2026 FIFA World Cup Finals

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Famine
⚽️ - Lionel Messi (🇦🇷)
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Famine
⚽️⚽️ - Lionel Messi (🇦🇷)
Click to expand...
Famine
⚽️⚽️⚽️ - Lionel Messi (🇦🇷)
Click to expand...
Just Wait Cobra Kai GIF by NETFLIX
 
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A tournament always starts properly when the big guns turn up. Mbappe, Haaland and Messi all scoring on the same match day.
 
Jimlaad43
Mbappe and France have arrived in style. Senegal put on a great contest, but France scored 3 exceptional goals to put the game out of their reach.

Mbappe is now France's all-time record goalscorer, and has 14 Goals at World Cup finals, equalling Gerd Mueller into 3rd place overall and overtaking Messi on 13. R9 on 15 and Klose on 16 will probably see that 2nd and 1st place respectively beaten!


Haaland already on two goals, he's here to challenge Just Fontaine's 13 in one tournament record if this keeps going!
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I still think France will 'depend' more on the genius of Olise, than that of Mbappe.
Not to do injustice of his incredible skill and goals yesterday, his 1st half was absolute ****... And France was fairly lucky it was still 0-0.

On another note: Haaland and Messi are clearly top of their game and pulling their teams forward.
 
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Welp, Messi starts off the world cup with the first hattrick of the tournament and his first in his 6 World Cups. He now draws level with Miroslav Klose as the All-Time highest goal scorer on 16. We will almost definitely have a new leader by the end of this tournament, and it's just a case of can unc keep outscoring Mbappe?

Of the players at this tournament elsewhere on this list, next up on 8 goals are Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane, and then Valencia, Rodriguez and Perisic on 6. Kane seems like the only one likely to have any chance of catching up at this tournament, so we shall see.
 
France v Senegal was a great game - Senegal were very unlucky - the shot that came off the post and hit the goalkeeper's foot but went wide was so unlucky not to be a goal; and the offside goal was an absolute belter... but sadly was definitely offside.

France looked a bit lethargic in the first half, but clearly Deschamps must have put a rocket under them at half time and they looked quite mesmerising at times. The penalty decision was a bit strange - the referee appeared to be suggesting that Mbappe was looking for the penalty (probably true) but 99.9% of the time that would have been given as a penalty... fortunately it didn't end up being the decisive moment, and Mbappe's contributions after that were sensational.

Senegal looked very organised and strong - they would rip Scotland apart, so I'm more nervous about the Morocco game than ever now!
 
Touring Mars
The penalty decision was a bit strange - the referee appeared to be suggesting that Mbappe was looking for the penalty (probably true) but 99.9% of the time that would have been given as a penalty... fortunately it didn't end up being the decisive moment, and Mbappe's contributions after that were sensational.
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It was nice to see a referee watch back a decision on the screen and still stick with their original decision because we seem to be beholden to whatever VAR decides, but why did it end up being on the one that wasn't a bad decision initially?

From the front angle it looked dead set a penalty, but from the reverse angle, the right foot wasn't in any contact, so I can see why it would be chalked off for that. But Mbappe's folded left foot still hit Mané's thigh so it was a penalty. Still, Mbappe showed his class on a day of big stars properly arriving at the tournament.
 
KAlex122
Had no time for my Austrian Team this morning due to work. What was the impression of some fellow GTP-members?
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Possibly lucky to have what looked like a comfortable win on paper, Jordan looked very good at times and had more than enough chances, good ones at that. On another day it could have been 3-1 to Jordan. If Austria play like that against Argentina, they could be in a bit of trouble.
 
Portugal v DR Congo in Houston, England v Croatia in Dallas, Ghana v Panama in Toronto and Uzbekistan v Colombia in Mexico City.

Those games round off the first group stage games, the second lot starts tomorrow with Czechia v South Africa.
 
Great second half performance by England to be fair, defense was a little shaky but with that attack they can cause anyone problems.

Portugal only drew 1-1 with Congo and Ronaldo had a bit of a shocker, he has now gone 11 major tournament matches without scoring.
 
A 0-0 petering out with Bosnia holding firm and even being slightly on top...

... until the hydration break killed all the momentum stone dead, and it ended up 4-1 to Switzerland with Bosnia down to ten men.
 
Hydration break, and Qatar absolutely fall apart - though they were already 1-0 down and pretty shocking...

Edit: Yikes. Down to nine after a wholly accidental tib/fib break on Canada's Kone. Do not look it up; suffice to say it's all floppy.
 
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Famine
Hydration break, and Qatar absolutely fall apart - though they were already 1-0 down and pretty shocking...
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4-0 now and they're down to 9 men after a fairly innocuous looking challenge caused a very serious injury to Kone or Canada.

This could get really messy for Qatar.
 
I'm not saying Asian football is bent, but the idea that Qatar is the reigning Asian Cup champion (having topped its qualifying group undefeated) is risible. Canada has improved over the last few World Cup competitions, but they were already well on top before the first red card and second goal.

Which does pose a question why Switzerland was only 1-0 up and not safe from that final-minute own goal.
 
🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
The boys stepped up. The volume is insane here over this.

1st ever WC win, 1st ever WC hat trick. It's coming home 😂

Korean goalie caught with egg on his face after that fumble.
 
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Famine
I'm not saying Asian football is bent, but the idea that Qatar is the reigning Asian Cup champion (having topped its qualifying group undefeated) is risible. Canada has improved over the last few World Cup competitions, but they were already well on top before the first red card and second goal.

Which does pose a question why Switzerland was only 1-0 up and not safe from that final-minute own goal.
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Switzerland thought: we've got this, we'll control the game at 1-0, maybe make a second one near the end...

Qatar was like:
mother GIF

SURPRISE
 
US joins Mexico as advancing to the round of 32. They will learn if they stay on the west coast (Paraguay Win/Draw) or have to wait until next week to find out (Turkiye Win).
 
O. Goals is not only the highest scorer in the tournament with seven - more than any other two players combined - but he's also the USA's joint top-scorer with two goals, alongside Folarin Balogun about whom the BBC just caught up with what I was saying after the USA's first game:

www.bbc.com

World Cup 2026: Folarin Balogun, the US star who would not be allowed under Trump's plan

Folarin Balogun scored two goals on his World Cup debut, but he is the type of person President Trump is trying to ban under birthright citizenship.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
We got better in the 2nd half, and only got beat one nil so we're not out of it yet. Our current 3 points might be enough to progress depending on other results but ideally we need to take at least a point from Brazil. Nae bother.
 
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Turkey were eliminated this morning following a defeat by Paraguay, they were one of the tournaments dark horses but they have had a shocker

The game also saw the first red card for a player covering his mouth with his hand when Almiron did it.
 
Fully expected Turkey to win that. I watched the first half before calling it a night and thought Paraguay were done for with that red card. Seems like quite the fumble. 70+% possession and 3/4 of the game played in Paraguay's half without any goals is crazy work.
 
MUSC4EVER
The game also saw the first red card for a player covering his mouth with his hand when Almiron did it.
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That's Almiron been caught twice by VAR now. Caught diving in the first game (USA's Tim Ream was initially given a yellow for bringing Almiron down, which was rescinded and given to Almiron for diving) and now this.
 
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I think if the match is in an air conditioned stadium with a closed roof then they are not needed.
 
Curaçao. You can be proud of that.

Eloy Room's Instagram exploding by thousands of followers per second right now. Wild.
 
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