Apalak

I should have been more careful. When, last week, I decided to rank eight favourites to win the tournament, it seemed like a straightforward task. But it is not anymore. Ranking eight teams, all perched at the topmost position in eight…

The World Cup rarely offers such neat symmetry. This almost feels scripted. And if it is, I am loving it. Last week, Messi, Mbappe and Haaland scored a total of seven goals within hours of each other. This time they scored a total of six,…

It’s a funny old game. The mighty La Roja tore away Saudi Arabia’s resistance to end the game as a contest within the first half an hour and without needing to enter second gear, but this day will still be rightfully remembered as a day of…

Many South Asian football fans started the morning of the second Saturday during the World Cup with two back-to-back matches. The first saw Brazil, having shaken off their troubles to emerge with a good point against Morocco, face a Haitian…

The eight most likely teams to win the 2026 World Cup, according to betting odds, are France, Spain, England, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands. While there are a few other sides, like Morocco, Japan, Croatia and…

It was one of the most exciting days of this FIFA World Cup yet. 16 goals were scored across four matches. Both finalists of the last edition started their World Cup journeys with a bang. And in between, one of the dark horses of the…

As the world cups have expanded, great international mis-matches have become its standard furniture and despite often being predictably one-sided they have nevertheless enjoyed a degree of interest from football fans across the globe. The…

The opening game in Group C between Brazil and Morocco was one of the most anticipated match-ups in the bloated group phase of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The prospects of Brazil in this tournament, quite uncharacteristically, seem way less…

What can be the perfect opening match in a World Cup tournament marked by such ponderous build-up and insatiable greed in an era which has become synonymous with maximisation of attention-grabbing tactics to the active detriment of the…

For a sport that is so meticulously data-driven at the top level, football still remains wonderfully alive for diverse analytic opinions because the data only tells the facts and omits the context that provides the story. And in…