Some good games today. France should win comfortably against the Aussies. I do think that Argentina will find it difficult to break down Iceland but if Messi plays well it could be a fantastic game to watch. Peru v Denmark will be interesting imo because neither side will want to loose, it could be a stalemate. Croatia v Nigeria will be a close game, I have Nigeria to edge it but could go either way. Interesting day ahead. Great tournament so far.
What were the Aussies thinking putting the rugby game v Ireland on the same time as this match!!France have been very poor so far- Pogba strolling through the match doing Fuk all per usual!!!
VAR = joke. Clear and obvious my arse. Useful tool for the organisers though to make sure the favourites go through.
Well done to the Corinthian Umtiti. Knew their own was a joke so levelled it up. Fair play award to that man.
Lucas Hernandez is great to watch i have enjoyed watching him go down like a sack of potatoes . The term nancy boy springs to mind
1st £5 free bet from Billy Hills in the bag thanks to France winning. I’ll probably waste it on a rubbish horse
Portugal v Spain: Ronaldo gets a penalty for throwing himself over an opponent’s foot in the penalty area but he does that all the time in La Liga and he knew that an Italian referee would give it because Serie A is a cheats’ league as well. Australia v France: Griezmann scores from the spot after the Uruguayan referee watches the replay of a tackle in the penalty area and gets it wrong as Griezmann lost the ball and went down. At least we know which official was to blame for that one! He then gives a penalty for blatant handball by Umtiti and it has to be reviewed by VAR. Curiously, I did not see Umtiti booked whilst the Australian Risdon was booked in the previous instance. So it seems that the standard of refereeing is going to be as indifferent as always in international competitions; and we get the extra benefit of them compounding their incompetence with video replays.
I missed the game as I was watching the racing but having seen some bits replayed I have to wonder about the FA. They have a very useful piece of technology and they can't use it properly. What is the point of having it available and it being up to the referee to initiate a review. When are these dimwits going to learn? VAR is getting criticised but it isn't the VAR that is the problem, it's the idiots who have decided how to use it. They MUST give the captains 3 referrals, as in tennis and cricket (I think). It has just been conclusively proven that the decision to refer cannot be left to the referee alone
In American Football, the coaches can dispute a decision and force a video review. If the coach’s challenge is successful, then obviously the decision is amended. If the coach’s challenge is unsuccessful, then the team loses one of its timeouts; hence, challenges are pretty rare and are usually initiated when somebody watching the game up in the stands tells the coach via his headset that the call is wrong. In cricket, both sides have two challenges per inning. If a challenge is successful, the decision is overturned and the challenge option is retained. There is no penalty for an unsuccessful challenge other than losing that challenge, with the exception that the challenge is not forfeited if an lbw decision is “umpire’s call” on Hawk-Eye. At Wimbledon, there are three challenges for each player per set and I believe that unsuccessful challenges are lost. So what penalty would be imposed if coaches and/or players could challenge in football? Looking at how often players surround referees for just about any decision, I would expect that three challenges would last about ten minutes of a football game as the dimwits would not stop to think whether their challenge had any chance of success, they would just do it. Ten seconds thinking time is way longer than most footballers can manage. Also has to be said that in the football, how many referees have the balls to go and watch the replay and overturn their original call?
Fred Done must be in his counting house having a right good laugh after that Argentina game. How many mugs piled on Messi to score first at 5/2 just before kick off? Not sure what the odds were for Messi to score any time – must have been odds-on – but he could not even beat Halldorsson from the spot.
