Football’s not coming home after all then. In fact, it’s probably going to France. Plucky England did very well to get to the semi-final of the World Cup, and they can be proud of getting so far, and working so hard, with a fairly limited team.

Well done England, but also, commiserations.

Commiseration: sympathy and sorrow for the suffering of others. The word is basically a combination of the prefix co-/com-, meaning together, and misery. So commiserating is basically sharing the misery or pain of others.

I’m not sure I feel that strongly about England’s suffering actually. I feel sympathy, of course, but, you know, they had a pretty good time of it running a good chunk of the world until fairly recently, so a loss here and there is only fair. Not that France winning would be much different in that regard I suppose, but at least they play nice football.

I do commiserate with England for having to face into Brexit after this though. The last few weeks were a nice little escape from reality, but it always had to come to an end.

But finally, most importantly, well done to Croatia! While I expect France to win the final, how great would it be for a nation of just over 4 million, independent for 28 years to win? We’ll see on Sunday!