it didn't pay off. Because as much as I don't want to pay too much attention to XG all the time, they had 0.03 after an hour.

22:13and but a quick approach that's not enough is it not not really uh but a quick approach i think suited them because of how they can press but ultimately they just weren't able to create the chances ralph rangnick's reputation in germany because he's not done it with classic traditional clubs the fact that he's built monsters in the eyes of a lot of traditional fans in hoffenheim and then much more egregiously RB Leipzig, there will never be the appreciation for his work that actually I think there could be. But yeah, in Austria, he is very much adored.

22:51Jonathan Wilson:James says, enjoying Ralf Raniot, collecting the glasses at the end of the first hydration break, like the grumpiest barmaid at Wetherspoons in Rochdale. And we're saying well done to Pedro Porro, got his first goal for Spain. And actually him and Cucurea look really quite sharp at fullback.

23:06Max Rushden:I was surprised to me and Jamal came off the pitch in one piece. He was up against Conrad Leimer and obviously came out on top in that particular battle, but I think he nut-made five different Austria players during the course of the game. And I was thinking, it's only a matter of time, right? They're going to accept we've lost this game. We're being totally overwhelmed here. But let's at least give this guy a kicking around the pitch because he's making us look like mugs. but maybe they just couldn't catch him. I don't know.

23:39Jonathan Wilson:You've been worried actually that he hadn't quite shown up until today and he was, you know, he was good but he's still not, I guess a lot of superstars have lit up this tournament and he hasn't quite yet. Yes, that was it. It was in comparison to the other leading lights and obviously Laminya Mile came into this tournament carrying an injury and is having to work his way back which is not ideal when you're looking to get off to a running start. But he is looking like he's picking up more and more pace as the games go on, which can only be a good thing for Spain. In Bob the Cat Watch, Danny Murphy was back on comms for the BBC today.

24:15Jonathan Wilson:And he said, surprisingly, there was a lot of interest. We did get him back about six or seven weeks later. This is the cat that jumped in the Royal Mail van. Danny said, unfortunately, he'd gone feral and we couldn't reintegrate him in the home. He ended up living with my friend's parents in Preston. That was the life he had. And now he's passed away, unfortunately. thanks for all the concern to those that have been messaging us i have i have asked danny if there'll be a trilogy it's got two ticks they haven't gone blue let me just check if danny murphy is a two if he's a blue tick guy uh he is a blue tick guy they've gone blue but as yet nothing back from danny so i'll i'll keep you in the loop i mean i don't know what the next bit of the story can be he's kind of told the story and in uh it's a two-act play the bob the cat

24:59Max Rushden:story but um well it could be an incredible journey type oh yeah story where bob makes his way back to shay murphy from preston true all on his lonesome he is dead now so that will make it

25:15Jonathan Wilson:harder okay yeah but you never know uh anyway uh we're doing that's only one of his lives that's

25:22Max Rushden:expired.

25:23Jonathan Wilson:Yeah, yeah. Or maybe Danny heard two different versions. You never know. We're doing live shows in September, 1st of September at Vicar Street in Dublin, 9th of September at Soho Theatre in Walthamstow. I am reliably informed, tickets are selling fast. So please come along, guardian.co.uk slash footballweeklylive. That'll do for part two. In part three, we'll do Switzerland's win over Algeria. Look ahead to tomorrow, do a bit of correspondence too. You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank? Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining al fresco or relaxing poolside?

25:56Wayfair has everything you need to prep your space. Shop now and save up to 70 % off during Wayfair's 4th of July clearance. Score huge deals on outdoor furniture, area rugs, and more. We're talking thousands of products for every style and budget. Plus, surprise flash deals July 6th. Don't wait. Shop Wayfair's 4th of July clearance now through July 6th at Wayfair.com. Way fair, every style, every home. Every story is a technology story in one way or another. And on the interface, we decode the tech that's rewiring your week and your world. On this week's episode, is AI pushing us towards an infinite work week?

26:34And this year's World Cup is the most technologically advanced ever. But is it making the game better or worse? Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

27:01Jonathan Wilson:Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Switzerland 2, Algeria 0. I'm not saying this wasn't the game of the day, but the entire production team spent the whole match doing their expenses, which is quite complicated, it appears. What did you make of it, Wilson? All tournament have been a bit disappointed by Algeria.

27:15Barry Glendenning:I think Ibrahim Mazza is a really, really good player. And you kept seeing lovely little passes from him. And then you just let in daft goals and none of it means anything. And that's been the story in the group stage as well. Every game, there's been at least one stupid goal they've conceded. I mean, the first goal here is Manzambi. It's a great run, cuts it back for Mbolo. But the second goal, they give the ball away twice. They have two opportunities to clear it. And each time they give it back to a Swiss player. and Dori scores. And I mean, really, Algeria just didn't look like, after the second goal winning, Algeria just didn't look anything

27:55Jonathan Wilson:like getting close to getting back into the game. Are you as annoyed with the African teams as Asasu was yesterday? I mean, he's very frustrated about them getting through to the last 32, but like a lot of them giving away silly goals, giving away leads, et cetera, et cetera.

28:09Barry Glendenning:I don't think I've ever been as annoyed as Asasu is.

28:14Jonathan Wilson:i mean there was the first step of this series at the world cup that's my evidence i i i was i

28:21Barry Glendenning:shared an airbnb with a sasu in yamasuka in um in in ivory coast and i i was awakened we the game we had finished late and then something to do with sharing lifts we'd have to go and get food for somebody so i didn't get to bed till like 2 a.m or something and at about half five i was awakened by it because here is sassy and a lot of african housing have like tiled floors so the sound really carries and reverberates and somebody had stolen or he had mislaid his ipad and he was on the phone i think there's insurance company or possibly to to calf and i just for like an hour all i could hear was a sassy kind of expressing his frustration at the loss of the ipad and uh Despite being deeply tired, I could not get back to sleep.

29:11Barry Glendenning:What was the question? The question was... Yes, that was the question. Well, look, I think given that CAF for years have been campaigning saying five slots out of 32 was not sufficient when they have 55 members, they've ended up with 10 because DRC got the additional one through the inter-confederational playoffs. They really needed at least five teams to get through, and they got nine through. So that's great. You know, it's the teams who haven't lived up to the previous slots are the Asian teams and the CONCACAF teams. Combo and UEFA hit exactly their slots, five and 13. But none of them topped their group and I suspect we're going to end up with only Morocco going through.

29:54Barry Glendenning:And that feels like not much has changed. I think two got through in Qatar, none got through in Russia, one got through in Brazil, one got through in South Africa, one got through in Germany one got through in Japan and Korea and I think it's going to be one again so should they be doing better I don't know, I don't know why they I mean Ridi Garcia touched on this and he moved to clarify what he'd said that he said teams like this don't know how to finish off games and the question was asked was he referring to African teams was it a racist statement he went no no I just mean teams of this level who are not familiar with being in this situation.

30:34Barry Glendenning:And you do feel, you know, Ivory Coast, they're ahead against Germany, they don't finish it off. They get level against Norway, the momentum's with them, and they don't finish it off. Senegal are in an amazing position against Belgium and don't finish it off. And that not finishing it off is a recurring pattern. And I don't know if it's just lack of strength in depth that they don't have a place to bring off a bench. I don't know if there is something tactical going on that maybe an inexperience in those knockout games which means they aren't able to see those games through. But it does feel like a great opportunity to get four or five sides through the last 16 has been missed at this tournament.

31:07Jonathan Wilson:Archie, we should talk about Switzerland. Johan Manzambi, as Wilson mentioned, is a brilliant run. We were all like, he's taking it too far, but he got it. And Bolo really shouldn't have run the other way. He should have gone to say thanks, mate, for that. But he plays for Freiburg, so tell us a little bit about him. He is dynamite. He had a breakout season with Freiburg, been playing mostly in central midfield for them. But as you can see, he can do it all. He is a body-pop dribbler in that his arms are going in all kinds of directions. There was a tackle, actually, that he did in a Bundesliga game against Granit Xhaka when Xhaka was at Leverkusen the season before, where Murat Yakin saw him and said, I like that, I like that a lot that he will do that to his national teammate, who is much his senior.

31:54and he has changed Switzerland's World Cup around. Before he came on against Bosnia, it looked like they were slinking towards a very disappointing tournament and he's also replaced Jordan Shaqiri, which is no small feat either. He was the person that Switzerland would turn to if things were going wrong up front, but he has magic feat, so quick, particularly for that goal and an especially sweet victory for Switzerland as well because also against their former coach, Vladimir Petkovic, who was there from 2014 to 2021, helped mastermind that victory of the century, as they put it, in Switzerland against France in the 2021 Euros.

32:36But here, Murat Jakin, who is a different kind of character to Petkovic, a bit more relaxed, he found the right formula. That's not always been the case in key moments for Switzerland, so credit to him and excited to see more Johan Manzambi. He is going to leave Freiburg for a lot of money we expect this summer and with each assist, with each goal, they are adding on millions of euros.

33:02Jonathan Wilson:No small feet to replace Shaqiri, but of course you can't have small feet with calves like Shaqiri, can you? Unless you've got any strong thoughts on this game, Bas, we can look ahead to tomorrow?

33:12Max Rushden:Well, I think with the possible exception of Johan Wissi yesterday, Fabian Reeder had the miss of the tournament for Switzerland towards the end of this game. It didn't matter in the end, but a gaping goal just to side foot home from a couple of yards out. And he somehow took his eye off the ball, caught it with his heel and just rolled it across the face. A goal into the grateful arms of Zidane Jr., Luka Zidane, who was in goal for Algeria.

33:45Jonathan Wilson:It was some miss. tomorrow then Australia, Egypt, Argentina, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ghana, you're going to the Australia-Egypt game, so you think Australia are favourites for this Wilson?

33:54Barry Glendenning:I suppose that's the logical conclusion of me saying I think only one team's going through I still can't get my head around Hossam Hassan being a half decent coach, because I've read Ahmed Hassan and I've read Esam Al-Adari slagging him off so much, and they weren't impressive at all at the Cup of Nations they've done fine in this tournament, I mean it's probably 50 50 this game but i wouldn't have any great confidence in them i don't know if you saw the scenes when egypt arrived as well there was um uh some very unnecessarily heavy-handed policing that there was a egypt player getting a selfie with a with a small child and on either side of a barrier so i think anybody was in the wrong place and um shall we say a stereotypical texan policeman decided to get involved and then ibrahim hassan the twin brother of hassan who famously once in the game grabbed a rifle of a policeman when he was pointed in this direction.

34:47Barry Glendenning:He showed absolutely no fear in screaming back. So you just had two large bald-headed men screaming at each other, one wearing a police uniform, one wearing the black T-shirt of the Egypt national team.

34:58Jonathan Wilson:Right, I see. Like two Ross Kemps both celebrating Harry Kane goals against each other. Right, OK. Columbia, Ghana, Baz.

35:06Max Rushden:Sorry, Mo Salah is apparently a doubt for this game. Yeah, he's in his feet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine.

35:16Jonathan Wilson:Columbia-Ghana, I mean, this, Barry, we expect will be the lowest of low blocks against Columbia, who have looked really quite exciting so far.

35:23Max Rushden:Really exciting. They're one of the most entertaining teams in this tournament and a lot of people think they could go a long, long way and possibly get to the final. I would expect them to beat Ghana but who knows Antoine Semenu was a doubt I believe he is fit and will play it's hard to see past Colombia in this one and I think the tournament would benefit if they advanced instead of Ghana

35:56Jonathan Wilson:Breaking news here no need for a voice note Hi Pod fans, Max here the pod was recorded before actually during Union Nagelsmann was fired by Germany, Archie, or unsurprised, I imagine, Jürgen Klopp, the main candidate to replace him. Julian Nagelsmann continually put himself centre stage and not the players. He was always forthcoming, whether it was pieces which were about him, which seemed to have been fed to the press, or himself talking about how reflective he was in his actions. And yet the problem was that his actions never showed that. It was only in the words. And he showed how out of loop he was with people back home in how he communicated after the game against Paraguay.

36:49He sounded like he'd just lost a normal game, not that this was the absolute disaster and catastrophe that it was for Germany to go out of a third World Cup in such disappointing circumstances. He's failed now, mentioning Hoffenheim and Leipzig again, he's failed now at Bayern and at Germany and I think it shows that in a tough environment he still has lots to learn. He hasn't proven himself outside of those controlled environments of Hoffenheim and Leipzig. There have been reports about poor communication with the players at this tournament, sending them WhatsApp voice notes to try and communicate things rather than talking to them.

37:31He is not solely responsible for German football being in a tricky spot right now, but he definitely didn't help himself and this had to happen. It would be incredible if Jurgen Klopp doesn't take over now. right

37:50Jonathan Wilson:on Gianni was chatting about England's win over DR Congo potentially saying the quiet bit out loud about hydration breaks he said after an intense start to both halves England used their hydration breaks well to regroup reorganize and get on the front foot before finding the net twice in the final 15 minutes these breaks are so important to give players a break during tournament play while also allowing all coaches a dedicated moment every match not just depending on the weather conditions to engage directly with their players he's previously said Wilson they are for player welfare um you you've been to a lot of games however you found them um awful and one of the things that

38:27Barry Glendenning:offends me is i realized i'd often i often would say things like the first quarter of a game and it used to be fine and now you're not allowed to say it that annoys me i've had to change how i i speak but yeah it just ruins the rhythm i think there clearly are games that have been changed by by the breaks. And if that is how we want football to be, that's fine. But there should probably be a discussion about it rather than just sort of, let's do this because Power Raider offers loads of cash.

38:55Max Rushden:I mean, they're quite clearly not for player welfare. They're so that TV networks can have commercial breaks. And I don't know if Gianni has noticed this, but there has always been a designated time for managers to have tactical interventions during games, and that is after 45 minutes. They get 15 minutes to impart any new wisdom they may wish to impart.

39:24Jonathan Wilson:Yeah, I should say, by the way, that it's just reports at the moment that Nagelmann's getting the boot, but he will get the boot. We all imagine it's going to happen. But yeah, no official statement as yet. In other England hotel news, they won't need decoy hotels or Harry Kane hiding in a laundry basket because they're going to have roadblocks outside their hotel, apparently.

39:46Barry Glendenning:But how will anybody be able to tell if there's a roadblock in Mexico City? Nothing moves anyway. But the whole city's one enormous roadblock.

39:54Jonathan Wilson:So that's to our advantage, isn't it? Thomas Tuchel's saying he's a bit frustrated that England wanted to fly on the day of the game or the day before because they have to have an open training session. They have to go tomorrow. So they'll be in that middle ground of not having enough time to acclimatize, but enough time to all be absolutely exhausted and not be able to breathe ahead of that game. So that is something to look forward to. And we'll finish on this from Tom. Quite a long email, but it is on the subject of Mark Langdon and vegetables. Of course it is. Hi, guys. Former colleague and good friend of Lango's here.

40:29Jonathan Wilson:lang and i went on a work trip to south korea in december 2024 as the korean speaker and former seoul residence i was in charge of food which gave me great delight not that you need it but i can confirm mark is very averse to his veggies but in fairness he gave pretty much everything i put in front of him a try at la's request i got a video of him eating kimchi and his reaction was every bit as funny as you can imagine whilst not saying it in front of my korean friends he later described it and put it down in writing in his excellent column from Seoul as rancid. The national dish of kimchi is rancid and Koreans have it with everything.

41:02Jonathan Wilson:It's the same story with rice, kimchi and plain white rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If anyone is looking to head to Dragon's Den with a business idea, may I suggest taking gravy to Korea, where a revolution of wet flavoursome rice could take place. A good career move for Mr. Bisto would be to hit Korea hard. However, it was by no means all bad and a few shots of soju made most things better. He was nothing but polite when declining food from our hosts, but when one particular meeting ran very long, he was like a naughty schoolboy messaging me under the table to inform me, need to go to McDonald's after this, there's one 900 meters away next to the uni.

41:37Jonathan Wilson:We took him there and he got his regular meal and then added a spicy shrimp burger, which he proclaimed was the best thing he ate in the country. As expected, he loved the Korean barbecue and was far more adventurous than expected. I've seen him order Korean fried chicken in a bar in London since we got back. Top bloke. Get him back on ASAP. All the best, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Yeah, footballweeklyattheguardian.com if you have seen Mark eating a vegetable or anything else you'd like to message us about. That'll do for today. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Barry. Thank you. Thanks, Archie. Just sadly looking at his Honey Nut Cheerios here, which have been untouched in the kitchen since.

42:12Thank you, Mark.

42:13Jonathan Wilson:That is bleak. Thank you, Wilson.

42:16Barry Glendenning:Vegetables are really hard to come by in Dallas. I found a Whole Foods earlier. I went to the Whole Foods and it's so expensive. I spent$85 on fruit and veg. And that wasn't like a lot.

42:31Max Rushden:No, I mean, LA is insane. See also bags of M &M's, Haribo and crisps. Yeah, this is the trouble. You could easily drop$100 on enough Haribo sweets and crisps just for six blokes to get through in two days. and bear in mind all Max eats is yogurt and bird seed yeah

42:58Jonathan Wilson:Barry suggested he was winning because I eat seeds out of choice is what I said you eat seeds out of choice what's your favourite seed Max what's my favourite seed what I have I've just got hemp seeds and flax seeds in the cupboard to go on my yogurt if you're happy with them I'm a middle aged man

43:13Barry Glendenning:yeah I have them I have that great when I'm at home I would have them ground up with yogurt every morning but I'd also have some pumpkin seeds with a bit of texture.

43:21Jonathan Wilson:Yeah, no, they are good as well, aren't they? But Barry buys all these sweets because I'm going to the gym every day to be pious and he's holding me back by putting the sweets in front of me and I can't stop myself because I don't have any willpower.

43:33Barry Glendenning:Well, I've lost two kilos on this trip which is, I think, the first time ever at a tournament I've lost weight.

43:38Jonathan Wilson:Very well done. Feels like that's enough for today. Thanks, everybody. I think I've thanked you all already. It's okay. Thank you, Wilson. Cheers. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon and Matt Bentley Viney. our executive producer, Joel Grove, Taya Papula. And we'll be back tomorrow.

44:00Max Rushden:This is The Guardian.

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