Good grief, I just had the misfortune to read the comments under a Talksport review of the England match. The racism is strong in this one…
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The England r32 match vs DR Congo will be on BBC ONE on Wednesday 1st July with a 17:00 kickoff time:
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That should be doable 
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Absolutely moronic. The players were already unhappy with Bielsa, he is stepping down, and instead of turning the page, the AUF decides to be punitive. Players had already decided Bielsa was the problem, and they didn’t pick him.
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I was a fan of the CL revamp and definitely in the minority on TAN. More matches, more opposition, and easier for the big boys to reach the knock outs before the draw lottery. And then it all happens.
Similarly I don’t mind the new WC set up. Akin to CL, it’s easier for the big guns to reach knock outs with more low ranked teams and 3rd place safety.
Round 3 was good over the last few days, a bit like the CL last round craziness as teams desperately try to qualify. I found it quite exciting particularly for the non top 10 countries with all the “are we through or on our way, who are we playing if they score” permutations unfolding. The ever changing 3rd place ladder seemed to hold quite a bit of interest!
Anyway it ramps up now whether we like the format or not. I’m in.
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The only problem with that is there was an advantage to the teams who played later because it was clearer what was required to progress.
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That’s true as the poor Scots and others were hanging around waiting for the execution or glory.
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Well then… let’s go Congo
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Iran have really been fucked over.
- Forced to travel far more than all other national teams because of the Trumpistan fuckers, and thus having less recovery time.
- Falling victim to two teams who already knew that a draw would both qualify them. Of course, the draw happened, and of course, one of these two teams was Austria.
This World Cup is an embarrassment.
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The US coverage of it was incredible. Approaching the 90 minute mark at 2-2 there started being murmurs of discontent from the stands. The commentary started explaining the response but did it such a fucky way. “Casual fans might not understand this…” ignoring that it had been 2-2 for 30 minutes and it was only now the game was settling in. And there were still 2 more goals in this game anyway 
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In the end, I think this is an unfair criticism of Algeria and Austria. They did both play cautiously at times, but the game opened up in the second half - and with two goals in time added, both were clearly going for the win. A much better match than I expected - I hadn’t bothered to watch the first half because my expectations were so low.
Agreed that Iran was otherwise treated quite unfairly.
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Bah, everything must have been staged, like in catch. The more spectacular it is, the more staged. 
Ok, I admit that my comments were maybe a bit harsh on these two. 
I saw the first half and just knew that it would be a draw, so stopped watching. Didn’t expect a 3-3 though…
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Iran were literally screwed over by everything bar the one thing that was likely to be a screw job.
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I am not sure what you guys hope to achieve discussing who is gonna win the world cup when all of us know it would be Cabo Verde.
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Imagine the ref blew the whistle before Austria could equalise. Now, there we can start another conspiracy theory. 
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The Clive Thomas manoeuvre?
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You know another Austrian who had dark charisma and was involved in a number of conspiracies
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They can say whatever they want after the fact.
" A group of Peruvian shamans remove the Ghanaian witch doctor’s curse from Harry Kane… and he scores again!
The same Peruvian shamans predicted Maduro’s downfall and the multiple conflicts throughout 2026"
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Trust me before the game Algeria wanted to bury Austria because of what happened in the 1982 WC when both Germany and Austria colluded to eliminate Algeria who had beaten Germany and Chile to get 6 points which they thought would qualify them easily. What happened today was as soon as Austria scored they sat back in a low block and invited Algeria to attack them then when they obliged and they equallised then they scored again and went through the same scenario and when Algeria equalised to 2:2 Algeria again sent everybody to sleep including the Austrian team for 27 min passing the ball around and then in extra time Mahrez pounced and scored what he thought was the winner the ref added another minute to extra time and Austria wth 39 sec left on the clock equalised all this debunked the theory that they would collude for a draw.
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