Segun Oluwaniyi

Probably bad enough that he couldn't hold the shot, but he should have been able to parry it away and not slap it across the goal for a tap in.

I agree with the sentiment about Zaha, but that was very poor and rash from Tanganga. Guy spent the last few minutes playing like an area boy and fully deserved his red. Was not a normal challenge at all.

I don't know why you are focusing on Africa, it is hard to see how this can pass without essentially ending every major continental competition. It would ruin the international calendar as we know it. Speaking of internationals, the decisions from the UK government are understandable, I suppose, but it is still madness that we are going through with massive international matches, given the competitive imbalance of Premier League players not being allowed to play in certain nations. Many Brazilians, Argentinians, and Colombians are going to miss big matches in this window, Egypt had to play without several top players and CIV will be doing the same, all at the entirely arbitrary whim of the UK government. South Africa's reward for letting a variant run out of control is to play a weakened Ghana at home and Cape Verde's reward for bring arbitrarily red-listed is to host a Nigeria side that will have to drop 8 players, 6-7 of whom would probably start. I am amazed a resolution to this was not worked out and we are just proceeding since this is not a problem with any other country.

Something is fundamentally wrong with the sport of football in that you can play that way for a third of the match and be level in the score. Genuinely one of the worst performances I have ever seen; all the players look confused or half-asleep. The reality is that the match is still there to be won, Southampton are not a good side and have been wasteful.

Feels like most of the time I see Arsenal teams, someone who I assumed was already gone or on the way out is playing, due to their poor squad management, bloated wages to average players who become difficult to move and continual Bruce-level injury crises. Arsenal are a midtable side, a level below the likes of Leicester, West Ham and Tottenham. Eighth for two consecutive seasons and will be fortunate to reach that again this year.

Not exactly the same thing, but I have a couple of friends who went professional in basketball, but were not good enough for the NBA or the absolute top level in Europe, and spent careers playing in lower tier leagues across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The riches you get are not what you hoped for as a young prospect, but the guys are spending their 20's and early-mid 30's traveling the world, experiencing a variety of different cultures and women, and will still retire with enough that they will have a strong financial buffer when it is time to make the next move (assuming they are not reckless in that regard). If I was a young British player, a life like that seems more appealing than toiling in Accrington or some place for your career. It is mad how the Premier League and a few other financially giant clubs are simply impervious to the economic reality of the world in this moment, especially given the situations in some of the other leagues across Europe. I really did not expect the finances of the game to change so little when the leagues first restarted in summer of 2020, but here we are discussing if Real Madrid will spend 200 million on Mbappe or if Manchester United/City will pay Ronaldo 30 million per season.

I understand why a manager would love Ayoze, hard worker, technically sound, and takes up great positions, but it just seems crazy to me that Leicester cannot find a spot for Iheanacho and Daka over him in the preferred 11. There is just a significant talent gap, for all of Perez's positive traits.

That cannot possibly be the way this debacle ends, with a 3-0 victory for Nice because OM would not come out after being physically attacked by fans. I cannot believe LFP would truly try to force this match to finish, with all of the fans still in attendance behind the goal, after the scenes that happened here.

Osimhen seriously needs to calm down. Guy was playing great for 20 minutes and looked a good bet to score, only to get himself sent off for no real reason. I thought the red card was excessive, could have been yellow, but this is what happens when you have a reputation for being a violent player. This is not Olusosun anymore, you cannot go around hitting people. Abraham looked fantastic in his debut as well, two great assists. There is no reason Roma cannot compete at the top of the league this season, tbf, feels like there is a chance it is quite close among 7-8 teams.

Sure, it is not professional (Alvaro is a lunatic in the best of times anyway ), but the players are humans. Nice fans have thrown rubbish at Payet all match during the corners, with no action by the ref. The last away match they played, only two weeks ago, Rongier was hit in the face by a bottle and injured. No one has to let random people attempt to injure them repeatedly, you have to react at some point.

Behaviour by supporters in Ligue 1 this season has been disgraceful. OM has played two away matches this season, Montpellier and Nice, both of which have needed to be suspended in the second half for violence from the stands. Sampaoli and Payet looked ready to fight the Nice fans, just madness.

That is fair, I do not recall, he probably did play well on that occasion, but we should remember he came on late and sat next to the best purely defensive midfielder in the country and a class player in Tielemans. He will be next to Shelvey here I have watched Leicester a fair amount fair amount the last few seasons and the guy strikes me as a typical headless chicken, average midfielder type. Good physical profile, but not really technically or positionally strong. Guy is a utility type player at Premier League level and there are already two of those here in Hayden and Longstaff, imo. They need a clear improvement over these players.

Choudhury is rubbish., imo. He is one of those players that people think is good defensively because he looks fairly imposing and flies into some tackles but in reality has little effect on the match at all. He would be well-served to go somewhere and actually play consistently to learn his craft. Guy is 24 soon, and is treated like a youth player at Leicester.

Messi leaving Barcelona is one of those things I will be skeptical of until he is seen on the pitch wearing a different kit. Just find it hard to believe that a marriage like this ends with no fanfare, just some rumblings in the media, then a Tweet.

Honestly, Newcastle have not spent anywhere enough money in recent years for this thread to be interesting. The Obafemi Martins signing was relatively more expensive (compared to the rest of the market) than anyone signed under Ashley, outside of the outlier and/or blatantly corrupt Joelinton signing, and this was nearly fifteen years ago. The problem with the club is certainly not value for money. The answer is Joelinton, but it is somewhat by default, tbh, it is not as though this is a club that takes risks with big money signings.

Any fan of Nigerian football is required to hate Argentina, just based on the history, but I was supporting them today. So happy for Messi. He has fully earned this night. It was and is tiring to hear about what this man has not done, when has given us so much as lovers of football.

Given that Mike is posting this, it is notable that the flags listed reflect that it was taken from a place where Liverpool supporters congregate.

We have fundamentally changed the sport, and (imo) made it less enjoyable, only to still have rubbish like this result in a free goal during the biggest matches. It is terrible. A disgraceful decision. Anyway, I quite like the English people. On here and in real life, I have generally found a level of joy and acceptance when interacting with them and obviously have been trained to speak their language. I wish them well. Forza Azzurri on Sunday.

Mbappe is not even the fastest player on the French team.

People should calm down with the hatred for Deschamps a bit, imo. They have had nothing but positive results and strong tournaments since he has arrived and this was not the case at all before his arrival. They will be incredibly difficult to beat, assuming they survive here.

In terms of centrebacks with Congolese parentage, I will take Mbemba over Kimpembe. I have never understood the hype around this guy. He is fine in Ligue 1, but struggles in big matches, often.

Rabiot is actually a significant downgrade from Matuidi when comparing this team to the WC winners in 2018. I am not really sure what he provides to this side and he looks awkward out wide, tbh.

Lenglet. He was consistently mistake prone and weak when I saw him play for Barcelona this season.

Unless my calculations are off, Portugal will need to lose by four goals to actually go out below Finland. So a simple loss would not affect them too badly. Edit: Hungary could beat Germany and knock them out I suppose.

I favour Denmark to beat Wales and then Netherlands to reach the semifinals.