Mexico vs South Africa reads more like a Condé Nast Traveller article than the opening World Cup fixture.

But you’ll get some dodgy match-ups when you let as many as 48 teams in. Or attempt to…

Iran have had switch training camps from the USA to Mexico, while the Somalian ref has been sent home for links to “suspected members of terror organisations”.

Well, duh, he literally works for FIFA. 🤣 🫣

(we’re joking, Gianni, just “chill, relax”)

11th June 2025

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Under Southgate, England won their first game at a major tournament all four times. They’d only managed to do it five times in the previous 24 attempts.

🇦🇷 The No. 1 FIFA ranked team have never won the World Cup. Apologies Leo.

⓵ Of the 964 all-time World Cup matches, 182 have finished 1-0. That’s roughly a fifth of all games.

🇲🇽 Four players have made it to six World Cups: Messi, Modric, Ronaldo and Mexico’s goalkeeper: Guillermo Ochoa.

🇿🇦 Mexico vs South Africa was also the first game at the 2010 World Cup. They kick off the tournament at 8pm this evening.

🧓 The record for the oldest manager to take charge of a World Cup match will be broken three times in the space of just 70 hours, starting with South Africa’s Hugo Broos (74) against Mexico on Thursday.

🇩🇪 Since winning the World Cup in 2014, Germany have won just two matches.

👀 Messi is three goals shy of scoring the most World Cup goals in history (record: 16), and holds the record for most World Cup games (26). Mbappe is four goals away.

🙅‍♂️ Four managers at the World Cup have been sacked by Chelsea: Tuchel, Ancelotti, Pochettino and Potter. That’s 8.33% of all managers at the tournament.

1 point | Golden Ball: Pedri ☞ 20/1
💭 Spain are the most likely winners and he is their best player. Underrated, he will no doubt have a stellar tournament.

1 point | Top Scorer: Oyarzabal ☞ 12/1
💭 Similar rationale to the above, and this man is their main goalscorer, having scored in his past six successive games for La Selección.

1 point | Top Argentina Scorer: Alvarez ☞ 7/2
💭 There’s a reason Madrid bid 150m euros for him, and a reason Atlético rejected it. Messi is well past his best and will be playing in a deeper role, giving Alvarez a great chance of ending up as their top scorer.

3 points | Iraq Exact Group Points: 0 ☞ 11/10
💭 A truly awful team in by far and away the most competitive group.

1 point | Lowest scoring team: Iraq ☞ 8/1
💭 See above.

1 point | Lowest scoring team: Qatar ☞ 12/1
💭 They’ve scored just once in their last five games, all terrible sides they faced too.

1 point | Group I Winner: Senegal ☞ 8/1
An outside shot, but the true winners of AFCON are a serious outfit and if they hold France to a draw, they could sneak ahead on GD.

1 point | Turkey to beat Australia ☞ 4/5
Always the dark horses, they should see off The Socceroos with ease.

2 points | Morocco to beat Scotland ☞ Evens
Much like Senegal, it will be interesting to see the African sides at the World Cup. Scotland have had their fairytale in getting here, but we don’t see them doing much at the tournament.

3 points | Group Stage Treble ☞ 6/4
- Qatar to finish bottom
- Turkey to qualify
- Senegal to qualify

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📺 TONIGHT

20:00—Mexico vs South Africa | ITV1