2026 — The Tournament Of A Lifetime

World Cup News

World Cup 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico has reached the knockout stage. Here are the forthcoming games and where you can watch and listen to them in the UK. During the tournament, 54 matches will be shown live on the BBC, including the final on 19 July, with 92 games on BBC Sounds and every single match covered on the BBC Sport website and app. Everything you need to know about the World Cup

World Cup News

Education minister Jacqui Smith suggests ‘disco nap’ on Sunday so everyone is fresh as a daisy on Monday Keir Starmer wants children up and ready for school on Monday morning regardless of the England game being played at 1am UK time. After England qualified for the next round of the World Cup on Wednesday evening after their win against the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the head coach, Thomas Tuchel, urged parents to let their children bunk off school so they could stay up to watch the match against Mexico. Play could last until at least 3am. Tuchel said: “Write an excuse for school and let them watch football. They have so much school to go to, but the World Cup is every four years. Let them watch, there will be a big, big match in four days and we need the support of everyone and especially of the children.” But Starmer disagrees. When asked if children should stay up to watch the game, his spokesperson said: “It is up to parents to make their own decisions. We want everyone to enjoy the game but children should be at school on Monday.” The spokesperson added: “The education minister Jacqui Smith put it very well. She is having a disco nap on Sunday and then back at work next day … the prime minister is facing the same dilemma as everyone else on whether to stay up.” England will travel to the Azteca stadium in Mexico City – where the Argentinian player Diego Maradona scored his “Hand of God” goal against England 40 years ago in the 1986 World Cup. The babysitting app Bubble said there had been a 50% rise in Monday morning bookings as parents appeared to be opting for late-night football over the school run. Smith suggested young people would miss out on important learning if they followed Tuchel’s lead and wrote excuses to schools. She told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “I don’t want to be a killjoy, but I’ll tell you what the biggest killjoy is – young people who don’t have the learning to be able to go on and do what they need to do in life. “I quite understand if people want to watch the match, including young people – I will be. I’ll be having a little disco nap in the afternoon and I’ll be celebrating our victory the next morning when I go into work, looking obviously as fresh as a daisy.” England fans have been campaigning for an emergency bank holiday on Monday so people can watch the game without having to worry about going to work. But a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said that while they were “backing the England team all the way … the current pattern of bank and public holidays is well established”. There could, however, be a bank holiday if England wins the World Cup. Starmer previously teased that an extra bank holiday could happen on 20 July, but said he didn’t want to “jinx” the tournament by announcing one ahead of time. If Andy Burnham is confirmed as the next Labour leader, as is widely expected, he is likely to take office on 20 July.

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“For us now, it’s absolutely not a time to panic,” Anthony Barry urged in his now customary half-time debrief, with England 1-0 down to a Democratic Republic of Congo side playing with serious confidence. Thomas Tuchel’s No 2 coldly broke down what was required in the second half – “not a time to play gung-ho football” – but was done dirty by the stat that flashed up on the BBC’s coverage as he spoke. The last time England went on to win a World Cup match in which they conceded first? West Germany in the 1966 final. Yes, you may panic. Dear England, were you ready to accept defeat, to scrape hard for excuses? This was a Lionel M exhibition, of course – even if it was Mpasi in goal rather than Messi up top. And you can forget about England’s right-back problem: how about that display from the Croydon-born Aaron Wan-Bissaka, even if he was playing for the opposition? Maybe it was time to pack up and accept that a home Euros in two years is the more realistic shout, bursting with that third-time-lucky narrative. The last decade has been a good run. We move. Harry Kane wasn’t having it. With his late double he turned a potential re-run of Iceland 2016 into Slovakia 2024, and served up a reminder too: England are, believe it or not, quite good at this nowadays. This was their 10th knockout victory at a major tournament in the last eight years; the previous 40 years produced just six. They haven’t imploded in quite some time and Kane is a major reason with 11 knockout goals in five tournaments. “They’re all sharks,” proclaimed Tuchel when discussing Kane and fellow Ballon d’Or! Ballon d’Or! Ballon d’Or! contenders Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland. “If they smell blood, they come and score.” That all sounds a little too intense for the kids, but Tuchel wants them to stay up in the UK and watch England take on Mexico in the early hours of Monday BST. “Let them watch,” tooted Tuchel. “There will be a big, big match in four days and we need the support of everyone and especially of the children,” he added, stopping just short of breaking into a rendition of Greatest Love of All. With the tournament co-hosts unbeaten in 10 World Cup games at altitude inside the gargantuan Azteca, England could do with help from all corners. Last-32 week continues apace. Join Rob Smyth at 8pm BST/3pm EDT for Spain 3-0 Austria then our US counterparts will be on hand at midnight BST/7pm EDT for Portugal 1-0 Croatia (aet). To round things off, we’ll also bring you Switzerland 3-2 Algeria at 4am BST/11pm EDT. If you’re not already doing so, check out Big Website’s Instachat account, now featuring Barney Ronay’s latest GWC diary, DR Congo and England fans taking in their last-32 meeting, plus a snazzy visualisation of Harry Kane’s winner. “I don’t know why they were arguing but I like that – we need that kind of grit on the pitch. When I took the team over 18 months ago, I thought they were very good when in control of the ball, but I thought they were not aggressive enough and that’s not how you get a result – you need to be solid, you need to battle to be there. We’re a better team if we keep this up” – Rudi Garcia is happy to see more set-tos between his Belgium players if it fires them up like it did in the wild 3-2 comeback win after extra time against Senegal. double quotation markAs an ex-pat Sassenach now living in Edinburgh, capital of the Democratic Republic of Scongo, I can only express my frustration at Harry Kane for depriving the locals of what would inevitably have been an extra bank holiday today. Oh well, all attention now turns to the wee small hours of Monday, when Edinburgh becomes the capital of MexiSco” – John Collins. double quotation markThat was a statement win. I think we deserve to get one of our exclamation points back. Can we please at least be USA USA USA! now?” – Pat Condreay [thoughts? – Football Daily Ed]. double quotation markAt the risk of turning this newsletter into the Chocolate Daily (Football Daily letters passim), as a French expat in Canada, I’d like to point out that chocolate is one of those foods with a pretty long shelf-life at room temperature, meaning that, in most civilised countries, it really is not that hard to purchase and enjoy very fine chocolate indeed. That said, if England and the USA USA USA really want to duke it out for the title of Worst Chocolate, maybe ask Fifa to organise an alternate GWC?” – Pierre Igot. double quotation markWhile I agree that American artisan chocolate is very good, I want to say that Hershey is the Fifa of chocolatiers. Don’t believe me? I’ll refer you to the upcoming biopic of its eponymous founder, which seems, at least judging by its trailer, to be the United Passions of confectionary films” – Kári Tulinius. double quotation markMarcelo Bielsa laments that no one cares what he knows. Has he not met Jonathan Wilson?” – Steve Mintz. If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Steve Mintz. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here . The latest World Cup Daily podcast is freshly baked – with an added flavour of Harry Kane. Listen to it here, or watch it here. This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

World Cup News

"I still talk to him," Ruben Neves says about Diogo Jota, his close friend and former Porto, Wolves and Portugal team-mate. It is a year since Jota, while a Liverpool player, died in a car accident in Spain, 11 days after marrying his long-term partner Rute Cardoso. His brother Andre Silva was also killed in the accident on 3 July 2025. "Few people know this," Neves, who is wearing Jota's number 21 national shirt at the World Cup, told Portuguese TV show, external Alta Definicao. "We have a WhatsApp group with Rute and Diogo, and it's still there, and we continue to talk there. "Whenever something special happens, I have the conversations archived on my WhatsApp so I can continue to send him messages." Jota, 28, was on his way back to Liverpool for pre-season when the car, a Lamborghini, left the road because of a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle. He was making the journey to England by car and ferry as doctors had advised the forward, who celebrated winning the Premier League title two months earlier, against flying because he had undergone minor surgery. One year on from his passing, Portugal play Croatia in Toronto on Thursday evening (00:00 BST on Friday morning) for a place in the last 16 at the World Cup. It promises to be a highly emotional occasion for head coach Roberto Martinez, his players and staff, and the thousands of Portugal fans who have flooded into the Canadian city for the match. "Diogo is our sun and our light," says Martinez, who named Jota as an honorary 'plus-one' player when he announced his squad in May. "We want to win the World Cup for him." 'A symbol of hope & inspiration - Jota was a Portuguese hero' He became a symbol of hope and inspiration back home after going from his hometown club Gondomar to Pacos de Ferreira, then to Porto, Wolverhampton and finally Liverpool. Jota's path to stardom was highlighted as a rare case of an elite Portuguese footballer who never spent time at any of the big three academies - Benfica, Sporting and Porto. Just like at Liverpool though, his death has had a profound effect on the national team, for whom he scored 14 times in 49 appearances. As well as carrying the weight of expectation on their shoulders at this tournament, Portugal's players also carry the weight of grief for a team-mate who would have been among them this summer. While his ​absence has been felt deeply, Jota's memory lives on and his presence has been felt at this World Cup, from Houston to Miami. A black and white picture of Jota celebrating a goal for his country has been displayed on big screens as the Portuguese national anthem has rung out before matches. "Diogo was a player deeply loved by the Portuguese people," Miguel de Silva, the Portuguese-Canadian owner of the Amigos da Dundas sports bar, located in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood, says. "I think what he brings to the Portuguese players will be something special. Just one more reason for them to win the match [against Croatia]." While fans have turned up for Portugal's matches wearing shirts with Jota's name on the back, players including captain Cristiano Ronaldo are wearing special wristbands during matches in tribute. The wristbands in Portugal's green and red colours are a gift from Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and carry the names of all squad members alongside that of Jota. "The story of the wristband ⁠is, when we went to meet with the prime minister, he offered us this wristband," says midfielder Vitinha. "They made ​sure that it was a wristband that we could wear on the pitch. It has all the specifics for us ​to be able to enter the pitch with it, with the name of all the players plus the special name of Diogo Jota." Vitinha appeared in the opening group game against DR Congo in Houston on 17 June, where Jota's parents Joaquim and Isabel were guests, and wiped away tears in the stands during an emotional tribute to their sons. "Representing Portugal at this tournament was a dream Diogo nurtured with everyone who loved him," Fifa president Gianni Infantino wrote on social media, external after meeting the couple. "While celebrating these moments of togetherness, we continue to keep Diogo and Andre in our thoughts." The funeral of Jota and his brother was held in Gondomar, on the outskirts of Porto, on 5 July 2025. Neves helped carry Jota's coffin into the church, just hours after competing with Al Hilal at the Club World Cup in the United States. The midfielder has since had a tattoo on his left calf of him embracing Jota, who is wearing his 'Diogo J' Portugal 21 shirt. "I and the entire national team team will do everything we can to keep Diogo here with us, on our team," Neves added. "The day after the news, for me, is the most difficult day of my life. The most important aspect for me to be able to play was wanting to play for Diogo first." While Liverpool have revealed images of the new permanent memorial, external at Anfield in tribute to Jota and his brother, Portugal unveiled a bronze tribute, external at their training centre close to Lisbon. Martinez says Jota's death "hurts beyond football" but his spirit is a driving force at the World Cup. Portugal have struggled to fire at the tournament, winning just one of their three group games. However, the 2016 European champions will book a last-16 showdown with Spain or Austria if they defeat Croatia. "Diogo's dream is still with us and he sets the standards, he sets the light for the direction of this group," adds former Belgium boss Martinez. "Every day is difficult. When we are training, there are always moments when Diogo comes back into our memory. "I think the anniversary is just a moment that makes this game [Croatia], Diogo Jota's game. "Diogo will always be with us." England were 15 minutes from humiliation - the issues Tuchel must solve

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Results with the greatest rankings difference at the tournament in North America Ghana and Cape Verde were ranked 73rd and 67th in the world respectively heading into the World Cup. However, defying the odds, both teams have managed to push through the group stage and into the last 32, winning and drawing against opponents with far higher Fifa rankings. This chart shows the biggest upsets of the tournament so far, and the difference in ranking for every team. This only shows results with a rankings difference greater than 30, so some matches, like Australia’s win against Turkey, don’t make the cut. The Cape Verde head coach, Bubista, said his team had “shown that nothing is impossible” after his side secured a historic meeting with Argentina in the last 32.

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Captain played in deep horror of Iceland defeat and he rescued an England team who were sliding towards disaster Well maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me. On a wild, boisterous, often agonising afternoon under the giant Victorian railway dome of the Atlanta Stadium, the Democratic Republic of Harry Kane progressed to the last 16 of the World Cup. With England playing like a team terrified of their own feet and 1-0 down to an excellent DR Congo, Kane decided something else was going to happen, scoring two goals in 11 minutes towards the end to turn disastrous defeat into joyful relief. In the process he also saved Thomas Tuchel’s job and perhaps the jobs of his bosses at the Football Association. Because England really had gone at points in this game. The first hydration break was one of the more extraordinarily strange moments in their footballing history. England had been horrible to that point, not just tactically unbalanced but confused and unhappy, clanging the ball about between them like men punting an empty paint pot along a motorway verge. Even the faces of the England players seemed to crumple, to look sad and tearful, already off on a shared trip down the time tunnel through the pain of Iceland, Croatia, Norway, Graham Taylor wandering down a touchline in Rotterdam saying sorry, I’m sorry. So the players gathered on the touchline, just as the stadium PA boomed out Heyyy Baby, I wanna know, as the Atlanta Falcons cheerleaders writhed on the massive screen, as Reece James took Jude Bellingham to one side, whispering urgently in his ear, soothing his humours. At this moment Tuchel called for, of all things, calm. Tuchel was here in black summer shirt, black slacks and white trainers, strolling sombrely, like an undertaker on a cruise holiday. He bent into his players’ faces, talking relentlessly, conveying system tweaks, process advice, the need for certain key collective movements to be regeared. Nobody was calm. This was not calm. Fast forward to the final hydration break and the scenario was almost exactly the same. England had created chances, had drawn some wonderful saves from Lionel Mpasi. They’d surged, then re-faded and re-shrunk. They were still 1-0 down. Country Roads, take me home, the PA blared this time. You said it, John Denver. That final break really was a reckoning up. This was heads-on-pikes territory. It was a parade of heads on pikes. Everything is bigger, brasher, more pulsating in America, and England were facing surely the worst tournament defeat since their first significant one, the USA, 1950 Belo Horizonte, and all that. Iceland in Nice was bad. But England were a terrible team then too. This iteration has reached two major finals. Even the basic setup of Tuchel’s appointment was facing a hilarious punchline. Thanks, Gareth. You were fine. But we’re going to get a proper manager now. The goal, we were told, was to win the World Cup or die trying. Well, RIP to that. Again Tuchel spoke to his players, firing out his words, machine-gunning that semicircle of bowed heads with ideas, thoughts, restructurings. Maybe footballers at this level really can absorb that level of detail under this level of stress. They certainly didn’t look like it. At which point Kane produced perhaps his best moment as an England player, saving not just a knockout game, but a moment of generational trauma in waiting. As they trotted back out England had a front five, with only Elliot Anderson behind and Declan Rice at right-back. But they were driving forward too, right to left, Rice reaching the byline, crossing long, the ball picked up by Anthony Gordon. He put it back in for Kane to head across goal, powerfully enough to beat Mpasi’s flailing hand and bounce into the net. Atlanta Stadium erupted with a rolling wave, not of joy but of relief. And England pressed on as the DRC tired so close to the line. It was Kane again, from Gordon’s pass again, whirling and twisting and shunting the ball on to his right foot inside the box. The shot was brutal, righteous, blazed into just the right spot below the bar, the net still billowing out in a lovely loose ripple as England’s bench emptied on to the pitch. And this was a moment for Harry. Kane played in that Iceland game in 2016, the deep horror of Nice and the heart of darkness, the abuse of Raheem Sterling, fans jeering about the Euro currency in the stands, Roy Hodgson appearing like a pickled vampire the next day. Ten years on he did the other thing here, took England from 1-0 down to 2-1 up, saved another day in another time. It seems deeply odd now there was talk that Tuchel might kick things off 18 months ago by looking beyond Kane. In Atlanta he saved not just Tuchel’s job but reputation. Kane has five goals at this World Cup and 84 for England en route to the inevitable hundred. His career is utterly remarkable given the sheer depth of will required to reach these levels from his early days. Even the strike to win it told a story, the sweetness of that connection 85 minutes into a game of frustration, dead ends, running hard. England will now play Mexico in Mexico City in the last 16. Nobody really knows if they’re any good. They looked like a team of loose connections from the start here. The Atlanta Stadium is perhaps the best at this World Cup given it is actually in the city, surrounded by streets and walkways as opposed to that feeling of visiting a vast and deathly Bladerunner-style out-of-town shopping mall. Atlanta is brutally, sappingly hot, the kind of heat where just walking across a double lane highway is a full body assault. Under the dome the air is cool, breezy, light, shifting around in pleasant little micro gusts. But there were issues even before the start. England kicked off with a Spence-Madueke right side. Is this good? Noni Madueke in particular is a one-footed work in progress for such a key role on such a vital stage. They did almost nothing for six minutes. At which point the DRC scored a lovely goal made by some strange defending. Spence followed Noah Sadiki’s run, leaving an unchecked acreage of space behind him. This was where England feel the lack of a career defensive midfielder, the kind of player who tracks these runs with a genuine mania. A diagonal pass found Brian Cipenga, who shot low inside Jordan Pickford’s near post. A goalkeeper at this level would expect to save it. Otherwise England looked like what they are, a chucked-together collective. How have they looked to build a team in the past 18 months? Some buzzwords, a little gimmickry, a great deal of turnover in players and combinations. For long periods ragged English naivety was exposed by DRC tactical discipline. Bellingham ran around a lot, leaving the DRC an extra man in midfield. Pickford pumped his arms up and down wildly, like Jerry Lee Lewis hammering at a piano keyboard, which, surprisingly enough, didn’t have the effect of calming everyone down. The relief at the final whistle was profound for England’s players and fans as they sang together at the far end. All the roads we have to walk are winding. The lights are blinding. England made chances here, and they will cling to that. They showed real spirit to turn the game around. Above all they have Kane, a temporary fix for a great deal of wrong, but on days like this a one-man national team.

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Hundreds watched England in first round of knockout stages at Prospect Building in Bristol Sisters Angela and Christine hugged, danced and shed a tear or two at the final whistle as England squeezed past the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “That was brilliant,” said Christine, a 51-year-old lifeguard. “Watching England is exhausting, emotional, often heart-breaking but we love it. You’ve got to relish the ups and downs.” Angela, 53, who used to coach a girls’ team, said it was “sort of fun”. “I knew Harry Kane would come good in the end,” she said. “Wonderful.” Her daughter, Jodie, 29, wearing a Wayne Rooney shirt, said a treasured family memory was her standing on a pub bench when she was a toddler yelling “Shearer! Shearer!” “Football is just great. We love nights like this,” she said. The trio were among the hundreds who watched England in the first round of the knockout stages of the World Cup on big screens at the Prospect Building in Bristol, said to be a former torpedo testing site, now a cavernous event space behind Temple Meads station. Shanika, 21, a flight attendant, said she thought England could go to the final. “It’s us v France,” I reckon, she said. But she admitted she had been impressed by England’s opponents. “My heart dropped when the DRC scored,” she said. “But when Kane got the winner, it was just: ‘Oh my God!’” Her friend Gracie, 20, also an airline worker, said she wished England had brought along other creative players such as Cole Palmer and Phil Foden. “But we’ve had a great night. There’s always something with England – it’s never easy.” Dave Wooldridge, the event host, said the World Cup excitement had grown in Bristol with the start of the knockout stage. There are a growing number of England flags on pubs, houses and cars and there was certainly an early rush hour as people left work to catch the game. Wooldridge said his main job was to cheerlead for England but also to be respectful towards the DRC, whose country is coping with war and Ebola. “Yes, it’s about England and I don’t want to sound corny but it’s also about the world, different cultures coming together. The DRC team is a beacon of hope for the country,” he said. England’s bright start was greeted with excitement – the seventh minute DR Congo goal was met with a shocked silence. Howls of frustration followed when England gave away a string of fouls and were guilty of a series of sloppy passes. The first hydration break for the players prompted many of the Prospect Building fans to slip out in search of a stronger drink. Some lingered in the sunshine outside when the game restarted. “We’ve got better players than them,” said Stan, a 50-year-old builder who said he had given himself the day off to focus on the match. “But they’ve got the spirit, the heart.” The England shirts worn by fans at the Prospect Building reflected decades of joy and despair. Some wore replicas of the 1966 shirt England won the World Cup in but there were also quite a few examples of the greyish kit Gareth Southgate was in when he missed his penalty at Euro 96. There seemed to be more vintage names on the backs of the shirt – Gary Lineker, David Beckham, Alan Shearer, Paul Scholes – than current players. Halfway through the second half, shoulders had slumped. A mum put a comforting arm around her young son in an England bucket hat. He still believed: “Kane will get us some goals in the end.” And the England striker duly delivered. The England captain’s goals were greeted with joy and relief and led raucous renditions of “Don’t Take Me Home”, a song that became synonymous with Welsh fans at Euro 2016. Fans poured out of the Prospect Building full of beer, joy and hope. Peter, 34, a taxi driver, said he’d be back to watch England’s next game against Mexico. “I reckon we could get a result there. And then we’ll see.”

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Despite a softening of his cutting edge and an international career defined by near misses, the forward is expected to cause problems for Australia It was fitting that it was Mo Salah who scored to put Egypt ahead in their World Cup match against New Zealand a little over a week ago. The Pharaohs, for all their achievements in Africa, had never won a World Cup match. Fighting back from 1-0 down to the All Whites, Salah helped engineer a long-awaited victory, at the same time moving to within one of Egypt’s record goalscorer Hossam Hassan, also the team’s coach at this tournament. “In years to come, we will remember that this was one of the achievements in history,” Salah said after the match, which finished 3-1 and all but secured the nation’s progression to the last 32. As Hassan, Salah and the players were celebrating in Vancouver, swarming fans brought honking traffic to a standstill in Cairo to recognise the achievement. “Egyptians always knew that in past World Cups, whether that be in 1990 or in 2018, we always had the idea that the team has what it takes to get through the group stage,” says Saher Ahmed, a journalist with Egyptian football website KingFut. “But somehow we never do.” Salah has been a stalwart for Egypt across 119 appearances, including reaching the 2018 World Cup, but his international career has been defined by near misses. He has never won the African Cup of Nations, making his debut for the Pharaohs a year after their most recent success in 2010 – their third win in succession. “People still look at certain players who played for the 2006, 2008 and 2010 teams, and they’re confused as to why some players were able to be stars at that time and Salah – who has had a much better club career – hasn’t been able to do half of what they did,” Ahmed says. “Salah is obviously the best player ever to play for this national team, but not with this national team.” This World Cup campaign – likely Salah’s last – therefore carries extra weight. Apart from his goal, he assisted Emam Ashour’s opener in the 1-1 draw with Belgium in Seattle and his corner was headed in by Trezeguet for the sealer in the victory over New Zealand. According to Ahmed, a deep run at this World Cup would enhance the standing of Salah, but without an Afcon title he would still struggle to usurp former Al Ahly forward and Egypt teammate of Hossan, Mohamed Aboutrika, as the greatest Egyptian player of all time. “Even though people acknowledge he’s achieved much more than Aboutrika, they still see Aboutrika as a much more useful player for the national team and a much more skilful player.” Traditionally a forward playing off the right wing, Salah is known for cutting in on to his preferred left foot. But in this tournament he has adopted a more central starting position, playing off Omar Marmoush in the first two games, although Trezeguet replaced the Manchester City forward in the starting side for the match against Iran. “I think it’s a new version of Mo Salah at the moment,” Hassan said before the Iran match. “He plays in a new position, he ​plays very freely in a very creative way.” Any optimism around the team, however, was tempered by the sight of Salah coming off against Iran and icing his hamstring. The longtime Liverpool striker left Anfield on the eve of the tournament after a season marred by a feud with now-departed manager Arne Slot and a slow softening of his legendary cutting edge. For fans of Egypt however, the season ended with more pressing concerns. Salah limped off against Crystal Palace in April, and there were fears his World Cup might be in jeopardy. What appeared to be a hamstring injury was subsequently described by Liverpool as a “minor muscle injury”, and he returned to farewell fans in a final appearance in May. There was some consternation therefore when, against Iran, Salah asked to be substituted with half an hour remaining, and he was seen icing his hamstring on the bench. It looked like he might have aggravated that injury, and that his World Cup was again at risk. “Hardcore fans who watch the sport a lot were worried, but [other] people don’t have that much anticipation that Egypt is going to go through,” Ahmed says. After jogging in trainers at Egypt training on Monday, Salah was pictured in the main group on Tuesday wearing boots. A post on the Egyptian Football Association’s ​social media said he participated in a portion of the session. For Salah, not only is there a place in the last 16 on the line – and a likely clash against holders Argentina – Egypt’s talisman is just one goal from equalling Hassan as the country’s record goalscorer with his tally of 69. The controversial manager won the African Cup of Nations as a player three times across a 20-year career, lifting the trophy at home in 2006 as captain at 40. “The most important thing is that we win,” Hassan said before the tournament. “If [Salah] scores those goals, it’s good for Egypt, and good for me personally … because it will make a difference to me as a manager, and it means our generations complete one another.” Ahmed believes Egypt’s campaign is already a success, whatever happens from here. “We already made history,” he said. “[The Socceroos match] is more than a bonus game, but it’s also a bit, ‘at least we finally did that.’”

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The Socceroos have never gone to spot kicks in a men’s World Cup but can turn to strategies as they prepare for the last-32 clash with Egypt Germany know it. So do the Netherlands. The pain of the penalty shootout is the cruellest fate in football, the individual spotlight on the kickers serving only to embarrass those who fail the sport’s most basic test. Australians understand the stakes well too. Though the Socceroos have never faced a shootout in a World Cup, the most replayed moment in the history of men’s football in Australia is John Aloisi’s penalty to defeat Uruguay in the World Cup playoff in 2005. The memory of Cortnee Vine’s 2023 winner for the Matildas against France perhaps exceeds even Aloisi’s spot kick. The double-sized World Cup knockout rounds started this week and after two shootouts in the first four matches, their significance appears to have doubled as well. Ahead of the showdown on Friday against Egypt in Dallas (Saturday AEST), the Socceroos have already started thinking about who will step up in case penalties are needed. Midfielder Connor Metcalfe says spot kicks will be part of their preparations. “We’ll probably practise it towards the end of the week because it’s always a possibility,” he says. Some will need the practice. Socceroos full-back Jordy Bos says he has never stepped up to the spot before. “I haven’t actually taken a penalty professionally, but maybe that gives the keeper nothing to go off, so [it could be] a little secret,” he says. “I’ve practised penalties in the past and yeah, they’re not bad, so we’ll see what happens.” They are answers that make Prof Robbie Wilson, a University of Queensland academic and Socceroos fan, nervous. “No one bloody listens to me at the moment, because – despite what everyone thinks – football is a very, very conservative industry,” he says. Wilson is an ecologist, but has also turned his mind to the science and probability of football, most recently in a paper he co-authored on the optimal strategies for penalty shootouts. Using hundreds of thousands of simulated shootouts, they found that if a team kicks first they should order their penalty-takers from best to worst. It’s simple confirmation that teams should not risk having their most reliable scorer be unable to take a kick, if a shootout ends before the allotted five attempts each. Wilson’s work also measured the increase in the win probability of a team that follows this strategy, against one that uses a random order. “That increases your probability of winning a penalty shootout by about 5% to 10%,” he says. “Now, that might not seem a lot, but that’s a massive amount when the status quo is 50%.” (The success rate of the team going first, and especially winning the toss, is higher than 50% in recorded elite shootouts.) One problem, however, is that high-pressure penalties – let alone full-blown shootouts – rarely come around and are impossible to practise, and the actual effectiveness of a penalty-taker can be difficult to measure. Wilson argues that’s no excuse, however, and players should put in the work with coaching staff diligently recording their best strategies for placement, power and degree to deceive the goalkeeper. “We’re talking hundreds of penalties to get this information and replicate it well, even before we put on the psychological issues and measuring that as well,” he says. Players stepping up to the spot under the most pressure fare the worst. The paper looked at World Cup and European Championship shootouts and found that attempts in which a miss would immediately eliminate the kicking team were converted at a rate of 60%, about 15 percentage points lower than early, low-pressure penalties. It also found players are most likely to face “shoot to win” or “miss and lose” moments earlier if they are the second team taking penalties. As a result, coaches should identify the most mentally resilient players and tap them for not only the fourth and fifth kicks, but also the third if they are kicking second. The research concluded that if the best penalty-takers on the team are also the players with the coolest heads, it could be worth saving them for the positions that are often high leverage, especially fourth and fifth, complicating a coach’s temptation to order his takers best to worst. “Having knowledge about the psychological robustness of each individual player adds another level of being able to be in control of your destiny,” Wilson says. “The lesson from all of the millions of simulations that we ran, is that you are better off in a penalty shootout knowing something about the probability of your player scoring under certain circumstances.” The paper acknowledges there are limitations to the analysis, including the complexity about pressure factors and how individual players respond. There are also hurdles to overcome in quantifying players’ penalty effectiveness. How can a coach measure in advance how a player responds, for example, to a must-win kick in a World Cup final? But Wilson says by creating some incentives or punishments in training can help replicate at least some of the pressure. In the secretive Socceroos camp, no one can be sure exactly how much emphasis Tony Popovic is putting on penalties, or how much scientific literature he has been reading at night at the Claremont Resort in Berkeley. But after watching even early kickers struggle in the two shootouts on Monday (Tuesday AEST), Wilson’s arguments may carry weight. Of course, the Socceroos last-32 match against Egypt may not go to penalties, if Bos’s confidence is anything to go by. Socceroos fans can expect the team to score, he says, even if they have not found the net in the past two matches. “We’ve had a couple of chances and on a different day I think we will score,” Bos says. “I think the goals will come.”

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When Germany crashed out of the 1998 World Cup – a miserable 3-0 quarter-final defeat to Croatia – the DFB hit the factory reset button. Youth coaching was overhauled, as was the scouting system designed to spot the talent, and it was made compulsory for the 18 top teams in the country to build performance centres. Euro 2000 came too soon for any meaningful impact on the German national team – the defending champions finished bottom of their group – but the wheels were in motion. Das Reboot was born, and a generation of footballers later, Germany would again be world champions in 2014. “At least 10 players who are involved in the national team today we would have never found otherwise,” swooned Dietrich Weise in 2015, a key figure in the earlier revamp. “Think of Toni Kroos. He hails from a small place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. No one would have looked at him.” It’s hard to know where the next Kroos will come from, or what steps the DFB will take following Germany’s Geopolitics World Cup humiliation: a penalty-shootout defeat (!!!!) to plucky Paraguay, who had never previously scored a goal in World Cup knockout football. One suspects another German factory reset is needed, but the country was too busy sticking Das Boot into Julian Nagelsmann and co on Tuesday to think about that. Bild’s front page described the result as “the next German football nightmare”, while columnist Marion Horn went a step further: “German football is now living solely off its past reputation. And if I’m to believe Lothar Matthäus, then within the team, it was a more important issue whose mother was allowed to fly on the private jet and whose was not, than how we would win the cup.” The hottest take, though, surely belonged to Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz: “Even though the elimination hurts: What a game, @DFB_Team!,” he finger-on-the-pulsed. “With your commitment and team spirit at this World Cup, you have thrilled our country. We are proud of you.” That freezing cold take from a politician wasn’t quite as bad as David Cameron, supposedly a long-time Aston Villa fan, telling an audience he supported West Ham, but it wasn’t far off. The Paraguay president, Santiago Peña, read the room a little bit better, immediately declaring a national holiday on Tuesday following his country’s historic win. For Germany, the road to 2030 starts now. Unfortunately for Nagelsmann – or Jürgen Klopp, or whoever else is put in charge of this mess – the revolution will be televised. We go again: join Scott Murray for Côte d’Ivoire 1-2 Norway from 4pm BST (1pm EDT). Then it’s over to Will Unwin for France 3-1 Sweden (10pm BST/5pm EDT), before Mexico 1-1 Ecuador (aet, 5-4 on pens) at 2am BST (9pm EDT). Vamos! “When we have the ball we don’t have a problem, when we don’t have possession we’re going to have to be efficient. But we have a ­capacity to generate danger, which is a strength, and I want us to keep it” – France head coach Didier Deschamps issues a warning to the rest of the tournament. double quotation mark It looks bleak for upcoming games, For who is replacing Reece James? It should have been Quansah, Instead might be Konsa … Will England be shot down in flames?” – Nick Smith. double quotation markThe Memory Lane image of Claudio Gentile taking down Maradona (yesterday’s full email), made me realise what this tournament has been missing: pantomime villains. Uruguay teams of yesteryear would proudly collect their red cards in the first 10 minutes of vital World Cup games, not the last. Even Portugal have become hard to hate, given how mean-spirited you have to be to scorn a group of young men helping an elderly gent across the pitch” – Justin Kavanagh. double quotation markRe: soccer (Daily letters passim): The great Sir Matt Busby, whose Proper Football credentials need no AI verification, titled his autobiography ‘Soccer at the Top’. Let’s move on: there are far more important reasons to berate Americans, like the disgusting stuff that passes for chocolate over there” – Antony Crossley. double quotation markFair play to Germany for consistently boycotting the round of 16 during World Cups in countries with questionable human rights situations. Gotta respect that! – James Vortkamp-Tong. double quotation markIf the James Bond franchise is looking for a name for their new villain, may I recommend Mullin Markwayne?” – Krishna Moorthy. If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Nick Smith. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here . This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. World Cup Daily looks back over Monday’s heavyweight last-32 clashes, as Brazil survive and advance but Germany and the Netherlands crash out. Listen here. David Squires’ latest, up-to-the-minute GWC cartoon includes a German mullet, Casemiro’s brat summer and a Wordle easter egg. Get stuck in.

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Let me know if you agree by ranking them yourself at the bottom of the list. It speaks volumes of the man that Messi is that he did not step away from international football in 2022 after winning the World Cup at the age of 35. Now 39, Messi is obliterating record after record at this tournament. No man has scored more goals in World Cup history than Messi's 19, to go with eight assists. He has now scored in seven consecutive World Cup games. In 2014, he won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player when Argentina lost in the final to Germany. He won it again in 2022, leading his country to their first World Cup title since 1986. This is his sixth time playing at the World Cup, with his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo the only other outfield player to do so. Messi's next game will be his 30th for Argentina at a World Cup, in a career spanning more than 200 international caps. It will feel odd at the 2030 World Cup when, in all likelihood, he will not be playing. On Saturday, Modric, at the age of 40 years and 291 days, became the oldest player to record a World Cup assist. "He plays as if he were 20 years old. He was incredible. He's our leader and our best player," said Petar Sucic, his Croatia team-mate. And you only have to look at how Croatia have fared in the past two World Cups to get an understanding of his legacy. In 2018, Croatia stunned everyone to reach the final, where they lost to France, and last time around, they came third - with Modric's display across 120 minutes as a 37-year-old against Brazil in the quarter-final, a clear standout. For a nation of just under four million people, Croatia's recent World Cup runs are nothing short of remarkable. Only five players have made more than Modric's 22 appearances across five World Cups. He made bow in 2006 and he is another player to have played more than 200 times for his country. The World Cup remains the one major trophy that has eluded Ronaldo. No man has more international caps (231) or goals (145) than the 41-year-old, who made his Portugal debut in 2003. In 2016, he led his country to success at the European Championships but this is his sixth time at the World Cup and he is yet to better the run to the last four in his first appearance in 2006. Nevertheless, a record of 10 goals in 25 World Cup appearances is impressive and so is him becoming the only man to score at six World Cups - even if Portugal's emphasis to play around him is a constant talking point. Ronaldo knows this is probably his last chance of winning the World Cup. "I'm back," he said, after scoring twice against Uzbekistan last week. Back, but for how long? It would be easy to judge Neuer on his performances in recent weeks, which have been far from convincing, but there is a reason why Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann asked him to come out of international retirement. The Bayern Munich keeper is one of the greatest of all time. Neuer, 40, won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 and the Golden Glove that summer. This is now his fifth World Cup and in that time, he has played for his country 23 times at the finals, since making his bow in 2010. A forgettable tournament this time round with Germany exiting in the last 32 may well tarnish Neuer's World Cup legacy but he will forever be remembered as a World Cup winner in 2014. The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Neymar at a World Cup is Brazil's campaign at home in 2014. The then 22-year-old took on the weight of a nation scoring four goals in five games, before his tournament came to a crushing end, when he broke a bone in his back during the quarter-final. Brazil were then mauled 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals. In 2018 and 2022, he scored twice in each of the tournaments, with Brazil exiting at the quarter-final stage. At 34, and against the odds given his injury problems since 2022, the chance remains to win a World Cup for his country and the tears that flowed from Neymar after his return for Brazil against Scotland spoke volumes. He may no longer be the main man but the boyhood dream is still a possibility for a player with eight goals and four assists in 14 World Cup games. De Bruyne was part of Belgium's Golden Generation that never truly delivered. A quarter-final exit in 2014 was followed by a semi-final defeat in 2018 before Belgium were knocked out of the group stage in 2022. Rudi Garcia's side take on Egypt in the last 32, knowing that a potential tie against the United States awaits. Now 35, De Bruyne is playing in his fourth World Cup and has scored in three of those, with four assists, in 16 appearances. It might come as a surprise that Van Dijk has only featured eight times for his country at a World Cup but the Netherlands did not qualify the 2018 tournament - the year when he moved to Liverpool. The Dutch were impressive in 2022, where they were knocked out on penalties by eventual winners Argentina in the quarter-finals. And in the space of three games this year, they had already scored as many goals as they did in five games in Qatar - although they had also conceded the same amount as in 2022 too. Van Dijk, the Netherlands skipper, opened his tournament with a goal but it ended with a penalty shootout defeat by Morocco in the last 32. At the age of 34 will this be Van Dijk's last World Cup appearance? When Egypt beat New Zealand to all but secure their place in the last 32, it was their first World Cup win since 1934 and Salah was integral to it with a second-half goal and assist. This is the 34-year-old's second time at the finals, with Egypt previously qualifying in 2018, to end a 38-year drought, before missing out in 2022. In Russia, a far-from-fit Salah scored twice but his nation lost all three of their group games. His overall World Cup tally is three goals and two assists in five games. Salah's Egypt face Australia on Friday for a place in the last 16 that could see the him come up against Messi. No South Korean player has scored more goals than Son (three) at World Cups or played more World Cup matches (13) than the 33-year-old. But this World Cup is already over for his country. The former Spurs player may get another go in four years time but he is no longer the force he once was, as shown by his group-stage displays, where he failed to score or get an assist. Son was dropped from the starting XI for the final group game. The South Korea captain has played in four World Cups and his highlight remains 2018, where he scored against Mexico and Germany but he and his countrymen have failed to come close to the standard set by the 2002 team that reached the semi-final on home soil. Before 2018, Senegal's solitary appearance at the World Cup was in 2002. With Mane they have qualified for the past three World Cups. The 34-year-old scored his only World Cup goal so far in 2018 but a knee injury kept him out of the 2022 tournament, when Senegal were eliminated in the last 16. That was after he scored the winning penalty against Egypt in a play-off to help his country qualify for the tournament in Qatar. Like Salah, it would be a stretch to see the former Liverpool player at the 2030 tournament. Senegal take on Belgium on Wednesday for a place in the last 16. What information do we collect from this quiz?Related topicsFIFA World Cup 2026FootballMore on this storyPlay BBC Sport's new World Cup predictor game Everything you need to know about the World Cup

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Dutch coach to ‘reflect on future’ after shootout loss Mohamed Ouahbi says Morocco can be ‘unstoppable’ An embattled Ronald Koeman said he will consider his future as manager of the Netherlands after they were eliminated from the World Cup by Morocco. The Netherlands tumbled out on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the last-32 tie, the pill even more bitter to swallow because they had been leading at the start of added time. Issa Diop cancelled out Cody Gakpo’s goal and, in a spiky post-match press conference, Koeman said he will decide whether to continue his three-and-a-half year tenure, which is his second in charge of the national team. “No, I haven’t,” he said, when asked whether he had already handed in his resignation. “I’m going to reflect on my future. This is straight after a game and the disappointment is so fresh in your mind. I’m going to reflect on it and maybe I’ll come to a conclusion by tomorrow morning.” Koeman came under fire for selecting a five-man back line and setting up a team that, for long periods, were content to operate on the break. “You can think whatever you like but we gave away much less against a team that was stronger than [group stage opponents] Sweden and Tunisia,” he said. “If I had to do it again I’d do it all the same way. As the Dutch coach when the equaliser is scored I am always going to be scolded for the fact I chose five defenders. “But you criticise, which is your right. You watch from the sidelines, I’m here with the team and, once again, I’d do it again.” The Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi admitted he had not expected Koeman’s team to adopt a more defensive posture. “We were taken aback by their formation,” he said. “When we saw it we knew they wanted to defend in a low block. That’s not usually how they play and we had to adapt. I saw this type of play as a form of respect.” Ouahbi’s team will face Canada next and are on course to face France, who beat them in the Qatar 2022 semi-finals, in the last eight. Expectation is rising that they can at least emulate their feat four years ago, when they finished fourth. “Talk is cheap, it’s what we can do on the pitch that counts,” Ouahbi said. “The World Cup in Qatar changed the mentality of the Moroccan team. We’re unstoppable if we play the football we know how to play, but if we get things wrong we’ll go home.”