Ali doesn't appear to have been fully fit since he got injured against Tunisia and was then needlessly kept on the pitch for practically the entire match. Our creativity issue is more to do with shape than personnel. It's hard to be creative when you're leaving the middle of the park empty, negating the ability to slot in through balls. Instead we're constantly trying to cross the ball into the area because everybody is high up the pitch. It's little wonder almost all of our goals have been from set pieces. We've been lucky so far in that we have played teams with limited ability - with the exception of Belgium, and that match was basically an exhibition. If Sterling loses the ball against Croatia (assuming they beat Russia and we beat Sweden) and we've left a huge gap in midfield we will get punished. If Rodriguez was playing last night we would have been punished. I can see our match against Sweden being a pretty torrid affair in all honestly. One team who are still struggling to adapt their system and another whose entire style is essentially built on being rigid and defensive. Another 1-0 win from a set-piece could be on the cards. Or a loss in reverse.

I think it might be more the attempt to link the three behind Kane that's the problem. It's a lot to ask for any of the four of them to become a cohesive unit in a fairly fluid, passing system within the space of a few weeks. It might explain why we've only seen glimpses of potential compared to the consistency those players show for their clubs. I still think Rashford (or even Vardy) keep the ball better than Sterling. One of the worst things you can do is needlessly give away possession whilst on the attack and Sterling has been doing it repeatedly. He either needs to make better decisions or be dropped.

Southgate has tried to be loyal to Sterling but it just isn't working. He's not clicking with his team mates and the amount of times he loses possession is a serious problem. We've got Rashford, Loftus-Cheek or Dier who could come in and replace Sterling, depending on how we want to play, so he's far from irreplaceable. Time to admit it isn't working and try something else. Sweden are a very compact team so I don't see Sterling being able to do much against them.

Agreed. Part of me feels like we need another natural midfielder in the centre to drop back and distribute passes alongside Henderson, but obviously that would come at the expense of our attacking options and would mean dropping one of Ali, Lingard or Sterling. I'm not sure that would necessarily be in our best interests as we're already struggling to score from open play (Panama aside). On the other hand Sterling's inability to keep possession and lack of end product is arguably more of a detriment. Fortunately in Maguire we have a player who is willing and able to carry the ball out of defence himself if need be, but our issues come when the opponent starts to box us into a corner, which either leads to us losing possession or knocking it back to Pickford for the big punt up the pitch. Hopefully Southgate is looking at this as it's one of our biggest weaknesses and had we come up against top opposition at any point in this tournament (Belgium's second string not being counted) I feel we would have been harshly punished for it by now.

Our creativity void is an issue, but more worrying for me is our attempts to play out from the back. I understand the idea, particularly as we have a lot of small players in attack who aren't going to win headers, but the way we go about it is all wrong. We continually get into situations where the back three are passing it between themselves (and sometimes one of the wing backs) with no outlet. Ultimately it ends up going back to Pickford who boots it up the pitch, negating the point of passing it around the back to begin with. It's mainly because not enough players are dropping back to make themselves available for the pass. Multiple times last night Kyle Walker was calling for players to come back and help them out, which shouldn't be necessary. If we're going to play like this then players should automatically be ready to drop back and pick up a pass. Southgate must see this as a problem as we've had the same issue since the start of the tournament. If we want to pass it around like we're Spain then OK, but unless players make themselves available for the ball it's not going to work. Far too often last night there was a huge gap between the first and final third of the pitch, where nobody was dropping back to try and receive the ball from defence. In extra time Kane ended up coming back to do it as nobody else was stepping up. Southgate needs to tell some of these players to be braver and show for the ball. Hiding up the final third of the pitch waiting for a ball to be hoofed up is no good when we've got Alli, Sterling and Lingard trying to win headers. One of the three needs to drop back to pick up the ball on the floor from either the defence or Henderson/Dier.

This. One of the most disgusting performances I've ever seen. Their bullying of an admittedly weak referee was reprehensible. As far as I'm concerned they go home in disgrace.

The worst way to go out, and Colombia earned it. A disgrace to the world cup. What's worse is that they were actually decent when they tried to play. A shame they rarely had any intention of doing so. Karma collected at the end.

As nasty and dirty as Colombia have been, not being able to score from open play against them is appalling. They are a really, really poor team and they don't even have their best player on the pitch.

Two for us.

We've conceded a goal in every game this tournament, even against Panama. As soon as Colombia attempted to attack it was obvious they would score. We just cannot keep it out of our own net. The big teams, the winners, don't concede those type of goals. We're still not right mentally and truth be told we've not even been particularly good in this match. Set pieces have been poor and we've never looked like scoring from open play. We still think we're Barcelona passing it around at the back like idiots and getting caught out.

We can't keep clean sheets. It's pathetic.

Colombia are an absolute disgrace. A total embarrassment.

What a nasty little team Colombia are. Hope we can keep our heads as they're clearly trying to rile us up. We're definitely the better team, just have to open them up somehow.

I'd fancy us against Sweden, but Switzerland would be more of a challenge. People calling this the "easy" route to the final forget that we aren't one of the nations who traditionally go far in tournaments. We've got a big reputation but realistically it hasn't counted for anything since Euro 96.

I wouldn't analyse the game with Belgium to that extent. It was two completely reshuffled teams contesting the match largely like a friendly as neither particularly wanted to win. That said Colombia will be our first proper test in this tournament, imo. We'll see tomorrow whether the hype can be justified.

Japan had been going short with their corners most of the game, presumably because they knew they weren't going to win headers against the Belgians. Why they then decided to cross it in like that at the end I'm not sure - it had disaster written all over it. Naivety I suppose, although realistically I don't think Japan would have held back Belgium for another 30 minutes. They were spent. Belgium needed to cross more often as they had the beating of Japan in the air practically every time. Bringing on Fellaini obviously helped in that regard. Brazil/Belgium should be very interesting.

Yeah, when I saw the keeper dive early I thought the guy would easily slot it to the other side. Instead he just punts it in the same direction at a perfect height. I appreciate it's a high pressure situation, but that one was a gimme.

A collection of some of the worst penalty takers in recent memory. Jeez... half of them looked like they'd never kicked a ball before. Modric very lucky that his penalty went through, could easily have missed two out of two. No reason to fear Croatia based on tonight.

Hmmm. No comment on Russia/Spain. As for England, still have a horrible feeling we'll get beaten by Colombia.

Watching Belgium in this match is like watching that Simpsons football parody where three players are passing it between themselves repeatedly.

Nine. Don't think either team is bothered if they lose this one.

Unbelievable stuff. Well done South Korea. Going home but they can be incredibly proud of that performance. Bigger nations would have crumbled.

Amazing! I love VAR.

Waiting for another 95th minute German winner. South Korea look stronger than Sweden defensively but I'm sure it's coming.

Germany looking poor again. I imagine they'll win as South Korea are significantly worse in terms of talent, but this isn't the Germany I'm used to seeing at tournaments.