2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

I know this is to do with the tournament itself rather than the presentation - but I want to get it off my chest *somewhere*...

Senegal are eliminated merely because they picked up more yellow cards than Japan. And it means that there won't be any African teams in the knockout stages for the first time since 1982.

FIFA made changes for the better after the "Disgrace of Gijón" that year... it's unlikely they'll make any changes for the better this time though. Even giving CAF an extra place in Qatar isn't guaranteed to work.

some other oddities over the years including the events of Italia 90, why the system moved to goal difference from goal average and why Spain didn't get to the 1954 competition:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/27/the-six-oddest-tie-breaking-rules-in-world-cup-history

I wonder, have VW got an alternative ad campaign lined up for when England have gone home?

Whoops, a bit of a camera blooper coming back after the half time break on ITV. Looked like their jib camera got stuck.

Cant see this beating the Tunisia game ratings wise - not only does it have slightly less appeal but more people seem to be in pubs going by my social media feed (Didn't see any posts of pub viewings for the first two but loads tonight).

Really thought for a minute you were suggesting the Tunisia game on ITV4 would beat it.

Some of 5 Live's commentaries are going out on the BBC World Service radio for Africa.

Hadn't thought of that but good point! That said, hopefully, they won't need one!

Had Egypt equalised against England in Cagliari, I assume FIFA would have had to draw lots to separate all four teams - and, of course, eliminate one of them in this manner.

Then we might not have had the heroics of Bonner and O'Leary, Rijkaard spitting at Völler - or, indeed, Gazza's tears...

Ireland's group at USA '94 saw all four teams finish with a win, a draw and a defeat - but separating them was much more straightforward, as Mexico scored the most goals and Norway the fewest, while Ireland finished ahead of Italy by virtue of beating them.

Incidentally the same MotD episodes page is indicating that the BBC will be covering QF2 on Fri Evening

BRA or MEX v BEL or JPN.

We'll see

Is it not just a placeholder as they have to put something in?

Yes - those pages are generated from the main version of the schedules for each day, but there will be alternate variations which the press receive but cannot be sent to PIPs, EPGs etc.

For example, the main schedule might just have an afternoon match but not evening. But there'll also be an alternate showing how the schedule will look if there's an evening game and another showing what will be on if the afternoon game isn't shown, both covering just the hours that are different to the main one. Once the selections are made, it's then quite straightforward to drop those alternates into the main schedule as required, and those platforms will update.

I think the picks tend not to be confirmed until the day after each round is complete (though of course ITV have been able to say straight away they'll be showing England on Tuesday as they have first pick).