I think Spurs' merchandise department missed a trick by only creating England-themed merch. They could've made a tidy packet from Belgian-themed merch this summer.
Quality defending from Brazil there. Nice jump from the Brazillian right-back over the ball to create panic. Anybody get the feeling Naymar will have a torrid tournament with all the pressure and hype around him?
I wonder who will be the first player to put the ball in the other team's goal. Neymar's goal went in via a Croat foot. Hulk continues to be awful whenever I watch him. He's had a couple of bad passes and a couple of Row Z efforts. Oscar's probably been Brazil's best, with Neymar second. Paulinho's been decent, but should close down better.
Such an advert for the wonderful modern game. Violent conduct, players haranguing the referee, diving, play acting, Olic playing like a cock...... I'm sure all the impoverished Brazillians whose homes were demolished for this extravaganza watching from their prison cells are delighted so far.
The first half was fairly poor, and now it's downright ragged. My god Hulk has been awful. Brazil can't put one pass together. And now they take off Paulinho who's been average at worst, instead of Hulk. To be fair, it's Scolari who looks most to blame. The team came out cold.
Paulinho subbed 62 minutes too late. Amazed he's at a world cup. Stunned he starts for brazil. Never a pen
I've actually been quite impressed with Pletikosa.... Did he actually ever play a game for us? And Brazil are nothing to be scared of. I know it's the first game of a home World Cup but they just look fairly ordinary. And defend only slightly better than us.
I had enough of the fans after half an hour, and I've certainly had enough of their players - come on, Argentina, show them who's boss and win the World Cup in their back yard!
Fred looks for a moment like he's going to catch his leg in the defender, but instead falls flat on his ass. It looked more like a slip than a dive, but there wasn't a breath of contact, and it was a ridiculously bad call. Way to get things off to a great start! We're still waiting for a player to put one into the other team's net.
Wow! Wonder how much it took to buy of this referee? Blatter must be delighted that the "name" teams of the tournament are guaranteed safe passage out of their groups to appease the TV companies. Bet this Ref gets the final now after this masterful display.
It's almost as if big Phil Scolari, a World Cup winner, knows more about football than you. Shame the game was decided on a bad penalty call, Croatia deserved better. I do find it funny that the commentators all realised that was never a penalty yet when Suarez receives the slightest nudge they're practically out there on the pitch appealing with him.
To be honest, it came across ruder than I intended. It was supposed to be a jokey remark, with a small point about Paulinho clearly not being that bad if Scolari rates him as an important member of the squad. Apologies, YidoKev
Paulinho was very quiet today compared to his performances in the confederations cup Scolari winds me right up, spends 90 minutes waving his arms around and arguing with officials after every decision
I read in today's paper that one of the first things the English players did on arriving in Brazil was to visit an orphanage " the tears and the complete lack of hope in their eyes was heartbreaking" said Jose aged six.
