World Cup 2018

Savage. 20 years since France ended their dreams in Paris, Croatia will have a chance for revenge against Les Blues after they booked a place in the World Cup final by out knocking England in a griping semi-final at the Luzhniki Stadium. It all started so well for Gareth Southgate’s men after Kieran Trippier’s sublime free-kick […]

8 years ago

What kind of Brexit does Gareth Southgate want? As the UK implodes, it’s left to Gareth Southgate to offer leadership for England but how much can he do when a country is tearing itself apart? Theresa May has channeled Southgate but she looks more like the England managers of old, hounded from game to game, […]

8 years ago

England are nearly there. After heroic defeat to Belgium, England can now start planning for the World Cup semi-final against Croatia or Spain. Maybe Thursday was the day when England lost the run of themselves. The group stage had been characterised by England’s innocent glee as they scored goal after goal but the moment they […]

8 years ago

It’s a VAR special. Everybody’s favourite refereeing device made a real mark on the tournament on Monday night when Portugal-Iran was played out under the shadow of a referee who handed control over to the mysterious VAR masters. But those who said VAR would destroy the game’s momentum could only watch on and admit their […]

8 years ago

Poor, poor Messi. Argentina are not out of the World Cup yet, but their defeat to Croatia on Thursday was so dispiriting, so aimless and so conclusive that it’s hard to see how they can keep going after this. Messi drifted his way through the game, and many will feel that arguably the greatest player […]

8 years ago

How far can Russia go? The team described as possibly the worst hosts in the tournament’s history are cruising into the last sixteen. How has this happened and will Vladimir Putin take the credit? For Egypt there was nothing but disappointment. A tournament which promised so much when Mo Salah scored the penalty which qualified […]

8 years ago