Ah, the great football connundrum. On the one hand, it's just meaningless entertainment - the whole institution could disappear off the face of the earth and never have existed and we'd all be fine. On the otherhand, it is an obsession, a tribal identity that holds us together (and often also divides us) in these uncertain post-religious times when class and background mean less and less.

It not just entertains us, it helps us know who are "us" and who are "them," something we seem to crave to feel like we know who we are and what our place is in this world so we can live in peace. It's a way we bonded with our parents and grans, other kids at school, our friends, people on the train, first day at work. Or a way we rebelled against them. It has ruined our days, our weeks, our months. But also picked up, way up, when nothing else could. I feel glad to be alive to have seen Rakitic score that fucking goal on Wednesday.

I do medical research for a living, working on find a vaccine for one of the biggest scourges for humanity. But there are so many frustrations and setbacks, as with most work, I don't know how I would do it without the healthy distraction of football (though my reactions, granted, are not always so healthy). If I could ever meet Harry Kane, or Leo Messi, or Kloppo here, I would honestly thank them from the bottom of my heart for making this stinking world a little bit of a better place to live for billions of people at once.