The 2026 World Cup — Day 27

Scary looking dude the Egypt coach

Save of the tournament by the Egyptian keeper, just there. Absolutely brilliant

First time I have seen Argentina, not much cop in this game, I hope they have got some good subs, they must be better than what they are playing in this game to be rated second favourites, I still expect them to win this game because if they can’t beat this very average Egyptian team then I think they have little chance of winning the tournament.

One of the worst penalty kicks ever and by Messi of all people. Egypt defending En-masse but Argies are too predictable.

Why don't they deep six this stupid offside flag rule. Surely to God the linesman should flag immediately instead of allowing play to develop before raising it. The rule is just a waste of time.

However, hardly surprising with stooges like Infantino at the helm of Fifa.

We have seen so many late,late goals so far in this tournament let's not think this tie is decided yet.

England will have a great chance of getting to the Final if things stay the same - Norway and then most likely Columbia in the semi-final or Egypt.

My God. Unreal. Classic goal. Brilliant breakaway. Come on too far from the goal for VAR

Full length of the pitch and the ref saw the tackle/erm 'foil' and did not give it. What a let off. VAR madness.

I just hate that pulling shirts has been normalised, so -- wonderful goal, yes -- but correct to call it back. Just do it on every occasion, and book every player who pulls a shirt, including -- especially -- if a second yellow.

It's cheating. But it has to be done with absolute consistency... and that is the problem, even with VAR.

Argentina have been poor all tournament. Slow, leggy in midfield, rash at the back. Lucky not to have come up against any decent teams.

Nowt wrong with that one!

Brilliant from Egypt. Fully deserved.

Unbelievable. Length of the pitch again

I think Egypt realised about 20 minutes ago how crap Argentina are and have started attacking a bit more.

Sad to see such a great player as Messi now... he still thinks he's 25 but age has taken its toll on him, like it does for everyone.

Egypt v Norway semi-final?

This tournament is about the demise of South American footy, no matter what the result is here.

The problem with the disallowed goal is exactly as you say MK -- consistency.

Those tiny pulls on shirts happen constantly and nothing is given. Romero just did exactly the same on Salah and got away with it.

Is it only a foul when a goal is scored?

Both Argentina and Brazil have played without any intensity at all and I'm not surprised we are on the verge of seeing both knocked out.

Egypt have been excellent in this game.

Ah shite. Dig in Egypt.

Shite, Shite. Shite. Messi is not done at all Dave A, and a brilliant run just before a cracking goal.

Messi can't run much but thats a great strike

He's an absolute marvel

Messi, might not be the player he was Dave, but I’d love to see him coming on for the last twenty five minutes every week for Everton!

Gooooooooaaaaal!

It was like taking sweets off a baby the way Salah, was so easily dispossessed but the one thing that looked certain going into injury time was that one of the teams was going to score!

So VAR won't be checking the incident in the Argentina penalty area?

There's the problem though. A pull at the other end not given not long before the goal.

Slippy fecking Salah.

Embarrasing watching the twats celebrate v Cape Verde and Egypt like they have won it all.

Liam, did you ever believe that they wouldn't do whatever the could to keep Messi in this tournament.

Argentina are not a good side tbh, but they do have fight and never give up.

Trump knows fuck all about football but I had to agree with him when he talked about the way people just accepted these terrible decisions from referees.

Tuchel, who knows a lot more said that teams are now in danger of losing games because of the terrible officiating.

Maybe The Swiss, can see to the demise of South American football, in their next two games?

Do you think for one second that Trump actually thought that Tony. Don't be silly.

I can't watch these twats celebrate.

I need to catch up with.the fall of the bigot Farage, that is new news for me.

Did anyone mention earlier about late, late goals ?

You just knew Messi would have a say in the result despite the missed penalty. Just a terrific player with a terrific attitude.

The difference between Messi and Ronaldo last night. One ran round like Max Wall never getting the ball, moaning at his team mates, the other walked about reading the game, being part of the team and made the difference.

Paul (18) Yes he scored a terrific goal, give him credit for that but I was going on today’s game and he played like his age.

Tony (21) Well in the this premier league Tony 25 minutes might not be enough time for Messi to turn the clock back and earn the fabulous wage it would cost to find out.

I doubt very much playing Argentina will worry any other team who has to play them.

Fair enough Dave but Messi is the top scorer in the tournament and has played every minute.

Football is still not as good as Rugby League though

A cracking game, Egypt surprised me, they have some skilful players.

It just depends Liam, Rugby League can be boring too, and I'm a Wiganer.

If England beat Norway and that's far from a given, can they beat Argentina?

Paul, off topic- what took you to the USA.

Hi Raymond. Work. University.

Hope you're well!

Tom 4, I have been meaning to ask for enlightenment from the wise men on TW. I'm a dinosaur and I don't keep up to date with the rules and rule changes. What is it with the late flags ?
And another thing...are foul throws a thing of the past too ? See scores of them in this tournament.And whilst I'm at it what happened to the fellas who carried round that board before the game advertising boxing and wrestling at the Stadium. An nuns collecting for the Little Sisters of the poor outside the ground. And Higsons Double Top in waxed cups. And horse shit

What a game. So nice seeing another red bastard with tears in his eyes. Can anyone tell me what the film Margie Clark was in where she's told, " Now do one, before I throw a bucket of piss water over yis, yer melt!" I think it was blonde fist, but my son says letter to Brezhnev. Who's right?

There's only France & Spain I think England are at a lower level from, tactically & technically..
Morocco are dangerous and they could turn up a big shock, but can't see them beating both France & Spain.
Argentina wouldn't scare England, it would be a toss up, really close like all the rest of the games left will be, finest of margins at this point, but fancy England to make the final now.

Alan 38. Thanks. mate. I've just spilt me drink down me pants laughing at your. "And Higsons Double Top in waxed cups. And horse shit" Near as funny as shit faced, not Curly, not Larry but Moe.😀

I well remember 1966, it was very different style of play then.
I don't know, we have the guts and stamina to beat anyone but I'm not sure we quite have the skill.

I'm good Paul, do you like it over there.

It was some finish from Argentina who were dead and buried. Martinelli made a massive difference, and what a cross for the winner. They analysed the decisions on RTE after the game, and completely agreed with the referee, even the last one, Salah wasn't fouled, the defender got the ball first, but Egypt should have finished them off. How is Alvarez valued at over £100m, so poor tonight. I still think England should beat Norway and will be definitely too strong for Argentina, who have been so lucky in there last two games.

Paul (34) Yes that’s true Paul but taking into consideration the opponents Argentina have played I think that down grades Messi’s fete quite a bit although I’ll give him a pat on the back for being leading scorer up to now, keeping him on the pitch might also be a morale booster for the rest of the players- they certainly need one or two after watching them today.

Paul @39
It was "Blonde Fist" mate.

Alan (38) All those questions about those lovely days from long ago I reckon you must be about 102 and a half!

Joey Barrett from town was one of those fella’s who used to put the half time scores up and carry that advertising board around the ground, he also used to carry the blanket around Anfield collecting for the St. Edwards orphanage band who played there, he also worked for Liverpool Corporation and sold The Echo after he finished work in the night time.

The standing joke about Joey was a fella went into the Dole and asked was there any vacancies, the clerk there told him he was very unlucky as there was six jobs going until a few minutes ago when Joey Barrett came in and took the six of them!

All the best to Onana. Ruptured ACL. Likely will miss the entire upcoming season.

I know he was not well loved on these pages, but… once a Blue, always a Blue.

Someone sent me this earlier. Colombia v Switzerland..Charlie v The Chocolate Factory

I just googled Blonde Fist.

Probably shouldn't have been sat next to my missus

Paul G, we are waiting for you to tell everyone how much you enjoy living over here.

Dale, we all love Paul G. living over there!!

Sorry, Paul!

Sorry, but I still love James for his vision and passing.

What a genius.

Everton reported by Africa Foot to have tabled a formal offer for Cameroonian striker Christian Kofane of Bayer Leverkusen. He turns 20 this month.

It’s alright hating Trump, Paul, but I’m not being silly mate because when I watched a video of him talking about the incident this morning, it was the only thing he said that made real sense to me.

I laughed at his opening remarks about understanding sport because he was a good athlete, but when he talked about people just accepting the red card, he actually made a lot of sense to me.

I don’t want to sound like Donald myself Paul, but I’d definitely check those facts on Messi, before stating that he has played every minute of this tournament!

Trump said it wasn't even a foul !!!!
Just two athletes coming together. what an A-Hole.

Trump was just trying to gain brownie points with the American people after deluding them for the last 18 months.

Don’t agree @ 43. Penalty every day of the week. If it had been the other way around, it would have been given. Egypt stitched up.

Accepting red cards is part of football decorum. Donald would not know decorum even if it were gold-plated.

Colombia will have to do something very different or they are not going to win this.

Arsenal linked with a €100m bid for Kofane over the weekend so trying to usurp them with a €40m offer must be just about peak Everton

How did he miss that?

Michael, a disappointing game with little chances. I saw Senderos in the crowd, the former Swiss, didn't we have him on loan from Arsenal, didn't work out?

Senderos

Cheers Brent mate.

It's the land of the free Dale, who wouldn't love living here.

Missed the first three quarters. Spent two hours at a colleague's who basically had a torrent of water rush through the basement. Everything done. All their books, mementos, bathroom, bedroom, tenth-of-a-mile of 'train-sets', etc. etc.

Bloody hard shifting things upstairs and outside in 93F heat with no a/c as electric isout.

North London lad. Supports Spurs

That guy has had a rough year, PG.

Don't you just love that American woman who buts in every now and then to tell the 'expert' commentators what the rules of the game are.

That was a sublime pass to the Colombian at the top of the box.

Lesser spotted Yeri Mina !!

Akanji's was so bad they shoold deduct one.

Another set of thugs out of the cup, maybe if they just stuck to playing football instead of stopping the opposition by any means they would do better.

Lost all his archive notes. His basement office was wiped out. Three decades worth of archival work past, present, and future. Everything for the book he is working on now.

And the insurance company says it was a flood and will not cover anything.

Central defenders should never take pens if possible. So many blast it over the bar or hit the bar.

Kofane. Hopefully we don't get conned for another African academy wonder boy. He's been nowhere, done nothing.

Handful of games and he's worth millions? Something fishy going in with these transfers. Players selling for mega bucks. why?

Everton want to sign 25-year-old England defender Djed Spence from Tottenham.

Didn't do too well for Spurs, leave him where he is.

Trump said it wasn't even a foul !!!!
Just two athletes coming together. What an arsehole.

Trump was just trying to gain brownie points with the American people after deluding them for the last 18 months.

He was told/scripted to say that Tom - 74 - and that's the point I was tryomg to make to Tony A.

MK agree about James, fantastic footballer,that was never a penalty in a million years on Salah, just because someone touches your foot it doesn't mean you have to throw yourself on the ground, football fans should never want penalties given for things like that, I despise.the way they hit the ground at the slightest touch, its cheating and highly embarrassing,.I think Messi started on the subs bench for one of the group games

Messi was subbed after 80 minutes in game 2 vs Austria and came off the bench after 60 in game 3 vs Jordan.

I thought Ian Wright called it right when he talked about Trump, wanting the thing.

House of Cards - Frank Underwood - Politics has become all about Box Office and sometimes when I listen to Donald, he sounds like Joe Pesci out of Goodfellas, trying to sound like Marlon Brando, in the Godfather

If the man really did know anything about sport, then he would have stayed away from the issue - but when you’re the President of The USA, it’s all about making offers that they can’t refuse.

Imagine your team leading two nil and then conceding three in the last ten minutes. Wouldn't happen to us would it !

I said to my lad that this is like watching Everton and if Argentina score they'll go on and win it.

Now then Alan, now then !

If Moyes were the Egypt manager and asked what he feels after losing to Argentina: "If you had told me before the World Cup that we would be 2-0 up against the World Champions with 11 minutes to play in the Round of 16, I would have shaken your hand and said,'Thank you very much'!"

Mick @76,

I totally agree, but isn't that exactly what Martinez did in the build-up to the disallowed goal?

And what's with this shite I read on the BBC website, it was a foul anywhere else on the pitch, but not in the penalty box!!!! A foul is a foul... doesn't matter where it happens.

There has been some kind of threshold for penalty box offences for years, Edward.

I never understand it.

It's going the other way since the introduction of VAR, now though, Andrew.

My reasoning is that if the very, very, very slight infringement that made them go to the television screen the other night inside The Azteca had happened anywhere else on the pitch, then, depending on the referee, there is a chance that players could have been booked for protesting against such a soft foul.

All subjective, all different opinions but another thing I find nauseating nowadays is how players are getting sent off for mistiming a tackle, or for being physically aggressive. I think anyone who has played the game knows the difference between someone who is being very physical, or someone who is being sly, and that's why I agreed with Trump, or his ghostwriter, when he queried why people just constantly accept poor decisions.

He never elaborated as to ask why the referee doesn't have to consistently keep giving his reasons for giving certain decisions (consistently having to explain themselves would surely lead to a lot more consistency) but for borderline decisions, in the world's biggest football tournament, why the fuck can't the powers that be just introduce a sin-bin?

But there's still things going on at set pieces Tony that would be fouls anywhere else

A pet hate of mine is pushing or charging attacking players over in the penalty area and getting away with it. It's has the same result as tackling their legs away.

Then you get the 'TV experts' say he's not pushed him hard enough, you try running at full tilt and keep upright!

Very true, Andrew. Every so often a referee gives a penalty, but once he has given one and is asked to explain himself then if he was to become consistent, he would have to start giving them every single week.

Raymond, the TV experts are putting pressure on the referees every week. I'm not sure if they're doing it consciously or unconsciously, but they're as bad as certain referees, because they lack the same consistency.

Wasn't there a new rule for this World Cup were a referee can give a penalty for the jostling in the area prior to a set piece being taken?

Has this been used at all do we know?

Right on cue I see this: Has World Cup signalled end of chaos at corners?