{"id":546650,"date":"2026-07-13T00:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546650\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:50:07","slug":"world-cup-semi-final-just-another-game-for-laid-back-argentina-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546650\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup semi-final just another game for laid-back Argentina \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quote<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, this is a football game. Okay, so the message is this is a football game. It is a football game and we will be playing against a very tough opponent. This is a football game and that\u2019s all.\u201d \u2013 Argentina\u2019s coach Lionel Scaloni suggesting that Wednesday\u2019s World Cup<\/a> semi-final against England will be just, well, a football game. He is, of course, wrong. It\u2019s much more important than that.<\/p>\n

Number: 50.94<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the percentage chance Opta give England<\/a> of beating Argentina \u2013 and Opta know things. It\u2019s coming home, you know.<\/p>\n

Hideous hindsight<\/p>\n

There are times when reporters pine for the days when something they\u2019ve written would safely be tomorrow\u2019s fish and chip paper. But then along came the internet and, as we know, the internet is forever.<\/p>\n

Spare a thought, then, for the poor English reporter who is currently waxing lyrical about Jude Bellingham<\/a>\u2019s rather fine contribution to England\u2019s march through the World Cup, but is being reminded at every turn of an article he wrote back in November \u2013 which, alas, is still available online.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis article certainly did not age well. <\/p>\n

Yes, he suggested that Thomas Tuchel<\/a> should omit \u201cdivis\u00adive soloist\u201d Belling\u00adham from his World Cup squad because \u201chis ridiculous antics threaten England\u2019s shot at glory\u201d. <\/p>\n

Are we going to name and shame this reporter? Heck no. Glasshouses, stones, etc.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re rowing homeWord of mouth <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the ball touched the cable, then the cable had a better performance than Madueke, for sure.\u201d \u2013 Zlatan Ibrahimovic suggesting that that Spidercam cable had a bigger impact on the England v Norway game than Noni Madueke. He has a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever.\u201d \u2013 Jude Bellingham\u2019s response to hearing that Tuchel suggested England had been lucky to beat Norway. \u2018Whatever\u2019 is, of course, an Oasis tune, so expect it to replace \u2018Wonderwall\u2019 if football returns home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum\u2019s been telling me all week to watch my language, watch my tackles, watch my face, watch with my emotions.\u201d \u2013 Jude again, this time saluting his Ma for helping him avoid a yellow card against Norway, which would have ruled him out of the semi-final. The moral of the story? Always listen to your Ma. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that Senne just couldn\u2019t catch that ball, but that\u2019s football. It shouldn\u2019t be blamed on him.\u201d \u2013 Belgium\u2019s Thibaut Courtois in no way at all, at all, blaming Senne Lammens, who replaced him for their defeat to Spain due to injury. <\/p>\n

Fifa flogging the grass<\/p>\n

If you have \u20ac2,585 in loose change \u2013 and sure look, who doesn\u2019t? \u2013 we have good news: Fifa are flogging the grass from the World Cup final pitch. There are cheaper options, but for \u20ac2,585 you will get a limited edition \u201cluxury collectible elevating the display experience\u201d, whatever that means.<\/p>\n

\"TeamTeam A 1 | 3 Team B <\/p>\n

Be warned, the bit of grass you\u2019ll get won\u2019t cover your entire back garden, unless it\u2019s the size of a 3\u201dx3\u201dx3\u201d cube, but you\u2019ll also get a gold-etched metal souvenir ticket, a crystal-cut glass World Cup trophy, which appears to be the size of a thumbnail, and a mini replica World Cup final ball, all presented in a \u201cluxury\u201d wooden box.<\/p>\n

One curious note, though, which might have those alleging that this World Cup is fixed wiggling their eyebrows. The final result of the World Cup final is printed on top of the box: Team A 1, Team B 3. Team B will be England or Argentina, but don\u2019t tell France or Spain, or they might not turn up. <\/p>\n

Studied techniqueOpen invite<\/p>\n

Once again, Gianni Infantino is not ruing out the possibility of the World Cup becoming a 64-team tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely an issue that will be examined and discussed in the relevant committees after this World Cup,\u201d he said last week. \u201cThis is a tournament for the whole world, not just Europe and South America.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this rate, he might as well go the whole hog, scrap the qualifiers and let all 211 nations in the world rankings join the party.<\/p>\n

On second thought, don\u2019t give him any ideas.<\/p>\n

World Cup Wallchart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quote \u201cLook, this is a football game. Okay, so the message is this is a football game. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11148,2956,61,60,28465,112,4018],"class_list":["post-546650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-england-football-team","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546650","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=546650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}