74 mins till kick off!

So what does everyone think is going to happen? i genuinely think it's gonna go to extra time. don't know why, but something tells me ecuador are not going to be walk overs. 1-1, with england taking it in extra time. hopefully, anyway.

in a way there's little point in england going through unless they thrash ecuador. they need to sort out their tactics and their play, otherwise they won't beat holland/portugal in the qfs...

73 mins now!

If England aren't leading at half time it's over. Ecuador are far more accustomed to these conditions and that will tell in the second half. And honestly, where are England's goals going to come from at the moment?

2-0 Ecuador for me, both goals in the second half.

Where are our goals going to come from, you say? Well we're not short of players capable of scoring (Gerrard, Lampard, Joe Cole, Rooney) but they need to start stringing more than three passes together, or rely on Beckham set-pieces.

OK the heat is against us, and the constant tinkering with the team is doing us no favours at all - I agree there's a fair chance of it all going wrong for us. But Ecuador's best player couldn't cut it at Southampton. Lose this and none of them deserve to ever wear an England shirt again.

I hope it goes to penalties. I understand penalties.

And I'm supporting Ecuador, of course. I don't actually know, but I'd imagine they've never been in a World Cup quarter-final before. England have. It's their turn!

OK, I'd better say something useful. I predict, erm...1-0 to England. They'll win, but not very spectacularly.

Ecuador have never made the second round, even. As for penalties - yay! It's just like the endgame of The Weakest Link!

I can't help but shake the feeling that I should have walked into Ladbrokes yesterday and put a few quid on Ecuador.

I'd like England to progress, but I'm not at all sure they will. Ecuador are not a bad side, and managed to beat both Brazil and Argentina in qualifying. They pose more of a threat than people give them credit for.

I can see this game going to extra time and even penalties. And if it gets that far, then god knows what could happen!

I want something good to come out of the next couple of hours so I have decided to watch the game AND do the ironing!

GEORDIE

If we get beaten by Ecuador it is going to be hell for us folk living north of the border. Takes a cyber Valium and logs off.

Why is is always painful to watch England? I can't cope with penalties so they'd better get their act together in the second half!!

1 - 0 to England!

Oh yes. I'm so great.

They were average.
No more - no less.

It irks me that some people are saying that we didn't deserve to win....please, Ecuador were worse than us! We weren't great but we could, and should given the chances Lampard especially missed, have won 2 or 3-0 comfortably. However, if we play like that against Holland or Portugal in the next round, we'll be out.

Perhaps it's safer to say, not that we didn't deserve to win, but that Ecuador deserved to lose. They just didn't turn up, and England owe their victory to that in my opinion.

Whoever wins tonight's match can start preparing for the semi-final, neither will have any trouble at all getting past England unless they change dramatically - which isn't going to happen.

I think Ecuador were just a poor side who came up against two even poorer ones in Poland and Costa Rica.

England weren't massively better but tonight's ref has done us a favour with at least two Portugal players now suspended, plus Ronaldo an injury doubt.

At the end of the day, we can criticise England all we like, but they don't go through on performance, they go through if they win. And win they did. If they do that three more times, however badly they play whilst doing it, we've got the world cup! So I'm inclined not to criticise their performance - if they lose, then I will, but as long as they're winning, they can play as poorly as they like.

Absolutely! I don't know whether it's Sven's experience of Italian football shining through but this team does appear to have the stereotypical Italian mentality of doing 'just enough' to win. It's not the prettiest football you'll ever see but it appears to be mighty effective.

We've not been behind at any stage in the competetion so far, let alone looking like losing and my main concern at this stage is how the players would react if we were.

I guess only time will tell if they have genuinely been playing within themselves or whether they just aren't good enough at the very highest level.

I still maintain I've not seen another team that I would be genuinely frightened by. We've as good a chance as any of the rest that are left.

so, for those who didn't know

Quarter Final Match - England vs. PORTUGAL << July 1st (time?)

as Power5 pointed out, two of Portugal's players were redded, so won't be allowed to play, and Ronaldo has an injury, so could underperform, or not play for some of it...

if we win that one, we'd play against either Brazil, Ghana, France or Spain in the semi-final...which would be the biggest challenge yet...

England were woeful in the second half but seemed to improve in the second half.

Portugal is a whole new ball game for England. They are lucky Deco is suspended.