Round of 16 (7th and 8th)

Good evening my sporting friends!

Here we are again talking about football and the World Cup. Tuesday the round of 16 ended with the last 2 games that were scheduled: Sweden - Switzerland at 4 p.m. and Colombia - England at 8 p.m.

As expected, both matches were balanced and contested, resolved only in the final minutes or even at the penalty kicks. But who are the last two qualifying team that will compete in the last quarter-final? Let's discover it together in the next paragraphs!

Sweden - Switzerland 1-0

The goals 66' Forsberg (S)

Sweden (4-4-2): Olsen; Lustig (82' Krafth), Lindelof, Granqvist, Augustinsson; Claesson, Svensson, Ekdal, Forsberg (82' Olsson); Berg (90' Thelin), Toivonen.

Coach: Andersson

Switzerland (4-2-3-1): Sommer; Lang, Djourou, Akanji, Rodriguez; Bherami, Xhaka; Shaqiri, Dzemaili (73' Seferovic), Zuber (73' Embolo); Drmic

Coach: Petkovic

Incredible game in St. Petersburg! Sweden surprises everyone and wins for 1-0 against Switzerland, flying to the quarterfinals.

The match was at a low technical level, as you would have expected. So many mistakes have been made on both sides and very few important opportunities. In short, it was a match rather fought in

the midfield and not very spectacular, in short, not one of those games that give emotions at every minute. Sweden showed more character than its opponents and always came first on every ball; the defense worked very well too, blocking all the initiatives of the Swiss players.

The Scandinavians were good at taking advantage of one of the very few (if not the only) useful opportunities in the game to take the lead: in the 21st minute of the second half Toivonen and Forsberg exchanged the ball and the Swedish number 10 scored to Sommer, albeit thanks to a deviation of Akanji. Switzerland tries to react in the final minutes, relying on the energy and agility of Embolo and Seferovic, but without success. Before the end of the game Sweden almost scored the 2-0 when the referee awarded the penalty to a tackle by Lang on Olsson, then the VAR corrected the decision of the referee, deciding for a free kick from the limit, which Toivonen wasted centrally. It ends 1-0 and is a big party for the Nordic fans.

And who would have thought on that 13 November last year, after the San Siro defeat which condemned us to stay out of the World Championship, that Mr. Andersson's Sweden would kick out of the groups, the current champion Germany, and would be in the top 8 of the world? A team that, despite the absence of his ace Ibrahimovic, is proving to be at the level of the competition. Now on its way is Southgate's England, a much tougher opponent than Switzerland.

The World Cup adventure for Petkovic's men ends here. Already in the last match against Costa Rica, the Swiss boys had given worrying signals, not managing to express the best game that we had liked so much in the game won with Serbia. Against Sweden, the Swiss appeared intimidated and incapable of making technical superiority prevail over their adversaries, blocked by the determination of the Scandinavians. However, the round of 16 remains a satisfactory goal for the Swiss federation, which in its history only reached the quarterfinals in 1954.

Columbia - England 1-1 (4-5 after penalties)

The goals 54' Kane (E), 93' Mina (C)

Columbia (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Arias (116' Zapata), Mina, D. Sanchez, Mojica; Barrios, C. Sanchez (79' Uribe), Lerma (61' Bacca); Cuadrado, Quintero (88' Muriel); Falcao

Coach: Pekerman

England (3-4-3): Pickford; Walker (113' Rashford), Stones, Maguire; Trippier, Henderson, Alli (81' Dier), Young (102' Rose); Lingard, Kane, Sterling (88' Vardy)

Coach: Southgate

England broke the taboo and at the Spartak Arena, after the 1-1 of the 120 minutes, beats Colombia 5-4 at the penalty kicks.

The first half is quiet. Colombia is slow and predictable, it attacks with long throws but didn't want to go all in attack because they were afraid of England's counterattacks; Falcao is too far ahead and is not supported by his companions.

England controls the match and crushes the opponents in their side of the field but without being able to hurt them. So the first half ended on the 0-0: a more than fair result, given the very few opportunities.

Only 10 minutes pass from the beginning of the second half: Sanchez goes crazy and naively and uselessly holds his opponent inside the area, forcing the referee to assign a sacrosanct penalty. From the penalty spot, Kane doesn't forgive, scoring his sixth goal in this tournament. Colombia now gets nervous and plays confusedly, while the British control the advantage.

Kane is definitely the best on the field, he retrieves and fights for every ball and seems to have an infinite energy.

In the end, an error from Walker could have cost a lot, but on the counterattack created by Bacca Cuadrado fails in front of the goal.

This, in the 80th minute, is the only real occasion of the match for the Cafeteros.

Then something changed: the tired English hid in defense and then the South Americans took on courage starting to bomb Pinkford. So in the minutes of recovery from the first real save of the English extreme defender comes the first corner of the match for Colombia: in the area heads Mina who made the goal of the draw. Incredible but true, 1-1 and we go to overtime.

The injury time was quite boring, without emotions, both teams consumed almost all their energy in the 90-minutes battle. Colombia seems to play better, enforced by the unexpected draw, but it still can't hit, so we go to penalties.

From the penalty spot, the mistakes of Bacca and Uribe will be decisive: England finally breaks the myth and manages to pass the turn after the much-cursed penalty kicks.

A huge satisfaction for Southgate's team, which after the goal scored by Mina at the end of the game risked throwing into the air what was well built in 90 minutes. This time luck was on their side, but this game will be a warning for the future, to avoid nasty surprises. In the quarterfinals, Sweden awaits them: definitely not the most difficult opponent that could have occurred, but watch out for the Scandinavians because they have a lot of courage.

And so, the adventure of the Cafeteros at the Russian World Championship ends with a bitter taste in the mouth. Pekerman's team, after a bad match, unexpectedly managed to regain the draw at last minute, but was unable to take advantage of the opportunity of overtime and was punished by fate at the lottery of penalties. Let's say that until now their performances had never been perfect and from the very beginning it was clear that they would not get far if they continued to play like this.

The last quarter-final match was unveiled, and it will be England and Sweden on Saturday 7 July at 4 p.m. at the Samara Arena. English extra-favorite, both for experience and for technical level. We'll see if Andersson's guys can overturn the forecast.

Let's make a brief summary: France - Uruguay, and Spain - Croatia will tell us who will face each other in the first semifinal that will be held on Tuesday 10 in St. Petersburg, while from Brazil - Belgium, and Sweden - England will come out the other two semifinalists who will meet on Wednesday 11 in Moscow.

My sixth sense as a football enthusiast tells me that it will be France - Russia, and Brazil - England who will be challenging each other.

I would be curious to see Russia in the final, I would like to experience the excitement of a finalist who plays at home. And I predicted England as the ultimate winner.

Who knows if I have done it right!

Source: Massimoc23

This is a translation of the post made by @Massimoc23 on Steemit, and he authorized me to translate and publish his post in here. This is my fifth collaboration with him, and more articles will follow!

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