World Cup 2018: reaction to Germany's win and England buildup – live!

Meanwhile, the animosity between Switzerland and Serbia rumbles on, with Fifa now getting involved.

How’s the round of 16 shaping up after yesterday’s games? Likes this:

Belgium’s win may have come at a cost with key players collecting knocks. Although the battle to top Group G is far from the most fierce at Russia 2018 thanks to the wildcard that is Group H. Roberto Martinez was pragmatic about the situation in his post-match press conference.

The answer is very clear. If we could have seven days to prepare the game and then have seven days for the next game I would say carry on with the same starting XI. The reality now is that we are qualified, and in a tournament like the World Cup you’re only as good as the 23 players in your squad. There’ll be opportunities to give minutes to other players who deserve them. We need to assess the three injury concerns.”

Back to the task in hand, and Belgium’s muscular dismissal of Tunisia, featuring braces from Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard.

Andrew Benton (see earlier) may have given me a bum steer.

That’ll teach me to trust Google Translate as a sub-editing tool. And for the avoidance of controversy, I shall amend the previous post.

The combination of results in Group F leaves us with the tantalising prospect of three sides on equal points at the end of the phase. With the final group matches kicking off simultaneously I’m looking forward to a scenario where groups of players are huddled over pieces of paper like cricket captains studying Duckworth-Lewis permutations.

Raul Vilchis celebrates Mexico’s tactical versatility after El Tri shifted from a counterattacking to a possession-based strategy between their clashes with Germany and South Korea.

As jubilant Mexican fans broke out into renditions of “Cielito Lindo” in the stands, the Mexican players were able to thwart South Korea’s well-ordered defensive line with tactical discipline that drove the action to the sides of the field. The Mexicans knew how to create depth in their plays towards the goal by widening out their placement on the pitch.”

In other Group F action Mexico impressed once again as they defeated perhaps the most disappointing side in Russia so far, South Korea. Javier Hernandez bagged his 50th international goal in the process while Hirving Lozano increased the rate of inflation to his transfer fee.

Peter Rist has a VAR question. “Something I don’t understand about how VAR is bering used is: when the head VAR guy contacts the on-field ref suggesting he look at something, should the ref automatically check or not? I don’t understand why the German ref in the Swiss/Serbia game did nothing when Mitrovic was Tag-teamed in the penalty area, or when Sweden had a clear penalty shout yesterday, the ref did nothing.”

My understanding is once the VAR instructs the on-field ref to review an incident then that is what occurs. In incidents like the ones described above my presumption is the VAR decided there was no clear and obvious error worth the on-field referee’s time reconsidering. Frustrating, I know.

Somebody just reminded me of this glorious piece of Toni-related creativity as a counterweight to the Kroos supremacy. Although I’m not sure it qualifies as Tony Wilson was Tony with a y, and I’m not even sure Toni Kroos is an Anthony Kroos (can anyone confirm?). Regardless, I’ll take any excuse to share this marvellous clip.

“’Squeaky-bum time’ is apparently ‘krånglig bumtid’ in Swedish. Seems the squeaking continues for these two.” Lovely stuff from Andrew Benton who opens the email floodgates in superb fashion.

The pod point out that with just 75 seconds of injury time remaining John Guidetti shoots tamely at Manuel Neuer from a low percentage angle when he could easily have bled more time from the clock by running the ball into the corner. It brought to mind similar fateful incidents.

What other brain freezes deserve a place in this hall of shame?

Unsurprisingly, Germany’s comeback (only the second of Russia 2018 so far) dominates the latest World Cup Daily.

This is worth listening to all the way to the end in order to savour Barry and Max’s haunting duet of the Home & Away theme tune.

Do last night’s heroics (not to mention the 2014 World Cup winner’s medal, four Champions League titles, four Club World Cups etc etc) make Toni Kroos the world’s preeminent Toni? Surely he’s knocked Braxton, Basil, and & Guy into a cocked hat.

There were handbags after the final whistle at the Fisht Stadium with Sweden’s coaching staff unhappy with their German counterparts.

“Some of the group leaders of their team celebrated by running in our direction, rubbing it into our faces by making gestures,” Janne Anderson said. “That really got me annoyed and angry. We had fought it out for 90 minutes and at the end you should shake hands. So I was very angry with that.

People behaved in ways that you do not do,” the Sweden manager added. “You should leave your opponents to feel sad. You do not act in the way they did. We reacted very strongly.”