yoshi

Maybe a better way of doing it than daily threads. Today we have Portugal v Morocco, Uruguay v Saudi Arabia, & Spain v Iran.

After England's escape, it's time for the second phase of the group stage - after the last 4 teams to play make their debut.

Daily threads are the way to avoid World Cup discussion becoming a mess, plus a desperate attempt to try & keep this board going. I'm sure we had them in Brazil. Anyway...England's turn to see if any slight hope is justified plus Panama arrive at the World Cup, that looks pretty open now.

Brazil & Germany on the same day. Thankfully for those of us with Brazil in the sweep, not in the same stadium :p Also a game that isn't as hyped & will probably be the best of the day. More fun in Russia!

Welcome to day 3, where for some reason, there's already 4 games. Particularly special day for Iceland, making their debut against an already-upstaged Lionel Messi.

Day 2's live chat - Egypt v Uruguay is on, & nothing has happened yet.

Probably the most convincing argument against expansion of the tournament ever made - they actually qualified. It's always good for the tournament to have the host start well though - & Saudi are still higher ranked than Qatar :p

And our first example of how VAR is going to kill the feeling of this tournament...if the fabled Russian hackers want to use their powers for good, disable the VAR system

Very odd & hectic - and a nagging feeling that we'd suddenly woken up in 2001.

Robbie Williams has appeared - this is a sign that we have started, apparently.

BBC 5 live's presenter is annihilating the Russian language, which can only mean that it is time to get going - discuss the opening ceremony & match 1 of 64 right here

If bids 'led' by one main host with 2 or more smaller hosts are OK now, maybe it's time for England to work with Wales, Scotland, NI & maybe the Republic of Ireland to bring the World Cup here in 2030. The 12-year gap between European hosting will have passed & this process felt much less controversial - an ideal opportunity to try again.

We haven't even started yet & we already have a candidate for the Roy Keane Memorial Award for Meltdown of the Tournament: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/13/julen-lopetegui-sacked-spain-manager-real-madrid-job Spain have sacked their manager for going to Real Madrid without telling them, because it's not like they play their first game in 51 hours or any...oh.

Glorious timing

Anyone know when the vote & result are due to happen?