Officially intimidated
UEFA also confirmed that semifinals won't be subject to draws anymore. Who'll face who will depend on the order in which the quarterfinals' matches are settled.
135 - 169 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
Denmark 1-1 Australia
Eriksen scored a lovely goal, after a pass by Jorgensen early in the match. However, Australia equalized thanks to a penalty about half an hour later, and, in the second half, looked much more threatetning (Denmark can be thankful Kasper Schmeichel made a few key saves).
Poulsen got a yellow, which means that, due to the accumulated yellows, he'll be suspended for the match against France.
France will play against Peru in less than an hour.
France 1-0 Peru
And so Peru are eliminated. They tried hard once more, and even had a shot that hit the crossbar in the second half, but it wasn't enough to beat a France that was trying to conserve energy as much as possible. France are qualified to the knockout rounds, while Denmark will only have to draw against them or hope for Australia to not win against Peru to qualify (if they win, they'll be first and France will be second).
The goal was scored by Mbappé in the first half
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edited 21st Jun '18 9:54:49 AM by Quag15
Argentina 0-3 Croatia (goals here)
Yes, really. That happened. Between things like a blatant miss by Enzo Perez, Rebic's goal coming from a cheeky attempt by Willy Caballero gone wrong (with great finishing to boot), plus 2 goals in the final 15 minutes of the game (Modric's goal is a real beauty, what a great player he is), it's... man, it's nuts.
Croatia is qualified. Iceland x Nigeria will be a very interesting match tomorrow, with each team duking it out to go over Argentina.
Sampoli's tactics and selection before the match felt so wrong, I had a feeling Croatia was gonna win. But not by 3-nil! Even if it was a bit of a scrappy match at times.
edited 21st Jun '18 1:33:03 PM by Quag15
Surrounded by weirdoes
Argentina needs a renewal ASAP. And someone who can get some energy and confidence from the players. Several of them make you feel like they don't deserve to be on the NT, even if they are great on their teams.
Wake me up at your own risk.
3-nil. Ouch. That's brutal.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
You know, In a group with Argentina, Croatia, Iceland and Nigeria, Croatia wasn't my pick for the first to classify... nor was Argentina being in danger of not classifying. I hope Iceland wins tomorrow. I really want them to classify.
This world cup is quickly becoming the darkhorse cup, isn't it... Makes me wonder if Germany will lose to Sweden this saturday.
I'd be rooting for Iceland tomorrow too. Them going to the next stage would be amazing.
Officially intimidated
Not surprised at all by Argentina's decline. Worst of all, they can stilll qualify, but that would be too much a prize for a team that did everything wrong since the qualifying matches in 2015-17.
Go Iceland!!
135 - 169 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
@The Lovecraftian: I think the word you're looking for there is "qualify", not "classify". To classify something is to either arrange it into classes, to designate it as a member of a particular group, or to declare it a government secret.
Oh, and: go Iceland!
Ooops, sorry. Native language sometimes slips through. Although usually English slips into my native language instead. Oh well. Thanks for catching that.
But yeah, go Iceland!
edited 21st Jun '18 9:46:25 PM by TheLovecraftian
News and a few rumours between last night and today:
- Argentina players gathered for a meeting & asked for Jorge Sampaoli to be removed as manager before match against Nigeria. Yes, before, that's how bad it might be (it doesn't help that he made statements like these in the post-match press conference). There's a possibility that Jorge Burruchaga could be the coach against Nigeria.
- Banega, Biglia, Agüero and Di María retiring from Argentina after World Cup.
- An audio message of Simeone to "Mono" Burgos has been leaked, where he fiercely criticizes the team. Highlight: ""Messi is very good, but he's very good because he has extraordinary teammates. And the question I ask you: If you had to choose between Messi and Ronaldo for a regular team, who would you choose?"
- Iceland's Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson ruled out for match against Nigeria because of injury.
- Brazil's RB woes continue. Danilo has a quad injury and will be out against Costa Rica [today]. Corinthians RB Fagner to start. Personally, this is not much of a concern, considering Tite coached Fagner when he was Corinthians' coach. If Fagner gets injured, however...
- The first problems are arriving for Portugal, as Moutinho has a flu and Raphael Guerreiro has pain in one of his legs.
edited 22nd Jun '18 1:34:08 AM by Quag15
Also, don't know if this appeared anywhere, but earlier in the week there were news around here that Neymar has had some trouble with one of his feet that was operated somewhat recently, and that while the medical crew has discarded the possibility of both things being connected, they are worried nonetheless. I say this because it might come up during the match today, although knowing Neymar, that's just giving him another reason to throw himself on the floor in fake pain.
If Costa Rica could give Brazil any more of a CONCACAF shitshow right now, it would look more like this:
edited 22nd Jun '18 6:50:05 AM by SeanMurrayI
Well, congratulations to brazil. After a sloppy, badly played game filled with our players diving to get free goal kicks, we managed to play decently for the last five minutes and get a win. Bunch of asshats.
I did like the referee not taking any of Neymar's bullshit, though. That hypocritical boor needs to have someone treat him like the regular person he is instead of the special little boy this country seems to think he is.
Apparently Neymar said "Don't touch me!" to the ref (Björn Kuipers). Amusing stuff from this guy.![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica, goals here. Well, Costa Rica are eliminated. At least they'll always have 2014 to look back on fondly. But it was clear that they don't have the finishing moves they had 4 years ago, and there's only so much Keylor's Defense can do. Props on them holding out until stoppage time, in any case.
He also told one Costa Rica player to go fuck himself at one point. Don't remember what that was about, but he did it in portuguese, so it was easy to understand what he was mouthing.
Iceland 0-2 Nigeria
Ahmed Musa is a superb finisher. He scored the winning brace, first with him beautifully controlling a ball that came from a Nigeria counter-attack before shooting it in with no mercy, and, in the second one, made a fast run, beat the GK by feinting a bit, and then put it in.
Iceland tried to recover, and even got a penalty (VAR ruled it so), but Gylfi Sigurðsson missed it, in a way that was kinda similar to how Cueva missed it in Peru's first match.
Nigeria are now pumped-up for their clash with Argentina, with 3 points on their side (Argentina and Iceland have 1). Their first two matches were basically night and day.
With these results, Croatia is pretty much guaranteed to end in first place (unless they lose and Nigeria win by lots of goals against Argentina).
In about an hour, we'll have Switzerland x Serbia, in a match that might see a few scuffles between the Serbians and some of the Swiss players that have Kosovar, Bosnian and/or Albanian parents/ancestry.
edited 22nd Jun '18 10:02:09 AM by Quag15
Aw. Well, there's still hope for Iceland, slim as it might be.
Switzerland and Serbia is gong to be very interesting, if only to see the tensions between the two.
Serbia 1-2 Albania... sorry, Serbia 1-2 Switzerland
This was quite the eventful match. Serbia's Mitrovic did score first and early in the game, and from then on it was a tightly intense match for both sides.
In the second half, Xhaka scored a nice banger. The Serbians were unfairly robbed of a penalty (seriously, two Swiss defenders not letting Mitrovic jump like that and getting away with such a blatant foul?!), and, in the beginning of stoppage time, a breakthrough counter-attack pass by Switzerland's Gavranovic led to Shaqiri sealing the three points to Switzerland.
Brazil and Switzerland have 4 points, Serbia have 3. Serbia is obligated to win against Brazil, if they want to qualify, while the Swiss will face a demoralized and eliminated Costa Rica. This match may have well decided the outcome of the group.
The scorers of the Swiss goals, Xhaka and Shaqiri are ethnically Kosovar Albanians. What a way to rub salt in the Serbian wound (notice that Shaqiri celebrated by emulating the two-headed Albanian eagle with his hands).
edited 22nd Jun '18 1:10:33 PM by Quag15
Truly the cup of darkhorse victories.
So brazil vs Serbia is the match to watch in this group, huh... wouldn't have imagined that.
EDIT:How was that penalty not given to Serbia? That's the most blatant thing I've seen this cup...
edited 22nd Jun '18 1:25:16 PM by TheLovecraftian
In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good.
Even the Swiss commentator said all that was missing was saw dust and it would have been traditional Swiss Wrestling.
FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC!
Both of Switzerland's scorers celebrated with the same gesture. I didn't notice it during the game (unfortunately I had to watch it on mute because we had company and I was the only one interested in the football), but apparently Serbia's fans were taunting the Kosovar/Albanian players in Switzerland's squad through the game, so the celebration was a bit of a retaliation.
Xhaka's goal was absolutely brilliant, by the way.
I can't understand why Serbia didn't get that penalty. It seemed like a pretty simple call for the VAR. I was rooting for Switzerland but controversy like that always takes a bit of the joy out of the result.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
Dodgy Referee is dodgy. I'll be curious to see what other games of the tournament he is reffing.
Belgium 5-2 Tunisia (goals here)
It could've been an even bigger goalfest. Or maybe it wouldn't hadn't two Tunisian players (including one of their goalscorers) got injured in the first half and subbed off as a result.
Hazard and Lukaku scored a brace (Lukaku already has 4 goals, same as Ronaldo), while substitute Batshuayi failed some 3 or 4 chances (including a shot that somehow hit the bar with him being so close to the line) before ultimately scoring in stoppage time. Two of Belgium's goals came through a penalty, so, make of this what you will.
Tunisia is pretty much out of the World Cup.
Rep. Korea 1-2 Mexico (Mexico's goals here)
South Korea are pretty much out, unless Germany wins today and the Koreans beat the Germans (and hope for Mexico to beat Sweden).
I didn't watch the match, but, from what I can tell, Son was one of the few bright Korean spots, as he scored a certified banger (too bad it was too late into the match). Their defense is not really good, to put it simply (plus Son had to do too much, which hurt their attack in terms of variety).
In an hour, we'll have Germany vs Sweden. Özil has been benched by Löw for the first time since 2010, which means Germany will alter their plans a bit.
edited 23rd Jun '18 10:02:28 AM by Quag15
In other news, the ties for the UEFA CL 18/19 First and Second Qualifying Stages have been drawn
.
Astana will play at home against Montenegrin side Sutjeska, and, if they win in the First Round, their next opponent would be the Danish Midtjylland. I think we have pretty good chances of going into the third round, but I doubt that we'll reach the Group stage of the CL, as there's no way Astana could beat the likes of Benfica or Fener. Still, Europa League is fine, too, I guess.
Spiral out, keep going.