The World Cup Gets Better And Better.
Jun 30th, 2018 by 'holic
I type after the first two matches of the knock out phase have been played. Before we come to them a brief review of the third round of group stage matches is probably in order.
Mohamed Elneny became the first Gunner to crash out of the tournament when Egypt fell to a 1-2 defeat at the hands, or rather feet, of Saudi Arabia. Uruguay completed the group stage without conceding a goal and inflicted the first defeat on hosts Russia, and more to come about the South Americans later. Surprisingly in Group B both Portugal and Spain were held to draws by Iran and Morocco respectively but both European teams progressed.
Come Tuesday and with France and Denmark sure to qualify with a draw guess what the result of that match was! Peru’s 2-0 defeat of Australia was insignificant. A second Gunner departed the tournament. Alex Iwobi was a last minute substitute as Nigeria fell 1-2 to Argentina. Croatia continued their one hundred percent record with a 2-1 win over the unlucky Icelandics.
Good news for Stephan Lichsteiner and Granit Xhaka came in the shape of a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica which sent Switzerland through and man of the match Joel Campbell on holiday. Brazil defeated Serbia to clinch the group on a day they could have made a shock exit from the tournament. Group F saw the astonishing late, late defeat of Germany by South Korea. With the holders out in the group phase for the first time in eighty years Mesut Ozil will be placing his towel at the poolside before breakfast next week. Sweden clinched the group with a 3-0 defeat of Mexico.
On Thursday the first phase was completed. David Ospina’s Colombia clinched the top spot with a single goal triumph over Senegal. Poland earned their only three points of the competition against Japan who will also appear in the last sixteen. The big match in Group G was between the already qualified England and Belgium. Both sides were heavily rotated and the Belgians won the group with the only goal of the game. Danny Welbeck saw his first minutes of World Cup action as a 79th minute substitute. The wooden spoon was claimed by Panama, beaten 2-1 by Tunisia.
After a day of rest today (Saturday) saw the opening knock-out fixtures. Four years ago these were largely tedious affairs with teams scared to lose. Today has set a marker for what is to follow. France and Argentina delivered a wonderful display of committed attacking football. The French dominated early proceedings and when Mbappe scared Rojo into bringing him down in the box, and Griezmann netted from the spot, it was difficult to see a way back for Argentina.
Against the run of play Di Maria conjured up an equaliser before half-time and shortly after the break Mercado diverted a Messi effort beyond Lloris to give the South Americans a 2-1 lead. One of the goals of the season, never mind the tournament, saw Pavard equalise for France. It was time for Mbappe (oh why didn’t we sign him two summers ago!) to light up the tournament with two goals in four minutes to send the French into ecstasy.
There was, however, a sting in the tail. Aguero’s header from a sublime Messi delivery made for an uncomfortable last two minutes for the French, and a chance to equalise did materialise, but went begging. Will Messi be back for one last tilt at the empty entry in his cv? He’ll be 35 when Qatar 22 comes around.
Uruguay and Portugal may not have reached such heady heights but the bloodbath that was anticipated failed to materialise. There was not a single yellow card issued until Ronaldo was booked for dissent in time added on. Uruguay led early doors through a sublime goal set up for Cavani by Suarez, but Pepe’s header in the second-half made for an intriguing end to the match. Cavani provided the coup de grace before departing with what appeared to be a muscular injury. A word for Lucas Torreira, who again looked the type of player we definitely need. He was again superb tonight. Please let us get this one over the line.
So France will meet Uruguay in the quarter-final and if Cavani is fully recovered it could be a difficult match for the French, but Mbappe offers them hope. Damn it, why didn’t we buy him two years ago?
89 Responses to “The World Cup Gets Better And Better.”
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Arsene is probably regaling them on BeIn Sports with stories of the ones that got away. Mbappe is clearly going to be a superstar and would now be being courted by the superpowers of Europe if w3 had signed him. We nearly signed Cavani too apparently and he was excellent tonight too scoring with his Adam’s Apple and then a superb shot beyond Rui Patricio. I thought Carvalho ( who might be free ) looks very solid and a great passer ( perhaps a tad slow) but this boy Torreira is exactly what we have needed for some time. It’s going to be a very interesting tournament and is very open and it shows with the emergence of new contenders how Football moves on and that having Messi and Ronaldo is no guarantee of victory at this level.
France are using Giroud very intelligently. He might be the slowest player to win a World Cup medal! To think they have Dembele on the sidelines . We have Vardy and Welbeck in reserve and Sterling in tge team. That’s a decent marker for our chances at this level.
We will need Kane at his very best to get past Colombia.
France have Lemar on the bench too.
Are we glad we didn’t pay 92 million
for him? Too early to tell I guess.
I thought the ref did an excellent job
in the Uruguay game. He ignored a
few yellow card possibilities and just
got on with things.
Hopefully, tonight’s games will be
just as entertaining, I’m expecting
a few goals in Spain / Russia and I
think the host nation could surprise
Spain.
Big chance for Croatia in this
tournament although group form
doesn’t always mean a lot – I hope
they score early and force Denmark
to come out to play.
I have no idea how that is a penalty
to Russia.
Nice review, Guvna.
Missed yesterday’s games as I was at a History Festival but I have them recorded for enjoyment later today.
Good to hear Torriera looked the business again. I do hope we can clinch his signing. No doubt his performances have drawn some further interest in his direction. He is exactly what we have needed for a decade though he might have struggled to reach that level when he was 12.
Matt @3, deliberate handball, mate.
Piquet whose natural movement was bringing both his arms down raised one arm again when he realised the fella behind him had headed the ball, on the off chance that it would block the header. Didn’t need to see it. Played the percentages. Won because he blocked the header. Lost because the ref gave a pen because he knew what he was doing.
OM, the job the ref did in Portugal vs Uruguay points out the folly of using “fair play” as a tiebreaker. That ref just ignored a few dead on yellows, particularly the foul that Uruguay committed at the death which led to Ronaldo’s dissent yellow. Any decent ref would have done four to six of them in that match, demonstrating that fair play tie breaking is way too much influenced by which officials you’ve been paired with.
And wouldn’t it have been interesting to see what would have happened if Portugal did tie and win in extra time — would FIFA rescind the Ronaldo yellow to let him play in the next match?
If the MOS is to be believed the Torreira deal is done. I never believe a Mail newspaper but hope Huss Fahmy has tied the deal up to be confirmed after the World Cup. The boy really is a talent in a position we have lacked someone good in for years. My big concern if he came is whether Xhaka is the right fit.
Not remotely concerned about whether Sokratis signs or not as I’m not that impressed by his recent notices . Frankly Jonny Evans for £3m might have been as good and as a home grown player better for balance in the squad. Still Jonny has gone so welcome Sokratis.
Given the end of the World Cup isn’t until mid- July, players will take holidays and the window ends on 9th August it’s going to be very busy in the market after the WC. Previously we would have deferred our business while Wenger carried out his pundit role for French TV( although we did sign Sanchez in 2014) but this time we have moved quickly , a sign of clearer thinking.
Shocking VAR decision not to give Spain a penalty for two players being manhandled on that FK. A high profile opportunity to end the blight of holding in the box but a previously impressive referee was misadvised. Is it a factor that it was against the host nation?
The force wasn’t with Spain
on the penalty front tonight.
And I think so Bath about the
host nation factor.
Can’t really see that as a
satisfactory result but Croatia
might think differently I
suppose.
Spain were the better side but have underachieved and they overpass more than any side I can remember. Russia did the only thing they can do and the VAR officials must have felt ( as I did) that while suspicious it wasn’t absolutely conclusive.
I think Croatia would beat them anyway and are the dark horses for the title ( with Uruguay). Brazil must be bigger favourites but watch Croatia!
What a pathetic game this is! My confidence in Croatia is ebbing by the minute. Denmark are Wimbledon with Eriksen and they are the better side. This is so poor after three very interesting games.
Hard to predict this tournament
Clearly a Switzerland v Japan final
Croatia were lucky tonight. My sympathies shifted to Denmark tonight but despite their win Croatia look very fallible. England’s game is huge on Tuesday because whisper it softly but this half of the draw is full of beatable sides.
Shocking VAR decision not to give Spain a penalty for two players being manhandled on that FK.
Not a penalty for me. Pique wasn’t going to get to the ball anyway and Ramos was pulling as much as the defender was.
VAR is supposed to be for clear and obvious errors and that wasn’t one really. I am well and truly sick to death of VAR anyway, it just encourages bad behaviour because you have players making tv signs, coaches doing the same on the sidelines and the slightest contact is met with worse play acting than we’ve ever seen, to try to draw the ref’s attention so he’ll review it.
Ronaldo’s “elbow” for example was nothing of the sort, but we had the farce of the opposing player rolling about, then VAR getting in the ref’s ear because of the rolling, then the ref having to run across the pitch to look at the telly and at the end of all that, it’s a yellow.
Minutes wasted for fuck all.
Have I mentioned hating VAR? 😉
@6 Jean
The Fair Play rule is very popular in Japan
just now ! Numerous people here have pointed
out to me that Senegal got the 2 yellows in injury
time against Japan when they just hacked down
Japanese players as Japan were pressing for
the win so it’s fair 🙂
Not sure about that reasoning as personally I
think there’s no good way to decide and I’d
prefer a straight knockout system with 64 teams.
Can’t really disagree with your comments on
the ref but I just liked it that he got on with
the game and wasn’t obtrusive. There were
8 yellows in the Fra vs Arg game and it was
no dirtier than Port vs Uru.
Loved Lichsteiner’s post from Russia yesterday on Twitter re his first official day as a fully fledged Gooner.
I am sure someone more tech savvy than me can post it in the Bar.
Salah has signed a new deal worth a reported £200k a week at the scousers, which is amazing business by them.
We currently pay Mesut Ozil almost twice that. A deal that looks more farcical by the day. His agent must be pissing himself 24/7
Mexico have gone out in the last 16 for 6 world cups in a row.
I can sympathise with that and hope they knock Brazil out
tonight.
The Sokratis announcement should be today
apparently so welcome to The Arsenal to him.
This is turning into a Leicester-wins-the-Premier-League-like World Cup.
bath@5: spot on.
TTG@7: Clearer thinking or clearer demarcation of the lines of responsibility?
Brazil won though and the top half of the draw
is looking like a good South America vs
Europe tussle if Belgium win as expected.
Papa’s in
Let’s hope we see the wisdom of the Sokratis signing ?
Seems it would be in order to approach this one using the Sokratic method.
Jaaapaaan
Blimey twice !!
Cracking 2nd half
Bit cruel at the end for Japan
There is nothing new under the sun. In the last 16 of the World Cup you are 2-0 down and bring on Charlie and Fellaini. They both score as you come back to win.
Meanwhile Spain play meaningless tiki-taka and go out. Japan were a credit to the game. No histrionics, Good ref and a thrilling game. Better than sex this Football.And it lasts at least ninety minutes!
Sorry Chadli ! ….Charlie Chadli!
Herewith every first-team player in Arsenal’s history. How many have you seen live.
This will be a good one for the Guvna and many others of a certain generation.
By the way we e not heard from Chris in a while. Any idea how he is?
http://www.thearsenalhistory.com/?p=15277
TTG
re our friend Chris in NZ.
I seem to recall his last post before he dropped off the radar,said he was coming down with a dose of the flu. ??
I do hope it hasn’t morphed into something worse.
He is i believe in his late 70’s,and these bugs seem to linger a lot longer the older you get.
I cannot beleive anything else would keep him out of the bar,particularly with the WC in full swing.
Fingers crossed he is okay.
Clive
Yes let’s hope he is back with us soon . I’m sure he will have views on the WC and life at the Arsenal
I’ve been wondering about Chris
too. Does he usually take a break
from posting in the off-season?
Chris couldn’t take a break from the drinks under normal circumstances, from what I could tell. A bit like me in that. Hope to see him back soon.
Sokratis will wear the number 5 shirt and he looks a bruiser. Welcome to the Arsenal. We can use your brawn.
He’s shit. Anyone who watched him last season could tell you that.
I’m doing a Ned! Not nearly as well though.
At the R16 stage the amount of EPL players from each club involved in the WC is:
Man City 15
Tottenham 11
Man Utd 10 + 1(Fred)
Chelsea 11
Liverpool 5
Arsenal 4 + 2 (Lichtsteiner, Torreira)
With Brazil and Belgium through and maybe us , Citeh will have 9 players with less than a week of training before they play us at the start of the season! Chelsea’s team will also be heavily disrupted if France do well.
He’s shit. Anyone who watched him last season could tell you that.
Chris or Sokratis? 🙂
I think Chris generally takes a break from the bar over the summer though I can’t recall if that also applies to WC summers.
Best wishes Chris, whatever…
Man City to pay £60m for Mahrez. What a waste of money.
Djourou starts for Switzerland.
I’m curious to see how slow he’s
become.
Not a good game, I’m hoping
for no extra time
hmmmm, a bad couple of minutes
for Xhaka
BBC pundits agree with you, OM. Scathing assessment of our future Xavi Alonso. Well deserved IMO. There may well be a good player in there somewhere but it is very well hidden and currently playing in the disguise of a second rater.
I wish refs would start handing out red cards when players get in their faces and delay the game
England win on penalties, for once.
Get in!
Winning is everything I’ve heard.
🙂
The bottom half of the draw churned
out 4 garbage games.
Sweden weren’t good either
so we’ve a fair chance.
Sweden v Swiss was probably the most boring game of the World Cup. England’s game was almost as bad except for the last half hour.
Only the penalty shootouts were exciting (3 in the last three games). Hopefully, the remaining matches will provide more entertainment.
How weird does it feel wanting an Arsenal goalkeeper not to save a Spurs player’s penalty?
Fine performances from Pickford, Trippier, Stones and Maguire. I thought we deserved it over 120minutes and we didn’t try to dig the penalty spot up !
Hmm. I was growing increasingly confident that Engerland would lose to Switzerland in the quarters due some incident involving Lichtsteiner and/or Xhaka – a dive or mistimed tackle leading to some bloke going off and/or missing several weeks at the start of next season. The tabs will have to think of some other reason for an anti-Arsenal crusade.
Until Saturday, then, folks…
COYG
Typical South American side,constant fouling on the ball,niggly tactics off the ball,in truth they could have had 10 yellow cards instead of 6.
I thought England with the odd exception,did really well to keep calm under immense pressure,in an atmosphere that felt more like a home game in South America such was the enormous travelling support.
The ref looked lost at times,and could easily have handed out a couple of red cards to Colombia.
Southgate to his credit seems to have decided on his starting 11,and regardless of form or injury,appears determined to stick with them.
A very winnable qtr final coming up against Sweden,who after looking shattered at the injury time goal that lost them the game against Germany,are now incredibly like England, looking at the possibility of reaching the semi final and maybe even the Final.
Funny old game Football.
Clive@49, In truth, any of England, Sweden, Croatia and the hosts are looking at the possibility of making the Final.
The Russia-Croatia winner will most likely get to the final. Luka Modric could be important.
Lots of stuff emanating from the early days of the new regime at Colney. I desperately hope we’ve lined up Torreira but none of our other supposed targets fills me with great excitement and I’m still puzzling on why we extended Xhaka given his form in the WC. I’m really struggling to see how we can convert him into a top box to box midfielder . If he can achieve that maybe Emery can try his hand at Brexit and the Middle- Eastern crisis .
The WC is compelling because of the drama of the shootouts mainly but the football is fairly mundane . England’s progress has galvanised the nation and to his credit Southgate talks a good game but a numbe4 of that team have big question marks against them- Walker, Young, Alli , Dier and Sterling have all made mistakes or just underperformed but so far the defence has looked better than I expected.
I might be daft but I think Welbeck would provide much better support to Kane than Sterling. His physicality and mobility would have been much more useful against Colombia than Raheem’s “contribution”.
Against a physical side like Sweden he might be very useful again.
Xhaka’s form at the World Cup looked about the same as his form for Arsenal, i.e., none too good.
TTG @52,
“I’m still puzzling on why we extended Xhaka given his form in the WC. I’m really struggling to see how we can convert him into a top box to box midfielder . If he can achieve that maybe Emery can try his hand at Brexit and the Middle- Eastern crisis .”
Excellent observation, sir.
Had us all chuckling here.
Phenomenal hat trick in MLS this evening by Darwin Quintero of Minnesota. Link includes links to clips of the goals:
https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2018-07-04-minnesota-united-fc-vs-toronto-fc/recap
Bt8
Thanks for the clip. Some great goals there on Indeoendence Day too! Was the Minnesota boss by any chance a tubby Adrian Heath who used to play for Everton?
Adrian Heath it was and is, TTG, but his Everton days were before my acquaintance. 🙂
I hope France win tonight as we will get
Torreira announced more quickly, and I
hope Brazil lose as it would be so deserved
for Neymar.
Also I hope Russia lose as they played for
penalties against Spain, and I hope
England win even though most of our players
are crap (see TTG’s post at #52 and add
Lingard and Henderson).
Apart from that, no strong opinions about any
of the games 🙂
A week has passed since you posted this WC update H,which is half a lifetime in this competition.
I’d have made a new post a banker after England’s win over the very naughty Colombians,but nothing has appeared.
So I hope nothing is amiss your end.
A message in the bar would help allay my concerns.
Bt8
Adrian Heath played in the last Good Everton Team when under Kendall they won a slew of trophies. He was a nippy attacking midfielder cum striker and tended to play off Graham Sharp. I had no clue what had happened to him. It looks like he has been at the pies!
Torreira looked very good, most key passes for URU, took most of the FKs and corners
I watched Torreira closely today and was again enormously impressed. Apart from his great diligence in front of the back four his dead-ball expertise will come in very handy and he has had a World Cup to savour. Without Cavani Uruguay didn’t have enough to hurt France especially after the keeper’s error.
Good stuff from Torreira – looking
forward to seeing him in an Arsenal
shirt.
Belgium 1-0 up – let’s see what
Brazil have got.
If Belgium win it’ll be all European
semi-finals.
2-0 ! cracking finish but poor
defending.
Can Brazil avoid losing by 7-1 or worse? If they can they will probably turn it into a moral victory. Not sure what it will do for Neymar’s reputation though.
I’m not sure it’s a talent to be
proud of but Hazard is the best
buyer of free kicks around – he
hits the deck with such practiced
ease that the ref must just
automatically give the foul
Vermaelen. Really?
haha, I was surprised too
bt8
now taking Lukaku off
Courtois was something else. Good second half by Brazil though.
France and Belgium are worthy semifinalists and it promises an excellent game.
TTG @60. This region being known for its pork, it could have been one of the attractions for Heath to relocate here. His main task at the moment seems to be to teach his team how to defend better, presumably not by following his example in the dining area.
Interesting semi tonight, much more interesting than the afternoon game. My conclusion is that ‘superstars’ aside the best players are mainly now in the Premier League. Belgium’s front three ran Brazil ragged but the huge surprise to me was Fellaini. He had a really effective game tonight.
Ornstein has clearly been briefed by Arsenal as usual and I would ignore the suggestion we are in for N’Zonzi. I would have liked another centre back but Unai knows, or so I am telling myself. ?
Man City game confirmed as Sunday kick off on the 12th,and for travelling supporters to the Bridge the following week,kick off is confirmed for Saturday the 18th 5.30pm.
TTG
Still a month till the transfer window closes,so expect some more ins and outs at the Arse.
Main interest is in Rambo,who still hasn’t put pen to paper.
Not the best way to start the season if you cannot commit to a new deal.
Still no word from the Guvnor. ??
The Guvna has been at Lords this week and is active on Twitter so I think we need not fear for his health. He sounds in good fettle.
I am sure that Rambo is off as he fancies playing abroad after a decade at THOF and without any tempting offers this summer will aspire to an end of contract free-agent signing -on payday. If he doesn’t sign we should sell him to anyone who will buy him. I would be sad to see him leave but it’s time we dealt more firmly with contract rebels and he is always one muscle tweak away from three months out.
Thnks for the update Bath.
Never been one of the twitterati set myself,but obviously the Landlord has embraced it to help widen the Holic universe.
☺☺☺
Clive
I think we can expect some outs and with this regime the decisions will be taken decisively. I’d think Ospina, Campbell and Perez would go and we may see loans for some of the younger players. I’m not expecting many more ins and as suggested Ramsey is the key. I’m expecting him to be given the captaincy and announced fairly soon. If he vacillates I’m right with Bath, our recent history has been dominated by not sorting out contract negotiations.
Ideally I’d like to see Mustafi replaced by a proper Centre half and Xhaka by a proper midfielder in addition to Torreira. Interesting to think two seasons ago we brought in Mustafi, Xhaka and Perez. Not our finest hour
The way this close season has been organised contrasts with the last few especially last season which was a dog’s breakfast and left us unprepared for the season. Arsene and Dick Law didn’t have the ruthless efficiency this new team have.
TTG
We are as usual of like mind.
The new regime’s efficient and front foot operations in the close season so far,make our previous attempts at off season player negotiations look positively amateurish.
I really hope Torreira is in the bag,as i would hope no other Club comes in with a bigger offer after his excellent WC.
I should know better but I’m vaguely
optimistic for England. I must admit
it’s based on Sweden not being very
good either.
Big Harry Maguire giving no quarter to the poor Swedes?
England 2-0 up and playing reasonably well. Sweden having a day off, so far.
I am surprised.
Official
Every dog has its day, I suppose. 😉
If England and Sweden had swapped keepers, it might well have been Sweden that won 2-0.
Should have said Well played, England, and well deserved.
I haven’t watched any of Russia’s matches in the tournament so have no clue how theu have got through thus far, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of smoke and mirrors out on the pitch today.
Pickford seems to have been doing a lot of weightlifting judging by the strength in his left hand in particular
Should we get through on Wednesday night I am seriously contemplating a trip to Moscow at the weekend. History is rarely made by English football teams…and I’ve never been to Russia!
Re Clive’s point @76 I note that Wenger asked Keown to scout Harry Maguire because he was concerned about his mobility. And yet he signed Rob Holding ( who I like) who is very lacking in mobility. This ponderousness in the market is tge thing we have to rectify. I saw Maguire play excellently for Hull against us in a Cup tie and it was clear he was( and was going to be ) a very good defender. Uncovering unpolished gems is one of tge things that Wenger did so brilliantly in the first years of his tenure but failed to do towards the end of his time. Admittedly there was greater competition then.
That is to say nothing about the greater competition now as opposed to then, but Maguire has many excellent qualities and does not seem to be getting exposed against the world’s best. (Crosses fingers.)
Sorry all, piece planned tonight. For some reason i am incapable. ?
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