{"id":74726,"date":"2026-06-11T02:58:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/world-cup-2026-countdown-to-opener-tuchel-savours-england-win-infantino-tells-fans-to-chill-live\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T02:58:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:58:02","slug":"world-cup-2026-countdown-to-opener-tuchel-savours-england-win-infantino-tells-fans-to-chill-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/world-cup-2026-countdown-to-opener-tuchel-savours-england-win-infantino-tells-fans-to-chill-live\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: countdown to opener, Tuchel savours England win, Infantino tells fans to \u2018chill\u2019 \u2013 live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u26bd\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jun\/10\/gianni-infantino-fifa-criticism-2026-world-cup\">Infantino tells fans to \u2018chill\u2019 in response to Fifa\u2019s critics<\/a><br \/>\u26bd\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/world-cup-2026\/overview\">Match centre<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/ng-interactive\/2026\/jun\/04\/world-cup-2026-complete-player-guide\">Player guide<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/ng-interactive\/2026\/jun\/04\/bracketology-predict-a-path-to-world-cup-victory\">Bracketology<\/a> | <a href=\"mailto:matchday.live@theguardian.com\">Mail Tom<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Greetings everyone.<\/strong> It\u2019s here! The biggest, possibly most controversial and strangest World Cup yet. After months and years of chatter and hype, fear and loathing, we\u2019ll actually have some football to get stuck into from this afternoon\/evening. It\u2019s coming up to 1am in Mexico City as the co-hosts enjoy their last sleep before it all starts. And where better to start than the Azteca Stadium, one of the most storied venues in the world, lit up by Pel\u00e9 and Diego Maradona among others back in the day?<\/p>\n<p>Mexico, too, is a proper football country, though there\u2019s no point pretending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jun\/10\/mexico-city-world-cup-teachers-strike-protest\">there haven\u2019t been problems<\/a>. The capital has been convulsed by strikes and demonstrations, and protesters may make their presence felt today. We\u2019ll be across every element of the big kick-off as we count down to the <strong>opening ceremony<\/strong> and <strong>Mexico v South Africa<\/strong>. The show starts at 11.30am local time (6.30pm BST, 1.30pm ET) and will be headlined by Shakira, because it\u2019s always headlined by Shakira, and Burna Boy.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/live\/2026\/jun\/11\/world-cup-2026-countdown-opener-mexico-south-africa-south-korea-czechialive\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u26bd\ufe0f Infantino tells fans to \u2018chill\u2019 in response to Fifa\u2019s critics\u26bd\ufe0f Match centre | Player guide | Bracketology | Mail Tom Greetings everyone. It\u2019s here! The biggest, possibly most controversial and strangest World Cup yet. After months and years of chatter and hype, fear and loathing, we\u2019ll actually have some football to get stuck into &#8230; <a title=\"World Cup 2026: countdown to opener, Tuchel savours England win, Infantino tells fans to \u2018chill\u2019 \u2013 live\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/world-cup-2026-countdown-to-opener-tuchel-savours-england-win-infantino-tells-fans-to-chill-live\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about World Cup 2026: countdown to opener, Tuchel savours England win, Infantino tells fans to \u2018chill\u2019 \u2013 live\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}