⚽️ Kick-off time: 8pm local/1pm AEST/4am BST/11pm EDT
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⚽️ New Zealand v Belgium – follow live with Sam Lewis
There’s still plenty of time to catch up with Max and the gang.
Feel free to keep me company by emailing your thoughts about today’s match, and anything related to the World Cup to jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.
Adidas kits are way better than those of all other manufactures.
Before the group stage I only fancied one of France, Spain, or Argentina to win the World Cup. I would now be comfortable adding Portugal to that list if Ronaldo wasn’t a guaranteed starter / or maintains the form he showed against Uzbekistan.
This World Cup feels like a reckoning for South American football. Bolivia lost to Iraq in the pre-tournament playoff, Uruguay and Paraguay have been bad, Ecuador got lucky, Colombia are dull, and Brazil are reliant on an Italian conjurer. Argentina are the outlier and it is no surprise to see how much they dominated CONMEBOL qualification.
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