Late equalisers are becoming a bit of a thing at this World Cup, as are officials who say the quiet part out loud; we had both again early on Monday and timing-wise neither could have been planned better.

Daichi Kamada’s 88th-minute header salvaged a draw for Japan against Netherlands in a game that for the first 50 minutes was tedium interrupted by flashes of mediocrity.

The same could not be said for the first encounter of the day where Germany and Curacao ‘shared’ eight goals against the backdrop of Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin’s unfortunate remarks about the “huge number of completely uninteresting” matches at this year’s tournament.

Speaking of which, Ivory Coast and Ecuador have just kicked off in the day’s third game, while Sweden take on Tunisia at 10am. Whether you’ll be crowded around the TV watching rather depends on where you’re from, which is the point several countries made overnight.

Taken in context

Let’s be honest, Ceferin was only saying what lots of people are thinking and have said repeatedly on social media, he just happens to have a greater public profile than most.