Bobfoc

I really hope Argentina lost as well tonight. We no longer have the prospect of a Superclasico semi-final and the Netherlands going through would guarantee a finalist that hasn't won the tournament before.

For Brazilian fans, winning the World Cup is pretty much a minimum requirement. With that in mind, the fact that they've got past the quarter-finals just once since winning the tournament in 2002 is nothing short of disastrous. That's not to mention that their only semi-final appearance in that period resulted in an absolute thrashing.

Livakovic v Alisson is an intriguing prospect in a shootout.

Now this is more exciting than seeing two teams amble towards penalties.

I see it as 60:40 in France's favour. An England win is far from impossible, but I think France are slightly more likely to prevail.

I expect the semi-finals will be Brazil v Argentina and France v Portugal. Netherlands v Croatia and England v Morocco would be much better. You'd have three countries that have never won it before and another that's gone 56 years since winning it.

They grabbed the microphone right at the end and said, "I want to dedicate this award to my Reformed Orthodox Rabbi, Bill Clinton." They have been arrested. Apparently, it's an antisemitic reference to Info Wars.

I have mixed feelings on it all. A monopoly in the industry would be a bad thing, but I'm also aware that another company will probably swoop in if the acquisition is successfully blocked. I'm not positive about the prospect of Amazon or Google picking Activision up, for example. All that aside, getting rid of Bobby Kotick is essential.

I remember Eriksson being far too attached to a particular starting line-up. It often felt like a case of trying to cram players into a 4-4-2 system, regardless of how well it utilised their skills. It took him quite a while to start Lampard ahead of Butt, even though it was patently clear who was in better form, and he persisted with Heskey for far longer than anyone thought was wise. For those reasons, I never truly thought England were likely to win in 2006. They played a dull, ponderous style of football that wasn't ever likely to scare the best teams, and so it proved against a Portuguese team that wasn't all that impressive either. Even if they'd won that penalty shootout, I can't imagine a front line of Peter Crouch and a 17-year-old Theo Walcott would have caused France many problems.

The Game Awards will start in about half an hour. There will be game reveals alongside the usual corporate arse-kissing.

2006 was England's biggest chance to win a World Cup, but I think a lot of that was because there wasn't an outstanding team in international football at the time. On paper, there were several teams that could have won that tournament, and so it proved when an Italian team that probably wasn't as good on paper as those in the past came through in the end. By 2010, Spain had emerged as the best team, rather like Brazil in 1994. At that point, I don't think even the best England manager imaginable could have won that tournament.

Steve Borthwick seems to be the favourite to take over. Scott Robertson would probably be a more fun appointment, though.

Historically, they've had their moments, but it's also important to remember that they failed to qualify for five tournaments in a row before the 2014 World Cup. Part of the reason the quality of this crop of Belgian players has been so surprising is that they had come off such a dry spell.

It's £40 on Steam and around £45 on other systems. That's not as expensive as some games, but still more than I'd want to pay for it.

The original Tactics was known for having a steep learning curve, so perhaps that's something that could be ironed out in a remake. Some easier difficulty settings for newcomers would be welcome. On another subject, is anyone interested in the Crisis Core remake/remaster that comes out next week? I'd like to play it at some point, but the release price is more than I'm willing to pay. I'll keep my eye on it further down the line.

I keep changing my mind as to who the favourites are. The quarter-finals should be very interesting. Anyway, we now get a three-day break.

That was an interesting display of physics.

Morocco will probably fancy their chances more against Portugal or Switzerland than they would against any other quarter-final opponent.

It just shows that the psychology of high-pressure situations is more complicated than just repetitive practice.

I think we can say that Spain are back to being the great underachievers of international football. That's three World Cups in a row that they haven't made it to the quarter-finals.

Brazil are too good.

That's a shame for Japan. They were one of the most fun teams to watch at this year's competition. Credit to Croatia, though. For a nation with under four million people and a team that only started playing international football in 1994, they have a very impressive World Cup record.

I can't see Croatia throwing this away now.

That was a poor first penalty.

I know it's been a case of meeting expectations, given how the draws have panned out, but three quarter-finals in a row at major tournaments is nice to see. After the abject years from 2008 to 2016, it's good to see England getting involved at the business end of competitions again.