A week ago the Golden Boot looked like Lionel Messi’s to lose. He led on goals, he led on assists,…
There is a moment, somewhere in the second week of a World Cup, when one team stops looking like a…
Some semi-finals are billed as a coronation-in-waiting; this one arrives feeling like the true summit of the tournament, wherever the…
Some fixtures carry their own history to the ground with them, and this is one of them. The last time…
Nobody grows up dreaming of the third-place play-off. Thomas Tuchel said as much this week — none of his players,…
For the Irish neutral, this World Cup has narrowed, match by match, to a single familiar shirt — and now…
There is a version of England that the rest of these islands has watched for decades with one eyebrow permanently…
For the Irish neutral, this World Cup has quietly narrowed to a single familiar shirt. Scotland’s brave group-stage run ended…
There are fixtures a World Cup simply owes you, and this is one of them. England and Argentina have not…
It is October 2025, a friendly in Tokyo, and Brazil are coasting. Two goals up with twenty minutes to play,…
Forty-eight hours before this tie kicks off, Argentina were as good as out. Two goals down to Egypt, their title…
Somewhere on a chain of ten volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa, half a million people are about…
