Football Daily - World Cup: France Look Unstoppable & A Nun's Discount

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

France are through to the World Cup semi-finals... but is there anyone left who can stop them?Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith are joined by Alistair Bruce-Ball after commentating on France's win over Morocco to break down another dominant display, Kylian Mbappé's penalty miss and the fascinating debate around stuttering versus non-stuttering run-ups from the penalty spot.Plus, Lloyd takes in some of LA's cathedrals where an unexpected encounter with a nun leaves him baffled, the boys discover the local Mexican food might be a little too spicy for them, and yesterday's Norwegian delicacies make an unexpected return.

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2.50. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2026 World Cup started with 48 teams and we've now reached the knockout stage. Records have been broken the way that Messi has been able to score all these goals late in his career. He's happy to play football and broken records is the consequence for him. And new heroes have emerged. This country's caught the fever. casual fans are now diehard fans. And The More Than the Score podcast is bringing you the stories beyond the score lines.

More than the score from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026. With Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Live from LA. Hello and welcome to the Football Daily with Rick and Lloyd. We tried a load of Norwegian food yesterday with our Norwegian friends, Eric and Henning. And I think the idea was that we would be like, oh, well, I don't know about this.

And the reality was, it was all absolutely delicious. To the extent that this afternoon, I was peckish, and I saw that you'd bought the flatbreads and the squeezy caviar home. I hadn't. Oh, okay, producer Lizzie had there. She brought it home. I had a load of it. Oh, you're joking. Yeah, there's still some left.

I wish, I don't know, when I got back last night after two lagers. I know. I'm feeling pecking. It's such a great snack for that. Oh, it's, I actually, yesterday afternoon, you were dreaming about it. I was dreaming about the caviar. Yeah. The tubed caviar.

The tubed caviar. If you've not listened back to the episode with Norwegian fans. You must. You simply must. It was great. And it's tubed caviar. Essentially like toothpaste, but fish paste. It's like very very.

Fish paste. Yes, fish paste. It is fish paste. Like toothpaste. Fish sheg paste. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's very salty, very fishy, and it's fantastic. Very moorish.

Really morris. Anyway, there's still some of the biscuits left, the little flatbreads. I'm going to go back tonight. I finish before you, boy. Yeah, I know you do. And with the rest of your day, because we did that quite early, so you had a bit of a day free. And you went off on a tour of cathedrals. Well, it was the first non-football day yesterday.

Yeah, and you thought, how am I going to treat myself? And I love cathedrals. There's a few things I like. Cathedral. Famously. Fire engines. That's it, isn't it? Grimsby?

Grimmsby town. Yeah. And I thought, well, do you know what? L.A. has some cathedrals on offer. Let me go and visit them. So I went to visit a couple. One was closed, which is a little bit annoying. St. John's Episcopal.

But you could still, like, get the idea from the outside, no? Yes and no. Gated. No. So gates were locked. No. Not really, no. No.

And then across the road, there was just, lovely little, well, quite a large Roman Catholic church, which I went in. Fantastic, lovely, fantastic dome, lovely bells, cracking organ. And then I went to quite a modern one, The Lady of Our Angels. You're listening to Football Daily. You're listening to Cathedral Daily with Lloyd and Rick, not Rick and Lloyd. And then this one was absolutely lovely. And it was very modern.

There was an earthquake in 1994. They rebuilt the cathedral in 2002. Anyway, I just thought, embrace a little bit of L.A. I've not been to the cathedrals here and I put it on my stories and let me tell you fewer views than normal no no they they ate it up

so to speak popped off whilst I was in the last cathedral they had a gift shop that I went to and I like to go into gift shops and support them and book the stuff in there was quite mad quite religious

and I was like this isn't really you know for me and then there was a sort of expect it to be a bit religious wouldn't you well yeah no absolutely but this was very very religious too strong

come on too strong every now and then you get a nice candle or a bit of soap I'm like, why not? There was a nun in there. She had her hands full of gifts and she was obviously buying quite a lot of stuff and she put them down the counter.

And then the man rang through the stuff and she went, and is it 20% off for nuns? Catholic nuns? And he went, it is, yeah. And then he said, have you got any proof? No, I cannot tell you how much of a nun this lady was.

Like, it wasn't Halloween and she's dressed up as a let's just say sexy now she was a legitimate non-sexy uh non and she literally just went as you just did just went just like looked up and then went well this and the guy was like this will have to do weren't it okay fine again as if it's happened before people are dressing up as none to get 15% off in the gift shop not a bad idea but i thought it was it was a lovely little moment i was like i can't wait to tell the listeners of the pod yeah and they'll be delighted as well um i have been um getting sunburn

getting horribly. So I went for, you know, what I'm trying to do is launch a Hollywood career here. So I'm just doing meetings. And it's quite exciting going to these studios. It is fun. They're just big and exciting. Have you been to Our Lady of Our Angels Cathedral though? No, I haven't. That's exciting. But when I went to one this morning, I was going to get a cab back. And then I saw a hog weighing outside and I thought, well, that's a message. Surely that's a message. So I got on the hog. And it's quite, it's a good.

It screams Hollywood career, isn't it? Yes, it does. Yeah. I hope they didn't. see me do this. But it's four and a half miles. That guy just got on a bike outside, wearing a vest. No, at this point I wasn't wearing a vest. I had my shirt on over my vest. And then I was going along, and then the hog died or went into an area where you can't ride the hog. And I was basically on a freeway.

And so then I was just walking. And it was about midday, and it was blazing hot. And I was just walking down the freeway. And then I took my shirt off. And so I'm just in a vest, walking in the blazing sun. and then when I eventually find another hog a bit like when you're looking for an oasis in a desert a sea one and oh

get on the hog get home look in the mirror and well I showed you earlier I've got the most like extreme like vest burn yeah it's absolutely growing up in Cleethorps we've got a lot of Yorkshiremen

come to Cleethorps we're called comforts comfort dirt steerfoot week okay and they they don't believe in suntan lotion much like you I do believe in it. And you have, you actually now have a permanent vest on. I do look like I've got a permanent vest.

I think it's absolutely lovely. But I've got some aloevira in the fridge. Oh, that smells. It's next to the caviar. Okay, great. Don't want to get those mixed up particularly. Oh, no. Also, just as a sort of, we mentioned the incident with the hot sauce at the taco stand at the end of our road.

And last night, I went and got a superb burrito. And I saw the sauce that I've been warned about. and I thought I think you lot maybe just aren't used to the heat as much and I quite like hot food so I got some

dip my burrito in bit it and it ruined Mordor it ruined my meal I used to say I've ruined my meal I went there just purely

just sort of hubris ego horrible stuff and I was on my own so I couldn't even just sat there just annoyed with myself I went there the night before

and did exactly the same thing and it can't be that hot it can't be that hot Come on. Let me tell you, it is. It is that bad. It is so hot. I was hiccuping.

My eyeballs started sweating. And then it looks, just put into context, you buy this Mexican food from a street vendor, and then you just sit on the side of the street on a little table. So if anyone just walking past, there's just a little fat man on his own, clearly just crying. I'm not crying.

My eyes are sweating. Which I think is worse than saying, I am crying. I am crying. I am crying. But it was the hottest thing. in the world. And I think I will be going back for more.

I might go dress as a nun if I get a discount. Ah, now, for the game today, I didn't go to Cosm. You did go to Cosm. Cosm looks insane. Yes. You're going to have to explain what it is.

So, for the listeners and the viewers, Cosm is essentially a massive screen in LA. It's a cross between the sphere in Las Vegas and I'd say the IMAX in London and around. the world. Yes. Huge, huge screen, wrapped around.

It's immersive. When you walk in, you have the same experience that when you walk into a normal stadium. So are you in kind of raked seating? Yeah, we were in a little booth with nice, comfy padded seats. Classy. Thanks to Stephen Warnock, who... Thank you, Stephen. Storted us out, my little fire engine friend.

We should genuinely get him a present. I don't know what. I don't know what... But he's got your tickets to Cosham and he's got your fire engine. Yeah, I'll figure that out. I'll figure that out. Grimsby shirt. I'll get him a Grimsby shirt

with one of he will absolutely love that. He will. He will absolutely love that. One of the new lotto ones. He will absolutely love that. Or we might put it on eBay. We went there and honestly

it was mind-blowing. I'd seen a lot of this on my Instagram I couldn't believe it. It was so, so good. It's well worth having to look at their... Before we came out here, you'd message me and say, we've got to go.

We've got to go. And it's an amazing experience to watch a game. I saw Little Jonathan from the... the breakfast show. His little face lit up when he came and he was, oh my God, producer Lizzie the same.

She was like, oh, why is it? It's an unbelievable experience. The one thing I couldn't quite get my head around was the different angles. So when you watch a match and a stadium, you've got one view, okay? Well, move your head, but yeah, you move your head, Rick,

but pretty much, you know, you're planted, aren't you? They kept changing the view. So then you go, all right, so you kind of your brain had to get used to. So they've got their own cameras in there. I think they have a deal with Fox and Fox film it all there for them. So they've got their own cameras that are specific. And then they're mixing the...

And then their vision mixing within Cosm. So it is a genuinely unique experience. And I mean... I saw a photo of this. You were like behind the goal for the penalty save, for example. Yeah, just to the left of the goal. But you basically feel like you're on the terraces. Yeah.

And then all of a sudden it'll go to like the top corner of the stadium. So your brain has to get used to that because you're not used to that in a stadium. When you're watching on TV, you're used to the various different angles. Did you, I'm going to ask, well, they're not going to like this if they're listening, but was it good or was it distracting? Like, would you want to watch an England game there, or would it be too weird? I thought it might be a bit too weird. I said the same thing to producer Jonathan. I would rather watch an England game at the actual stadium.

No, no, no, no, but is it better than just watching it on a big screen in a golf club, so? I would say it's good to go and watch it. a game there. If you're neutral, if you're neutral of another, you know, if you're going to watch two teams that you don't care for. So no. And I thought it was a fantastic experience. But it's like when we go to the LA games, sometimes you're, you know, you're looking

at the pitch, but then you're just looking at the screen. Because you know, actually, I've got a better view there. So really loved it. Got to, tick it off. Ticked it off. And the cathedrals. You're having the time of your life. I know.

Very different ends of the scale, really, aren't they? Of technology and evolution. So the game you watched, obviously, was the first. France, Morocco, quarterfinal, France, into the semifinals, 2-0. We're joined by Alie, you were there. Yeah. And I feel like we should have spoken to you much earlier in this tournament, but we just don't have a chance.

You've been too busy. You've been doing your job. Yeah, no, I'm honoured and privileged and delighted to actually, you know, appear on the, basically on the day that I'm leaving, having been over here for about a month. So, no, it's lovely to be on. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's all gone, all been and gone,

doing the Open Golf Championship next week, but that's not what you want to talk about. Don't know, I don't want to talk about that. It was an interesting one, Rick. I mean, I think, you know, there was a big piece on the BBC Sport website this week about how do you stop France. They're the favourites.

Can anyone do it? I think there was quite a lot of chat going into this game about the fact that Morocco possibly could. You know, really impressive four years ago only got stopped by France in the semi-final. I think they're probably a better team than they were then, but they were absolutely no match for France. I wouldn't know, it wasn't men against boys,

and Morocco definitely missed Ishmael Sabari. It was a real shame that he was missing the game. But to be honest, it wouldn't have made any difference. France were really, really good, and, you know, Mbapé made a mess of a penalty in the first half, but then made up for it with a brilliant goal in the second half. And it's the same thing we keep saying. They've just got so many different ways to hurt you

and so many options coming off that bench, if it doesn't go right to begin with, that it's difficult to see who's going to stop them. But I think the tests will get harder, you know, whoever they play in the semifinal, particularly if that's Spain, that'll be tougher again. So we'll see. Well, I mean, Spain haven't letting a goal yet this tournament, have they?

Exactly. You mentioned the penalty, and I did just want to look at the rest of the game afterwards, but penalties have been a bit of a talking point in this tournament. So this one, Mbapé wins it, it's an absolute, it's such a stonewall penalty and they take ages checking on VAR. And you're like, what could you possibly be looking at? There's nothing to look at.

It's just so clear. And then, because of this delay, three minutes and 12 seconds before he could actually take the penalty. And he sort of reset himself. I think it was like three times. You could tell he was just distracted. And I'm not really making excuses for him necessarily. But it's not ideal preparation at all. I think that had something to do with how poor the penalty was, Rick, definitely.

And I think, I mean, we presumed inside the stadium that they were looking further back in the move because Hakeemie went down and was sort of trying to claim a foul and that possibly they were trying to clear that up, whether they couldn't give the penalty because there was a foul earlier on in the move. But at the time, I didn't think that really was a foul, and I would have been very surprised if that had been given. But it did seem to take an awfully long time. I don't know what the referee was waiting for, really,

but what was quite interesting about that was, and you know what, annoyingly, I'm actually going to take it back to golf again. Pat Nevin and I were talking about this in the commentary, is that you'll see golfers, when they get ready to hit a T-shot, they have a pre-shot routine, and if anything distracts them within that routine, they will stop and start again.

And then Bapé actually stopped and started again a couple of times, but when it came to the third time, he didn't stop and start again. And he just thought, right, do you know, I've had enough of this. I'm just going to run up and hit this, hit a terrible penalty. I genuinely think that had a lot to do with it, actually, the miss. I think it's interesting as well. Like, we've seen a lot of penalties this tournament.

And the way in which the different teams manage those penalties, you'll see someone that's not taking the penalty will grab the ball. And they'll be in charge of them. Yeah, look after the ball. And you'll have someone else that will go and look after the penalty spot to make sure that no one tries to kick it up. And they kind of wasn't any of this. And you just do wonder whether they'll look at that going forward.

because he missed a penalty today. And also, I'm a 17 stone man from Grimsby. I don't think Killian Mbapesth should be taking any advice from me. But he's missed a penalty today, which they went through. And the other day, Lionel Messi missed a penalty and they went through. But there will be an occasion. Two very bad penalties. Two very bad penalties.

Yeah. And also you think one of those penalties in the future could absolutely count between a World Cup win or not. So I just think they might look at how they manage what happens when they get a penalty going forward. It is weird, I think, how. some of the world's greatest ever footballers can take such shocking penalties. I mean, you only have to go back four years.

And Mbapé was absolutely deadly from the spot in the World Cup final. Do you remember in the World Cup four years ago? So Harry Kane took two penalties, didn't he, against France and famously missed one of them. And everyone went, oh, you shouldn't have taken the second one because, you know, goalkeeper knew what he's going to do,

da-da-da-da-da. Mbapé in the final took three penalties against Emmy Martinez, who's one of the best penalty savers in the world, and scored all three. So he is a brilliant penalty taker. That was an awful penalty today. I've seen Messi take awful penalties as well.

But Pat Nevin, who was on commentary, you know, I've had this conversation with him before about penalties. He makes the point that, because I know a lot of the discussion is also about these stutter run-ups and sort of trying to win that mind game with the goalkeeper and all that sort of thing. I've got some great stats for you in a moment, Allie, on this. Oh, I can't wait, can't wait, can't wait.

So Pat's point is, and I get this, that if the goalkeeper goes the right way, if you go for a sort of, let's say, an old school bog standard, let's go for the corner type penalty. If the goalkeeper goes the right way, you have to nail that penalty. That's going to have to hit the very side

of the netting, just inside of the post, if you're going to beat the keeper. That's how good these keepers are nowadays. So actually, I think Pat would argue that a lot of the sort of stuttering and trying to fool the keeper and whatever comes about because you're thinking,

that's actually a better way of trying to beat the keeper, Because if he gets his right, even if I hit like a 95% brilliant penalty, he's still got a chance of saving that. Whereas if I can get him off guard and get him to go the wrong way, that might be a better way to do it. But I know you're now going to tell, I'm sure you're now going to tell me, Rick, that the stuttering is not helping.

That is exactly what I'm going to tell you. So in the penalty shootouts, 14 have been taken with the stuttering run up, eight of them scored, six of them missed. 26 have been taken in inverted commas normally 17 of those scored and 9, 9 missed And then in open play, it's even more striking So 12 penalties taken with a stuttered run-up,

7 scored 5 missed And then 9 taken without the stuttered run-up, 7 scored 2 missed So the stats are definitely saying The stutter is not working And yet they keep doing it And I'm, you know, with respect to BBC Sport, I don't think we're the only people who are analysing this data. Surely the teams are looking at it as well and probably in a more sophisticated way.

And so having a word with their guys. I mean, I think of, you know, brilliant exponents of that sort of penalty. I would think of Georgineo back in the day who had that little sort of jump step before he took them, but then eventually got into a run where he missed a few. Yeah, I hated that little jump skip. Did you? Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Bruno Fernandez used to do it a lot, didn't he? Just before.

Wait for the key to go. But then he would miss a few and sort of has gone away from that a little bit. So I don't know. I mean, so much this game now is based on the numbers. And if people are looking at the numbers and think this isn't working, then you'd imagine they would say to the penalty takers, well, maybe you need to have a think about this. But I guess

ultimately, it's down to what you are comfortable with. I mean, I would back in Bappay to take the next penalty for France and score it whether he stutters or not. He just, I genuinely think that one in the Morocco game came about a lot because of the distraction. I think you said over three minutes he had to wait to take that penalty.

I think that was a lot to do with that one. So we've seen Harry Kane take a penalty. We've not seen England in a shootout yet, have we? And we won't as well. We won't. Yeah, don't even mention it, please, let's not manifest it early. Yeah.

Okay. All right, okay. Just come I just have a little note on the keeper, on Bono, who will talk probably, about in a minute. Lloyd loves Bonner. I think he's a really good goalkeeper and I think he's, you know,

we've talked about people doing their homework. I think he absolutely has done his homework this tournament. Including shootouts, Bono has saved four of the nine World Cup penalties his face with three more missing the target.

And that missing the target thing, you referenced it earlier, if you're going to do an old school penalty, you need to bury it in those corners. And I think psychologically, it was an interesting one from Mbapé today because obviously he missed it and he didn't bury it in a corner.

I think if you're facing someone like Bono and they go, he knows where I'm going to, he knows where I'm going to go, unless I can try and trick him with my little stutter and hope he goes forward. I think you're then subconsciously trying to put it even further away from him, therefore missing even more. You margin,

Ferrer is. Yeah. It's small. But I think he's had a great tournament and obviously, you know, very unlucky with the second goal today, but some fantastic saves. Well, unlucky he had a jelly hat.

I will not have that. He said. Yeah. It's a lovely good. Yeah. Did have a jelly hand, I'm afraid. Lloyd thinks that was not a goalkeeping error. I think if you get that much of a hand to it, you want to be saving it, mate.

Yeah, I think the goalkeeping's improved throughout the tournament, and I think he is a brilliant goalkeeper. And I do agree with you, Lloyd. I think there is definitely something to be said for reputation. If you know you're up against a good penalty-saving goalkeeper, a bit like Emmy Martinez, then if you're going to go for that corner, you might really push it to the limit and miss the target. it. There's been some woeful goalkeeping

in this tournament, but I think as the tournament's gone on, actually, there have been some brilliant performances. I mean, he's an example. The Norwegian keeper. Orion Neeland for, oh my, my, that's the backpedaling save. That back pedal scoop out is nuts. Amazing.

So good. Yeah. And he's so good at that because of all the rowing that he does as well. I mean, he was able to just get, just straight back to the It's a slight different action, though, isn't it? No, he's a little bit. Yeah. Same thing, is it? Let's not split heads.

All right, okay. The United States is about to mark its 250th anniversary. And so on the Global Story podcast from the BBC, we're telling surprising tales of American influence on the world stage and in ordinary people's lives all across the globe. We have this ability to export our story, and a lot of people have bought it. I feel like the American dream is alive, but not well.

From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2026 World Cup started with 48 teams and we've now reached the knockout stage. Records have been broken the way that Messi has been able to score all these goals late in his career. He's happy to play football and broken records is the consequence for him. And new heroes have emerged. This country's caught the fever. casual fans are now die-hard fans

and the More Than the Score podcast is bringing you the stories beyond the score lines more than the score from the BBC World Service listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts 5 light sports So here's the first ball of this series All the cricket you laugh Lives on BBC sounds

Smash straight back down the ground this girl Here ball by ball coverage of the biggest competitions on the domestic and international circuits. It's a fourth cricket, and it's the huge one. Creeket on Five Live Sport. Cricket on five live in every ball of this. Listen on BBC Sounds. Full daily podcasts.

At the People World Cup 2026. With Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffin. Listen on BBC Sounds. In your view, having seen them now in the flesh then, Ali. How good are France? B, can anyone stop them? They cruised that today against a really good team. Yeah.

So that makes you think, and Pat said to me afterwards, Pat Nevin said afterwards, they've still got more gears to go through. So what have they scored now? I think is it 16 goals conceded two? It's not a very bold prediction, is it? They would be my favourites. I know Ian Dennis, for example, feels he's watched a bit of France and a bit of Spain and feels that Spain might really be able to trouble them.

And if you think back to the last Euros, it was. Spain who beat them in the semi-finals, but then if you look at that France team, that didn't have a Lisei in, and I think there are a slightly different, a slightly different kettle of fish now. Pat Nettman was saying to me, at the start of the tournament, he sort of had England and France down and thinks that would be an absolutely terrific final. And thinks, although England, I mean, England obviously are getting a load of goals through Canaan Bellingham, they maybe don't quite have that sort of superstar kind of star dust, like the French do with that sort of, you know, the depth of.

of attacking talent that they've got. But I think they do have skills, England, in sort of trying to handle that French attack as a team, just the physicality that England would have and the know-how and, you know, like putting a team performance in that we saw in the Azteca, that sort of resilience, which you would definitely need if France were on form to try and beat them.

So Pat was sort of licking his lips at the idea of an England-France final. Yeah? I'll bite your hand off, I think. I'll take that. There was a bit of chat, I think, before the tournament started, that if France had a weakness, it was sort of their defence and midfield you could maybe get at. But as you say, they've only conceded two goals. And I've not really seen any evidence that you can get at them, basically.

No. Senegal, I think, in the first game, could have scored more than one. Yeah. Norway in that strange final group game where Norway picked their B team, but had a load of chances in that game of the penalty. I think you can score against them and I think you'd argue that probably the fullbacks are kind of the weakest

position for France, although weak feels a little bit harsh. So Luca Dean is starting on the left, Cunde on the right, who's a sort of, I know he's the regular right back now at, you know, club and international level, but he's really a centreback sort of playing right back. Upenekano had a strange 15 minutes in the second half today

when, I think as Pat said, every pass was an adventure, everything he did for about 15 minutes. It was a few heavy touches, wasn't it? Yeah, exactly. So, every team's beatable. You know, I mean, we've seen it, haven't we? There's great teams that don't win World Cups.

I would go to Brazil in 1982, where everyone thinks, oh, they're nailed on. They're the best team in the competition, and it doesn't happen. It's not done and dusted just yet, but if they turn up and play their best, they're a seriously good team, seriously good team. I think France are brilliant, and I think they could go, it but I think I've seen enough

you go, oh I think we know how we can get past them and I've just got a feeling that Thomas Tuchel if we get to the final we'll know how to beat them. As you mentioned those two games earlier, you know, the Norway game especially where you're going, oh they're prone to a few mistakes here. Obviously they ended up

winning that game but they are, I think they have got a few mistakes in there and it's just I guess who has the fewer mistakes on the night. Do we happen to know Ali if there's any update on Mbapé's ankle? Is it sort of front of his ankle?

He's put out for a month, is he? The only update I can give you was the last thing I saw of him, which was him jumping around, celebrating and dancing after the game. Fine, fine. If you've got a dodgy right ankle, you're not doing that, are you?

When he came off, the commentary in America was very much like, oh, crikey, this doesn't look good. Other nations will be celebrating this. And then he just walked off quite normally. And then he just gave a massive round applause to the whole of the stadium.

I was like, I don't think he's that. He's probably a joke. He's a row. He's fine. That was precautionary. I think the weird thing was he just sat down and stopped playing. So obviously he felt a twinge of something.

And the games come thick and faster, don't they? So the next game for them is Tuesday. It's an intense tournament. But he'll start. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. Are you sad to be leaving Chris Sutton, Alley?

Yeah. Well, do you know what, Rick? So I ditched Chris about a week ago. We had about two and a half weeks together. Yeah, I mean, that's not the limit for anyone, I think, isn't it? Yeah, I think John Southall and I, my producer, John Southerl and I feel that we really did take one for the team on the trip there. So we've been with Pat and Evan for the last kind of 10 days or so. The group of death, I think you call it.

Oh, I've got the group of death. Sutton. Love you, Chris. But Pat. Pat, an absolute dream. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But you know, Rick, we're all, I mean, Chris is very tongue-in-cheek,

but in all honesty, hand-on heart, you know him well, you've traveled with him and worked with him. He is a gem. Honestly, he is so much fun to work with. I mean, you know, Pat and Chris, who have been the two guys I've worked with as summarizers, and I'm obviously going to say this because I'm talking about our coverage, but so much fun, off-air, on-air, both super sharp, like brilliant summarizers, make our job easy, really. and an absolute pleasure.

This is getting really cheesy, actually. Real pleasure to trouble. I'm going to stop that house. Sorry, where am I going with that? It's actually fine because Chris is a great guy. He's one of my own famous. And he knows that and we have a bit of needle and it's all in good fun. Yeah, exactly.

Ali, before you go, can I ask, what has been your favourite stadium of the tournament so far? Oh, God, that is a good question. Is it? I loved, I loved, I love the Dallas Stadium AT&T because I'm a big NFL fan so it's actually been a real treat

to be inside some of the stadiums but all of them that I've been in have made me think I'd actually love to watch NFL in here rather than football. Football doesn't feel quite right no offence to the footballers doing their job on the pitch no offense to the greatest show on earth that we've been covering for the last five weeks but yes that one Boston was brilliant today

and we got good weather for it You know, that's one of these sort of cavernous colosseums that's sort of open to the elements. I did enjoy Philly as well, you know. I really enjoyed Philadelphia, but that was sort of the city as much as the stadium. I think I'd go Dallas, you know. Well, you had a lot of fun with your Dallas social content as well.

Are you taking the cowboy at home? Yeah, I'll stick it on to you here now. I've got it sitting in the bed. And basically the problem is... Sleep in it, please. Just pop it over the face. Yeah, the problem is, it has to be worn home because I've already got so much

sort of hand luggage and baggage and baggage. You can't fit it in anything so much as I'm going to have to wear it on the plate. You're going to look like such a div. Hey, don't listen to him. Don't listen to him. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure of listening to you, as always, Allie.

Safe journey home. Bless you, cheers, Alie. Yeah, thanks, guys. It's lovely to listen to you too and enjoy the rest of your stay. Now, as you know, people can get in touch with the podcast via WhatsApp. Nick from York has been back in touch.

Oh, is it? Nick from York, he did the Dr. Congo pun headlines. So he says, Rick and Lloyd gets it the right way around. In my last message about Dr. Congo punny headlines, Lloyd ripped apart every one of mine and my sister's puns. So I want to get back in touch following Lloyd's ending line, Norway will be Cairoing home if they're beaten by England. In an England versus Norway game,

Why is Cairo and Egypt even involved? Makes very little sense, and Lloyd must be in denial, yes, if he thought that was a decent effort. Anyway, surely England would be telling Norway to take a bike if they won. P.S. Anyone else missing Dionne already? Well, I'll take that last one, absolutely. Of course I am. So he doesn't say whether he enjoyed pyramid scheme gone wrong,

because Stephen Warnock, I think it's still laughing about that. I've never seen him happier. You know how I claim to be Steve from Gillingham? Yeah. I think you might be Nick from me. York. It'd be good if I was, wouldn't it?

I think you are Nick from York. Just pulling apart. If I'm honest, when I saw that, I did go, I don't really make sense. Yeah. So he's, you know,

he's absolutely right. Yeah. I think it was, look, you're improvising puns. Yeah. On the fly, you've got one decent one,

and then you've struggled. The best thing you do with improvising jokes and puns, just get out while you're ahead. Yeah. And we didn't do that, unfortunately. We've got 10 days left of the pod. You know, I mean, there's a fair old way to go.

That is a fair way to go. Yeah, the only problem with that is that I know you've nicked it off someone. Because someone, yeah, someone messaged us that. Anyway, you can WhatsApp the pod. 08-08-0-8-0-8-0-8-0-8-0-8-3-69. That's easy to remember. 0-8-0-8-0-8-8-8-8-3-69. No one knows what trouble me.

The, no one knows what treble zero means. What's a claim. People at home scratch in the roads. What does he mean? Triple zero. When you were a kid and you watched live and kicking, and they said, 0800. Well, what are you going to say here? Oh, 8,000.

Thank you. All right. I'm happy with that. 0,000. 289, 369. Apart from next quarter final is coming up for you later today. Spain, Belgium, from 8. That game is in Los Angeles.

Are we going to go? We're going to go and then we'll record a podcast straight after the match in a casino. Don't need to explain why that is. Also, keep your eye on the Football Daily Feed here. Ian Dennis with England assistant coach Anthony Barry. That's going to be dropping later today. Do you know how not to miss an episode? Turn push notifications on in your settings.

Have you done that on your page yet? No. The 2023 Ballandor France footballer is Leonel Messi. The winner is Chrysena Rano. This is the story of the greatest rivalry in the history of sport, a rivalry that split football into two fates for a generation. There could be no, oh, Messi and Ronaldo are both great players. There had to be one that was better.

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