OK, England won a penalty shootout, so we can be done with those forever now, right? No more penalties, no more penalty shootouts. Let’s just see some goals from open play and some gentlemanly behavior out there. Let’s all just agree to that and we’ll enjoy ourselves in the quarterfinals. What’s that? I’m being sent to the Gulag?
Few could have predicted this matchup in the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup before the tournament started, so making a Russia vs Croatia prediction might seem like a fool’s errand. But whoever survives the quarterfinal on Saturday at Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi will deserve its spot in the semifinals against either Sweden or England.
On Tuesday we saw the last two games of the Round of 16 and Sweden and England were able to advance over Switzerland and Colombia, respectively. In short, Sweden was boring and defensive as usual, and England fans were nervous as hell the whole game, so you know there were plenty of great World Cup tweets.
Sweden slipped past Switzerland to advance to the quarterfinals, and there's no more popular narrative surrounding the team than its apparent addition by subtraction in not including Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 23-man squad. Zlatan World Cup rumors were swirling after Sweden knocked off Italy in a two-legged playoff last fall. But manager Janne Andersson elected to leave Zlatan behind and go with the team that navigated through a difficult UEFA qualification.
He’s the bowl-cut donning, navy shirt wearing, finger-sniffing mastermind behind Germany’s masterful national team. Joachim Low is also the coach who showed up with an appalling team during this year’s World Cup. Before the World Cup, Low renewed his contract as manager till 2022, but after Germany’s embarrassing way out this year, speculations ran wild about Low’s premature departure.
It was the outcome England dreaded most: After going out on penalties in ’90, ’98 and ’06, it was penalties again in '18 — this time in the Round of 16 against Colombia. What’s more, after conceding a 92nd minute equalizer to Yerry Mina, you could imagine that English spirits weren’t exactly flying high.
Colombia looked absolutely buried in the 92nd minute of Tuesday's Round of 16 match against England. The Three Lions were only up one, but Colombia looked unable to do anything apart from bitch at American referee Mark Geiger. I had already written a nice little introduction about the blossoming of the Special Relationship on the biggest stage, but then Mateus Uribe forced a corner.
Neymar antics are a controversial subject.
The question of whether Brazil’s superstar should be punished for his constant feigning, flopping and deceitful attitude leaves no one indifferent.
There are two sides to the story. First, you've got perhaps the most skilled player at dribbling who gets fouled, well, a lot. He is in fact the most fouled player of this World Cup thus far and is therefore considered to be a victim.
France takes on Uruguay in the first quarterfinal of the 2018 World Cup at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium on Friday, July 6, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The match will serve as the tournament’s first truly fascinating clash of styles: the attacking zest of Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba versus the hard-bitten play of Diego Godin, Jose Gimenez and Luis Suarez. It’s all on the line with the winner advancing to the semifinal to meet either Brazil or Belgium.