Heartbroken, amazed, thrilled, shocked and many more emotions from last 4 days. I supported three teams in this world cup Spain, Argentina and Brazil. I knew Argentina will not go further because they don’t have a team like that, they were one of the oldest team on average in the competition. But the way Spain went out in the competition was a shock, like Germany. The other two super interesting and thrilling game was Belgium vs Japan and Colombia vs. England. In those games, both the team scored late goals where Belgium went on to win the game and Colombia took the game to extra time and then losing the game in the penalty shootout to England. Now in the round of 16 Uruguay vs. France, Brazil vs. Belgium, Russia vs. Croatia and Sweden vs. England.

“He is the second teenager player to score 2+ goals in the knockout games in the world cup, the first teenager? Pele.”

Now I want to talk about France vs Argentina game, what a game we had. Kylian Mbappé was prolific in the game, he scored two goals and created the first goal. He is the second teenager player to score 2+ goals in the knockout games in the world cup, the first teenager? Pele. Whenever he got the ball he will just run toward Argentina defence and break them apart. His speed strength and skill had no match for Argentina defence. They were clueless about what to do and how to stop him. Argentina scored three goals and the first one was the longest goal scored in this world cup and what a shot it was from Di María. But still conceding three goals against this Argentina team was not what France would have wanted. They surely have to look forward to it and figure out what went wrong. That too Messi was playing a false nine and Argentina was not without any natural striker. Talking about Messi, I this his last chance to win the world cup? I don’t think so, next time in 2022 he will be 35 and still he can play as a central attacking midfield. Will he be sad, yes of course but I know deep inside his mind somewhere in the corner surely he will be thinking that “Good its all over!!” France will meet Uruguay in the quarter-final. The Uruguay game against Portugal was a game of two halves, in the first half it was all Uruguay and in the second it was all Portugal but the decisive movement was those two shot from Cavani and what a goal was the second one. Portugal got a chance in dying minutes to equalise but they missed that. Both the GOATs went home on the same day. Brazil vs Mexico was fun to watch and those rolling around from Neymar, amazing. It shows that a player of his class and standard also need to learn how to behave and how to become an idol for kids. the way he acts and fake injury or overreacts to the injury is disrespectful to the game. a player of his stature and his class shouldn’t do all this. Belgium vs Japan was a classic world cup game, one of the best in this world cup so far. Belgium was trailing by two goals, two goals till 69th minute of the game and in next 21min of the game plus the extra added time, they scored three goals. What a game it was and Mr Martinez tactics were spots on, now we can say that as they won the game, out of 3 goals which Belgium scored, two were scored by two substitutes Fellaini and Chadli. I think Japan sat back too much and didn’t push high enough and they let Belgium play their way, yes I understand you scored two goals but parking the bus is always not the correct answer what Russia did to Spain, that can’t be repeated in all the games because it required metal and physical concentration at the highest level especially when you play against a world-class team. And that’s what Japan couldn’t do to constantly for 90 minutes. The game between Spain and Russia will be discussed in a different blog. What Spain exit did to the world is it kept all the strong team in one branch to the final and in another one, all low ranking team in one side of the branch to the final. The highest ranking team now left in Spain’s branch is England rank 12 then Croatia 20, followed by Sweden 24 and then the host Russia ranked 70 in the quarter-final. As I told in my last blog, Spain got a very good chance to reach to the final but now it can be any more from these four teams. the way this world cup is going on we never know. the other side of the branch to the final is Uruguay, France, Brazil and Belgium. The winner of Uruguay vs. France will play against the winner of Brazil vs. Belgium. Just imagine that, a potential final in the semi-final.

“A team of Fifa Rank 90, for world cup 2018 quarterfinals.”

My prediction for quarterfinal games:
Uruguay – 1 vs. France – 1 it will go to the penalty shootout. winner, I will go with France. I want Uruguay to win over France but since Canavi is out of the world cup now due to his injury in the game against Portugal, I will go with a draw. France attract will surely tear Uruguay meanest defence of this world cup. They have conceded only one goal so far and too due to the man making to Ronaldo in a corner shot, Pepe got a free header. France got benefit in their attack and midfield but-but-but, that is what Uruguay like to play. they like to sit back and absorb all the attack and hit in the counter-attack, which is not that great now after Cavani injury only Suarez will lead alone with 21-year-old striker Maximiliano from Celta. key players for Uruguay will be Lucus Torreira, his performance against Portugal was outstanding. Bentancur and Diego Laxalt have to make that left-hand side for Mbappé. The back four for Uruguay, they going to face the best attack of this competition.

Brazil vs Belgium:
Bazil going to win by 2 goals to 0. Brazil will be too much for Belgium to handle. The Brazilian flair will overcome red devils.

Russia vs Croatia:
This game will be like Spain vs Russia. Russia will sit back and defend but Croatia is not Spain, they got quick players and their midfield is in great form. I will go with Croatia 2 and Russia 0.

Sweden vs England:
I have no clue about this game. Both the team got their own strength. Both are comfortable with sitting back defence with the good solid midfield. But the only area England is better is the counter-attack speed. I will go with England 2 – Sweden 1.