Day five saw two heavyweights, Belgium and England, secure victories but not without some nervy moments. Twitter was on call for reactions to all of the day's action.
This definitely wasn't the most exciting game of the tournament, and there wasn't much flow to the game. The internet took note of that.
When people start tweeting about the Sweden vs South Korea game pic.twitter.com/LEB2bUp7KM
Poland and Senegal highlight some big matches on day six of the World Cup. Robert Lewandowski will look to show the world he's one of the premier strikers and can deliver on the biggest stage. In a massive match for Egypt, will Mohamed Salah return? How will Russia tactically match up with Egypt knowing a draw is a huge result? Radamel Falcao will make his long-awaited World Cup debut, so will Colombia dismantle Japan like they did at the 2014 World Cup?
There's a reason he's wearing the captain's armband. The Harry Kane goal in stoppage time could be looked back on as the turning point for England in this World Cup. Plagued by a recent history of underperforming on the sport's biggest stage, it looked like England was destined for a disappointing draw against Tunisia.
After a second half played almost entirely in the Tunisia half, Kane broke a 1-1 deadlock in stoppage time with a back post header off a corner.
Three inch-perfect free kicks from Cristiano Ronaldo, Aleksandar Kolarov and Aleksandr Golovin are among the best World Cup goals of the tournament thus far. Each free kick cleared the wall from roughly 25 yards out and left the goalkeepers no chance of making a save.
Kolarov's free kick was all Serbia needed to earn three points from its opening Group E match against Costa Rica. Serbia's captain and 32-year-old left back could not have hit this one any sweeter.
Heading into the tournament in Russia, we always knew we’d get a nice mixture of both godawful dives and crunching, I-put-the-country-on-my-back tackles. The super slow mo doesn’t do the sport any favors (everything looks like an overreaction when you slow things down to a million frames per second), but we’ve definitely seen some gloriously physical play mixed with some heinous play acting.
Here’s a selection of our favorite dives and crunches from the opening matches at the 2018 World Cup.
Peru’s the best team at the World Cup.
Technically, only one team can win the tournament. Only one team will have its name engraved on the Jules Rimet trophy (2.0) come mid-July. But there’s more than one way to win the competition.
In the build up to the World Cup, Zlatan had been quoted as saying that there is no such thing as a World Cup without Zlatan. This led many to believe that he would come out of international retirement and play for Sweden in its first World Cup since 2006. Although Sweden manager Janne Andersson ultimately decided to go with the group that got through qualifying, this Zlatan tweet shows that both sides have officially moved on.
No event escalates individuals to the status of national hero or global villain as dramatically as the World Cup. The idolatry that follows success and the stigma that follows failure are woven into the fabric of history, and the repercussions will typically follow footballers for the rest of their lives. Daily, we’ll take a look at who played the role of hero and who played the role of villain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The original game plan for Brazil had to have been work an opening with Neymar on the ball, twist and turn into some space and then put it in the net. That almost happened in the game’s opening stages, but Paulinho somehow missed from a couple yards out. This is probably the miss out the tournament so far (from open play).
SO. CLOSE.
Paulinho *just* misses wide for Brazil! pic.twitter.com/vxIPwa4wVr