The logical place to start this week is England’s 4-2 win over Croatia. I thought they were outstanding in the second half, playing with a brilliant tempo. The first half was okay, but you could sense how disappointed assistant coach Anthony Barry was when he gave his half-time analysis to ITV.
They then responded perfectly in the second half, and could have won by an even greater margin. It’s a good start from England, but the only worrying thing is conceding the two goals. Saying that, there’s still good quality in that Croatia team, and these things can happen.
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England looked a bit nervous at the start of the game, and I was surprised Marc Guéhi didn’t start, as I thought he’s England’s number one centre back. But Thomas Tuchel went with John Stones and Ezri Konsa instead. There will be better teams that will cause England more problems at the back, but they will also create other teams plenty of problems too, as shown when Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers came off the bench on Wednesday.
One of the stand-out performers was Jude Bellingham. I loved his tenacity, will to win, and the way in which he tracked back and closing down attacks. It just makes me laugh how he gets a lot of bad press when he’s just a person who wants to win at all costs. He’s world class, and proved it once again.
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He kept Rogers out of the line-up, who is also a top player. But in big tournaments, you sometimes need to go with a bit more experience. Bellingham got the nod and thoroughly deserved it. There’s no question now that Bellingham should be starting in that number 10 role. He turns up at big tournaments.
All of the tournament big hitters have played now, and we’ve already seen some cracking storylines develop. Spain drawing with Cape Verde was a huge surprise, but they didn’t have the likes of Lamine Yamal or Nico Williams playing. Cape Verde’s goalkeeper Vozinha was also fantastic, going from being a player nobody had heard of before, to becoming one of the stars of this World Cup so far.
Nearly all of the superstars have scored, but the only one who hasn’t is Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal. Although, you have to give DR Congo a lot of credit for that. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi’s hat-trick was phenomenal and I thought that Argentina as a team were very convincing and really impressive.
Senegal made it difficult for France at the start, but Didier Deschamps’ side have some x-factor players. None more so than Kylian Mbappe after he scored two brilliant goals, and was arguably unlucky not to win a penalty too.
I don’t think Sadio Mané gets a touch on the ball. I was watching it live with my sons and I said straight away, ‘stonewall penalty.’ Mané’s rushing back, and doesn’t get any of it. They’re trying to say Mbappé’s left leg collides into Mané, but there’s nowhere else he can put his back leg.
I thought it was a bad decision. And I don’t understand either of the two red cards for South Africa in their opening game against Mexico either.
Themba Zwane was penalised for swinging his arm, and then Yaya Sithole was sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity after bringing down Brian Gutiérrez, but he wasn’t even through on goal and there were other defenders coming back across as well. But other than that, the refereeing has been good and we’re not talking too much about it, which is nice.
The focus is now on the second round of group games and it’ll soon be time for England’s next game on Tuesday. I hope they play like they did in the second half throughout the whole match against Ghana.
I watched Ghana against Panama and thought they were lacking a lot of quality until Brandon Thomas-Asante came on to make an impact and set up the winner. Tuchel could go with the same team again, but he has a lot of options to change it around if he wants.
He could bring in Saka for Noni Madueke, or Rashford for Anthony Gordon. There was also a slight concern over Declan Rice, who appeared to go off with a little niggle, so we might see a change there too.
But you need to play your best team, as you only get one chance to top the group. It is so important to finish first and avoid playing one of the top teams sooner. If they play like they did in the second half against Croatia, they’ll be too strong for Ghana, and against Panama in the last group game.
