Pata

Di Lorenzo has been a mainstay for a long time and is class. Bastoni and Di Marco are very highly rated, haven't seen much of Calafiori.

And world peace.

In my ideal world Oliver automatically goes to the screen and makes the decision based on what he sees, none of the clear and obvious bullshit.

I think it was a common sense ruling. Think there was a slight contact and they couldn't take the pen away. Rodri was IMO too far off from the ball to say he he was playing the ball but VAR let's it go due to the embarrassing way the Croatian went down. Think they handled that well in the end.

Close. Lovely first touch by Kramaric.

Morata has somehow become underrated IMO. He’s not brilliant but perfectly fine CF for Spain.

Expecting a dull 0-0 or 1-1. Croatia sitting back and Spain keeping the ball. Draw would be a great result for both in this.

Hungary’s 9 was massive.

Some lovely balls in from Szobo now.

ScRaP vAr

Bullet header by Rudiger.

Yeah, nice to have a decision already made when the replays were still going.

Keeps moving all the time IMO.

Such a good pen, wish Isak started to practive that run up too. So hard for the goalies.

This is pure but he just spent €57m on Lisandro Martinez (who is class tbf but not exactly a bargain), €70m on Casemiro and €74m on Hojlund. Think you would like a new RW too despite EtH already spending €95m on Antony. I know some don't care about expected points but he just had Man United finishing 15th in expected points ffs. Yeah, injuries and stuff but at the same time Eddie had us at 4th despite at least a similar injury crisis and with a squad that has seen nowhere near the same level of investment. Wages are not even in the same ballpark. It's stunning that so many Man Utd fans are happy too see him get another season but I'm personally very happy about it.

I'm all for making it 32 teams just to fix the structure and come up with something else to replace to qualifiers. Northern Macedonia was good fun in 2021 and it's always interesting to see new countries on the biggest stage.

They'll go for Southgate in November while giving EtH another summer window. After the extension the payout will be bigger too.

Best news of the summer, that's hilarious.

It's a shame we don't have any idea how it really works. I was an international member and I got both tickets for the "second match" from ballot when they had an idea I was there already (Dortmund and Everton). No idea how sophisticated the system is but making it somehow easier on the international pool to get a second ticket when people have already got to Newcastle would make a lot of sense. Or even a possibility to apply for two matches together when the schedule is known. Obviously that would be best just for me but it's so hard to talk about these without any selfishness.

I don't know how to read that without feeling like a massively lesser fan due to being a dirty foreigner. I made it to four games last season on two trips, one hospitality and three ballots for what it's worth.

I couldn't come over in 22/23 (well did to see the cup final in a pub) as I had no idea they were capping the memberships and I was only planning to buy the membership when I knew when I'm coming. I don't think capping them makes any sense for a club that is looking for massive growth and is struggling with FFP.

I didn’t really make any point, just corrected a little mistake by a fellow poster who didn’t know Luuk was a massive hit last season. We did a good job identifying a real talent and now there are no bad options. If someone wants to pay £30-40m for him after last season, it’s a massive win. Or we can keep him and see how he does here. In any case the £6m was a steal so well done us for scouting him.

We bought Minteh from Odense, Denmark.