Bellingham's Azteca Heroics & Norway Shock Brazil! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇳🇴 | World Cup Daily #35

[00:00:00] Norway beat Brazil. England beat Mexico at the Azteca with 10 men. The Golden Boot race is a three-way tie right now and Norway play England in the quarterfinals in Miami. A Nordic nation that has never reached a World Cup quarterfinal faces a team that has not won since 1966.

[00:00:23] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to FUTIN REVIEW World Cup Daily episode 35 and day 25 was thrilling to say the least. I'm Shaq as usual joined by John. How you doing Gaffer? Hello mate, I'm quite alright, thank you. You said they did not win since 1966 the World Cup they didn't win, right? Yeah, that's the most important thing. They've been winning and coming to the semifinals but that doesn't mean anything. They want to win the World Cup this time around and we'll break into that. Awesome, let's go.

[00:00:49] Two games yesterday, John. We'll talk about these games I think for years to come. Especially the England one, we'll get there. Norway knocked out Brazil, Haaland scored twice, Neymar cried. It was a bit sad to see. And Norway are in their first ever World Cup quarterfinal. England beat Mexico 3-2 at Azteca. 10 men the last 35 minutes with Bellingham scoring twice in 3 minutes and Pickford making the save of his career. Saves of his career rather.

[00:01:16] And now the best thing about this World Cup is the forwards have delivered so we have a three-way between Messi, Mbappe, Haaland. There's a lot, there's a lot happening in this World Cup. Let's get into it. Right, let's start with game one. Let's start relaxed with game one. Brazil won, Norway 2. Brazil were favourites but Norway had a plan and a goalkeeper. Nyland saved a 14-minute penalty from Guimaraes after VAR overturned the referee. Norway had 66% possession and protected that lead through halftime.

[00:01:43] Haaland came into life in the final 11 minutes. A towering header from a cross, then a fiery left foot that drew from outside the box. What a goal. It just looked like it was just standing and bang, delivered. It was Gabriel as well at the face of it. Neymar then converted a consolation penalty in the 100th minute which would have been in the last ever act in a Brazilian shirt. Just sad to see. He slumped to the turf in tears and the World Cup does what the World Cup does. And Norway are in their first ever World Cup quarter-final.

[00:02:12] John, how was that game? Did you enjoy the game? No. This was a slow game, mate. You know, like Norway has the ball. Norway is a very stable, I said it before. Norway is a very stable, strong team. A little bit of a weaker defence. So therefore they hold the ball a little bit more. A great goalkeeper by the way, who's absolutely on form, right? And that showed Norway...

[00:02:43] Brazil had the plan, let's go and counter. Norway had the plan, let's not give them the ball so they can't counter. And that led to a pretty boring match, if I'm quite honest. And not... Like they were actually standing still in possession, forward to back, holding the ball. Brazil not coming. So I was like, okay, well, hmm, something needs to happen. Because I'm glad this match wasn't at 2am though.

[00:03:12] But hey, to be fair, sometimes the qualities of these players come. Kendrick got an amazing chance after substitution, right? Brilliant pass. What a pass. Absolutely, absolutely terrifying when he's on the ball. But Norway had some good chances before that. Second half really came to life a bit, I think. And yeah, Haaland, he's not fit, mate. He's not fit. He doesn't move at all. He doesn't train. Seriously, he doesn't train. They said he was tired, too tired.

[00:03:41] But yeah, you apparently just need him for 11 minutes and that's enough. He did a bit. With this Norwegian team... I'm not even kidding though, you thought I was kidding. But that's for real, that's the official statement. Oh really? He's not fit? Oh well, he's... He's tired. If he's able to produce that kind of levels when he's not fit and tired, well, all power to England. The one thing about Norway that I think really stood out to me in this particular tournament is I knew there was going to be a usual order guard. I had, I touted Noosa to be really good in this tournament.

[00:04:09] I knew Bob was good, but I didn't expect him to be this good. All that was said and done, obviously we knew Haaland. But I didn't expect this from the defense and the solidity. And there's a stat that tells you everything about this match. Norway had 0.84 xG from nine shots. Brazil had 2.73 xG from 14 shots, including two penalties. And Norway 1-2-1. That just shows you how dominant and defensive organization this team actually implied and got through the result in a tough game. I think Nylon saved him though, because...

[00:04:39] Okay, let me summarize this. You know Brazil is used for the Joga Bonita, right? The attacking football. Yeah. Man, did they unban it at this tournament, right? It's four at the back, five at the back, two midfielders who are far beyond their... Like, to be fair, Guimara is good. You, Casemiro, please. It's not, that's not allowed anymore on an international stage. They haven't placed Fabinho in, but it's way past their time, mate.

[00:05:09] I'm sorry. Those fullbacks of Brazil, those aren't the fullbacks that you want overlapping. So they don't overlap at all. They just stay back and just make the pitch go wide, right? Yeah. So Brazil has been very, very disappointed for me. All tournament. And I said yesterday, so I think Norway is going to win this anyways, because I don't think this Brazil squad is that good. But on attack though, if you have these attackers, mate, even if they're not all fit, not all in form. Yeah.

[00:05:35] How can you play so frequently, slow and so ridiculously defensive? But still, they got some chances in because the XG 2.37 something, they got some good chances. And Nylant basically saved them. He was the man of the match for me. Of course, look, Haaland is in the end the man of the match, but Nylant did actually save him. I don't think the Norwegian team played as defensively. They just weren't eager to go forward too far. Yeah. That's right. I think, look, completely take your points on Brazil and this not being a Jogo Benito team,

[00:06:05] but they tried to play to their strengths, which was they knew they had two really good wingers, Rafinha and Benito, that they could try to play towards. But Rafinha got injured and it would pack that aside. But their strongest suit was the defensive line where they had Marquinhos and Gabriel. So they thought we can hold up, soak up the pressure and probably take the counter with our wingers and Cunha. Yeah. It almost worked. If you think about it, John, if Bruno Guimaraes scored that penalty or if Hendrik scored that goal, it would be a different outcome, I think. And you got some chances before that. So I agree on you there.

[00:06:34] But you're leaning on your defense while Gabriel made a huge mistake on that goal from Haaland. Yes. He was looking at the ball and not on the defender. And there's one rule, watch the defender. If you can't head the ball, he can't head the ball. If you look at the ball, you are going for a header. So you're messing up there. So I think he came off a little bit too weak. But the thing that stood out the most for me this match was how sloppy it was from both sides. Yeah. So many bad passes, especially in the first half. I love Nusa.

[00:07:04] We've talked about him before. Yeah. But he just goes on the right foot and tries to pass the ball. Four mistakes in the first half, got stopped out halftime. I love Huttgart, seriously. But he made two big messes up in the first half, which could have caused some goals as well, if not for Nylund saving the balls there. Because he messed one up in his own box, trying to dribble out of that. He fell over, claimed a fall, but that wasn't a fall. So very bad dribble there.

[00:07:34] So, yeah, I think they in the first time they got saved by the goalkeeper basically. And in the end, they got saved by Holland. But this is a Norwegian team, which is stable, which is strong. They got a good team spirit, which every single Norwegian team does, by the way. Even if you look at handball, for example, or you name the sport, they always have good team spirit. So this is a team that can win from every other team, I think, if things keep going their way

[00:08:04] a little bit. But I'm mostly, I'm just so disappointed by Brazil. Yeah. And I don't mind they go out. It's way, like, sorry, I'm going on a rant here. But you can say, like, I applaud Neymar for his goal and crying, but it's way past this time to be in that team, right? And that goes for Casemiro. That goes for Sandro. That goes for Fabinho.

[00:08:32] These guys, Shaq, we do a FIFA podcast normally, right? These guys were good in FIFA 17. We're now in 27. It's over. And I know Ancelotti keeps the stars in there and keeps them faithful and keep them loyal so they play for him. But it's time for them, Djokovic, Bonita. We need some new players in. And I've got plenty of talent. We just need to be fresh there. I think, unfortunately with Brazil, like, Neymar was probably not the right person at

[00:08:59] that point in time because if you put Neymar in, he can't run, which means everyone else in the team has to be reshuffled to suit what Neymar can do. Same goes for Castemiro. Castemiro, like, watching... Yeah. At the time Erlegaard got the ball, he just went to his left foot and just start dribbling and it's gone. Yeah. Casemiro has had a poor tournament, but even if you remember the previous round, he did have a really crucial goal that got them through. Of course. So he's got that in him.

[00:09:25] And for whatever reason, Guimaraes and Casemiro was supposed to be the combination that kind of could work. But apparently, Casemiro and Fabinho is a combination that should work. And I think having Paqueta really changed the way things were working. They worked pretty okay. But you can do whatever you want with this particular game, but it's the earliest World Cup elimination since 1990 for Brazil. So there's clearly a rethink and Ancelotti is not going anywhere. So hopefully there's a complete restructure of how things happen from here on in.

[00:09:54] And I think one of the saddest things I saw after the World Cup, after the game got done, was Casemiro was upset about the fact that this generation, his generation, is the only generation that hasn't won a World Cup. And that's a damning stat if you think. They haven't gone through the quarterfinals at all. It's a bit sad. For a Brazilian team, it's a bit sad. Having said that, Norway remains the only team Brazil have never beaten in the past five meetings. So essentially there's some voodoo for this particular game as well.

[00:10:23] Sometimes these kinds of things happen and records are there to be broken, but sometimes records are there for a reason as well. Five is a small margin though. I think three of them are draws, no? Yeah, true. But still, it's like your stat about Netherlands not losing a game in 90 minutes. It doesn't matter. Exactly, yeah. We've not lost a match in 90 minutes for the past 28 matches. That's right. Right. Brazil are out, Norway are through, and we still have the Azteca to come.

[00:10:52] 80,000 fans, thunder delays, Bellingham, Pickford, and one of the most dramatic second halves of the tournament. This is your foot in review hydration break. We're deep into business, into the business end of the World Cup. And there's every single day that we come here and do this podcast for you, for anyone that is listening and providing us with glorious feedback. If you have some fun, if you're enjoying this journey, just support us at buymeacoffee.com slash footandreview. Or just jump in and subscribe on Instagram at footandreview or TikTok at footandreviewpodcast.

[00:11:22] Back in three, two, one. Right, John. Game number two. Mexico to England three. This was a chaotic game. Kickoff was delayed by thunderstorms. When it started, England silenced the Azteca inside 38 minutes. Bellingham headed a soccer cross on the 35th, and Mexico's first goal conceded all tournament, that was. Three minutes later, Kane slid Bellingham through for his second. Cunones lashed out a brilliant side volley back on 43 to make a 2-1 at halftime.

[00:11:51] Kane converted a penalty on 60 to make a 3-1, then Kwanzaf sent off. Studs up, straight red. England played the final 36 minutes with 10 men. Jimenez converted on the penalty on 69th minute. Mexico could not find the equalizer despite eight second half corners. Pickford, sorry, was sensational. Ingram grew through 3-2. Your thoughts on this particular game. What a game it was. The hype was crazy, but the game was crazy too. Hey.

[00:12:20] Yeah, I mean, this football shack, this is where we do it for. This is why we stay up all night. Which in this case, I honestly didn't. Because it kept like, oh, not half an hour, maybe 15 more minutes. I just can't anymore. So I watched it this morning. The atmosphere though. Kudos first there, right? Because that is something else. That is why you turn up the television when you start a match. This is why we have Dolby Sindema on your side. This is, it is ridiculous. It's amazing.

[00:12:47] I said that the England squad was a little bit naive last time around against Congo. Like a little bit maybe overconfident or way too slow. Well, it took exactly one minute for Rice to take us for a yellow card, I think. So this game didn't start off slow. Yeah. What can we say? I think it was a 50-15 match. But England won it on merit, right? Yeah. 100%. 100%. I think one of the key things that I was curious to see because I've been seeing Mexico, I think I've, fortunately, unfortunately, I've watched every single Mexico game this World Cup.

[00:13:16] And one of the things I've noticed, especially in the past couple of games with Ecuador was clearly standing out where they just realized that they can just go ahead and attack. And the first 20 to 25 minutes, the opponent is literally just scrambling to try and control the ball. And Mexico is already in full flow. They score a goal and that crowd pumps them up to score another goal. And everything is smooth from there on in. This game, England just kept the ball for the first maybe 20 minutes, 25 minutes. England just controlled the pace of the game themselves.

[00:13:46] It was difficult to concentrate that well, but they did it. And I think the hardest part of the Azteca is scoring against Mexico and the Azteca. And England did it twice. I think once they did that, it was, I think it's one of those things when you know, sometimes you go ahead in a game and you know this game is yours. You just have to do the right things. And fair play to them. They actually held on, did the right things. And I think they got the just victory. It's probably, do you think it's one of the best victories for England in the recent years?

[00:14:14] Yeah, I reckon so, to be honest. Because it's not only on their strength or only dependent on Kane or against a weaker opponent. This was a very good match against a very good team in a situation which was everything against you. Hmm. Again, Chris said yesterday showed, I think the fans are to be applauded because they didn't wake the players up, etc. Well, they wake the players up here.

[00:14:38] So you're in a very hostile environment, in a very unnatural environment for your players at that height. And you scored a first goal as Bellingham did. By the way, that goal, the cross is about to come in and both defenders go with Kane and leave Bellingham alone. Right? So, again, there, a bit of situational awareness would be nice. But well done by, I like the way he added the ball. But the moment he hit the goal, dead silence. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:06] I think it was shock, utter shock and disbelief. And then the moment was like, okay, this, now we, like, my sleep is gone. Let's sit, let's sit straight here because this is going to be good. Yeah. Terrific, mate. Just absolutely amazing. Incredible. Incredible. I think every single bit, there was quality. There's everything. I think towards the end, England literally threw everything in the back line. Dan Byrne had so many headers out. He just kept hitting the ball. And the red card was unfortunately a clear red card, which had to be given to Kwanzaa.

[00:15:34] And it's a shame, unfortunately, because that literally actually made the game more entertaining for neutrals, I guess. But it was, it just adds to it. Red card though, right? It was red card. It was a red card. It was, yeah, there's no arguments. It was a clear red card. But I think it just opens up one more problem for England going through because the right back has been one of the most troublesome positions that they've had to fill. And Kwanzaa's out, Rhys James is out. And yeah, it's just, it's going to be a tricky situation for them to try and come up with that.

[00:16:03] So talking about, we've spoken about Norway going through, we've spoken about England now going through. So obviously the next round in the quarterfinals, England face Norway. Any thoughts on who you think will actually progress from this? Again, very much a 50-50 match. I think it kind of depends on how Norway uses the wingers this time around. If Nusa and Serlot are playing as bad as they did first off here, I think that's going to be a difference maker. But there's space there.

[00:16:31] So if they are getting there, then that might be an opening. Yeah. I have to be honest that I don't rate the defenders from England's center defender pairing as high as they do the Brazil ones. And even they messed up against Haaland. So I think the Haaland threat is definitely real. But then on the other side, I think that the defense of Norway isn't the strongest suit either, especially on the wings. So there will be plenty of chances.

[00:16:56] I think, I hope it's going to be a very open match, but I'm afraid we'll see the same pattern as we saw yesterday with Norway versus Brazil, where Norway will play very slow but stable football just to see if they can control the match and grow into that match. And it's up to England to make sure that they tilt those skills really early on. I think the approach England took yesterday is the way you should do it. Just killing into it right away and either overrun them, see if that helps.

[00:17:26] At least make it a match early on. I think that's the most important thing England should do. Yeah. I could see Norway win. I could see England win honestly. I think this one is up for grabs. Maybe 45% in Norway for 55% England sometimes. Yeah, that's completely fair. I think it's given on the day, whatever way the ball falls, the game could change. But I think it's going to be an entertaining game regardless.

[00:17:52] And I think Haaland is someone that even though Konza and Gehi would have faced Haaland numerous times in the Premier League, so did Gabriel. It doesn't matter. He's just, he's having the time of his life and he's scoring the way he's scoring. So, all proud. Never chose Kane. Look, look, Kane. I'm being overly critical on Kane today just because I lost thought on my bet because of Kane not taking a shot on goal. I lost thought on $150 because of Kane making a mistake. Well, not me. Kane not having a shot.

[00:18:21] But keep my biases aside. Unfortunately, there's been a couple of times where Kane in the previous game, he was magnificent. But I think there's times where Kane is having to go too deep and not where he probably can affect the game. Like today, after the 60th minute, I don't think Kane was in the second half. He was just in his own half as much as I can remember. Yeah.

[00:18:46] So, I think that's the part where I think Kane needs to tweak his game a little bit because he can do a lot more in front of goal. He can do a lot. He's a fantastic player. He can play anywhere. Yeah. I think the difference is you can pass the ball to Kane in the midfield and he can hold the ball and lay it back. And then you have to use the wing in England's case. While in Norway's case, you can use Haaland. Haaland has two jobs here, right? Pass the ball from the back line into him with a high ball. Hold up. Just run into a center defender and hold up the ball.

[00:19:15] Well, he definitely did that yesterday. So, without being even fit or even being able to sprint too much, he was able to just hold the ball off. That's fine. But the thing is, you can lay the ball back and then go for a sprint. You can't catch him. Yeah. Exactly. And I think the center defenders of England are not powerful enough to do that. But then again, if you just make sure you got one CDM, which I mean that England does have there, right? You can cover it all by midfield. So, I think it's going to see a possession heavy match.

[00:19:44] It's going to be interesting. And this one is actually going to be too close to call. I think I rate the back line a little bit better from England. But there against Haaland, which I think is just a little bit more dynamic than Kane. But the wingers of England are way better than the wingers of Norway. So, yeah. All of the reps, I suppose, here. We'll see. It's a good fun game for us to watch. And normally I'd say it's Pickford versus Nyland. And Nyland is super in form and he's a very great goalkeeper. And don't rate Pickford that high. But the match he had yesterday.

[00:20:14] I'm like, oh, maybe that's down the drain as well. So, you know. Fabulous. He had a fabulous game. He saved a lot of near post goals. Right. Moving on. We always have the daily show, daily segment, which is the baller, the bottler and the drama. And I want to get into the baller today. The baller today was none other than Jude Bellingham. Jude Bellingham. I love it. No, for me it was Jude Bellingham. Jude Bellingham. He delivered. Right. He delivered in three minutes.

[00:20:41] And then he not only did really well in front of goal and scored two amazing goals. He then went back and defended earnestly and actually almost had a goal line clearance where he just put the ball out. And Haaland scored twice yesterday too. Extraordinary. But Bellingham did it in the most difficult stage at this tournament, in the most hostile atmosphere in a game England were not supposed to win technically. And that's why I think Jude Bellingham is the baller for today. Yeah. I don't want to complain there.

[00:21:11] I mean, can't disprove anything of Haaland did, but I can't say anything better than Jude here. And he carried the team yesterday really well. So yeah. That's awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Now, the reason I went through that segment very quickly was we have a controversial discussion about the bottler of today. And the bottler of today, listeners, this is just our opinion, is FIFA. Cast your mind back to day 21.

[00:21:36] Florian Balogin goes in and in the 64th minute against Bosnia, he gets a straight red card. Portrino's furious says it was never a red card, no intention, misapplied protocols. Balogin is suspended. USA play Belgium without their leading scorer. Then FIFA reversed it. Balogin is now available. Here is the issue. The red card went through the full process on field referee, VAR review, confirmed dismissal, everything.

[00:22:05] The FIFA disciplinary committee quietly reversed the decision that their own officials had made on the pitch and on the monitor. No full public explanation, no consistency. The same tournament that gave Hincapié a red card for covering his mouth somehow decided that a studs up challenge in an opponent's ankle did not meet the threshold for a ban. If Balogin's red card was wrong, the referee and VAR were wrong.

[00:22:32] If it was right, FIFA overturned the correct decision without proper justification. Neither answers reflect correctly. FIFA are the bottler for today. John, what are your thoughts on this? Hadeep Psy, here we go. So, Shaq, it doesn't matter if it was a correct call or an incorrect call. Let's start there. Because you don't have a right to appeal in a World Cup. So the call is made and you got to deal with the cards you've dealt.

[00:23:02] Right? By the way, the card hasn't been rejected or it's been postponed. Yeah. Article 27 might do a different show with this week. So I have to explain what Article 27 is, but he will still get his one match suspension somewhere throughout the line. But not this year, probably. But there's no right of appeal in the World Cup, which means if a decision has been made, that decision sticks. Right? Yeah. And the fact you can now do it.

[00:23:30] I saw Belgium protesting this like, okay. And we saw Olisei who got a second yellow card. A second yellow card from that fake dive. And again, Sparuguay. France is now also protesting and wrote a letter to the FIFA saying, we want to get rid of this yellow card as well. Can you please look at this? Or can you postpone the yellow card for a year as well, please? Because else we might miss him in the semifinals, right? If they make it through. This is opening Pandora's box. And that is my main issue.

[00:24:00] And there are politics involved because afterwards we also had Donald Trump, which have been silent so far in the tournament, which maybe should have stayed silent, but that's a different story. Commenting on that FIFA did the right thing. There were matters Reuters put out a press press release that there was definitely been contact between the FIFA president and the United States president. And of course we know about corruption and stuff like it happens and it's shit. And there's everything you can get angry about it.

[00:24:30] But this has nothing to do with fair play in any shape or form. It doesn't matter if the card was correct or no, there's no rightful way to overturn it. That means he is just suspended for the next match. And Belgium should be angry. France should protest. Heck, if I was Belgium, I wouldn't even start a nice match. Screw it. Just stay there and say, you know what? We come back to you. This is what happens. Television rights, hydration breaks with one team. Good luck with that. I wouldn't even play.

[00:24:59] But check that this is a, this is a, even though article 27, of course, gives you that space to do so. There's no right to do so. I think it's a, it's a disgrace. It's utterly disgraceful. Completely. I agree with a lot of things you said, but there is also precedence to this because this exact same thing happened a long time ago, but it happened in the 1962, 1962 World Cup where Brazil's Grincha was sent off for kicking a player in retaliation for a physical tackle against Chile.

[00:25:27] At the time, red cards did not carry an automatic suspension. So the controversial ruling resulted only in a warning, allowing him to play in the final. So this is something that's happened. Same article 27 was brought up chapter four, same was invoked in back then. So the problem is doing this right now just opens up a can of worms that I don't think that are fair for an organization to deal with. It's not, it's, it's, it's, it's unnecessary.

[00:25:51] I think just leaving it to be, I think it's not like Balogun is getting a three game suspension that will never play the World Cup again. It's just one game and he did something wrong and that's the end of it. It's just, yeah. Yeah. And even if you don't agree with it, it doesn't matter. Exactly. We went to the tribunal when they, they deemed it wrong. Right. Exactly. And to be like what I, the thing is, yes, there's been precedence. Yeah. But now every, like, well, there's two ways of going at this from here on.

[00:26:21] We'll get a referee like Uzbekistan referee, which I went not on yesterday, who will not give a card because it won't matter. Right. Or you get the fact that every single card, red card, yellow card will just be a legal fight after a match. And the last thing we want is like, sometimes we do it formula one. There's been a result and we have to wait for hours because there's some legalities being fought out behind the scenes, which might cause the result or the next match or next race to be influenced.

[00:26:52] Right. We spoke about VAR taking too long, but now we get five days after the match, we get a suspension drawn in. I mean, that's a lot. That's a little bit too long. Belgium have been training for a while now on this match. And then one day in advance, they might have to redo the plan because the star player is back. Hmm. It's utterly ridiculous. No matter which way you look at it. And I don't want to get political. It doesn't even matter how this, how this came to, to exist.

[00:27:21] It's not even the discussion. There is no right to appeal, which I do think there should be. Now, don't get me wrong, but there isn't. And if there isn't, there shouldn't be anything overturned. And this isn't overturning legally. This is allowed. But yeah, I mean, only say we'll be the next one getting yellow card in the next match and we'll get the same shit happening again. And I'm sorry. Yeah. I said yes word, but this one.

[00:27:48] That's probably the more fair discussion about the fact that it should, regardless of what the drama, England have won the Azteca in a world cup with 10 men, 36 minutes against the co-host nation that has not conceded all tournament. Thomas Tuchel, whose team were described as, as alarming against the Congo, somehow guided

[00:28:17] England to a world cup quarterfinal playing some of the most chaotic nerve shredding football you will ever see. But it resulted in a beautiful, glorious game that we all enjoyed. Moving on, John, the games for tomorrow that we will cover of course on the show, Portugal, Spain, USA, Belgium. We've discussed USA, Belgium. I still think USA will go through regardless of Bolligan being there or not. That's, that's besides the point. I hope you agree. USA, Belgium. Yeah. Portugal, Spain. I think we all know who's going to win this one, but is there any chance for Ronaldo

[00:28:46] to have a swan song against Spain and kick them out? Yeah. So last time Ronaldo played Spain, he had a hat trick. So there's definitely a chance. No, I'm just saying the thing how you beat Spain is to get under the nerve. Yeah. Right? To get under their skin, I should say. Like Paraguay did to France, except France didn't bite. I think that's how you play Spain. And there's three teams in the world that are very good at getting under your nerves. One is Argentina, which is constantly under my nerves, but that's a different story.

[00:29:16] We know Paraguay is one of them and the third team is definitely Portugal. So what we'll see, I think from the straight on is the possession by Spain will be there. And I expect a very aggressive Portugal, making some falls, making some like aggressive motions, saying some stuff, getting under the player skins, hopefully a red card for Spain. And then it's game one. I think that's, that's going to be the game plan.

[00:29:42] Portugal is an excellent team, but Spain, like I said earlier, it's just fantastic. So on a normal side of the sense, Spain will win this. I expect it to be a football fight in the first half, which will, might have cooled down because of the hydration break. But the, yeah, I think the end results might be decided by the fact if they play 11 versus 11 at the end. Yeah. Cool. I think, I think Spain should, should get this one. No problem. I think. Anyway, day 25 is done. Norway are through.

[00:30:12] England are through. Brazil out. Mexico out. And Messi, Mbappe, Haaland, all tied together for the golden boot on seven goals. Brilliant. It's crazy. Belgium, USA tomorrow, as well as Spain, Portugal will be back. The quarterfinals are almost set and we will see you tomorrow. See you guys. Bye bye. Bye bye.