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| Kylian Mbappe (Picture taken from TheWeek.co.uk) |
The Round of 16 started with an amazing clash between France and Argentina! A very exciting match that seemed to start very hard for Argentina especially because of the extremely slow defenders on the pitch. Rojo and Mascherano were finding very hard to deal with Griezmann and Mbappe. At 9' Mascherano made a very stupid foul in a super dangerous position. Griezmann directly from free kick got the woodwork! A goal was in the air and when Mbappe started to run practically from his own part of the field till the Argentina's area leading a solo counter-attack you understood you could only stop him with a foul. Indeed Rojo just couldn't do anything else maybe. Clear Penalty scored by Griezmann at 13'. Argentina never seemed out of the game anyway despite the huge lack of defence. The equaliser arrived totally out of the blue again with a solo effort. Di Maria get the ball from 30 yeards turn around and shot a precise rocket behind Lloris! 1-1 at 41' and that was also the half time result! Great match so far! The second half started in the opposite way of the first and even Argentina found the lucky 2-1 ! At 48' Messi shot on goal but on his way there was Gabriel Mercado who fortunately touched the ball surprising himself and the keeper Lloris who couldn't do anything. At 57' superb and probably lucky strike by Pavard put the result on balance again! 2-2! That goal gave so much strength to France which scored two goals with Mbappe at 64' and 68' showing once again the huge lack in the defensive Argentina's zone. Only a perfect cross by Messi for Aguero's head at 90'+2' closing the match on the 4-3! WE must be honest. Argentina deserved to get out especially for the Sampaoli's choices. The Iranian referee Alireza Faghani did a good job. There was no VAR intervention too.
The other match was Uruguay-Portugal . All matches are probably going to be exciting from now on! Anyway INDEED! It only took 7 minutes to Uruguay to get the lead! Fantastic cross by Suarez and fabulous Cavani's header ! Rui Patricio had no chance there! 1-0 (7'). The match is intense but honestly not too many chances. Rui Patricio and Muslera just had to be ready for rather standard situations like crosses and corner kicks. WE must say that Suarez was faking injuries a lot and WE believe that VAR should be used even for this kind of situation. He was such a simulator for the whole first half which ended on the 1-0 for Uruguay. The second half started very similar of the first but this time it was Portugal to find a goal and so the equaliser! Cross from the left side and perfect header by Pepe! 1-1 at 54'! At 62' there was another pass by Suarez to Cavani. The striker scored another incredible goal. Really high class shot for the 2-1! Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't good enough to turn things around as always. Muslera almost was giving away a goal but after his worst coming out ever Bernardo Silva shot far over the bar (69'). Uruguay made it to the Quarter Finals against France!
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are out of the World Cup already. Well done to Tabarez who created a very solid team.
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