So there's a lot of football games on and it can be hard to know what any of them mean. So depending on who is reading this (so far nobody, but maybe in 300 years time) each of the 32 teams is allocated to one of 8 groups of 4 teams each and play 3 games, one each against the other group members. With 3 points of a win, 1 for a draw and nothing for losing the top 2 teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds. By the time the second round of matches is played you start to narrow the options. This time we conclude group D's 2nd matches with Nigeria defeating Iceland 2-0.
In the first half it looked like Iceland might continue the fairy tale (and still they might) but in the second half Nigeria suddenly became a better team and Musa scored twice before Iceland won a penalty but blazed it over the bar to keep the score at 2-0. This has helped Argentina a bit who are on 1 point after 2 games because while they can't overtake Croatia they can still overhaul Nigeria and/or Iceland for second spot. So France is likely to play against either Argentina, Nigeria or Iceland in the round of 16 if France finish first in their group. It's all very exciting stuff.
Actually the most interesting thing is that Argentina failing to progress is a distinct possibility.
The other 2 matches of the night/morning were the Group E games with Brazil v Costa Rica and Serbia v Switzerland. Brazil were held to a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in the first round of games and after 90 minutes they were 0-0 against Costa Rica. Sadly for the Costa Ricans the game had a bit of added time during which Brazil managed not just one but 2 goals to break the dogged resistance of their opponents. In a lot of ways it was unfair, ultimately though that's what you get with Brazil. They will now face Serbia in the final round and as unthinkable as it might be if Serbia win Brazil will be out. I take into account the result of the other game when saying this of course. So potentially both Argentina and Brazil might not go through to the fun part of the tournament. In truth Serbia would not normally be credited such an optimistic outcome for them but the Brazil on the field has fallen somewhat short of the reputation they carry. They could also still finish top of their group. It's pretty tight. Except for Costa Rica, they're out.
The final match sees Switzerland take on Serbia and as alluded to the Swiss won. The Serbs went ahead early and led through Mitrovic after only 5 minutes when he headed in from a cross. You started to think that maybe Switzerland had already played their final against Brazil... sometimes you think wrong.
It didn't actually happen until the second half for Switzerland to equalise but this one was worth the wait s a Xherdan Shaqiri shot was blocked by the keeper Stojkovic only for it to rebound to Granit Xhaka who launched some sort of missile from his feet from a long way outside the penalty box but by the time you could react the missile had disappeared, was replaced by a ball and lay in the Serbian net.
I wanted to make a joke about precision or timing but really I just marvel at the fact that the Swiss team is fielding so many players with an 'X' in their names. And not like in "Baxter" but as the initial. Both have Albanian heritage so if you ever wanted to see a phonebook that had more than 3 entries under "X" go there. Still, that wasn't the end. As the game wore on it certainly looked like the Swiss were the more likely to pull off the win but much like Australia and Denmark it would seem that the final step towards a winning goal was a step too far.
Or not.
With only minutes left in the game Shaqiri received a long pass as he raced out of his own half steaming towards the Serbian goal like an angry Walnut and eluded the defence and the outstretched legs of the Serbian keeper sliding the ball home before making his shirt surplus to requirements.
Fair call. Infact if it were me I might have considered it a shorts-optional moment as well.
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