Sorry for the Swedes..

6-0 England. Will they get to double digits before the end of the match? Panama deserves to be embarrassed, some of their players are downright dirty in their play.

Never seen a Swedish team cause this much trouble for Germany. Could've scored three goals and I think it was a penalty on Berg as well. Germany look completely disoriented.

There were two good penalty claims early on which the ref ridiculously ignored.

Bloody Germans. Back to their old MO of stinking the place out and yet somehow still coming through. More Zermürbungskrieg than Blitzkrieg.

Bbc winning the coverage battle so far but watching Wright’s banter Roy Keane and others on ITV has been hysterical.

gooner7, you said yourself, Muller is not a dirty player. I did that post because you said he was. Niggly, yes. But no way dirty.

Ok, I concede. He's niggly.

...Best kit of this tournament has been Peru's with that wonderful red sash.

Niggly’s just a variant of dirty

The VAR wouldn’t be an issue if the refs had bollocks to maintain a correct decision, as soon as it goes to VAR it’s getting given once it’s been slowed down.

It's a shambles. Blatant red card for Ronaldo not given. Maybe the ref was told not to send him off.

I didn’t think it was. Agreed it was yellow. The Iran player was acting up and exaggerating some niggles..

Another cracking game and Spain snatching a draw by the look of things against a really spirited Morocco side.
And Iran score a late equalizer against Portugal looks like Spain might win the group .
What a world cup I'm absolutely loving it so far.
Group winners play Russia and second play Uruguay - a far tougher opponent I'd say.

I don't think Ronaldo's one was worthy of a red either. If a red for that was applied as the decision consistently, eleven a side games would finish as five a side matches. For me a yellow was right.

Mark Lawrenson was the BBC's co-commentator for the game. He didn't think Portugal's penalty should have been given because Ronaldo wasn't in full control of the ball. Does that matter, even if he wasn't? I'd have thought a penalty should be awarded for fouls in the area regardless of whether the attacking player has full cmtrol of the ball.

Portugal now get Uruguay. Shame as I'd have been interested to see Torreira against Spain's midfield.

It was a deliberate elbow to the face. That is classed as violent conduct and a red card. There is no yellow card sanction for deliberately elbowing an opponent. The yellow shown by the ref was a cop out. As Liam Brady said on Rte, Fifa don't want a star playeri missing 3 games of the world cup.

For me I agreed with Lawrenson. He wasnt in control of the ball fully but there was also something else about it that made it look a pre orchestrated attempt to run into the box and fall over. You have to be convinced and I wasn’t. When you slow everything down to examine the slightest touch it practically makes a far more likely chance of getting a decision and there will be a record amounts of penalties in this world cup

If you think the VAR madness is bad now imagine what it will be like when we reach the knockout stages. Some of the cheating in the World Cup has been shocking

I'm picking Uruguay to beat Portugal.

I’m not sure there was much actual contact. Not like the guy walked away with a broken nose.

For me I agreed with Lawrenson. He wasnt in control of the ball fully but there was also something else about it that made it look a pre orchestrated attempt to run into the box and fall over. You have to be convinced and I wasn’t. When you slow everything down to examine the slightest touch it practically makes a far more likely chance of getting a decision and there will be a record amounts of penalties in this world cup

I'm just not sure whether it even matters if he wasn't fully in control of the ball. Penalties can, and sometimes are, given when defenders hold forwards when a corner is on its way into the box. The ball can be feet or even yards from them, so nobody will have it under control. The issue is surely whether Ronaldo was actually fouled in the box, which may be debatable, not whether he was fully in control of the ball. But it was the control issue that Lawrenson seemed to focus on.

EDIT: Oh dear. Non-yellow again.

There were two interesting ones in the Morocco game.

For the first Morocco goal, Ramos got his studs into the attacker's foot. This was only visible on the slow motion replay. Had the attacker gone down it would have been a red card without doubt. But he stayed on his feet and scored.

For Spain's equaliser, the assistant ref ruled it offside. On var it looked exactly in line so the goal stood. However, a) if it looks exactly in line how can the var officials be sure it wasn't a milimetre offside? How fine is the resolution? b) should they be interfering with such close ones?

You're all missing the important discussion about yesterdays football - what on earth were Russia doing when Suarez scored. Look at the Russian player to the left of the wall.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ZfQr0kRZY[/youtube]

Suppose you see fairly bright as a variant of genius.

I have repaired and optimised the forums database tables. Things should be a bit zippier now.

And a bit yellower too (in Bernard’s case).

I just know replied to posts should appear in yellow.

The Mirror says he'll leave but don't mention Palace as one of his destination options.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... 721052.amp

EDIT: Bugger. The replied to post isn't in yellow. Rog, after the problems I've had in getting back on the forum, my vote is to leave things as they are. It didn't used to happen every time I posted a reply.

Ever Banega has been rumoured to us. Really like him, a good mix of skill and positional awareness. Puts a shift in defensively as well. That was a lovely pass to Messi for the goal.