Soccer World Cup weekend round-up

France vs Argentina:

Fantastic France stick four past ailing Argentina

Don’t let the 4-3 scoreline fool you – only one team was going to win the first of eight World Cup knockout games, and that was France.

Argentina were always second best, and in any event were lucky to still be in the tournament after a loss, a draw and a late winner in the group stage.

France were out the blocks immediately to stamp their dominance on the game.

The first chance came in the 7^th minute when speed merchant Kylian Mbappe was brought down on the edge of the box and Antoine Griezmann rattled the crossbar with his legendary left-footed strike.

It was an identical situation three minutes later but this time Mbappe ran 70 metres before Marcos Rojo

nailed him inside the box.

Rojo saw yellow and Franco Armani saw nothing as Griezmann sent him the wrong way from the spot (1-0).

It was nearly a third in the same fashion, this time Nicolas Tagliafico has shown yellow and Paul Pogba hitting the free kick over the wall and all.

Argentina did have a few chances against France’s many, one of which was a thunderous strike from distance by Angel di Maria as France, bent on attack, left him unmarked (1-1).

As is often the case, the level score at the break did not reflect France’s first-half dominance.

It was even less credible two minutes into the second stanza when a misdirected Argentinian free kick landed at the feet of Lionel Messi and his shot deflected off Gabriel Mercado, who claimed a goal he knew nothing about as he was trying to get out of the way of the ball (1-2).

Parity was restored soon after when France’s Benjamin Pavard smacked home a long shot to even better that of Di Maria, hitting it with the outside of his foot and curling it into the top corner (2-2)

It’s amazing how often defenders have the best strikes!

Now France were on a roll and Mbappe picked up a loose ball and slammed it under the body of Armani (3-2)

The emerging star of this competition had his brace when Giroud slid through a defence-splitting pass and Mbappe did what he does best (4-2).

To all intents and purposes, the game was won, with only 10 minutes to go.

Yes, Messi did come close and Sergio Aguera put a fine header past Hugo Lloris (4-3) but this was mere consolation.

The better team won, the seven goals provided superb entertainment, and the World Cup was at last set alight!

Uruguay vs Portugal:

Ronaldo joins Messi at the airport

Uruguay 2 Portugal 1, just as I predicted.

The tantalising game pitted the super defence of Uruguay – who did not concede a single goal in the group section – against Cristiano Ronaldo and his potent attacking countrymen.

Not that Uruguay did not have some heavy artillery of their own with the likes of Maximiliano Gomez, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.

It all hinged on whether Uruguay could deal with Ronaldo.

They could, emphatically. And they did it by cutting off his ball supply.

Time after time, C7 stood waiting patiently waiting for the ball to arrive like an Englishman waiting for the number 10 bus or a hotel guest waiting for room service to arrive.

Not so the energetic Uruguayans, who were first to score when Edinson Cavani fed Luis Suarez and kept running, meeting the return aerial ball and bundling it into the net (1-0).

Suarez shot hard but straight at Rui Patricio, while Ronaldo failed to get a free kick over the wall as the sides traded punches.

Portugal would have wished for the free-flowing type of game they had against Spain but this was rugged and physical and the South Americans were up to it, notably captain Diego Godin, who gave a coaching manual display of how to close down spaces.

Portugal did get more into the picture after the break – whether it was the team talk or the Gummy Bear juice – and they would equalise as an unmarked Pepe literally rose to the occasion, climbing high to head home a cross (1-1).

But the goal of the game – and one of the best of the tournament, came midway through the half when the tireless Nandez fed Cavani on the left.

He cut back to the right, opened up his body and curled it into the far corner.

All class and ultimately the goal that could take the Uruguayans deep into the competition.

Portugal poured on the pressure in a desperate bid to force the game into extra time but brave and brilliant defending gave Uruguay the victory they deserved.

So we start heading towards the quarterfinals without (Holland and Italy) Germany, Portugal and Argentina.

And the goals just keep on coming: you just gotta love the World Cup!

Spain vs Russia:

Russia pull a fast one over boring Spain

Never before have I been so happy to get a prediction wrong: Russia have beaten Spain on penalties after it was 1-1 after 120 minutes that felt like six hours.

What was the Spanish Imposition – they played more than 1000 passes in full control – will now certainly become another Spanish Inquisition.

Other than the excitement of the shoot-out, this was far and away the most boring game of the tournament.

Between Spain’s fancy pants, go nowhere, side-to-side passing and Russia’s ultra-defensive, crowd the box set-up, this was terrible to watch.

I mean, when the crowd at a Last 16 knockout match starts a Mexican wave, you just know it’s too dreary to look at.

Russia prayed for, and played, for a penalty shoot-out, their only real hope of getting through.

Seeded 60 places higher than Russia on the FIFA rankings, Spain were always odds-on favourites to go through to the quarter finals.

They were well on their way in the 11^th minute when Russian captain Sergei Ignashevich decided to rugby tackle Sergio Ramos rather than attempt to clear the ball, which struck his leg and trickled in – serves him right (1-0).

Rather than press home their advantage, Spain chose the boring route, each round of inter-passing ending where it started – getting nowhere, like someone in the gym on an exercise bicycle.

Russia had surrendered the midfield but in a rare attack, Gerard Pique handled in the box from a corner and a grateful Artem Dzyuba nearly burst the back of the net with his spot kick (1-1).

Still, Spain clearly had them on the ropes but chose to hold back the killer punch.

The game had needed that goal to liven it …but it didn’t.

Spain continued the go nowhere route and only when they awoke Iniesta from his siesta – inexplicably they had started him on the bench – did they look remotely like attacking.

And soon the sideways style resumed; it was death by passing – just why people throw things at TV sets.

Even the extra time was boring. And Russia on their part did nothing to enliven the situation.

But they had worked their plan perfectly, knowing the lottery that is the penalty shootout.

They held their nerve, winning 5-3 from the spot, to the joy of the nation.

Not to mention putting millions of more viewers like me out of the potential horror of having to watch Spain again in the next round.

Croatia vs Denmark:

Super Subasic saves it for Croatia

Two goals in three minutes and none further in the next 120 minutes set the scene for another exciting penalty shootout as Denmark and Croatia locked horns for the late show on Sunday.

It was way past midnight in the host country as the keepers prepared to face their barrage of five shots…but only after Kasper Schmeichel had saved one from Luka Modric seven minutes before the end of extra time.

Forget what went before; it was the goalkeepers who were ‘spot’ on – especially Danijel Subasic, who saved three of the five taken by Denmark.

Let’s admit, though, some of them were pretty tame efforts. Tired legs maybe.

Schmeichel also took his tally of penalty saves to three on the night, but only two in the final shootout.

Well done Croatia, who go through, but bad luck to the Danes who had given as good as they got during the match.

Croatia and Denmark served up more excitement in three minutes than Spain and Russia did in 120 minutes.

All it took was 58 seconds for the Danes to be in the score book via a prodigious long throw-in from Jonas Knudsen.

The Ipswich man, whose long-as-a-corner flings would feature throughout the match, hurled one in that bounced around the box where Nicolai Jorgensen stabbed it into and past Croatian keeper Subasic (1-0).

There was an almost identical scenario at the other end from the restart, as the ball bobbled in the Danes’ goal area and Mario Mandzukic beat Kasper Schmeichel on his right (1-1).

There were many if’s and’s and but’s in an open and direct game – so different to the previous match.

Croatia were looking good with Luka Modric of Real Madrid pulling the strings while Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen was conducting the Danish orchestra.

Evenly matched and with similar styles of play, the teams nullified each other.

To be honest, neither side showed any real dynamism up front and goals were more likely to come from defensive errors than brilliant attacks.

Croatia should have sewn it up in extra time when Jurgensen pulled down Ante Rebic who had already rounded Schmeichel.

The hero turned villain was lucky to escape with a yellow and was saved from a shooting squad when his keeper saved the spot kick.

In summary, both stoppers were brilliant in the sudden death lottery, but full marks to Croatia’s hero of the hour Danijel Subasic, the toast of his nation.

However, it would be hard to see Croatia going any further in the competition based on this match.

---

Follow us on these platforms:

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:
WhatsApp: 079 431 1217
Instagram: benonicitytimes.co.za

---