SlamDuncan

The Spanish FA is now asking UEFA to suspend them due to government intervention! Would mean clubs kicked out of European competitions and I assume the national team withdrawn from the current qualifying too? https://www.ondacero.es/deportes/futbol/andreu-camps-amenaza-gobierno-uefa-salvar-jefe-luis-rubiales_2023082864ec43655df8e30001ed7133.html

1-0 Greece

Did we not get 2 penalties in the game against the Faroe Islands at Celtic park a few years back?

Aye, I thought it was a great idea when I came across it. Just can't see the SFA ever doing something as clever as this tho... It's 2% of their TV rights revenue that's reserved and distributed for U23s playing time (so not U21s in the squad as I first said) Info about it is in this Twitter thread

In Germany part of the TV rights money for the Bundesliga league is held back and distributed to the clubs that have Germany U21's in their match day squads. No rule that says they have to have them in the squad but financial incentives to do so. Not sure you'd get Scottish clubs to agree to that kind of deal tho...

Harper moved from Malaga to Getafe in the summer and was then promptly sent back to the 2nd div on loan to AD Alcorcón...

I was unaware of the rule change so fair enough that's why it's applied here and wasn't I matches with VAR previously like LaLiga, UCL etc... Still think VAR should not be used for this but since my opinion is 'totally insignificant' to you I'll not bore you any further with my thoughts on it...

I think this is an area VAR should not be used and it really is stacked against the keeper. The problem with using VAR here is that it means applying the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it. The rule is there to stop keepers running out towards the ball, not to stop the keeper moving half a foot off the line while moving to dive. I hope the two examples of this we've seen in this tournament are enough for FIFA to see this is a wrong application of VAR. It wasn't used this way in LaLiga all last season so not sure why it's being used like that here That being said, at 3-0 up with 15 to play it's shouldn't be coming down to a last minute penalty...

At the start of the final round of group matches we needed 2 results from 7 games to go our way along with us beating Argentina tomorrow. So far 1 result has gone our way out of 5 so still need 1 more result from only 2 games! Of course, if we don't beat Argentina tomorrow it will all be academic anyway. If we do go through we'll meet Germany in the next round! Tough break...

An Italy win by at least 4 or Jamaica winning by no more than 6 will mean us winning by 1 tomorrow will be enough to send us through. If Brazil and Australia win we'll need to win and also wait for other results to go our way. Jamaica will not beat Australia so hopefully Italy can beat Brazil. Unlikely to do it by 4 though so we'll probably need to win by more than 1 tomorrow or be waiting for other results...

VAR hasn't been kind to us so it's about time one went in our favour... But that was a terrible intervention. I think that's probably an area they should not allow VAR to intervene. If between the ref and the lines person they don't spot the keeper encroaching then the keeper isn't gaining enough ground to matter...

France just missed a pen! Still 0 v 0 with 15mins to go...

Spain v China just ended in a draw...

Aye, don't get me wrong I just meant a England win or a draw leaves us in the same position. Us needing to win and try to get our GD into the positive numbers. I was not suggesting that would be a forgone conclusion against Argentina. This is all setup for everything else to go our way and then for us to lose 1-0... Argentine keeper is having an absolute stormer tonight! Saved a pen and a couple of other good saves too.

Also a draw would do us tonight, we'd still need the same result in the last game.