I was not a fan of the expanded groups but to be fair to some of the teams they’ve shown they’re capable enough to be here.

Will the curse of ITV strike again? Since 1998 England have had 10 wins, 11 draws and 12 losses when shown live on ITV. Compared to 21 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses on the BBC.

It use to mean something to qualify for the WC, remember feeling the pain in 1974 & 78. But now even tiny Curacao can get in and you still have this ludicrous situation where you play 72 games to eliminate 16 teams followed by 31(?) games to eliminate 31 teams, a fair few on penalties

Any debate about Messi v Ronaldo is now over.

Why bother having qualification at all? Have a straight knockout when England beat the Solomon Islands 21-0 at home, win 9-0 in Pakistan, drub Angola 5-0 at Southampton, win 3-0 in Israel before bowing out to Morocco 2-1

I have better things to do with my time, Teacher.

Well done to the DRC - now let’s see England bucking the trend of the “big” team drawing with the minor one…

Pete - I’ve just searched back through my own posts back for 10 pages, then I got bored of reading them - I didn’t find a single example of me commenting on someone else’s political post. Please let me know if you find one I’ve missed. Kite - I’ll try to avoid that if you prefer, but as I usually agree with things you say, I might forget from time to time, and I was genuinely interested in your upcoming trip to Bali, etc, and I honestly do hope you enjoy that.

Evening, Mr Kite.

I honestly don't know why you have to comment on my posts at all. Maybe just pass on by?

Why does Roy Keane always look like he's got a wasp up his nose?

48 is the mistake, if they wanted more, go to 16 groups of 4 and the top two of each group progress, second placed teams playing winners. And have two games in the preliminary groups on simultaneously.

If political posts don't bother you at all, don't comment every time one appears.

It is a good job that FIFA ignored those moaners moaning about the expansion of the World Cup. Qatar, Cape Verde and now DR Congo get their first WC points. And previous expansions have seen Morocco and Japan being proper WC nations who will give you a game

Look at Ronaldo - is he gonna cry again…?

OI - indeed.

Well done DRC!

If you post here and aren't Paddington, some other poster here dislikes you and wishes you wouldn't post. Worth remembering before getting in too much of a row.

Kite - your post wasn’t political, and I have said MULTIPLE times that it doesn’t bother me at all (read back if you’ve forgotten). I’m unsure which bit of the wink you don’t understand - if I’d meant it the other way, I’d have obviously used exclamation marks. Thanks for the instruction to stop commenting on political posts - I hadn’t realised that I now must take my orders from you, but here we are… Now, let’s all get on nicely and enjoy the England game together 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

No way does a silly emoji excuse you. That was Martin Drake's modus operandi, so quit commenting on political posts

Kite - again (for the nth time…) the “wink emoji” (or whatever you want to call it) at the end of my comment should have made it 1,000,000% clear that I was NOT in fact calling you out for a political post, but was pointing out that basically “be careful or someone might call that a political post”. I’m very sorry if that didn’t register with you - I didn’t see it as a political post, HENCE the wink, again… I agree with almost everything you say on here, and I’m sorry that one was totally missed/misinterpreted - genuinely sorry.

Get the Um Bongo’s down lads.

Portugal 78% possession and 2 shots, Congo 22% and six shots

a4e, you seem to be the arbitor on what is and what isn't a political post. How is the mention of an MP who resigned in Makerfield a political post. Please explain

..-. --- is what I will be signalling during tennis fortnight. Bastards are only carrying either rich bastards, or strawberries. Why helichoppers can't fly higher so's we don't hear them is anyone's guess.