Exceptional England and the armband row that won’t disappear at Qatar World Cup – The Warm-Up

TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES

Give them the trophy now

It’s over. Go home everyone. Even you, Lionel.

For all the pessimism, for all the times England have grabbed us by the hand and led us across the world, only to suddenly punch us in the face for no reason, this time there can be no denying it. Football’s Comin…

Everyone in favour? Good. There’s much more important ground to cover this morning…

To protest, or not to protest?

So what if the captains were booked? It’s irritating, sure, but they didn’t have to wear it for every game – that one act of the referee apologetically dishing out a yellow card at kick-off would have been enough, as Roy Keane said.

“[Harry] Kane you’re obviously risking getting a yellow card. That would have been a great statement. Do it for the first game, if you get your yellow card what a message that would have been from Kane or [Gareth] Bale.

“Take your medicine and then the next game you move on and you don’t wear it because you don’t want to get suspended. I think it was a big mistake.”

“Yeah, I think we’re disappointed,” he said. “I think I said [on Sunday] we wanted to wear it. That decision was taken out of my hands today. I turned up to the stadium with the armband that I wore and I was told I had to wear that. Look, it’s out of our control as players.”

It all feels like a massive missed opportunity to make a meaningful statement.

Given yellow cards will be wiped after the quarter-finals, can we at least request every player pulls on a One Love armband in the final moments of these games, just to see the unavoidably juicy spectacle of a referee running around booking all 22 players at the same time.

Wales belatedly show up

We can only assume that someone smuggled Michael Sheen into the Wales dressing room at half-time. Or perhaps showed footage of the new Prince of Wales handing out football shirts to the England team and not, as his job title might suggest, the Welsh (yep, that seriously happened).

Senegal were awful

It turns out that the “strong spine” we spoke so highly about in the build-up to the tournament isn’t only missing a crucial vertebrae at the top in Sadio Mane, but it’s constructed from papier-mâché after Edouard Mendy dropped a horror show for both Dutch goals.

Still, while the team may not have been up to scratch, at least the fans certainly made an impression. And we’re sure we’ll be back on the bandwagon by the time Ismaila Sarr completes his hat-trick against Qatar on Friday.

HEROES AND ZEROES

Hero: Jack Grealish

The midfielder, who bagged the sixth goal against Iran after selfless work from Callum Wilson, was asked to do his celebration dance after meeting Manchester City supporter Finlay, who has cerebral palsy like Grealish’s younger sister.

In a letter to Grealish, Finlay said: “It makes me really happy when I see that you, a famous footballer, knows what it’s like to live with people with cerebral palsy.

“You’re my hero and the best big brother to your sister.”

Lovely, lovely scenes.

Zero: Callum Wilson

…despite all that, Grealish should never have had the chance to score.

Callum, man. You’re 30 years old, playing at the only World Cup you’ll ever play it. Your team is 5-1 to the good. Take the damn shot, you’re making the rest of us look selfish.

IN THE CHANNELS

“…and the audience for today’s Warm-Up has just come in and, my word, 2,000,000 is a testament to our hard work’.

COMING UP

Not one. Not two. Not even three. But FOUR GAMES. Argentina v Saudi Arabia (10am GMT), Denmark v Tunisia (1pm), Mexico v Poland (4pm) and France v Australia (7pm).