Even the biblical downpour couldn’t ruin the big man’s hair.

Lamppost or World Cup Winner? Discuss.

Well, it’s certainly been a World Cup to savour with shocks and excellent goals aplenty. What have been your highlights?

As usual the knockout stages have had far too many penalty shoot outs, but as that adds to the drama, no-one is really complaining.

For England the whole thing ended a bit like a damp firework failing to explode but given the limited nature of the side, was wholly to be expected.

Good luck to RC’s France and Eddie and VP’s Croatia. At least the best two players of the tournament, Modric and Mbappe get to grace the Final.

Apparently the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 will be held in November through to December. What a bizarre season that will be.

The spuds’ glove butler (© ArsenalGent) Hugo Lloris predicted before the semi-finals began that a spud would win the World Cup.

On Tuesday Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Dembele were dumped out with the meaningless 3rd place play-off the only thing delaying their flights home.

Last night potential Golden Boot winner, H Kane and his fellow English spuds were dumped out by Croatia. whose stuffed peppers were too hot for the national team to handle.

It would appear that barring a hat trick in the Final from Griezmann or Mbappe, Kane will be that Golden boot winner and reveal himself as the obvious candidate to replace CR7 at Real Madrid. Cmon Madrid, you know you want to.

So, anyway, Hugo now remains as the only miscreant left who could kiss the World Cup trophy.  So that means it’s Croatia for me in the Final. 🙂

Last night began with a bang, Trippier’s glorious free kick flattering to deceive, but ended with a whimper with the superior footballing side creating the majority of the relatively few chances created.

At least we can now go back to proper football, club football, rather than pretend we ever enjoyed following a team with Welbz riding the pine as our only representative. Cheering on Ashley Young, Dele Alli and Eric Dier has been so so difficult.

Good luck to VP and Eddie’s chequered boys on Sunday.

So, France had just enough to beat the Belgians. Umtiti from a set piece was enough with both goalkeepers keeping the score down in typical cowardly goalkeeping fashion. Fancy ruining all of those opportunities for lots of lovely goals!

On to today and the Semi the World Cup has been waiting for……

Comparing patron saints, we have St Joseph batting for The Croats….

….and St George for the English.

One nil, England. ☺

For the last few games, it has started to seem like it’s Jordan Pickford’s World Cup. A string of top class saves have kept the barbarian armies at bay.

England have been strongest at dead ball situations and will be hoping that with the firm foundation of being solid at the back, they can match the Croatians in open play as well.

Croatia have an excellent midfield with Rakitic and Modric. Will they be able to lift the rest of the team to reach an unheard of World Cup Final.

Cmon England, do it for Sir Bobby Robson!

Goals from Maguire and another England player saw off Sweden in a surprisingly comfortable victory for Gareth’s boys.

The waistcoat is still working its wonders.

Eddie and VP’s Croatia luckily beat the host nation on penalties setting up Wednesday’s semi-final showdown.

Well, La France saw off the Uruguayans without really breaking sweat. The second goal reminded me of Xhaka’s versus Liverpool.

The Flemish giants (did you notice that De Bruyne and Hazard were the only ones who looked under 6 foot?) beat Brazil and finally ended Neymar’s pathetic play acting. Good riddance.

Today has a different flavour altogether. The Little Englanders in Cuffley will be revving up listening to their Abba collections from an early hour and should be nicely pickled by 3pm.

This is the time for Gareth’s waistcoat army to rise up and quell the noise from the Swedish hordes. Can we be better organised than the Swedes? Score more from free kicks and corners? Will VAR and Harry’s pens play a part? Should be fun finding out.

Russia v Croatia could go either way, too. Home advantage could be decisive again or we could see the Modric/Rakitic show top the ratings. What do you think?