World Cup 2026: Egypt furious after Argentina shoot-off win, Switzerland triumph in shootballs – live | 2026 World Cup
Important events
Maybe Lionel Messi could do with watching this video – Our Nikhita Chulani sifts through the data to search for the perfect fine.
EU lawmakers want Infantino to be investigated over the Trump phone call
Just in, from AP.
A number of European lawmakers are rallying support for a European Parliament inquiry into Fifa chief Gianni Infantino over his involvement in the decision to allow USA striker Folarin Balogun to play despite an earlier red card.
Balogun was shown a red card during the US’s World Cup victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1, which would normally have ruled him out of the team’s next game, but Fifa overturned his one-match suspension on Monday after US President Donald Trump intervened with Infantino on behalf of the 25-year-old forward.
Members of the European Parliament Barry Andrews, Lara Wolters and Niels Fuglsang in a joint statement said that the decision of the governing body of football in the world “to change the rule of suspension of red cards in the middle of the tournament is a disgrace and a perversion of justice.”
“We have also seen Infantino and FIFA surrender to the demands of the Trump administration,” the statement said.
Lawmakers are asking the national football associations of EU countries to urge the Fifa Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino and whether pressure from the Trump administration influenced the lifting of the suspension, as well as “other possible violations of political neutrality” such as awarding Trump the FIFA Peace Prize.
FIFA said the lifting of the suspension was the decision of the disciplinary committee.
The lawyers said that so far 35 of their colleagues have signed the letter.
“The beauty of sports is that it is based on fair and transparent rules. If Infantino allows political pressure to decide who will play, this sense of fairness goes out the window,” they said. AP
World Cup Daily is down. Get your ears on Max, Barney, Archie and Barry chewing the fat on yesterday’s action.
On this day in the history of the World Cup, in 1990. There was a toss-up between this final and the 2010 final as to which was the worst World Cup final, but this tournament produced the winners they deserved, West Germany defeating an unsuspecting Argentina thanks to Andreas Brehme’s penalty.
“Neymar’s consolation penalty against Norway in the World Cup means that his first international goal, which he scored in his first game, was at the same stadium (MetLife) as his last international goal in his last game,” wrote Griffin Cant.
Find the answer to this and more in this week’s information:
First time to test BTLand the areas in question in Argentina-Egypt are incredibly dominant.
Here is MarkWatson1:
double quotation mark Well, you can bet your house on Argentina (Messi) winning the World Cup again. In the past few days we have seen it collapse like a sporting spectacle. First the red card of Donald Trump was revoked and now the criminal of Egypt during the day. VAR should have been used to ensure fairness but instead it is used to tip the scales in favor of whoever is scheduled to go through to the next round.
And a common name:
double quotation mark The Egypt goal was duly disallowed, I was looking at the hip/leg contact and thought it was no foul but the replays show a clear shirt pull. Salah’s trip just before Argentina’s goal is a bit different, it looked like a foul play and if the referee had given it to VAR he probably wouldn’t have ruled it out, but he didn’t and VAR tried to replay the incident, it was hoping that a penalty would be given there, and maybe it should have been given but once it was accepted that maybe not all the contacts were 100% unplayed at the time.Great comeback for Argentina though
Whatever your opinion, it shows that Trump and Infantino’s behavior with Balogun’s red card raised suspicions in everything that happened in this tournament. And it shows – for the millionth time – that VAR does not bring certainty or consistency. Burn it in the sun.
You may have missed it … here is a scathing critique of Fifa’s handling of Folarin Balogun’s red card case by Barney Ronay:
double quotation mark Frites 4 Cheats 1. Tintin 4 Tonto 1. Some good news here, maybe. It seems that Gianni Infantino was right. Football has brought the world together. In particular, football has united the world in the satisfaction of happiness in the USA coming out of its World Cup competition as soon as possible following the great intervention and the fame of Donald Trump Mr-Fix-It.This was the tone of the immediate reaction from around the world to the defeat of the invertebrates of the USA in Seattle on Monday night, struck loudly by Belgium that is fair and very determined: the country of beer, waffles and sports justice. Ghent 4 Badge 1. Antwerp 4 Twerp 1. Mayonnaise 4 May-interrupt-due-process 1. I could go on. What time do you have?
So far much of the US domestic response has focused on the interesting but unimportant part of this, even though it has an inherent appeal to a divided nation’s heartland. Did the noise about Trump’s intervention, the acceptance, which is denied by Fifa, of prima facie attempted sports corruption with the ban of Folarin Balogun (Trump’s direct words: “I made them do it”) destroy the team’s chances?
Was this a case of the Trump Exposed Reactor Core Phenomenon, a term I just coined for the dynamic where Trump melts everything he touches while living in an indestructible space, still blasting his dark energy into the sky?
Osasu Obayiuwana
First quarterfinal, Morocco v Francemay be the most attractive and interesting of the four equals, Mohamed Ouahbi’s team – and the only African team to reach the last 8 – are chasing a second semi-final in a row. Osasu Obayiuwana has a lot.
double quotation mark Over the past six decades, Morocco has won several African World Cup performance awards. The first country to go directly to the finals in Mexico in 1970, they returned in 1986 to become the first team on the continent to reach the Last 16, then made an impressive run to the semi-finals in Qatar four years ago.Even if the Atlas Lions fail to match their performance in 2022, by losing to France on Thursday, they have made history as the first African team to reach the quarter-finals of consecutive World Cups.
“The general feeling, for the Moroccan people, is pride and satisfaction in this team,” said Amine El Amri, a football journalist, from his place in Casablanca, who was closely monitoring the fans’ situation with the team’s performance. “The main goal before the competition was to reach the quarter-finals, given the context, given the change of manager, with the departure of Walid Regragui and the arrival of Mohamed Ouahbi. I think the victory in the Netherlands strengthened Ouahbi’s reputation as a reliable coach. Many doubts about him were removed after that game.
“Beating Canada the way we did, despite a difficult first half, also added to that confidence. You have to be in Casablanca, Marrakech, all the small towns and cities, just to gauge how happy people are. [with the team]. Our Saturday night was crazy – no one slept.”
Fulham confirm Arbeloa’s appointment
Fulham have named Alvaro Arbeloa as their new coach on a three-year contract. He will hope that he will find a less comfortable dressing room than the one he had to deal with at Real Madrid. Here is the story.
double quotation mark Alvaro Arbeloa has been appointed as the new manager of Fulham on a three-year contract.The 43-year-old former Spain full-back, who finished last season in charge of long-time club Real Madrid, stepped into the shoes of Marco Silva after the Portuguese coach left for Benfica at the end of his contract.
He said: “It is a great honor for me to enter this new stage at Fulham FC, which is the oldest club in London.
“I feel a great responsibility and I am very grateful to Mr. (Shahid) Khan and Tony Khan for the trust they have placed in me and Fulham in the Premier League.
“I’m looking forward to hearing the atmosphere at Craven Cottage with the Fulham fans.”
Fulham owner Shahid Khan said: “Alvaro was the first member to make a special case at our meetings in June to be our next manager, and it quickly became clear that he was – and is – the right choice.
“I am delighted that Alvaro has accepted the challenge of pushing Fulham forward, and I have no doubt that our team, staff and fans will express what his appointment means for the present and the future of our club.”
He continued: “Alvaro, by his own admission, is very ambitious.
“He has spent a good amount of time around the best players, clubs and ways of the game, an experience that will help him here at Fulham.” PA Media
Background
Say hello to everyone. Welcome to the kind of day we haven’t had in four weeks – a day without World Cup football! It’s time to finally deal with that pile of plates in the sink, that layer of dust on every work surface, that sock calorie. Or you can just stare blankly at the screen until the quarter-finals start on Thursday, or talk about it all here.
And now we know all the quarter-finalists after one of those days that every World Cup has – an exciting game of anger and recriminations about the bias of the big teams/players, followed by a 0-0 draw where the team that missed the most obvious chances in 120 minutes lost for sure. So, congratulations to Colombia and Egypt, and congratulations to Switzerland – in their first quarter-final in 72 years – and Argentina.
Here is the final eight schedule:
9 July France v Morocco (Boston, 4pm local/9pm BST/6am 10 July AEST)
10 July Spain v Belgium (Los Angeles, 12pm local/8pm BST/5am 11 July AEST)
11 July Norway v England (Miami, 5pm local time/10pm BST/7am 12 July AEST)
12 July Argentina v Switzerland (Kansas, 8pm local time/2am BST/11am AEST)
Here are yesterday’s reports:
