World Cup 2022: England head for quarter-finals as last-16 continues - live

1m ago 04.31 EST Here are some vox pops from fans after the England v Senegal game yesterday, many of which seem a little bit nervous at the prospect of facing France next. 01:01 'Danger team': England fans wary of France ahead of World Cup quarter-final – video

3m ago 04.29 EST Aaron Timms has written for the Guardian on how Fox Sports’ US World Cup coverage is an unmissable abomination, with the broadcaster offering up “a feast of gaffes, stupidity, and unconquerable on-air awkwardness” which, frankly, sounds unmissable: Insults to our collective intelligence have come from all angles: the constant, tedious analogies to American sports (stepovers and feints described as “dekes” and “hesis”, corners constantly compared to “pick and rolls”); the neverending quest to “contextualize” the world game by comparing whole countries to American states (“Qatar is the size of Connecticut,” we were told repeatedly on the opening day); the network’s embrace and promotion of the interminable “it’s called soccer” cause (who cares?); the strange extended segment in the run-up to USA v England about how much Harry Kane likes American football (ditto); the employment of Piers Morgan as a special guest pundit (no thanks). On the field things may be developing nicely, but off it US football – or the version of it that Fox Sports serves up to us every four years – seems destined to remain stuck in a permanent 1994, forever on the brink of becoming America’s next big thing, forever hostage to a cabal of C-suite cable bros intent on translating this exotic, bewildering sport into the language of touchdowns, home runs, and alley oops for what they see as the country’s blinking, insular Yankee Doodle millions. This bizarre cultural parochialism does a disservice to both America’s players, now a sizeable constituency in European club football, and the legions of fans on these shores whose understanding of the sport is every bit as sophisticated as anything you’ll find on the terraces of Camp Nou, Anfield, or La Bombonera. Read more here: Aaron Timms – Fox Sports’ US World Cup coverage is an unmissable abomination Fox Sports’ US World Cup coverage is an unmissable abomination | Aaron Timms Read more

22m ago 04.10 EST Declan Rice: other countries should fear 'great team' England England’s midfielder Declan Rice has been speaking to the media, and said that France should fear England ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final. He told reporters: I’ve said it all along. I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances. I think if you look at other teams, like the Netherlands and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and they get called masterclasses. With us, it always gets picked off. The negative things always come that way. If you look at the last couple of games, it’s been faultless. I think countries, like I said the other day, should be starting to fear us now because we’re a great team. Rice was also bullish about England’s record in front of goal … and defending theirs, telling the media: We’re silencing the critics. Going into the tournament, there was a lot of talk that we don’t score enough goals. That’s another one we’ve kept people quiet on. There was a lot of scrutiny around the defence and conceding goals, but it’s been solid. We’re going to keep building and pushing. Declan Rice celebrating the win over Senegal. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images Asked if this England squad was better than the one that reached the final of Euro 2020 last year, Rice said: Yeah. We’ve been pushing so well as a team. We’re really together now on the pitch and off the pitch. As a team we really complement each other really well. The boys I’m playing with in midfield, we really complement each other. The boys up front, he [Southgate] can bring in an attacker and nothing will change. And the back four has been absolutely solid. We’re building a really nice foundation but it’s down to us now. There’s no point buzzing about [beating Senegal] if we can’t push on and beat France. He stressed that this England set-up doesn’t seem to fear the big teams in big games any more: Against the big teams, there has always been a lot of talk on us using the ball. I think in this tournament we’ve pretty much controlled every game. We’ve had a fair share of possession, we’ve moved it really well. The opening stages have been really shaky because teams are really trying to stop us playing. But once we get that goal, they have to change. It opens up and then you really start to see us play. Against France, we’ve seen some weaknesses in them that we can try to exploit. It’s set up for a great game. These are the games we want to play in. They only come round once: England v France, quarter-final, it doesn’t get bigger than that. We’ve got six days to prepare now and I’m sure the world will be watching. We really want to progress.

43m ago 03.49 EST I’m going to confess that my Japanese isn’t all that, but some things about football transcend language. The Japanese team social media accounts have just put out an epic six minute supercut of Japan’s highs and lows at World Cups, as well as what it has all meant for the development of the sport in Japan. If you want old people playing football, kids playing football on the beach, blind football, disability football, interspersed with clips of the Samauri Blue looking dejected after various round of 16 matches, this is the supercut for you. Whack the sound up, because it is all soundtracked by Syori No Emi Wo Kimi To from Ukasuka-G which the Guardian has previously described as “bombastic indie from J-pop’s answer to the Killers” which “builds to a climax so relentlessly silly that, by the six minute mark, you are somehow won over.” 4年前に痛感した。

試合終了のホイッスルが鳴る

最後の1秒まで。

スペイン戦で実感した。

ボールがピッチに残る

最後の1mmまで。

走ろう、声を出そう、

ともに戦おう。

そして、

日本サッカーを愛する、すべての人と

勝利の笑みを。#SAMURAIBLUE #サッカー日本代表pic.twitter.com/N1ARWAOnMJ — サッカー日本代表 🇯🇵 (@jfa_samuraiblue) December 5, 2022

1h ago 03.27 EST Just a quick note here that Saudi Arabia, who have been touted as potential World Cup co-hosts in 2030, look set to host the 2027 Asian Cup, after India, the other country bidding for the event, has withdrawn. AP reports that the bids from India and Saudi Arabia had been shortlisted by the AFC’s executive committee in October and the final decision was expected to be made at a regional congress in February. Saudi Arabia is now the only candidate. The 2023 edition will be played in Qatar after China was replaced as host because of the complications around China’s zero-Covid policy. Qatar are the current champions, having won the event when it was last staged, pre-pandemic, in the UAE in 2019.

1h ago 03.12 EST Away from the World Cup for a minute, overnight AP have been carrying an update on the condition of Brazilian legend Pelé. Mauricio Savarese writes that two of his daughters and one of his grandsons has said the three-time World Cup winner has been hospitalised since Tuesday to treat a respiratory infection aggravated by Covid-19. They added that the 82-year-old is under no imminent risk of death. Kely and Flavia Nascimento and Arthur Arantes do Nascimento said in an interview that aired Sunday night in Brazil that Pelé, who is also undergoing chemotherapy in his fight against cancer, is expected to leave the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo once he fully recovers from the respiratory infection. Neither the family nor the hospital have any predictions in that regard. The hospital said Saturday that Pelé is responding well to treatment for the infection and his health condition had not worsened over the previous 24 hours. The hospital did not issue any statements on the former footballer’s health Sunday. “He is sick, he is old. But at the moment, he is there because of the lung infection. And once he feels better, he will go home again,” Kely Nascimento told TV Globo. She lives in the United States and spoke on video. “He is not saying goodbye in a hospital at the moment,” she added. Brazil fans display banners with images of Pelé at their match with Cameroon in Qatar. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters

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