After a first-half that was disrupted and devoid of much in the way of goalmouth action, things came alive in the second period. We took the lead through a well-worked goal from Gordon but couldn’t survive the relentless Argentinian pressure and lost to two well-taken goals. BEFORE I was expecting France to win the trophy so I was surprised at how comfortably Spain dealt with them yesterday evening. If we do manage to get through tonight's game, we now know the quality of what we'll be facing...

This was a great battling win and all credit to Norway for taking it to the limit. Before I have a certain affection for Norwegians dating back to the 1960's when we had hundreds of Norwegian students in Sunderland and they'd drink pubs like the Star dry. They didn’t have to carry any women off in their longboats as the local females seemed more than happy to socialize with them. Tonight, of course, I'll be hoping that we get past them and into the semis. I didn't watch the Mexico game live...

This was the best I’ve seen us play for a good while and also one of the most exciting goalless draws I’ve been at. We played tenaciously, at times very fluidly and more than held our own against the third-placed side. BEFORE A few more points from our remaining matches could well move us up a place or two, with us quite possibly finishing higher than Chelsea, and I think we can do that but it's going to be a hard game this afternoon. Manchester United have won three in a row while our form...