Dashed Hopes - Unexpected Victory

Couldn’t not wrap up this football-centric year without a quick look at England’s 2026 World Cup roller-coaster journey. Who’d have predicted the final score of the third-place playoff when England started the 2nd half 4 goals to nil? 

But first, here’s a quick recap of our team's performance since their first world cup in 1950.

Didn’t Qualify: 1974, 1978, 1994
Didn’t reach knockouts: 1950, 1958, 2014
Knock out before Quarterfinals 1982, 1998, 2010
Quarterfinals: 1954 (lost 2-4 to Uruguay), 1962 (lost 1-3 to Brazil),
1970 (lost 2-3 to West Germany), 1986 (lost 1-2 to Argentina),
2002 (lost 1-2 to Brazil), 2006 (0-0 lost to Portugal on penalties), 2022 (lost 1-2 to France)
Semi-finals:
1990 (1-1 lost to West Germany on penalties) – 4th: lost 1-2 to Italy in bronze playoff
2018 (lost 1-2 to Croatia) – 4th: lost 0-2 to Belgium in bronze playoff
2026 (lost 1-2 to Argentina) – 3rd: beat 6-4 France in bronze playoff
Final: 1966 – England's only World Cup title, defeating West Germany 4-2 at Wembley
Interesting quite how many times we lost 2-1. Just saying.

Back to this year - here's the show so far:
Group L: Winners
17 June: England 4-2 Croatia (Dallas)
The Croatia win was the standout: Harry Kane scored twice, with Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford also on the scoresheet.

23 June: England 0-0 Ghana (Boston)
The Ghana game was a tighter affair, with England held to a goalless draw but staying top of the group.

27 June: Panama 0-2 England (New York)
Jude Bellingham broke a frustrating deadlock to put England ahead after 62 minutes, then crossed for Kane to double their advantage with a close-range header five minutes later. It was the England captain's 11th World Cup goal - taking him one ahead of Gary Lineker, and it put England top of the group.

Knockout stage
1 July – round of 32: England 2-1 DR Congo (Atlanta)
England trailed from the seventh minute, when Brian Cipenga opened the scoring, until the 75th minute when Harry Kane equalised, with the England skipper then blasting a brilliant winner in a dramatic turnaround.

6 July – round of 16: Mexico 2-3 England (Mexico City)
Despite being reduced to 10 men in the 54th minute after Jarell Quansah received a red card, England overcame Mexico’s attempt to reach their first quarter-final in 40 years in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. In a dramatic match at Estadio Azteca, Bellingham scored twice in two minutes, giving England a 2-0 lead, and Mexico pulled one back just before half-time. Harry Kane converted a penalty to restore the two-goal advantage, and Mexico won a penalty nine minutes later. Mexico had strong possession (67%) and created chances, but England’s resilience and defensive organization held firm to secure progression to the quarterfinals.

11 July – quarter-finals: Norway 1-2 England, aet (Miami) Norway seized the initiative from the start with Erling Haaland's header straight at Jordan Pickford, and Schjelderup put Norway ahead in the 36th minute. The Three Lions weathered a wave of pressure before levelling in first-half stoppage time through Bellingham's driving run and cool finish. Harry Kane had the ball in the net moments later, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

15 July – semi-final: England 1-2 Argentina (Atlanta)
This eagerly-awaited revival of one of international football’s great rivalries ended with a repeat of the scoreline in the teams' most famous encounter in Mexico City 40 years ago. One report called the start of the match feisty, cagey and intensely contested, but I thought it was boring with dirty tactics and constant fouling, with the ref only calling a fraction of the Argentinian ones. Very telling that neither side produced an attempt on goal until the 33rd minute, giving a goal-less first half. Ten minutes into the second, Gordon slid a cheeky goal from a Rogers cross followed seconds later by a goal-saving tackle from Spence, stopping Messi in his tracks. The pressure from Argentina was never-ending, and inevitably they scored – 5 minutes before the end, and again, two minutes into add-on time. But most significant was the behaviour of the two teams at the end – few smiles and the handshakes were grudging and few and far between.

18 July – third place play-off: France 4-6 England (Miami)

Chalk and cheese are like identical twins compared to the difference between this match and the last one. Right from the get-go, the interactions were sportsmanlike, the tackles legitimate and the fouling clean (if such a thing is possible) and almost gentlemanly. In the highest scoring third round match ever, Saka gave us a world cup hat-trick including a proper tricksy penalty. Here’s the Fifa report:

France goals: Mbappe (48 & 66), Barcola (54), Ousmane Dembele (90+6)
England goals: Rice (3), Konsa (18), Saka (37, 45+1 & pen 87), Bellingham (90+8)
England overcame France in the ultimate game of two halves in the bronze final of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Bukayo Saka hit a hat-trick and Jude Bellingham finally put an end to a comeback Kylian Mbappe had heroically inspired at Miami Stadium. England annihilated France in the first half. Declan Rice stylishly struck home the opener from outside the box and, after Saka had a goal ruled out for offside, Ezri Kosna made it two. Saka then bagged a quick-fire brace to send Thomas Tuchel’s team in 4-0 up at the break.
Michael Olise’s pass enabled Kylian Mbappe to get them on the board, and the Real Madrid forward set up Bradley Barcola to further decrease the deficit. Mbappe then pulled Les Bleus within one, before Olise came narrowly close to rounding off a breathtaking team move and equalising. The Three Lions were under extreme pressure, but Saka gave them breathing space from the spot after Malo Gusto had tripped Djed Spence. It appeared to finally extinguish the comeback, only for Ousmane Dembele to get France within one again. England’s player of the tournament had the final say, though, Bellingham dribbling past multiple bodies to seal victory in one of the greatest matches the World Cup has ever seen.
It was England’s best finish at the global finals since they triumphed on home soil in 1966.

Post script
As so many have said - Sunday's final was a total anticlimax. Spain gave it everything they had and those dirty argies, who didn't even manage a single shot on target and thoroughly disgraced themselves with the wrangling after the final whistle. As my son said, never has there been a more hated team at the world cup, and the whole world enjoyed the schadenfreude of their defeat at the hands (feet) of the Spaniards who more than deserved the win.

Sophia's Choice

Bit of a break from the holiday reminiscences - mainly because today was spent down south at my fabulous daughter-in-law's baby shower, then a mad dash up the M40, arriving home just as the England-Norway game began - more about that later.

Yep, finally gonna have a grandchild, making me Granny Gray. And her choice? Well hers and Chris, really - it's all about the name. They've shortlisted two, but won't choose till she's born - several weeks to wait yet.Yep, finally gonna have a grandchild, making me Granny Gray. And her choice? Well hers and Chris's, really - it's all about the name. They've shortlisted two, but won't choose till she's born - several weeks to wait yet.

Meanwhile, Hazel and Emily worked incredibly hard to provide a wonderful afternoon, aided and abetted by glorious sunny weather (there was stacks of shade for those who were wilting after so many days of intense heat).
First task was to decorate wooden cuboids with coloured pens for a set of building blocks. As usual, Ilva's cube put the rest of us to shame - so-oo professional.

	A truly wonderful selection of sarnies, wraps and sushi (although not for poor Sophia) alongside sausage rolls, tortilla chips and cous-cous. Followed by a platter of chocolate goodies and fruit kebabs and a slice of this gorgeous 3-layer cake.
But the most remarkable bit was the sheer amount of zero-alcohol prosecco, beer and even Guinness zero. Even those who weren't driving (like me) couldn't drink for various reasons. Shocker!

Other tasks included creating a hot-air balloon from fingerprints, decorating vests for the baby, and making predictions about the baby's due date, time, name etc. We also had to sign the guestbook with a message for Sophia. In amongst this, she opened the gifts with so many cute outfits and gadgets including a thermometer rubber duck and a baby mani-pedi grooming set. All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon and everyone had a great time, so much so it overran by half an hour. Massive thanks to Hazel and Emily.

As for the little matter of that football match - I'm just pleased as punch about the justice of Norway's disallowed goal after the dodgy offside decision against England's second goal. That rarely happens. Good result for us, but can't help feeling it could have gone either way.

Hot or What? – Mid Spain

We didn’t discover Spain until 96, and in the dozen years until 2007, we only missed two years in Spain (North and Middle), but sadly haven’t been back since. 1998 saw us France’s Green Venice and in 2005, we spent our August week in Ireland – more about that in a few weeks’ time.
In all those years, we only braved the nonsense that is Benidorm once – a quick ice cream while we cringed at the Brits packed onto the beach like sardines, then we quietly crept back to our relatively unspoiled bit of the coast.
The Elephant mountain was what we saw when we drove anywhere from the villa in Jesus Pobre (11 miles north west of Moriara) where we stayed for the last visit in 2007.


Moraira/Havea

Somewhere between Alicante and Valencia was our most visited area. So many awesome villas, all with pools, kept us going back again and again. Our first taste in 1996 saw us in a beautiful villa with fabulous views of Calpe’s Penyal d’Ifac – a gigantic limestone rock, 332 metres high, one of the most recognisable landscapes of the Spanish east coast. The second time in 1999, was in Norte Mar – a truly spectacular villa as you can see from the pictures. That year, Jo’s school tasked each child with finding the most unusual place to photograph their school tie, and if you look hard among the Flamenco dancers, you’ll spot her wearing said tie.
The first two right-hand photos give a flavour of how much time we spent in the pool. The top one shows Jo tipping Bri off a flotation device - one of the favourite games. I chose the middle one because Bri’s photography skills know no bounds. How he captured my dive is a feat of split-second timing.
Ditto with the bottom piccy on the left – to get all 3 jumping into the pool – phenomenal. Next to it is a peek at the fabulous surroundings of the villa in Havea (8 miles north of Moraira) from 2001.

Crazy Frog
Back in 1996, Moraira was a burgeoning tourist destination with lots of construction in and around the town centre. On a patch of what we’d consider waste ground, a small fair had set up and we had our first taste of the “Crazy Frog” – a ride like no other. From the centre, around 10 spokes radiated, each holding a car for 3 people. At first, we thought it was merely going to zoom around on the ground, but then the cars lifted independently of each other. So you had up-and-down and round and round. Pretty standard you say, but he dialled it up a notch, with the old scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster routine. Then it slowed down and bounced the cars up and down for a couple of circuits. And just when you thought it was ending, the whole cycle was repeated – but going backwards. Defo not for the faint-hearted, nor for those without good sea legs.

Handbag City Aka Gata de Gorgos
This picturesque village, several miles inland, boasts one of the most densely packed streets of souvenir shops – similar to the main drag in Mont St Michel in North France. Shop after shop sports their wares from the town’s legendary industries making, not just wicker baskets, but a myriad of utensils made from woven rush, palm or the indigenous esparto grass. They also produce Spanish guitars and straw hats, made here since ancient times. We loved this place and always did our souvenir shopping here.