All for One and One for All v Herge's adventures of TinTin

Four teams left and four more matches to go, because we must not of course forget that world cup institution, the third place play off, where the two losers of the semi finals have to stay in country to play each other in a meaningless farce.

Who will it be from the four nations left,  Belgium, Croatia, EnGerLand and France ?  I am loathe to call it an all European quartet. Whatever one thinks about Brexit, the English have never considered themselves European, they are unique unto themselves.

There are so many things that people assume are French but are not. I bet the majority of you did not know that Tintin was Belgian and not French.  Did you also know that French Fries should really be called Belgian Fries? What about Hercule Poirot, the great fictional detective ? Yep he is Belgian as well. Last but not least, especially if you are an EnGerLand fan, Waterloo, that great defeat of Johnny Crapaud by the Duke of boots is located where?  No, not in La Belle France but of course Belgium. This all goes to show you can not trust a Frenchie further than you can throw him, as they try to take the credit for everything.

I also thought that there would be more of a rivalry between the frogs and the sprouts, but really it is the clog makers that the sprouts do not like, as Belgium came into existence after breaking away from Holland in 1830.

Despite the fact that Belgium is a relatively young country as opposed to France, it still managed to rack up a serious colonial presence in Africa, (which was problematic to say the least). not quite to rival the French but enough to mean that their team, like France has a very well represented African influence. I read somewhere that fourteen of the French squad could play for African countries, while seven of the Belgian squad could.

This is a good thing, it has enriched the football of both nations and also means that Africa as a continent has retained an interest in the outcome of the tournament, as opposed to some of the other continents.

The South and Central Americans I work with have lost all interest. North Americans have been concentrating on such great sporting events as how many hot dogs a sort of  human can eat in ten minutes, (seriously it was broadcast live on ESPN)

The Chocolatiers progressed to this game by making some dark coated Brasilian nuts very sad as I mentioned was a possibility in the preview for that clash. They did so thanks to a very good first half performance which caught the samba masters cold.

While the first goal, being an own goal, has to be deemed lucky, the second Belgian goal combined everything you want to see on a football field, pace, power, vision and perfect execution. As the Belgian number nine, Lukaku, burst forward, he reminded me of a certain American football running back in full beast mode breaking into open field as he advanced with surprising speed for such a big man.

Obviously there were two big differences, firstly he had to run with the ball at his feet, which takes a high level of control, instead of carrying it and secondly to his advantage, he couldn't just be stopped any old how.(Although he was tripped as he passed but the ref played advantage)

Tank Warfare

The Stella drinkers must believe after their last two games against Japan and Brazil that they are unstoppable, but they have never been in this position before, it is uncharted waters for them and experience is definitely on the side of the garlic breathing ones.

Belgium have a Spanish manager and most interestingly a French hero as his assistant, he being Thiery Henry, a player of consummate skill and ability who scored lots of goals for France in his time including this one against Brazil in 2006.

Henry v Brazil

He also was not averse to the dark arts as Ireland will testify as you can see clearly in this clip.

Who says you can't use your hands?

The best part was the Gallic shrug of the shoulders after the referee refused to disallow the goal.  One would hope, these days, that VAR would catch such blatant cheating as performed by Henry. It is a shame because he was and still is greatly respected in the footballing world.

Les Bleus have reached this point surprisingly, without really being tested, given that the whole footballing world is going on and on about how difficult this half of the draw was compared to the half involving Croatia and EnGerLand.

That actually is a load of cobblers spun by the anti EnGerLand world press.  Let us see, who have the Froggies faced so far? In the groups, they stumbled past the mighty Aussies, beat a decent side to be fair, in the shape of the Incas and produced the only scoreless  bore draw in the whole tournament to date against a very limited vikings eleven.

They played the shambolic Argies, who they dismissed but still allowed to score three goals. They then easily overcame a Uruguay side missing our friend, the male model, Cavani which really meant that was not a fair fight. This game will be their first real test and for that reason alone I am looking forward to it.

There is no doubt that the star of the tournament so far has been the young Frog Kylian Mbappe who resembles more a gazelle than a snail. In his run against Argentina which eventually ended with him winning a penalty he was clocked at an amazing 37 kph, that being almost as quick as that French Exocet missile the Argies used to sink HMS Sheffield during the Falklands conflict.

Almost as fast as a cheetah

He also had one run against Uruguay where he outpaced the whole team, reached the byline to cross the ball, only to find that none of his team mates could keep up with him so the move came to nothing. The lumpy Belgium defense will struggle to keep up with him.

Two to watch

Fellaini  bit of a birds nest

Giroud,may need a hearing aid,

Both these teams are much better at attacking than defending and for that reason, I hope we will be in for a goal fest. To be honest I do not care who wins, the important game is on Wednesday.

I just want to watch a good game of football without any of the stress which will be evident for the Wednesday game, but as it is the role of a pundit to give a prediction I will go for the Frogs, I feel that the sprouts may have peaked to early in the victory over Brazil and that they may struggle to repeat that performance.

To be honest, I would like the beret wearing, onion garlanded ones in the final just to see them lose to whoever wins the game we shall preview tomorrow between Croatia and EnGerLand.