World Cup 2026: Spain v Argentina countdown, Trump to attend final, England news – live
Key events
Jeff Rueter
As is true for most of La Albiceleste, pulling on the white-and-blue turns Romero into one of 11 bleeding hearts who leave no yard uncovered and no stud unshown for the good of the cause. Partnered with Lisandro Martínez, he is the relative hardman, often the final obstacle between an attacker and Emiliano Martínez. Save for Lionel Messi and the Aston Villa goalkeeper, Romero has arguably been Argentina’s most consistent player en route to their third World Cup final in four tournaments.
Aaron Timms
Over in America, Fox’s World Cup coverage goes under the microscope as it enjoys a final hurrah.
Goodbye to Geoff Shreeves, Fox’s middle-aged Oliver Twist chirruping on the sideline for the approval of his American masters. Goodbye to Tom Rinaldi, to his pocket squares and his “lyrical” meditations on balls and planets and stars or whatever. Goodbye to Chef Nick, now forced to rein in the extravagance of his early contributions (kangaroo corndogs, fufu chicken tikka masala) in the face of the tournament’s gastronomically subdued final four. And goodbye to Jameis Winston, the Fox fan correspondent, whose distressingly antic and sweaty stadium dispatches gave him the unvarying appearance of a man being electrocuted in the middle of a baptism.
We shall begin with the latest coming out of the England camp.
Thomas Tuchel is sticking about. Maybe he will download Football Manager and avoid the temptation of going Ultra Defensive.
Unsurprisingly, the players were a bit bemused by the tactics that saw them crash out.
Barney Ronay points out the bigger problems facing England than nonsensical subs.
Why everything went wrong … in numbers.
Preamble
We can all be sure that the England postmortem will continue for a little while longer, even if there is the pointless nature of the bronze medal match on Saturday to look forward to. Thomas Tuchel’s bizarre substitutions have seemingly not cost him his job, so we cannot drag that conversation out much longer.
Hopefully, the more interesting stuff on this fine Friday is getting excited about the final. Lionel Messi v Lamine Yamal and all that jazz. It should be a fascinating encounter between one very good team and an excellent one, you can decide which is which.
We will bring you all the latest and probably chuck in a few curve balls too.
