After two weeks of exciting games at the ongoing Russia 2018 FIFA world cup, the second round of games is about to kick off, as all the matchup for the round of 16 has already been known.
The Russia 2018 world cup has seen some of the greatest moments in world football and a bit more of controversies. But in all, records have been created and more will be created, such as the use of Video Assistant Referee for the first time, the use of fair-play in the case of Senegal and Japan who tied on same points (4-points each), same goal difference, but Senegal was eliminated based on the fact that they had the highest number of yellow cards.
The African team had six yellow cards, while Japan representing Asia had just four, so they qualified ahead of Senegal for being the most disciplined team. Though there have been some surprises, aside from the controversy of the use of VAR to favour countries with big stars in some of the games, the other surprise we had was the ouster of defending champions Germany, after a 2-0 defeat in the hands of South Korea.
The defending Champions had just 3-points which was a win against Sweden with ten men but lost their opening game against Mexico and the last group game against South Korea.
The other team that survived early elimination was Argentina, as a controversial VAR decision that was not given, after a reply showed defender Marcos Rojo handled the ball in his own box against the Nigeria team who needed just a draw to qualify ahead of Argentina. But the referee with pressure from both on and off the pitch waved off the penalty appeal. He later scored the winning goal that qualified Argentina to the next round of the game.
From what we saw in that game, Argentina never showed any class, as even Messi was never like the Messi of Barcelona we know, as he too is struggling in this tournament. France could be the team that put the final nail in their coffin in the next round.
Also, England after the game against Belgium showed they are still an average team when it comes to a meet up against the big teams, as they struggled to match up with Belgium with great players.
They are meeting a tougher opponent in Columbia in the next round and could be a difficult challenge for them. See all the match-up:
June 30th
France Vs Argentina-3pm
Uruguay Vs Portugal-7pm
July 1
Spain Vs Russia-3pm
Belgium Vs Japan-7pm
July 2nd
Brazil Vs Mexico-3pm
Croatia Vs Denmark-7pm
July 3rd
Sweden Vs Switzerland-3pm
Colombia Vs England-7pm