🚀NEW BOOK ALERT!🚀.Score Like a Striker, the first book in my new Football Skills series, is out today! Tips, drills (& terrible jokes) for football-crazy kids. Let’s get our young readers outside kicking a ball around! Enjoy! ⚽ 📚 🙏.

RT @LFCFoundation: ⚽📚 Learning through football! The brilliant author @benlyt delivered a wonderful workshop for our #PLPrimaryStars, bring….

RT @Literacy_Trust: Wow! 🤩 More than half a million (561,299 to be exact!) school children joined us for the Great Big Footy & Booky Quiz w….

Teachers! Don’t forget to sign up to @Literacy_Trust @PLCommunities football & books quiz for @WorldBookDayUK next Thursday. Special guests from Premier League, WSL & Lionesses. Over 500k kids took part last year! Sign up here:

Ronaldo decisive to the end there. It looked like he won the toss for 🇵🇹 and chose to kick second. My research has kicking first an advantage as the pressure increases on players when kicking second later in the shootout. So ends 🇫🇷 pen hoodoo!.

For those who enjoyed last night’s penalty drama, you will love @GeirJordet new book Pressure, which goes deep on shoot-out tactics and psychology research. Highly recommended!.

Pens! Look out for: advantage to team kicking first; players’ reaction time after ref whistle (CR7 too quick, nerves); body language & celebs after scoring; GK distraction efforts. In previous WC & Euros, pen No 8 (kick 4 for team going 2nd) is decisive, conversion only 55%.

Very harsh on Maignan, who dominated the space before both Lewandowski penalties. Lewa gets to stutter but MM is penalised? Still feel France 🇫🇷 might have won WC final vs 🇦🇷 if Maignan had subbed on for Lloris pre shoot-out.

Thank you to all the teachers & almost HALF A MILLION children who joined me & the brilliant @kitbrownnn to celebrate books & football - amazing! And thank you to @PLCommunities & @Literacy_Trust for donating 50 THOUSAND books - what a way to mark #WBD2024! 🎉📚⚽️.

Teachers, parents & football fans! I can’t wait to celebrate @WorldBookDayUK with great authors & TOP (like, VERY TOP) footballers in a huge quiz with @literacy_trust @PLCommunities and @kitbrownn ⚽️🏆📚 Last year over 170,00 kids took part! Sign up here:

This year, @BookTrust want to give out 17,000 festive book gifts through community food banks and to children in care. Please help! #MagicOfBooks

🚀LAUNCH DAY!🚀 THE FOOTBALL SCHOOL ENCYCLOPEDIA is out today! Packed with facts, trivia, flags, kits and the odd terrible joke, it’s everything you want to know about football and more - and the perfect stocking filler 💥⚽️

The new FOOTBALL SCHOOL Encyclopedia, written with @alexbellos, is out next week! A treasure-trove of facts, stunning illustrations & in full colour - the perfect gift for curious football minds of all ages. Enjoy!

RT @alexbellos: ⚽️* FREE TALK ALERT * ⚽️. In the last 18 months, @benlyt and I have visited more than 50 primary schools in the UK for FREE….

Yes, 2 tosses; 1st, by ref who picks heads/tails for which end (that went Luton end, but their captain didn't win that toss in the literal sense). 2nd toss to decide who kicks first, captain choice (Luton won & went 1st). Note: there's NO advantage in shooting twds your own fans.

RT @alexbellos: The moment I remember most from the days I spent with Pelé writing his autobiography was when he opened his briefcase and t….

After #FRA lost on pens in Euros last year (Mbappe missed kick 5), Deschamps called pen shootout a lottery. Has he learned since then? Pen conversion rate vs Martinez #ARG (disruptive GK) is 70pc & vs Lloris is 85pc. But… momentum! Let’s go!.

Now Messi #ARG has scored 5/6 pens at this WC. Another strategy switch, this time GK-Dependent vs Lloris. Definitely needed (and took) a deep breath before that one!.

Messi #ARG has taken 5 pens at this WC! Scored 4/5. First was GK-Dependent v #KSA, then saved GK-Independent v #POL, scored GK-Dep x2 v #NED. Then switched strategy again vs #HRV, went GK-Ind, maybe adjusting due to Livakovic excellent pen record? Great pen!.

No question, Kane should have taken the second pen. Conversion rate this WC is 68pc in open-play, 61pc in PSO. Normal conversion is 78pc. This is what pressure does! (Add that this pen makes him all-time ENG top-scorer, and that’s extra pressure, as @GaryLineker knows).