As Switzerland and Brazil booked their places in the round of 16 for the World Cup, it was confirmed that every Newcastle United player who flew out to Qatar is still in the competition.
The three England representatives face Senegal tomorrow night. A tricky task at the best of times, but this has truly been a World Cup for the underdogs so Southgate’s men can’t afford to let their concentration slip like they did against the USA.
There’s been a clamour for Kieran Trippier to be reinstated at right back over Kyle Walker, and I do believe that will happen. I think Trippier was merely rested for the Wales game and Walker was used to deal with the pacey threat of Dan James, but now it’s down to the knock-out stages, Southgate will want his best men out there and that, for me and many others, is Trippier.
I obviously don’t expect Callum Wilson to start, even if he looked more dangerous in the 35 minutes he played against Wales than Harry Kane has looked all tournament. And Pickford will be between the sticks leaving Pope on the bench.
Elsewhere, Garang Kuol’s Socceroos made it out of the group stage, but is yet to start for Australia in this tournament, but he has made a cameo off the bench, so maybe we will see him again.
Schar finally got some game time last night, starting for Switzerland in their 3-2 win over Aleksandar Mitrovic’s Serbia and earning himself a 99th minute yellow card. While that game was taking place, Brazil were falling to a last-minute 1-0 defeat to Cameroon with our Bruno Guimaraes on the pitch from the 55th minute and, like Schar, finding himself in the referee’s book late on with a booking on 85 minutes. That defeat didn’t stop Brazil from qualifying, however and Brazil and Switzerland progress to the knock-out rounds.