Monzanator

I just don't see an European referee in the final here. The last two Wc finals were given to UEFA refs already and now we have nothing but UEFA teams in the semis and the tournament itself is held in Europe. Just too much Europe involved. Btw, the last time an UEFA referee was given the WC final on European soil was 1974. Faghani seems like the safest bet for the final. It would have probably been Irmatov before but he had a disappointing performance in the group stage and was send home early.

[hide] Knockout Round June 30th - July 15th, 2018 16 Nations, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 10th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) France 2 3 Belgium July 11th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Croatia 1 1 England [/hide]

If Sterling keeps missing sitters like he did all tournament, Croatia does have a chance. Thankfully none of the Croatians will be suspended.

Now let's see if Russian can do anything on offense. I suspect not.

Perisic did everything right. There were six Russians behind the ball including the keeper.

Russia barely hanging in there. I think penalties are their only hope again. Maybe a fluke set-piece.

It doesn't matter as long as their offense is clicking. Tunisia also scored twice vs this Belgium defense and it's completely irrelevant now. De Bruyne waking up is the best news for Belgium.

[hide] Knockout Round June 30th - July 15th, 2018 16 Nations, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Quarterfinals Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 6th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Uruguay 1 2 France July 6th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 3 2 Belgium July 7th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Sweden 1 0 England July 7th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Russia 0 2 Croatia [/hide]

He's a Barcelona player already

It's not. Ball has heading on target so no own goal.

It's about having a TEAM, not the best 11 individuals. Brazil have often fallen because they couldn't build a team from otherwise superior players.

Firmino as Willian replacement sounds the only logical choice. Neymar/Coutinho are untouchable. Polish commentators said that Marcelo was rested here on medical team's advice so I guess it's not that bad? It was reported as a mere back spasm?

If Brazil scored the second goal sooner, he'd have reacted quicker IMO. So, is Fernandinho replacing Casemiro for QF?

Spain made their own bed. A gazzilion passes led to absolutely nothing during 120 mins other than an own goal.

Yes, because of the KO factor.

Best game of the World Cup!

[hide] Knockout Round June 30th - July 15th, 2018 16 Nations, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Round of 16 Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 30th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) France 2 1 Argentina June 30th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Uruguay 1 1 Portugal July 1st 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Spain 3 0 Russia July 1st 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Croatia 2 0 Denmark July 2nd 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Brazil 2 0 Mexico July 2nd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Belgium 2 0 Japan July 3rd 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Sweden 1 2 Switzerland July 3rd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Colombia 0 1 England [/hide]

Three of Messi's six WC goals have been scored vs Nigeria

If Iceland beat Nigeria the other day, I'd expect the same in tonight's ICE vs CRO game

I'm not sad that it will be Portugal which plays Uruguay now...

KSA deserved that. Egypt looks awful without Salah's influence and he can't make any difference whatsoever playing with these mugs. This ain't Liverpool!

Piszczek and Blaszczykowski should go after this World Cup. They're simply too old to make a difference at this stage anymore. Milik has returned from his second ACL injury and was out of form this season. Kownacki and Bereszynski aren't the difference makers yet but they should replace Piszczek and Blaszczykowski for years to come. And above all else, we're too reliant on Lewandowski. It works against teams like Romania and Armenia but not at this level.

Tennis and volleyball are much faster games, you can't directly compare the players influence on the video system. Plus hawkeye rarely decides the outcome of the game since there are too many points played. Besides, we see enough bullshit video challenges on match point in volleyball when teams seek invisible touches.

This will disturb the flow of the game. We have enough delays with all the time wasting and fake injuries to add more confusion. I'm sure coaches would find a way to bullshit the challenge system if they had such power. I can see a ton of players claiming they were elbowed in the face so video review is warranted while that would only steal time and give their defense a breather or something.

People need to lay off on VAR. It's the new punchbag for any team that loses a game. Fans blamed refs before now they blame refs AND VAR. Our commentators said that Mitrovic's playing style was his undoing and I agree. He looked for so many cheap folus that when he actually got fouled, ref had none of it. That's a classic crying wolf scenario here.