World Cup 2026: Klopp linked with Germany job; Spain and Portugal face last-32 tests - as it happened

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And that’s it for another day. Make sure to jump aboard the big Spain v Austria live blog for all the buildup and stupendous action. Goodnight and enjoy!

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Mexico fans we want to hear from YOU! Get involved and share your thoughts on facing the Three Lions by clicking the link. One imagines you might be feeling pretty, pretty good about it after four games, four wins and zero goals conceded and a home tie coming up at the wondrous Azteca. El Tri sailing into the quarter-finals … ?

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Pubs to stay open until 5am for England v Mexico

Keir Starmer is signing off with an absolute belter as he gives the green light for an extension to licensing hours for Sunday/Monday morning’s big game between England and Mexico at 1am. The prime minister said:

double quotation markFootball might be coming home but we’re making sure fans don’t have to. Pubs staying open til the final whistle is good news for supporters and good news for the pubs and venues that bring our communities together. The whole country will be backing the team. Come on England!”

You do have to go home eventually though, who’s going to walk the dog?!

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Updated at 12.47 EDT

Ahoy! Only a few hours until Spain v Austria. Who’s excited? Possibly Austria supporters considering a nugget I heard on the radio this morning courtesy of Guillem Balagué. The Spanish football genius pointed out that Spain have not won a knockout game at a World Cup since winning the whole enchilada in 2010. Will their poor run continue? We shall see.

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Right, time for Graham Searles to steer things.

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Following Senegal’s dramatic exit, their midfielder Pape Gueye has said he will not play for the side under the current coaching staff.

“I’ll come back later to say ‌a few words about our elimination,” Gueye wrote on social media, Reuters reports. “But today I announce that, as long as this coaching staff remains in charge, I ‌will take a break from the national team.”

Gueye, who plays for Villarreal, started in Senegal’s last-32 tie with Belgium, and was taken off in the 66th minute with his side 2-0 up. Romelu Lukaku’s 86th-minute strike set up a dramatic comeback win.

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Caitlin Cassidy

If you want to know how Egyptian-Australians are feeling ahead of Saturday’s Pharaohs v Socceroos showdown, watch Joseph Tawadros’s social media videos.

In one, the multi-instrumentalist plays his oud, a Middle Eastern stringed instrument, while wearing a fez with an Australian flag on it, complete with dangling corks.

He’s singing a mashup of Waltzing Matilda and the Egyptian folk song Teleat Ya Mahla Nourha. Despite coming from vastly different ends of the musical spectrum, the two melodies somehow align.

It reflects the conflicted emotions that many members of the 45,000 strong Egyptian-Australian diaspora are grappling with ahead of Saturday’s World Cup knockout game. They will be faced with a difficult burden.

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I look forward to seeing everyone else at work on Monday morning.

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Klopp linked with Germany head coach role

Story below from AFP:

Julian Nagelsmann is reportedly set to be sacked as Germany coach, tabloid Bild reported on Thursday, with former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp the favourite to take over in the dugout.

Nagelsmann, 38, has been under fire since Germany’s last-32 exit from the World Cup after a shock loss to Paraguay.

Showing pictures of Nagelsmann at German FA (DFB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Bild reported on Thursday the coach had been offered a severance package of €7m to leave the position in a three-hour meeting. Last renewed in January 2025, Nagelsmann’s contract is set to run until 2028.

On Tuesday, the DFB president, Bernd Neuendorf, announced an immediate investigation into the World Cup failure. A decision on Nagelsmann is expected “by the beginning of next week at the latest”, AFP sports subsidiary SID reported Thursday.

Several German media outlets, including Sky and Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, have said Klopp is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Nagelsmann.

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Updated at 11.45 EDT

Remarkably, Spain are going to play Austria for the first time since a friendly in November 2009. Just months away from their World Cup triumph, Spain won 5-1 thanks to goals from Cesc Fàbregas, David Villa, Dani Güiza and Pablo Hernández. David Alaba, just 17, came off the bench for Austria.

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Time for some #OnThisDay content. It’s been 16 years since Luis Suárez pulled off his famous save.

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Hello, hello, hello. This is a lovely piece by Andy Bull on watching the football at the tennis.

double quotation markWimbledon is a £500m championship, one of the largest annual sports events, and yet there is nothing like a World Cup to remind you where you sit in the pecking order of English sporting obsessions.

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That is all from me, folks. Taha Hashim is primed for his stint.

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Eric Berger

double quotation markThe midwestern city has about 70,000 Bosnians, most of whom fled the country during its war in the 90s, making it the largest such community outside the Balkan country.

Before a World Cup warmup match in St Louis between Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Panama, thousands in the community paraded through the city with their native country’s blue, white and yellow regalia.

“People have been here for a long time, so they can afford a lot more things now,” said Smajic, who has been in St Louis since 1997. “They can go to different games and travel and spend money” and “support our team”.

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Barney Ronay

Barney Ronay on Donald Trump.

double quotation markAt 4.38pm on 28 June Donald Trump dropped a Truth. Nothing unusual in that. Trump’s Truth Social feed is relentless and ever-giving.

That same afternoon he also Truthed at 3.58pm, 3.59pm, and twice at 7.42pm, all in the same instantly recognisable, weirdly cartoonish tone, as if a giant maize-based salted snack from a jaunty 1970s TV advert has been pumped full of voodoo and vitamins and propped up behind a lectern to explain geopolitics to the world, but only in the kind of words you might use while arguing with your nine-year-old sister.

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Quansah to be fit for Mexico clash

Jacob Steinberg

Jarell Quansah is expected to recover from a twisted ankle in time for England’s last-16 tie against Mexico, boosting Thomas Tuchel’s options at right-back. Reece James also said last night he’s feeling good - he’s missed the last two games with a hamstring injury.

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I do have some DR Congo related transfer news to bring you … Kinshasa-born Jonathan Leko is currently on trial with Notts County after leaving MK Dons.

I can also confirm Aden Flint is training with the club too.

(I assume this is the sort of news you’re reading the blog for)

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I would like Borja Iglesias to get a chance for Spain at some point. He seems a very good egg.

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Brighton have signed Austria defender Michael Svoboda on a four-year deal from Serie B champions Venezia.

The 27-year-old will link up with his new team-mates when he returns from the World Cup, where Austria are set to face Spain in the round of 32 on Thursday night.

Albion boss Fabian Hurzeler said: “He has a number of attributes that we believe will see him adapt well to how we play, both in and out of possession.

“He also adds competition to an area we are looking to strengthen and with a number of clubs pursuing him this summer, I am very happy that he’s decided to come to Brighton.”

Brighton also confirmed defender Joel Veltman has left the club after six years upon the expiration of his contract. PA Media

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Some England fans went to Truist Park to watch the Atlanta Braves and new cult hero Michael Harris.

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Updated at 10.26 EDT

Has no one told them that the serious exams are almost certainly done everyone in primary school gave up on learning weeks ago?

Admittedly, I did offer to watch the England match yesterday with my daughter but she elected to view Topsy and Tim instead.

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Starmer rejects Tuchel's suggestion to give children day off

Keir Starmer wants children up and ready for school on Monday morning regardless of the England game being played at 1am UK time.

When asked if children should stay up to watch the game, Starmer’s spokesperson said: “It is up to parents to make their own decisions. We want everyone to enjoy the game but children should be at school on Monday.”

Someone call Burnham.

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Updated at 10.12 EDT

Jeff Rueter

double quotation markTillman has worked hard to forge a place in Mauricio Pochettino’s team. After making his debut midway through 2022, Tillman was among the toughest cuts from Gregg Berhalter’s squad for that year’s World Cup. The next few years saw him often called into camp, but seldom given starts with Berhalter’s A-team.

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Where is our money on today’s games? Spain to beat Austria, Portugal to down Croatia and Switzerland to edge out Algeria in one that goes the distance?

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Taha Hashim

Taha Hashim was on Football Daily duty today. What a treat.

double quotation mark“For us now, it’s absolutely not a time to panic,” Anthony Barry urged in his now customary half-time debrief, with England 1-0 down to a Democratic Republic of Congo side playing with serious confidence. Thomas Tuchel’s No 2 coldly broke down what was required in the second half – “not a time to play gung-ho football” – but was done dirty by the stat that flashed up on the BBC’s coverage as he spoke. The last time England went on to win a World Cup match in which they conceded first? West Germany in the 1966 final. Yes, you may panic.

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Anthony T emails: “We used to watch the final round of The Masters each year, me and my Dad. Basically cos at the time European golfers were killing it. Always trying to spot the same guy in a red polo and white hair behind the tee on 16 or 17! There, every year he was, even after I moved out. I’d call my dad and be like, did you see him?? Yep.

“I also got a TV in my room to play Spectrum games and I definitely was NOT allowed to stay up and watch England group games in 1986 (I was 8?). Must’ve watched with the sound off. Guess it was good practice for teenage years? Still gave the game away next morning. Terrible liar then, terrible liar now. Not the worst trait, surely.

“But the latest staying up was having a sleepover at my best mates house as a kid and watching the 1986 Adelaide GP where Mansell, our Nige, our local Brummie hero, surely win the F1 championship. I remember it clear as day/middle of the night. I remember the bed, the room, the colour, the AT-AT in the corner I was jealous of. BUT that would’ve been a Sat into Sun…. “and that’s Mansell! That is Nigel Mansell….” We didn’t even watch the rest of the race.”

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Anthony Gordon says Harry Kane is an “inspiration to all of us” after the England captain kept World Cup hopes alive with a two-goal intervention against the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Thomas Tuchel’s men were heading for one of the most embarrassing results in the country’s history when they trailed 1-0 with less than 15 minutes remaining in the last-32 tie.

But winger Gordon climbed off the bench to twice set up Kane, who first headed home and then thrashed an unstoppable drive into the top corner to earn a last-16 clash with Mexico.

“You know what? As soon as he hit (the second goal), I knew it was going in,” Gordon said. “I was already celebrating. “It’s more the consistency that he surprised me with. Anyone can score a good goal, anyone at this level can put the ball in the top corner. This is the consistency that he does it. Every day in training. Every game. He is phenomenal. He plays at such a high, high level.

“It’s amazing to be around him every day, because when you’re around someone at the elite level – he’s at the very, very top of football, he’s having a season that’s only ever been beaten by Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer of all time. So that speaks to the level he’s playing at. When you’re around someone like that, you want to pick up as many habits and watch everything he does to see why he’s at that level. It’s no accident, like I said, there’s consistency every day, how hard he works, every finishing drill.

“He does it with passion, he does it with seriousness. He never ever messes about. So it’s amazing to be around him. He’s definitely an inspiration to all of us.” PA Media

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Adrian Chiles

double quotation markI’ve found another way of ruining sport for myself. I thought I’d explored every means of turning the stress dial up to 11, but now I’ve chanced on a new method. I must need the anxiety to feel alive.

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I can also offer some stuff on Elliot Anderson and what he will bring to City.

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How are the Power Rankings holding up?

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Jacob Steinberg … and he’s live!

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Manchester City confirm Anderson deal

Will Unwin

Manchester City have reached an agreement to sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest, the club have confirmed.

City will pay £116m for the England international, who has passed a medical in America, where he is currently playing at the World Cup. The formalities will be completed once Anderson returns to England following the conclusion of his participation in the tournament.

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Right, Will Unwin is about to pick up the reins again. I will see you tomorrow. Bye-eeeee!

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In non-World Cup news: Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper have left their coaching positions at Bournemouth to join former boss Andoni Iraola at Liverpool, PA reports.

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Head coach of the Japan men’s soccer team, Hajime Moriyasu, has said he needs some time to decide about his future.

“I think I’ll take a bit of a break now and then I’ll need to properly reflect on the tournament,” AP reports Moriyasu told a press conference, with Japan Football Association officials also attending. “That’s all that’s been decided so far.”

“Japanese soccer, built up over history, is more than capable of holding its own on the world stage,” Moriyasu said. “I am convinced that if we continue this growth we will certainly be able to become world champions.”

Moriyasu also guided Japan to the knockout stage in 2022 in Qatar, losing to Croatia on penalties.

Japan FA president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto told the news conference that the association needed time for a debrief, having previously suggested to local media that the JFA wanted Moriyasu to stay on.

Japan face Qatar, Thailand and Indonesia in the group stage of the 24-team AFC Asian Cup being hosted in Saudi Arabia in January and February next year.

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That is enough about England for now, let me turn my attention to Spain. The main El País story leading up to their match with Austria tonight is pointing out that the nation has not won a single World Cup knock-out match since 2010. David Alvarez writes “the last time Spain won a knockout match in a World Cup, Lamine Yamal was two days shy of his third birthday.”

Alvarez goes on to say “The team as a whole isn’t firing on all cylinders like it did during the glory days of the European Championship in Germany two summers ago. In the World Cup, you play a bit against your opponent and a bit, even quite a bit, against old ghosts. Spain doesn’t want to dwell too much on the 16 years since their last knockout victory. They’ve come for something else.”

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Everyone and their aunt appears to have an opinion about what playing at altitude will mean for England’s game against Mexico, and so PA have actually spoken to an expert about it.

James Barber, the lead performance specialist at The Altitude Centre, told PA:

double quotation markThere’s less oxygen available to you when you go to altitude, so you’ve got less oxygen going to your muscles, less oxygen going to the brain, and so across the course of 90 minutes you’re going to fatigue much more quickly, and that ability to sprint, having already sprinted, is going to be massively impaired.

The first thing you’re going to feel is a massive sense of breathlessness, because your body’s just trying to hyperventilate to get more oxygen in, and to make space in your lungs for that oxygen. Your heart rate is going to be significantly elevated, even quite early into the game. If I was a player, I would certainly want a three-minute break halfway through the half.

Barber also highlighted the different behaviour of the ball at that height, saying “If you were to kick the ball as hard as sea level at altitude, it is going to fly further when you’re at altitude because there’s less air resistance to it.”

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16.3m people watched England v DR Congo on BBC in UK

The BBC has issued audience figures for last night’s round of 32 match between England and DR Congo, saying that it achieved a peak audience of 16.3 million viewers on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

The corporation said the match averaged 14 million viewers, making it “the most-watched moment on the BBC this year”, which presumably has ticked off the people who make The Traitors.

The BBC said a third of all streams served on iPlayer in the final week of group matches was for World Cup content.

BBC Director of Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski said: “These are extraordinary audience figures that show the BBC is the place the nation comes together for the biggest sporting moments. England’s dramatic victory captured millions across TV, iPlayer, BBC Sport digital platforms and social media. We’re proud to be delivering the moments that matter to audiences wherever and however they choose to follow the tournament, as England’s World Cup journey continues.”

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England's Anthony Gordon: Harry Kane is 'an inspiration to all of us'

Some quotes from Anthony Gordon have just dropped on the wires via PA, and he is being effusive in his praise for teammate Harry Kane, as well as saying he is relishing the prospect of facing Mexico at the Azteca.

PA quotes him saying of England’s second goal “As soon as he hit, I knew it was going in. I was already celebrating”. Gordon then want on to venture his own Messi v Ronaldo opinion while talking about Kane’s career, saying:

double quotation markIt’s more the consistency that he surprised me with. Anyone can score a good goal, anyone at this level can put the ball in the top corner. This is the consistency that he does it. Every day in training. Every game. He is phenomenal. He plays at such a high, high level.

It’s amazing to be around him every day, because when you’re around someone at the elite level – he’s at the very, very top of football, he’s having a season that’s only ever been beaten by Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer of all time. So that speaks to the level he’s playing at.

When you’re around someone like that, you want to pick up as many habits and watch everything he does to see why he’s at that level. It’s no accident, like I said, there’s consistency every day, how hard he works, every finishing drill. He does it with passion, he does it with seriousness. He never ever messes about. So it’s amazing to be around him. He’s definitely an inspiration to all of us.

On the prospect of playing Mexico, Gordon said:

double quotation markI’m really excited. It’s an amazing game of football, probably a once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere and environment, so I’m really looking forward to it. It’s great to see who you can become in those moments, but I think we’re ready.

We’ve got a great team, we faced adversity, we hold each other accountable so we’re in a great place, we have good momentum. I think momentum is massive with football. I knew we could face this type of adversity from the start of camp.

Honestly, you get a feeling. Every squad you’re in, you know if they’re willing to go over the line when it comes to it. I know this team’s ready for that, because we train so hard every day, every session is serious, there’s no waste of time, and that’s a sign of a top team.

You can have as many good players as you want but if a team’s not willing to do that in the toughest moments, they are not a top team.”

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I just got an email from the FA inviting me to shell out £20 to join England+ and get priority access to men and women’s home matches in the Nations League and Women’s World Cup play-offs, and I’m just saying, that is a ballsy move by the marketing department after last night’s display.

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Martin Belam

Hi everybody, good afternoon/lunchtime/evening/morning etc. This tournament is playing havoc with my body clock. And I suspect if I had some kind of heart-tracking fitness watch it would automatically have dialled 999 at points while I was watching Fulchester United England v DR Congo yesterday. That was 100% a penalty on Harry Kane, though, right? Especially when you saw the one VAR awarded Belgium late on.

The first bit of news I have for you today is some non-World Cup news: Former Arsenal and Spain playmaker Santi Cazorla is hanging up his boots at the ripe old age of 41.

He helped his local team Oviedo reach La Liga in 2025 and played his final season with them in the Spanish top flight. AFP reports he posted to social media “Now that everything is ending, when the boots are being hung up, and the noise is turning into silence, everything fits together, because the ending wasn’t just anywhere – I was at home.”

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Right, that’s me done for now. Here’s Martin Belam to guide you through the next couple of hours.

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Into the inbox, and Jack Gordon Brown reckons there’s a bit too much English pessimism about the challenge posed by Mexico:

double quotation markObviously playing Mexico at altitude in a home World Cup for them (for now) in which they have won four games in a row is a tough game, but is a bit much being made of their record in the Azteca?

A quick wiki search shows since 2020 they have drawn with Jamaica, USA, Costa Rica and Canada at this ground. These teams are all weaker than England and don’t play their home games at this level of altitude.

Prior to this World Cup Mexico hadn’t played a WC game here since 1986 and they don’t play the likes of Argentina and Brazil in qualifying -- they play pretty middling teams. England are a better team, maybe Mexico’s form and home advantage makes it a pretty even match-up. Feel like Tuchel might be trying to dampen expectations a bit?

Well, England did their talking on the pitch yesterday, in terms of expectation-dampening, but in theory yes, they have deeper gears than Mexico (or any of the opponents you list). Yet momentum and spirit matter in tournament football and Mexico currently have more of those than England.

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Need something to do while waiting for the next games to start, or during a pointless “hydration” break? Well tuck into some World Cup puzzling …

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Talking of Uruguay, as we briefly were, Edinson Cavani has announced his departure from Boca Juniors after three years, AFP reports. The 39-year-old striker, who frankly Uruguay could have done with this year, joined the Argentinian side in July 2023 from Valencia. He leaves Boca without having won a title there and acknowledged he had “difficult moments” that prevented him from “leaving a mark” on the club. Hampered by recurring injuries, he played 81 matches, completing the full 90 minutes in only 27 of them, scoring 28 goals.

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There are suddenly only four African teams remaining in this World Cup, though the DRC and Senegal can consider themselves mightily unlucky that they’re not among them. Still there for now though are Cape Verde, who face Argentina on Friday. Sid Lowe sat down for a chinwag with their full-back Sidny Lopes Cabral, about their extraordinary run, dealing with racism, Cape Verde’s party people and taking on Lionel Messi.

double quotation markIt’s about our game. The coach’s message is that we’re a family. It’s 11 men, not this man or that man … I need to focus on myself. If I think ‘I’m playing Messi’, I’m going to blow my mind. Afterwards I can enjoy that I played against him. I hope I get some nice pictures with him.

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On this day in World Cup history, 2010: Look away, Ghana fans …

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Anyway, Spain v Austria approaches, an intriguing one. Austria haven’t pulled up any trees thus far, but their steady improvement over the past five or six years makes Ralf Rangnick’s side worthy of respect. Spain haven’t dazzled yet the way they did at Euro 2024 (apart from in the first half-hour against a limp Saudi Arabia); can they turn it on tonight? To get you in the mood, here’s Sid Lowe’s interview with Fábian Ruiz, who’s had a lively old time of it in international tournaments this year.

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Thanks Will, and hello all. Well after all yesterday’s drama and angst I didn’t think today’s liveblog would generate hot South Korea v Bolivia in 94 chat. Did I ever tell you I was there? My own recollection was that it was quite enjoyable, though I might just have been starstruck over being at an actual World Cup finals game for the first time. All of which invites the question: was that American World Cup better than this one? The former took place at hotter times of the day and in mostly unroofed stadiums and without ad breaks, which alone clinches it for me. Thoughts?

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Updated at 06.12 EDT

Tom Davies is moving his way into the hotseat for a power hour. See you all later.

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Understandably playing second fiddle, the Under-19s European Championships are taking place in Wales. The Germany coach Christian Worns has been kitted out in a retro tracksuit and it is a bold statement. It’s not for me but I am Britain’s least fashionable man. On the upside, Germany did win 4-0 against Wales on Wednesday.

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