The World Cup 2026 on the cusp of the quarter finals

In terms of the group stages, I don't think there were any huge surprises on teams going out during the group stage.

I know a lot of listeners in Scotland would have been hoping for Scotland to have gotten through the group for the first time in their history.

And their 1-0 win over Haiti proved not to be enough.

They would have needed some more goals in that game, particularly conceding so many against Brazil.

But I think they did well to qualify for their first World Cup since 1998.

So I think that is an achievement in itself.

And hopefully Scotland will be able to build on that.

All three hosts are now out of the World Cup.

Mexico versus England.

Wow.

What a game that was.

It kicked off with the delayed kickoff three o'clock here in Spain.

I stayed up for that.

I didn't drink any alcohol, but I felt awful the next day because I had an early appointment.

So I had about two hours sleep.

I was a complete zombie all day.

I had an appointment with an office here in Seville and, yeah, it was a bit challenging understanding rapidly spoken, deep, thick, Andalusian Spanish while I hadn't had any sleep, which I tried to explain to...

the functionaria who I had the appointment with, but he didn't seem particularly chatty and he just muttered that England were lucky against Mexico.

Was England lucky against Mexico? I don't think so.

I think that was one of the best England performances for a long, long time.

Certainly the best in the World Cup that I can ever remember.

And my first World Cup was 1986.

I just thought it was a fantastic performance considering that England were up against it, playing the altitude in Mexico City, etc.

And I think Mexico did superbly well, just absolutely battering England.

It was just all Mexico and England just desperately trying to hang on for almost 50 minutes with 10 men.