Hello and welcome to another edition of Offside and what a day of football it has been. The French contingent marches on like Napolean through Europe though leaving destruction in its wake.

The mighty Vikings from Norway have also beaten the challengers from Ivory Coast as have the party hosts Mexico who have seen off an Ecuadorian challenge.First off, France made mincemeat of Sweden in the modern battle of Westphalia with three goals, two from General Mbappe who is coming for Lionel Messi’s Golden Boot and all-time record with Barcola adding one. They had 25 shots, 12 on target, created six great chances and still missed five.There's a term in French football: the cursed generation. The term is largely used to describe the French team that had Eric Cantona, David Ginola and Jean-Pierre Papin and still failed to qualify for the 1990 and 1994 finals. Those days are long gone. Since then French football has been in a boom-boom cycle winning in 1998 and would have won in 2006 too if Zidane didn’t have the urge to give head to a racist. They won 2018 again, were very unlucky to lose the final in 2022 and look like they are not going to stop before they get the title back as a good-bye gift for Didier Deschamps.

The thing about great World Cup attacks is that history does not always reward them equally. Brazil 1970, with Pelé, Jairzinho, Tostão and Rivellino, won the whole thing and became scripture. Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho did the same in 2002. But Hungary 1954, with Puskás, Kocsis, Hidegkuti and Czibor, lost the final. Brazil 1982, with Zico, Sócrates, Falcão and Éder, became immortal by failing beautifully. The Dutch in 1974 turned football into geometry and still watched West Germany lift the trophy.

That is the company France are flirting with now: Mbappé, Barcola, Dembélé and Olise might become champions, or they might simply become the team everyone remembers more clearly than the champions.And that might see Didier Deschamps drop one his attackers to give his team more balance going forward and drop one of his four attackers to give a more balanced and pragmatic team. Normally, when you play football like this, it means you lose to Germany (or West Germany) in the final, but the Germans are already out as France face their vanquishers Paraguay in the next round.

Meanwhile, Norway after hiding their best attackers against France continued their marauding against a talented Ivory Coast side that fought valiantly and even managed to keep Haaland quiet for a bit with Amad Diallo scoring his customary goal before Haaland decided to Haaland again and scored his fifth goal in the tournament in the 86th minute to set up a showdown with the gods of football: Brazil.In recent years, hosts have just been hosting in Russia and Qatar but Mexico changed that and ended 40-year-old World Cup curse by beating Ecuador 2-0.

The curse known as quinto partido is that Mexico has failed to reach the fifth match of a World Cup since 1986. Of course, in older World Cups the fifth game was usually the quarterfinal but this time around it’s the Round of 16 so one will have to ask the language experts whether the curse is truly lifted or Mexico need another game.

Matchday Action: England vs DR Congo

July 1, 9:30pm ISTNow it’s time for today’s action and all talk is about the new bromance between England’s number 10 Jude Bellingham and number 9 Harry Kane who in true Chak De fashion that would make SRK smile have put their differences aside for the betterment of the country.

But all is not well at England’s right-back position with injuries piling up and the knives are out for Tuchel wondering why he left Trent Alexander Arnold at home. DR Congo on the other hand arrives without any baggage and a man in the stands who is a standing talisman.

Warrior WatchWhile all eyes will be on Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham’s link-up play, there are other places where England can hurt any team especially when Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka turn up late in the game.

DR Congo will look to Yoane Wissa for movement, Chancel Mbemba for leadership and have in Aaron Wan-Bissaka a tackling master who has already shown most Premier League stars that he is very hard to get away from. BattleplanEngland will have the ball but the question is whether they will fail to put it past the goal if DR Congo take a page from Ghana’s gameplan.Dinner table conversationEngland ought to win, but as anyone who has followed England knows, no one is quite the master of making a pig’s breakfast of things than the Three Lions.

Matchday Action: Belgium vs Senegal

July 2, 1:30am ISTThe last vestiges of Belgium’s so-called Golden Generation arrive at the last-chance saloon to make their case but based on their performance that’s a hard ask. Senegal on the other hand have arrived by third-place door and know that they can make any team sweat.

Warrior WatchBelgium will look to De Bruyne to turn back the years, and pray Lukaku can still move. Senegal on other hand will hope Sadio Mane, Ismalia Sarr and Jeremy Doku will also hope to put all social media chatter aside and make a difference.BattleplanBelgium need to make this a passing game. Senegal on the other hand have the legs and the energy to trouble the ageing superstars.Dinner table conversationBelgium has always underperformed in tournaments. Senegal has never been here long enough for the institutional memory but it’s time an African team wins the World Cup instead of supplying players to European giants to win them.

Matchday Action: United States vs Bosnia and Herzegovina

July 2, 5:30am IST

The US face Bosnia and Herzegovina who are having a whale of a time after denying Italy in the qualifiers and making the best of the Sarajevo curse.

For the uninitiated, the Sarajevo curse refers to Italians paying to snipe innocent civilians during the Bosnian war in the early 90s. Since that has come out, the footballing gods have ensured that Italy has underperformed at World Cups. Now the latest team to insult Bosnia and Herzegovina (pronounced like Ishq Kamina) was American television pundit Abigail Velez who said they didn’t know where B&H was on the map.

To be fair, most Americans, including their president, are rather geographically challenged and couldn’t point to any country on a map.The American football team is in fine form though with a coach who believes in the “We are America B****” Doctrine and are firing on all cylinders. Warrior WatchThe US will look to Christian Pulisic for thrust, Folarin Balogun for penalty-box work, Gio Reyna for lock-picking, and Tim Ream for calm.

Bosnia on the other hand will hope their veteran striker Edin Dzeko still has enough gas in the tank for one last swansong. The spicy subplot is Esmir Bajraktatrevic who was born in Wisconsin, and is pulling on the Bosnian shirt. BattleplanThe US want pressure, width and speed. They will try to stretch Bosnia’s 4-4-2 shape, move the ball quickly to the wings, and drag the centre-backs away from Džeko’s gravitational field. Pulisic has to attack the half-spaces, Reyna has to find pockets, and Balogun has to give Bosnia’s defenders a reason to turn around.

Bosnia on the other hand will be hoping that their size makes a difference. They are the tallest team at this World Cup and easily tower over their American counterparts, and will be a threat from set pieces.Dinner table conversationThere’s a joke in Washington circles that after L’Affair Lewinsky, Hillary refused to talk to Bill Clinton till NATO started bombing Sarajevo. Apparently, only martial arts can give marital respite. The bombings were described as war crimes by Amnesty International and it will be doubly delicious if the nation that bore the brunt of American exceptionalism knocks them out before their semiquincentennial party on July 4.