Well here we are at the quarter finals. It’s been a tedious trudge through mostly unconvincing group games and frankly excruciating knockouts. Will it get better? How did the Clowder Press cat-based prediction model stand up to actualité?  Belvedere and I have been workshopping some reflective evaluation practice.

Two of our picks, France and Portugal, are still in with a chance. Bast knows how. Both were underwhelming. Where were the grace and agility, pace and silky skills that are second nature to cats?  

* France, backed because it has the highest cat density and is captained by The Best Footballer In The World, plodded through the stages with whatever is the opposite of insouciance. They got through the group with an own goal win and two draws, and the knockout stage with another og. The most dramatic break in their tournament so far has been Mbappé’s nose, the result of a fall in match 1. He played the last two matches wearing black mask, like Zorro without the effortless snick-snackery. 

* Portugal, backed because of the presence of massive cat fan Cristiano Ronaldo and Rúben Gato Dias, the player with the most cat name, threaded their way through the  group with an own goal, and two win. Then they staged an operatic knockout against Slovenia on pens. Dias trojaned away at the back as expected. I was sorry to see Ronaldo go full spoiled puss, demanding attention and strokes., and positively purring during the second match, as four fans in succession ran on to the pitch to get selfies with the Icon WHILE THE MATCH WAS BEING PLAYED. And nobody stopped them. 

During the knockou,t the Achilles of Portugal missed several shots on goal and was denied an in-game pen by the upstart Slovenian netminder. Whereupon Ronaldo burst into tears and had to be placated by his domestiques. It was as if James Brown was On the Pitch. Reader, I was ashamed for catkind.   

Both teams have slid through gaps in possible permutations you would have though too small and proved how cat they are by seemingly enjoying nine lives. Unfortunately, tournament maths means they are both on the same side of the table, and now they play each other in the quarter finals on Friday 5 July. It could be a mighty clash of big cats; it could be a scrappy cat spat. all spit and fury and posturing bristle but no action. One of them will get through. Neither of them deserve it, and I am not about to open the treat tin yet.

In contrast, my third pick, the very unlucky Ukraine. backed because of high cpp and their ailurophile midfield star Mykhailo Mudryk, went home. None of them burst into tears, although some of us did. Despite having the same number of points as the other three teams in their group, they lost on goal difference. In their last match they were narrowly beaten by an extremely lacklustre Belgium, who then shuffled on to make the least of their match against France and slink out.  I was particularly sad to see Mudryk go; he is butler to the gorgeous tabby foldie called Ronnie.  He even has portraits of Ronnie printed on his trademark mini shin pads. Sadly the football gods were not with Ukraine.  Another  great shame for catkind.

Match of the tournament so far is still Group F’s corker between Turkey and  Georgia. The final scoreline was Turkey 3-Georgia 1, but that does not represent the energy, skills, dynamism and all- round glorious footballery that we saw on the pitch, and haven’t really seen since. Both teams should have won, and it felt like they both had. Even Belvedere was moved to comment favourably.  

Georgia went out gloriously to Spain but Turkey is defying previous odds by knocking out Austria, who were coming up on the rails fast, and fancied by Belvedere. They next play The Netherlands in the quarter finals.  

Every game that Turkey have played has been exciting.

So I thought I should do bit of cat-based research on  

Turkey, They rank bottom of the cpp table, despite being a self-proclaimed ailurophile nation. 

I may have miscalculated.

After some cogitation, I think that may be because most Turkish cats don’t own a person, but work as a collective, live on the streets, and are fed and cared for by everybody. 

And Turkey is home to the aquatic Van Cats (see post) and the late, great Tombili, the much-memed chunky feline flâneur of Istanbul, who now has his own statue. 

It could work.