![\"Fifa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5YSXOTV6WES2HNLCTYHZKSL6LU.jpg\")
Fifa president Gianni Infantino at the game between Canada and Morocco in Houston on Saturday. Photograph: Alex Slitz\/Getty Images <\/p>\nThere was, you might have noted, a mountain of chat about altitude issues in advance of England\u2019s game against Mexico, but it left some folk a little confused.<\/p>\n
Liam Gallagher: \u201cEvery time I\u2019ve been to Mexico, everyone\u2019s been lovely. I don\u2019t get all this bad attitude nonsense; it\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reply: \u201cI think it\u2019s \u2018altitude\u2019, not \u2018attitude\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallagher: \u201cAh okay got ya ffs I\u2019ve been sitting here scratching my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flavour of the tournament? Not Infantino Fifa president Gianni Infantino at the game between Canada and Morocco in Houston on Saturday. Photograph: Alex Slitz\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
You might have noticed that the cameras at these World Cup games are always rather eager to pick out Fifa president Gianni Infantino sitting on his throne, looking on. But according to Copa90 presenter Eli Mengem, broadcasters are actually obliged to show the fella, lest we viewers think he isn\u2019t turning up for any games, maybe hanging out at the White House instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been told by someone [very] reliable in the broadcasting world, the answer is yes, once per half,\u201d Mengem said of this requirement. \u201cThey don\u2019t show it in the stadium, though, due to the booing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s some lad, Infantino.<\/p>\n
Cape Verde put the boot into Messi <\/p>\n
Imagine if you weren\u2019t a football fan, so chose the time Cape Verde were playing Argentina to do a little grocery shopping. And found yourself in the store just as Lopes Cabral scored a worldie to equalise against Messi and Co.<\/p>\n
Quote<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked for my jersey, everything \u2013 on the field, they kicked the crap out of me.\u201d \u2013 Lionel Messi reflecting fondly on his meeting with Cape Verde.<\/p>\n
Number: 18<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how many days Herve Renard lasted as Tunisia manager, resigning after taking over from Sabri Lamouchi, who was sacked after their opening 5-1 defeat by Sweden. Short, but not so sweet.<\/p>\n
Word of Mouth<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed that we are not only a team who plays flashy attacking football \u2013 we know how to play ugly football. If we have to put our hands in the s**t, we will put our hands in the s**t. They thought we\u2019d show up in tuxedos, make some fancy moves, but football\u2019s not just that.\u201d \u2013 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 on how France survived that, eh, tussle with Paraguay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have got four red cards in that game.\u201d \u2013 Zlatan Ibrahimovic on how he would have fared if he\u2019d come up against Paraguay. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t expect to win anything with a 41-year-old leading the attack. The ego is holding the team hostage. At this point, his aura is supporting him more than his legs. Continuing to start him is pure nostalgia-driven madness.\u201d \u2013 Zlatan again, this time on Cristiano Ronaldo \u2013 who will now, inevitably, score a hat-trick against Spain. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe hugged me and said: \u2018You are great. Your people should be proud of you\u2019. That was incredible for me. Hearing words like that from someone like Leo Messi means a lot to me.\u201d \u2013 Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha, making us love the Messi man even more. <\/p>\n
\u201cMan, we were the better team. We were the much better team in the first half, and even at the beginning of the second half. It was one play that made it 1-0, otherwise the game was ours. I\u2019d rather be us than them!\u201d \u2013 Jesse Marsch after his Canadian side lost (checks notes) 3-0 to Morocco.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am 100 per cent sure I am not a genius, but at the same time, I am 100 per cent sure I am not a fool.\u201d \u2013 Carlo Ancelotti putting himself somewhere in the middle of the smarts scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Italy, they say that all men want to be coaches and all women architects. I don\u2019t know if I understand football or not; the only thing that\u2019s certain is that I\u2019ve prepared for over 1,400 matches. That may not be enough to understand football, but it\u2019s certainly a good amount of experience.\u201d \u2013 Carlo again, this time with a message for his critics in Brazil.<\/p>\n
World Cup wall chart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was, you might have noted, a mountain of chat about altitude issues in advance of England\u2019s game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,2956,61,60,4018],"class_list":["post-534662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}