Welcome to the TIFO Football Podcast, World Cup episode. We haven't really discussed what's

to call this or anything, but we are currently in a little temporary space. All together,

I'm here with Alex and Philippe, and we've just watched Robbie Williams at the opening ceremony.

I thought it was lovely. Currently, we're looking at Gianni Infantino do a little talk. Vladimir Putin's just spoken as well. And we're getting excited to

watch the Saudi Arabia game versus the hosts Russia. We thought what we do is just drop in

occasionally with podcast updates. We might be able to chat about some of the games, do a little bit of

tactical stuff ahead of some of the more important ones. So first, Alex, are you excited to

watch Russia, Saudi Arabia? And what little tactical gems do you have to tell us ahead of this game?

I can't sound enormously enthused by the prospect of this as an opening game, largely I think,

because opening games have a tendency to be quite dry. Obviously, there'll be a lot of pressure

on this Russian team. They've gone with Gullivan, which is good. We've had a look at him as a

player in a recent video.

I think the left-hand side of Russia does look a little bit old with Xerkov and

Ignacevic, so I can expect Al-Sherani to try and get into that side and create some havoc. But I can't see this being a

match for the ages. I may be wrong. We'll look back at this retrospectively after a 4-2 thriller.

Yeah. And I'll sound like an idiot. Yeah, well, we'll come back. Well, for listeners,

it will be seconds, but we'll come back after the game and maybe have a little chat about it. Philippe is also here. Philippe is our lead artistic producer. What is your job title, Phil? I think you just said it. I just said, it's something like that. Phil sat in the corner over there, and he's going to spend most of the days illustrating players for us

to make everyone else's life much easier and his much more difficult. So Phil, shout over

your favourite for the tournament. My favourite was Spain. That's changed a little bit now. I'll probably

go with Brazil now. Brazil? I thought you'd go for France being French. I'd love to say France. I think

again on paper it's one of the best squads there, but I don't particularly trust Dejaun.

Sure, sure. Fair enough. Okay.

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