Nonsense, on both points. You are quite blinded by your dislike of the England team I'm afraid.

Ferdinand and Neville are world class, you'd struggle to name a better right back then Neville even though he often isn't that highly thought of. Joe Cole is improving at an amazing rate and even though I wouldn't put him as World Class now, he soon will be. Crouch I'm not considering to be in the first 11. Owen showed this season in the Premiership and last season in La Liga just how good he is, give him more than a game of football and he'll show it again. Beckham is playing very well at the moment, I have a lot of friends in Spain, several of whom are Real Madrid supporters and they all had him down as their best player this year, I think given who is in their side that makes him World Class. Robinson isn't World Class, but he isn't far off, he is a very good keeper and I probably don't class him at that level simply because he hasn't played enough games in big competitions to prove it. Ashley Cole is the best left back in the world, no two ways about it for me.

Just think they need to change their formation and play two up front, though I would probably still leave Wiltord in the side.

I'm not actually really English, so I can look at it from a decently objective stance. Raul isn't the player he was, Reyes has yet to become the player he could be and based on what they have actually produced for their club sides Downing is the better player, Jaoquin is about as overrated as they come and though a good player I would struggle to choose between him and Lennon to be honest and I believe that Lennon will be the better player, I don't think that much of Canizares but I don't think that much of James either, both are alright, while Fabregas will be a better player than Fabregas I would rather have Carrick now than Fabregas. England's fully fit starting 11 is in my opinion far superior to Spain's and I am not sure that any Spanish player, with the possible exception of keepers would be chosen of their English rival. The only other area I would think of is in central midfield where they might choose for a different combination for tactical reasons, but even there I am not sure. As for England looking the third best team in their group, you are joking right? Which of the other three are the two that looked better? You can't say Paraguay, England may not have imrpessed for most of that match but Paraguay didn't look like they were going to score despite the fact that England for whatever reason chose to sit back in their own half. While Brazil looked pretty ordinary themselves, I actually didn't realise before that game that Brazi wore red and white and not yellow. As for how I can lump England, Brazil and Argentina together it is on the simple fact that basically every position in the England first 11 is occupied by a world class player. There is a very good reason why England are so highly thought of by their opposition and rivals and why even the foreign media think so much of them and it isn't because of British hype. When you break down the top 10 teams in this tournament is very difficult to seperate them when you just look at it on paper. I could easily argue with you that France have a wonderful first 11 and squad and should be ranked up their with the best, but you won't have it, had they thrashed Switzerland 4-0 then maybe you would.

Long way to go yet. If the World Cup was decided in only one match, or even in the group stages, the list of winners would be very different.

Whatever, let's just see who gets further. There is no doubt in my mind that England have the better team, a better first 11 and a better squad. No, the fact that Northern Ireland beat England doesn't makethem better, that is actually exactly my point in terms of this knee-jerk reaction to a decent performance making people think Spain are suddenly one of the best sides. Spain are a good side with some very good side with some very good players, don't get me wrong, but still behind the likes of Brazil, England and Argentina.

Why doesn't everyone wait and see how this world cup pans out and then see who was over-hyped and who was underestimated. No point trying to sort it out after one game. Get over the fact that England are actually one of the favourites for this tournament. If you are English, enjoy it, if you aren't then either turn off your tv or shut up. It is exactly the same hype here in France and exactly the same I'm sure in all the big nations. I'll tell you that they talk as highly here in France of the England team as they are on the BBC, biased frogs. (what happened to the language filter?)

3-1 Italy

It was only Paraguay, which is why I didn't get so excited as to think we had already won the World Cup. The Ukraine are a decent outfit, but after beating them 4-0 in a game that certainly didn't deserve to be 4-0 you aren't suddenly transformed from a good team with a chance to shoe-in favourites for the semis.

Ukraine may have qualified first but you aren't going tell me that you expect them to get any further than the second round? Serbia and Montenegro finished above Spain in qualification and only let in one goal but you aren't going to say that they are one of Europe's finest, nor will you hold it against Spain that they didn't win their group. I still do not think that Spain's squad is as good as England's. They have a very good squad, but I think that England have the better defense and midfield. Very little seperates the keepers and up front I would rather have any strike force with Rooney in it, especially when you throw in Owen.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. They were only playing Ukraine and everything went their way. Scrappy first goal, huge deflection on the second and a wrongfully given penalty for their third, not to mention the number of times that the Ukraine got through their offside trap only to be incorrectly given offside. They are always a good side, but much like England they always fall short, I think they will do better than usual but I can't see them winning it or making their final, while I don't believe you can say their squad of players is as good as the England team.

They aren't happy here in Paris, I can tell you that.

Just waiting for the moment to strike.

Not our fault, they have Hansen and O'Neill on there to represent the rest of the Isles.

For me the thing is that England looked pretty untroubled at the back. The only other team that has done well going forward without having too much difficulty defending are the Czechs.

If Leanardo spoke better English? I have to say I have been amazed at the fact that the man speaks perfect English.

Have to say that was worse. France totally lacked creativity. Very poor.

My new favourite player is Pimpong...shame he was actually crap. I suspect he was put in the side just because of his name.

I would say it was Japan that was wasteful. As for the goal, I can understand how it was given and I think more blame should be placed on the keeper, that was a horrible attempt at collecting a cross and I think his reaction said it all.

As I said, the coverage is probably exactly the same all over the world for the big nations. Last night I watched USA v Czech Republic and Italy v Ghana on French tv, during half-time in both matches all the analysis they had was showing the goals and then they cut to a reporter at the French camp who said what the French side would be for the game against the Swiss and that Ribery was to get his first cap and is the man of the moment. At the end of the day there probably isn't an interest for the analysis of most of these group games, it is when we get to the knock-out stages that the build up and focus will be on the individual games. I've enjoyed the BBC coverage.

Already sent mine to Roy.

It's all going wrong for me!

Very controlled performance from the Czechs, but the USA were very unimpressive. The Czechs just sat back and with the exception of the Reyna shot and a couple of half chances at the end they created nothing. For me this was a combination of the USA not showing up and the Czechs showing that they are what they usually are, well organized with enough talent to be a threat.

You looked good up until the final third I thought, but ran out of ideas and were unable to put in a good final ball once you got to around the penalty area. Midfield played well though and you dealt quite well with the larger Aussies at the back.

Hm, great game, don't know how Australia won that 3-1 though. In the end I think they got the rub of the green. In my opinion the goal Japan scored was a good one, but given the standards today the Aussies were certainly unlucky not to have it ruled out, but that was a definite penalty at the end there, no doubt about it. Australia pressed well, though Japan had plenty of opportunity to kill that game off and wasted the ball when they had it in good positions and must be kicking themselves now. Australia are now in a great position to go through to the second round as long as no one springs a surprise result against Brazil.