Key events
Missed anything over the opening few days? I wouldn’t blame you if you have. Catch up on all the news and analysis with Max and the gang on the latest World Cup Daily.
“I’ve really enjoyed the World Cup so far,” enthuses Harry Sachar. “Plenty of entertainment and quality on view. I reckon the new rules about time-wasting have worked a treat. The cherry on top being the Socceroos wonderful win against Türkiye yesterday. Currently watching Ecuador v Côte d’Ivoire which has been yet another entertaining match.”
As usual, I agree with you Harry. The pace of play has surprised me, helped by the officiating, and also by the neat contrast in styles in many matches. The less aesthetically pleasing matches (I’[m looking at you Brazil and Morocco) have largely come from teams cancelling each other out. Hopefully some of the counterattacking approaches prevail into the knockouts to continue that free-flowing feel.
How have these early matches affected your Bracketology? Germany up, Brazil down?
The opening game of the matchday saw Germany demolish debutants Curacao 7-1 in Houston.
Germany will surely reach the knockouts this time and could have made absolutely certain by adding several more. Nagelsmann will be pleased that threats emanated from all around the pitch, half a dozen scorers bearing testament to that, but it should go without saying that more accurate tests of strength will have to be navigated over the next month. Kai Havertz, rounding things off neatly with his second goal, will hope to be similarly efficient later on.
Barney Ronay was in Dallas to enjoy the opening match of Group F that ended in a 2-2 draw between the Netherlands and Japan.
The World Cup continued to produce the unexpected in Arlington. On a throbbingly hot afternoon in the low flat plains outside Dallas the Netherlands and Japan played out an episodically thrilling opening Group F game, Daichi Kamada scoring an 88th-minute equaliser to make it 2-2 just as the Dutch looked like taking an early hold on one of the tougher groups.
There has been so much talk of tired players, format failure and empty seats (the stadium was full here), talk so feverishly committed you wondered at times if it was necessary to play the games at all. But it does feel as though something else has been taking place in the opening games. Maybe – whisper it – the World Cup is actually good.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of match 12 of the 2026 World Cup between Sweden and Tunisia. Kick-off in this Group F clash at Estadio Monterrey is 8pm local time (10pm EDT/3am BST/12pm AEST).
This shapes as a must-win contest for both teams following the earlier 2-2 draw between the Netherlands and Japan that demonstrated the qualities of the group heavyweights. However, recent form suggests this clash will not reach similar technical heights.
Sweden didn’t win a match between June 2025 and March 2026 as they laboured to the finals via the playoff route. Since victories over Ukraine and Poland they have gone another two matches without success.
Tunisia qualified with ease from a very kind CAF group phase but have won just one of their past seven outings. That includes three consecutive matches without scoring, culminating in a 5-0 thrashing by Belgium in their final warm-up.
I’ll be back shortly with team news and a round-up of all the matchday action so far. In the meantime you can keep an eye on Ivory Coast v Ecuador and email any thoughts about the tournament so far to jonathan.howcroft.freelance@theguardian.com.
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