What are your Round of 16 Predictions? I say: Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Spain, Croatia, Sweden, and England
I doubt many people expected Russia to beat Spain. I mean I thought it would be closer than many people said, but never expected Russia to actually win it. Now Croatia vs Russia will be an interesting tie.
The teams that are still in contention and have not been eliminated are: Brazil/Mexico, Belgium/Japan, Colombia/England, Sweden/Switzerland along with France, Uruguay, Russia and Croatia who have already advanced to the quarterfinals. If Brazil are upset by Mexico, the aforementioned list will have only one team that has made the final of the World Cup since 1970, namely France. With Germany eliminated at the group stage for the first time in living memory, Spain and Argentina exiting at the R16, and Italy and Holland not even qualifying to the tournament, the stage is clearly set for new teams to make the final and even win the tournament. Only Brazil and France stand in the way and after tonight, it is not certain Brazil will still be around. Whether statistically upsets have occurred more often than before is another question, but I think what I mentioned makes this World Cup stand out and appear unpredictable as it is. Guess we will have to wait and see if this unpredictability gives us brand new World Cup finalists or not?
Yeah so right, Russia played with great emotion and when you add to crowd effort they seem like they can beat anyone in this world cup, on the other side Croatia which ware very close to go home unexpectedly after Kasper's great night, should be more confident now and I expect them to use their great chance for reaching the 1/2 and why not the final
My money is on Croatia. I mean after all, the only game that Spain really looked world class in this tournament was against Portugal, and even that game only for parts of it, not the whole game. Their win vs Iran was not convincing. They almost lost to Morocco. Croatia on the other hand has been very convincing with the exception of Denmark yesterday. Also Croatia is a team that often shoots from range, something that Spain refused to try the whole game vs Russia. Spain & Croatia do not play the same way, and I expect the Croatians to trouble Russia a lot more. Spain is a complete possession-based tiki taka side. Croatia is more crossing/very direct on goal. Also a team that shoots from range quite a bit. It will be very tough, but I expect Croatia to take a narrow win: 1-0, or maybe 2-1. 2-0 at the most. Not to mention Denmark's goal against Croatia was a terrible mistake by Subasic which happens like 1/100 times. I doubt the Croatians will make the same mistake second game in a row. That was a fluke goal.
Going to enjoy this semi between Croatia and my boys, I very liked Croatians(because of Mario) and now going to boo them because IT IS COMING HOME (or hope so)
well it was an unpredictable match, haven't yous seen germany vs south korea match? or argentina vs france? there were alot of thrilling moments.