World Cup News

Dotun and Andy are joined by Nicky Bandini to look over a pair of cracking quarter-finals, as Croatia's gnarly persistence got the better of Neymar n co - the favourites are out! Elsewhere last night, Louis van Gaal bows out with typical good grace after their loss via judges' decision to Lionel Messi’s security team. We also look ahead to Morocco vs Portugal and pay our respects to the legendary Grant Wahl. Pete’s Film Club is back! Sign up for weekly episodes throughout the World Cup and much more here: patreon.com/footballramble. Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: [email protected]. ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the business end of the World Cup, people! Marcus, Jim and David look ahead to two crunch quarter finals today. Louis van Gaal has been dishing out more kisses as his squad gear themselves up for Argentina and Lionel Messi – who may or may not soon be banned from Mexico – while Brazil have more dance routines (and stray cats) ready for Croatia! Will it be two upsets or a titanic South American semi-final match-up? Listen in to find out what we think! The Campaign Against Living Miserably - CALM - have teamed up with Declan Rice to show that no one deserves to struggle on their own. They’ve launched a new film that shows that you don’t have to be alone to feel alone. We’re here to let you know that, however you feel right now, you’re never alone and CALM are always on your side. Visit thecalmzone.net to find out more about it. Tweet us @FootballRamble and email us here: [email protected]. ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roberto Martínez nearly pulled out some of those saucy moves in that electric Cardiff atmosphere last night, with Beefy Moore's equaliser enough to get Wales a seeded play-off spot. We get into that, before Marcus and Luke console Lars Sivertsen after Norway's disciplined display bore no fruit against Louis van Gaal and the Deathstar. We also check in with the sorry situation at Derby County and get a *crucial* Inter Miami update, as financial fiddling gives way to Neville nepotism. Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here: [email protected]. ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems Aston Villa might well be splashing the Jack Grealish cash already, as Danny Ings slips off to Birmingham in the dead of night. Marcus, Pete and Andy check in with all the latest transfer happenings as the season looms ever closer. Elsewhere, Barcelona may have been thrown a lifeline and we reserve BIG APPLAUSE for the return of Louis van Gaal - he's back baby! Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here: [email protected]. **Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It seems the grass may well be greener on the other side, even for the GOAT: Lionel Messi has told Barcelona he wants to leave! Marcus, Vish and Jim are here to unpack this startling news and wonder where Messi might end up should he move on. Is Mike Ashley’s long-term plan finally coming to fruition? We also look over Gareth Southgate's latest squad for England's upcoming Nations League matches, praise friendly neighbourhood superhero Victor Lindelöf and revel in Louis van Gaal’s recent comments about his time at Manchester United. On this week's edition of The Topics, we want to know: if you could choose to dress one football manager, who would you pick and what are they wearing? Email [email protected] or tweet us using #RambleTopics ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have all the latest on the latest meetings about meetings! To be fair to the Premier League that’s about all they can do at the moment as we seem to be no closer to a concrete plan. That doesn’t matter though, because Louis van Gaal has decided to keep us all entertained by calling Ed Woodward an “evil genius” and “inviting” Jose Mourinho to explain why it only took four days for him to replace him at Man United. There’s a beef stew bubbling away here. In Turkey Besiktas have installed a disinfection cabinet at their training ground and the thing looks like some amazing futuristic tech, so naturally we posit some alternative uses, while we also look forward to the Neville brothers taking each on in some televised garden centre challenge under the new rules and learn that we may be more of an aphrodisiac than we realised. Oh no. We also love Dave Bautista. We just love him and we don’t care who knows it. Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here: [email protected] ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Further reading: Louis van Gaal thinks Jose Mourinho should explain why he replaced him at Man United so quickly: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/man-utd-van-gaal-mourinho-18227625 Some of the differing stances from Premier League clubs towards Project Restart: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/10/project-restart-the-four-stances-dividing-premier-league-clubs Dynamo Dresden’s whole squad are in isolation a week before the Bundesliga restart: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52601471 The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re heading back to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil for today’s episode of Greatest Games, in association with The Blizzard. The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew joins us to discuss the Netherlands’ 5-1 dismantling of Spain, as “Louis Van Gaal created something he loved - and then destroyed it.” Spain arrived at this tournament with the same formula that saw them win the preceding three as the likes of Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Andrés Iniesta looked to dominate possession. They took the lead and controlled the early exchanges in El Salvador but, with Louis van Gaal switching to a back three for this game, his Netherlands side took advantage of Spain's lethargic midfield. We discuss a fantastic game that featured scintillating goals from Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben, and saw the end of Spain’s possession-dominating era. For more stories from the annals of football history, visit www.theblizzard.co.uk to explore their archives that contain over 700 articles of stories just like this one! ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You join us in the Emerald Isle for today’s episode of Greatest Games, in association with The Blizzard. We’re taking a look at a historic afternoon for Irish football from 2001, alongside JOE’s Dion Fanning! The Netherlands arrived at Lansdowne Road with qualification for the 2002 World Cup on the line, while Mick McCarthy’s men had enjoyed a hugely successful qualifying campaign. Louis van Gaal had began to drift from his traditional 4-3-3 philosophy by this point, after a tough spell at Barcelona, and as this game slipped through their fingers he even finished the game playing four strikers. In contrast, Dion remembers how this game was perhaps “the last time Irish football felt united and moving in the same direction.” The Green Army were still the usual underdogs but, with a fantastic goal from Jason McAteer and a stalwart performance from captain Roy Keane, they secured World Cup qualification in front of 35,000 at Lansdowne Road. Fancy getting in touch? Email us at [email protected] or find us social media— just search 'Football Ramble Daily'. For more stories from the annals of football history, visit www.theblizzard.co.uk to explore their archives that contain over 700 articles of stories just like this one! ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liverpool end their incredible season with the biggest prize of them all after a game that may not have been a classic, but still managed to provide a lot of memorable moments. As well as all that the season isn’t even really over— there’s still the UEFA Nations League to come! We have a good look ahead to that, have the pleasure of a new Louis Van Gaal interview, clear up some birthday based confusion and generally have a lovely old time. Search ‘Football Ramble’ on social media to find us, and email us here: [email protected] ***Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. It means a great deal to the show and will make it easier for other potential listeners to find us. Thanks!*** Further reading: Jordan Henderson’s touching moment explained: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/02/moving-scenes-liverpool-champions-league-final-jordan-henderson Louis Van Gaal has given yet another brilliant interview: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/03/louis-van-gaal-manchester-united--interview-buy-players-rooney-tactics-solskjaer Did Sadio Mane mean to hit Moussa Sissoko’s arm? https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/liverpool-sadio-mane-moussa-sissoko-handball-champions-league-final-2019-a8941016.html The Football Ramble, the original and best football podcast. Brand new podcasts every single weekday throughout the Premier League season and every day throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup. No cliches. No ex-pros like Peter Crouch or The Rest is Football. Just the funniest football conversation out there. Your guardian for the season, daily not weekly. Stick to the Ramble, totally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.