⚽️ Kick-off time: 12pm local/3pm EDT/8pm BST/5am AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | The full draw | Golden BootHello and welcome to live coverage of Spain v Austria in Inglewood. France and Lionel Messi have stolen the show at this World Cup, but Spain remain the likeliest winners among the rest. They recovered from a shock draw with Cape Verde to thrash Saudi Arabia and eliminate Uruguay, and the core of their wonderful Euro 2024-winning is still intact.It’ll be a huge shock if they fail to get past a game but limited Austria, who scraped through to the knockout round when Sasa Kalajdzic scored a 96th-minute roof-raiser against Algeria. The prize for the winners is no prize at all: Portugal or Croatia in the last 16. Continue reading...

Before a ball was kicked, the nicknames for this match were rampant. A biscotto was one – an Italian classic implying something that has to be baked twice; one cooperating with the other. Or maybe you preferred the “Disgrace of Kansas City”, recalling the “Disgrace of Gijón”, a callback to the 1982 World Cup where West Germany settled for a 1-0 win over Austria in a result that qualified both teams for the knockout round while eliminating Algeria.But what unfolded here was something else altogether. A new classic of the genre. Call it the “Missouri Compromise”. On a steamy night in the American midwest, Algeria and Austria battled gamely, showing heart and desire for most of the match en route to a back-and-forth 3-3 draw that qualified both teams for the knockout round. It came at the expense of Iran, whose brief jubilation at Riyad Mahrez’s goal in the third minute of added time was abruptly ended by a Sasa Kalajdzic header with practically the last action of the match. Continue reading...

⚽️ Kick-off: 12pm local/1pm ET/6pm BST/3am Mon AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail DominicHello and welcome to Monday’s first hit of World Cup action. The holders are in Texas to take on Ralf Rangnick’s Austria in a game that will probably decide who tops Group J. All the focus will be on Argentina and Lionel Messi after his brilliant hat-trick in their opener against Algeria last week. Just one goal today will mean he is out on his own as the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.It has been a complicated couple of weeks for Messi, whose family confirmed last Thursday that his father Jorge is undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness. An Argentinian TV host resigned after falsely reporting that Jorge, 68, had died. Messi was tearful at times in the opener in Kansas City but he has the chance to make more history in Dallas today. Continue reading...

Austria claimed their first World Cup victory since 1990 with a 3-1 win against debutants Jordan. Two late goals at the home of the San Francisco 49ers helped Ralf Rangnick’s side make the perfect start in Group J after Ali Olwan had equalised with Jordan’s first World Cup goal.Jordan started brightly and Alexander Schlager needed to produce a good early save to deny Odeh al-Fakhouri, but it was Austria, playing at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, who opened the scoring in the 21st minute. Continue reading...