It's certainly a contender for the best World Cup ever, but if Messi is the greatest player ever, I will eat my hat.

Must be something wrong with me, because I enjoyed the BBC commentary during the match and wasn't aware of any particular bias. In fact, it is the only commentary I have enjoyed to date.

If you were around at the time, the Belgium/Russia (not sure if it was last 16 or QF) in 1986 was a fantastic game where the pitch looked twice the size as normal and each team had 15 attackers and 5 defenders....brilliantly comentated on by the ITV commentator who normally worked the Anglia region...Gerry Harrison??

That was a superb game. Why can't England play like that?

Had red button HD for the picture + radio 5 commentary. Superb, just superb. Pity ITV can't give us another option, say a *no commentator* option.

I haven't got a problem with "one of the best/better ones", that's logical and I would agree, but why is it definitely the best? Just getting carried with the hype possibly?

Messi will arguably go down as the greatest if wins the WC, perhaps even without it. But the BBC want him and are itching for him to win it so they can declare it.

It is a point to say compared to almost every other team we certainly looked unfit/tired after 70 minutes or so.

As for the game tonight - an excellent open game of football between 2 attacking sides.

Howard must have had one of the best matches in his career...

I have a vague memory of that game... I think.

To be honest, most of my memories of 1986 revolve around seeing Maradona playing very much like the greatest player of all time.

Yes, I've had a few text's congratulating me...

Oh....

Aww well, the better team won. If we had scored more field goals though we might have got through to the playoffs and might have faced one of the British teams.

Trouble with that, for me, is the audio of Radio 5 isn't syncronised with the pictures. ITV are dire, Chiles in the studio, Townsend commenting, I cannot put up with them.

Nothing wrong with you.

Personally I was watching the football and not overanalysing the commentary. Its ridiculous to get so hung up about such stuff.

Strange - the BBC have shown an unwavering support for Brazil to win the WC from the start of the competition. Probably more for their health than anything else ... Have you been watching a different BBC transmission from the rest of us - I haven't heard anybody put a case forward for Argentina yet.

Even when we get great games and decent wall to wall coverage some people just have to have a moan it seems ...

It is! Are you watching the red-button freesat feed, or simply the BBC1 picture with your radio on? Freesat red button was perfectly in sync tonight, and has been throughout the tournament.

I agree that already labelling this tournament "the best ever" is premature. It is definitely in the running though.

We've had some great games, upsets, plenty of drama and the QFs look good on paper, but there's still a lot of games left to play and some of them might be terrible. If we end up with a crap final as well a lot of the earlier excitement could well be forgotten.

As for Messi, I don't think he's as good as Maradona or several others I've seen in my lifetime for that matter. I agree that the BBC are itching to give him that accolade though. Footballers and sportsmen in this day and age are hyped like never before and it is annoying to say the least.

I remember Rooney chipping a keeper once and the commentator said: "And Wayne Rooney scores the kind of goal only he can score!"

Give me a break.

Listening the commentary while watching a match and realising it's bias takes so little analysis, it's a wonder why my brain didn't go to sleep.

To hear a commentary and understand it's bias AND follow the match is so easy, Superman himself would scold you for asking if it's only possible by superheroes

I thought if you went to the red button then you lose HD pictures, is that not the case?

Edit: actually you're on Freesat so that may be different to Sky?

Ah, not tried that; will remember next time. Thanks

People see bias dependant on their own views and leanings-they see black as white and the other way around. If they are passionate enough about it, there is never a different point of view.

Just remember when the worlds media, BBC/ITV included were falling over themselves declaring Spain the greatest international team of all time in the postmatch discussion of their 4-0 win against Italy in euro 2012.

I bumped that thread which was started on here two years ago, would they all agree with that now? Despite being the lowest scoring WC winners ever, maybe they're just one of the best instead?

What about FC Barcelona? Sky and the worlds media were self declaring them the greatest club side ever 2009-2012, what happened to that? I argued they had to retain the champions league, doing so would mean they have done something no one else had done, but no they were the greatest side then even before that. They failed to retain the CL and so Sky have not pushed that opinion since, maybe they should have waited first?

New York Times saying he has 16 saves, the most by any goalie in a WC match since 1966

Great game, end to end stuff.

I thought the commentary was good, had no problem with it.

Glad the Belgians won, they were the better team.

Roll on the Quarters. Argentina ftw.

Great, 16, so were any of them anything other than straight forward? Howard's main quality tonight was that he was a solid object rather than a gas so when the Belgian's fired shot after shot at him they didn't pass right through him.

Well ... I'm American, so here goes nothing:

-- Proud of the team, proud of the fightback, proud of the players, proud of Klinsmann for sticking to his guns (his controversial picks of Brooks and Green both scored and Yedlin assisted on a goal in the Portugal game), and plenty of hope now for the next cycle.

-- That said, Howard (combined with Belgium's odd refusal to shoot high and on frame) made this performance seem a lot better than it was. Belgium tore the US apart and a 2-1 scoreline 100% flatters us. They get picked to pieces too easily and there's no depth defensively or up front. Altidore sucks and I don't get why we pretended to miss him. Honestly, 1-0 against Germany probably is kind to us, too.

-- Bradley was abysmal this tournament and Zusi was awful today.

-- Love Yedlin going forward and his speed is his best asset along with his crosses. He'll learn soon enough to be a better defender.

-- Much of the popularity boom you're seeing about the sport is true, but you have to realize a lot of it is just the fact that as a "patriotic" country we will watch the World Cup of Dice if we're involved because anything USA will spark interest. MLS, a league which has inexplicably chosen to play matches during this World Cup, will not experience a boom in interest because by the time its August the NFL season is almost underway and the Premier League routinely outdraws MLS EVEN CONSIDERING time difference.

-- This Belgium team is so freaking talented. All the credit to them for the win.

If only Joe Hart was American.