Paullow

The use of him during this tournament was an absolute disgrace. Newcastle may not have a top 4 reputation (yet), but with 20 wins and 8 draws in their 34 matches of 2022, Newcastle have been a top 4 team throughout this calendar year, and he has been an absolutely enormous part of that rise up the table. Perhaps bar Joelinton, he has been the most important and effective front 6 player since he arrived, so he is an absolute catalyst for a side who have effectively been a top side, not a bit player for a 'big 6' club, pretty much the main man and heartbeat. I still don't know what was going on in that Cameroon match. Someone on here mentioned he may have been earmarked to start the L16 match should Neymar not be ready in time, and that may well be the case, but it ended up backfiring badly. Not only did he end up being pretty much the only outfield player not to start a match for them (bearing in mind they made 9 changes in that match), when he came on he was obviously trying massively to make an impression, and ended up being a scapegoat, and was never seen since, so ended up not even starting the 'reserve' match, and barely amassing 60 (substitute) minutes in total in their 5+ matches. He's now 25 as well, so not as if he's some young'un who they'll try and ease in slowly. Pathetic really.

Anyone else hate this penalty camera angle they're using for all the pen shootouts, or just me?

These 10 knockout matches thus far have either been heavy beatdowns or penalty shootouts, pretty much nothing in between, bar slight Aussie resistance late on vs Argentina the other day.

WOW

I'll be watching the next match more neutrally now as well now that the Brazil vs Argentina carrot is no longer in play. Extremely likely to be yet another European winner if the Netherlands progress, and could be the second time in a row that the 4 SFists were from Europe. Morocco could still have something to say though.

Should get Bruno definitely back for Leicester, and hopefully Bournemouth now as well (if required).

Not sure who I want to win this one. Brazil's name in the SF would add more to the tournament, and I would like to see them vs Argentina in the SF, but on the other hand, I do feel sorry for Bruno, so kind of a nose to spite situation, plus we'd obviously get him back a lot earlier if they lost today and didn't have some sort of match next weekend. Maybe swinging slightly more towards hoping Croatia come through.

Looking forward to the matches restarting though, only two days, but a big miss.

No surprise obviously, but no Bruno in the XI. I'm not sure we'll see him again unless they play in the 3rd place playoff.

It won't be, but it sounds so much like Don Hutchinson.

This won't go down too well after the whole Bramall Lane thing

It'll be a come down after 17 successive days of World Cup action, but I'll give it a go.

England fans - With Portugal playing Morocco on Saturday afternoon before England play France, would you prefer Morocco to win that one to potentially set up a more favourable SF should England win, or would you rather Portugal won so that if England did lose, then France vs Portugal would look like a more intriguing and anticipated SF? I think I'd prefer Portugal to win personally.

So 6 largely comfortable L16 wins, some of them extremely comfortable, and 2 penalty shootouts - there wasn't much middle ground involved. 7 favourites progressing, and one betting upset. Should make for some decent QFs. Obviously the matches have slowly eased off these past 8 days, first with the 2 matches simultaneously, and then dropping to only 2 matches a day these past 4 days, but strange to think there will be no World Cup football now until Friday.

That was a bit like Shearer vs Aston Villa. Didn't realise it hit the post. Fancy Morocco on pens now unfortunately. Still a chance here, but Spain's campaign has gone downhill a fair bit after that 7-0.

It's not important, but do they do the coin toss again in extra time, or do they just do the ABBA system whereby one team will shoot into the same goal from 46-90 mins and 91 to 105? I assumed they'd just go back to swapping halves again. Mustn't have noticed that before.

As a (relative) neutral, I'd much rather watch a finely poised match like this than the match being over after 10 minutes like last night, and well and truly over 15 minutes later. 5 of the last 6 knockout matches until today have largely been one sided outside of a rare burst from the clear lesser side, so it's nice to have another competitive one for a change.

You have to feel sorry for him not starting the other day -almost certain not to start a match now outside of a 3rd / 4th playoff. A couple of cameos at least, but you could tell he was trying too hard the other day and desperate to contribute, and it may have been counterproductive. Twitter can obviously be a cesspit, but he was getting a lot of stick on there after the Cameroon match.

Unless you're actively supporting the dominant side then, while you can obviously appreciate the skill and quality, these type of matches do nowt for me, and would much rather see a close, competitive match. I did want Brazil to win because I would like to a potential Argentina SF, and SK going through would just open up (the other side of) the draw, but I was hoping for a bit more of a contest. That late winner vs Portugal was a dramatic moment for the event, but while the outcome would likely have been the same, I'd imagine Uruguay would have offered far more resistance.

Aluko is as thick as mince. She was on Talksport this morning and named Jimmy Greaves in her 5 top England strikers in tournaments because he got a hattrick in a final, and just before on ITV she was talking about Richarlison and said "he's got 19 goals in 40 games for them, you do the maths and it's a goal a game pretty much"

Bruno on the bench again. Makes it more baffling he didn't start the other night when they made all those changes.

I've read this three times and still no wiser?

Be nice to finally get a L16 match going into extra time. Think Croatia will be more likely to get a winner if anyone.

It probably will end in the QF stage, but there won't be any disgrace or shame in losing to the current world champions (and who knows...), but if does end there, then at least it's another 6 days of excitement and a nation interested (mainly the casuals), rather than ending on middle Sunday a full 2 weeks before the final. Disappointing the QF is on ITV again - they've definitely clicked with the England scheduling.

Not complaining in this particular match, but while there have been some OK moments, like that last second Kuol chance and late mazy run for the Aussies, USA getting back into their game, and Poland having about 3 shots off the line in one go at 0-0, most of the last 16 has been predictable, and will probably follow suit with Spain, Brazil, and maybe to a lesser degree Portugal and Croatia over the next couple of days. It may result in more intriguing looking, heavy hitting QFs and SFs, but a little bit of a damp squib, and certainly a contrast to the dramatic final group stage matches. You do generally want 'bigger' latter stage matches, but as neutrals (although not here), you do also want exiting KO matches, and none of the 'lesser sides' have been in front yet, and they've all been at least 2-0 down at some stage.