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

I'm not. If you defend that deep, especially when the opposition a man down, you are asking for it. Craven stuff.

I reckon they could have and I wish they had. Panama were a disgrace.

Lingard looked great after his knock on the head. Kane has ice in his veins and the luck of the devil.

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.

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.

30 seconds from going out. Gutted. Ah well our boys will just have to a number on the Germans, should our paths cross. It's long overdue.

Not to mention Wrighty's shirts. They're a bit urgent.

Ok, I concede. He's niggly.

Niggly’s just a variant of dirty

Yes it is a top kit, as is the traditional blue and black of Uruguay.
On Germany, this may not be their usual strong squad but they are great fighters and a team. Gutted as I was for Sweden it would have been a travesty if Germany had not won that match. For me Germany remain the side to beat.

Suppose you see fairly bright as a variant of genius.

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.

Huge RESPECT to both Iran and Morroco

The Iranians were making unnecessary threats all game

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. The Iran peno was daft and then you had the Serbian forward being rugby tackled by two Swiss defenders the other night and the ref doesn't go to VAR and gives a free out.

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

I think the main problem now is certain teams are literally playing to a slow motion VAR decision so are play acting. The Iran penalty was ludicrous just absolutely insane.

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.

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?

I'm hoping Uruguay beats Protugal

If it had been the other way round would the Iranian have been sent off?

Neymar not getting a yellow for that dive also makes it a bit of a mockery. How can that not be a yellow card?

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.

But you said you don't like yellow?

But I agree with your point about fouls. The control issue is silly.

I just know replied to posts should appear in yellow.

That’s the thing it’s definately a good thing in many ways but I have a feeling it’s going to simply act as a magnifier for play acting as the competition increases and the stakes get higher

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]

Looks like FIFA shut you down. They might be onto us. To be fair though, they probably followed Babu here.

Sorry, mostly winding you up.

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).

Yeah - I created a new user for him but it still played up once just before (above).
Edit - Fixed now and I know what it is.

Bernard - Please do not tick the box that says "Disable BBCode" when posting.

Disabling Bulletin Board code causes all formatting to be dropped which makes your posts with quotes not appear in yellow.

I was wondering why it was only affecting your account. Anyway, now I know why.

Yep - Confirmed - All your old posts with problems have had their BB Code disabled which makes quotes not come out as yellow.

I have checked your account and BBCode is indeed enabled by default. You need to leave that box unchecked when posting.

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.

Was just about to post the same thing. Criminal that he didn’t start their opening two games. It’s obviously going to be all about Messi but Benega is controlling the game