It was a long day. The build-up concluded with ‘Arry Redknapp being asked on Sky News if Argentina captain Antonio Rattin’s behaviour in the 1966 World Cup final or the Falklands War in 1982 would have a bearing on Wednesday evening’s game in Atlanta.“Na, I don’t fink so,” said ‘Arry, although he didn’t sound entirely sure. Like, there was a possibility that those happenings would rouse Jordan Pickford, born long after both, in to stretching his fingertips a little further when a shot was incoming.The Falklands theme was maintained through the day on GB News which this couch watched so you didn’t have to. No need for floods of gratitude, just send your gift vouchers to the usual address.“Fourteen million pints will be drunk today,” Anna Riley told us when she reported mid-afternoon from outside a Wetherspoons in Pudsey, “and that’s just at this table.”“Xlgdwdqvdxqh,” its occupants chuckled, two them close enough to already being horizontal. One suggested that England would deffo win “because they’ve been so crap so far”. “Real positivity here in Pudsey,” Anna reported back to the studio.Tony McGuire, meanwhile, was reporting from outside a Marks & Spencer in Glasgow, his mission to find locals who would be supporting England. He found one, but he turned out to be Brazilian. But, on the whole, he struggled. If England win the World Cup?Man 1: “We’ll nivver hear the end of it.”Woman 1: “We’ll nivver hear the end of it.”Man 2: “We’ll nivver hear the end of it.”Tony was left concluding that this animosity was down to “England fans in Boston singing we can shove our bagpipes up our you-know-what”. Incidentally, before you conclude that people take football far too seriously and ridiculously treat it like a serious subject – guess who was a specialist subject on Mastermind earlier this week? Yes, Roy Keane – along with Edward IV, Depeche Mode and the films of Yorgos Lanthimos. Our one pass will haunt us forever.No matter, back to the war. Which is what Ian “Wrightie” Wright forecast on ITV. “It’s a country that, as time’s gone by, I’ve learnt a lot about them, and I have no love for them,” he said of the ‘Argies’. “There’s going to be chaos in the game, there’s going to be chaos in the stands.”That wasn’t, well, an altogether prudent prediction, all that was missing was a hope for a ‘GOTCHA’ headline on the front page of The Sun come Wednesday morning over a photo of a weeping Lionel Messi. The BBC were a bit tamer when they kicked off their coverage of the game. “Don’t look back in anger,” Mark Chapman advised his viewers when he presented a montage of past Engerland-Argie skirmishes, his hope being that this would be the night that Messi would slide away.Meanwhile, the interminable battle to pronounce Tommy’s name continues. Wayne Rooney: “Toosel.” Micah Richards: “Tooshell.” Joe Hart: “Tookell.”England's midfielder Jude Bellingham reacts after losing to Argentina in the World Cup. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Anthems. A score draw – Argentina drowned out England’s, England drowned out Argentina’s. “Goodness me, that was brilliant,” Alan Shearer purred, neglecting to suggest that disrespect for anthems is a holy disgrace.And a holy disgrace was the gist of Al’s take on the Argie’s first-half display, even complaining when one of them uttered a slight sigh of anguish when he had English studs inserted in his metatarsal. “He had to go for the ball,” he said of Jude Bellingham’s challenge, even though his studs were considerably closer to that metatarsal than the actual ball.The gist, then, of Al’s analysis of the game was that it was gurriers v gentlemen, his chief concern that England would be dragged down to the Argies’ unruly level. “That’s what they will want,” he bellowed. “Don’t get drawn in,” Guy Mowbray roared, as Elliot Anderson and Djed Spence made a sandwich of Messi. “He’s getting smashed left, right and centre,” Hart conceded at the break, which means he’s off Al’s Christmas card list.But Argentina are, indeed, masters of poophousery, and they needed all they could muster once they fell behind to that Anthony Gordon goal. Guy and Al were already forecasting knighthoods and genuflecting in the direction of Toosel/Tooshell/Tookell ... but you know yourself, the Argies are never beat.A couple of Messi assists, and a couple of goals with five minutes to go. Truly, their spirit is the eighth wonder of the world.“The hurt and the pain goes on for English football,” said Guy, marking its 60th anniversary. All the boys at Wetherspoons in Pudsey could do was down their 18,000,001st pint.World Cup Wallchart