Meanwhile, France are looking a whole lot more 1998 than 2010.
Hands up if you had Costa Rica to make the knockout stage.
Nobody?
Of course nobody, but the Central American side have been THE big surprise of the World Cup so far and defeated Italy on Saturday evening to make it through to the last 16.
Bryan Ruiz scored the only goal of the game to send England home and leave both the Italians and Uruguay nervous as feck ahead of Tuesday’s final group games.
On to France. Brilliant, free-flowing, you don’t like them and they don’t care France, who dismantled Switzerland 5-0 before collectively moving to the side of the pitch to enjoy a cheeky Gitanes or two while Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side pulled two completely meaningless strikes back.
Mathieu Valbuena put the middle la into the most ooh-la-la of performances, leading us wondering what the absent Franck Ribery was making of the whole thing. Not to mention Samir Nasri.
They were wonderful.
Finally, Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella says that Lionel Messi was right to criticise his tactics in the 2-1 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sabella started with five defenders and Messi was not at all pleased, but all was right in the world when Argentina switched back to 4-3-3 after the break and Messi scored the most Messi of Messi goals. Messi.
Sabella told a news conference: “I was not hurt by Leo’s comment and he has said that before.
“He likes to play 4-3-3 with (Angel) Di Maria up front.
“He was asked how he likes to play and he answered what he thinks in a respectful way. We respect each other, we have a very strong team spirit. It is good to have an open dialogue with my players.
“Sometimes players learn from us the coaches and sometimes we learn from them.
“We can all make mistakes you know. Tomorrow we will start with a 4-3-3 formation and we will take it from there. We may have to change the formation or not.”
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