Croatia is willing to do better than Davor Suker and his teamates in 1998. I would not be surprised they will be world champion.
They lost to Uruguay in the group stages. 3-0. Respect to them nevertheless. It was an even game and Modric's lucky penalty was the difference between the sides.
Of cause not...and it's always difficult against the hosts. However they have digressed from what they showed in the group stages. They still have more talent than England, but England have been the set piece maestro's so far... so it will be an interesting game.
A very heroic effort by Russia - when everyone thought they were dead, they equalize to make it 2-2 and to send it to PKs. Croatians are rightfully ecstatic - 20 years since the last semifinal appearance, and then they fell to the eventual champions. England and Croatia will be one for the ages.
Belgium played like a bunker team against Brazil and I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same thing against France. In Euro 2016, France played like a bunker team against Germany. This goes for any team that is inferior to their opponent, no matter their quality. Russia scored a splendid goal to open their account in this match. They won 5-0 on the opening day, getting the tournament off to a fantastic start. They're good side technically and everyone does their part for the team. Against Spain they couldn't be expected to play anything beyond a drab, defensive performance. And frankly, Spain were very poor and didn't deserve a win against Russia. You can't take anything away from them. They outperformed their expectations and made their country proud. Kudos to them.
True for sure. They look lathargic at times. Modric has been their best. In ET he still looked like he had fresh legs out there.
I was wondering, what if the penalty kick come down tie, like 4-4, 5-5. Then what the next step to solve this, it is "fair play" where who have the LEAST yellow cards will go through?
Croatia played two extra times with penalties. England will have the fresher legs. France saved the most energy of all remaing teams. Belguim needed big effort to beat Japan and Brazil. I wish for France - Croatia final but France - England is my guess.
Great effort from Stanislav Cherchesov and the whole Russian team No one gave them much hope before the tournament
Modric has been fantastic. When I watch Madrid he looks good...but more a well oiled cog in a machine. In this world cup he's all over the place and seems to be the stand out player in every Croatia game.
Got to say Russia their fans and their national team have done themselves and the World Cup a great service for this tournament
This WorldCup has definitely taken years off my life. Back to drinking and celebrating WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They go to sudden death penalties - each team gets one and if the first team scores and the second misses(or via versa) that team wins, if both teams score - one more penalty for each. Note that here - you cannot have someone that's already taken a penalty be it during the initial 5 or after that - take one, therefore it can get to the goalies to take penalties. In case the teams take 11 penalties each with no winner - then we get to the beginning, but again with a single penalty for each team. If there's a send off from one of the teams - then the rotation is shortened to 10 if there's one red card, 9 if two...with the team that has more players - writing off one or two of them from the list of takers. Actually...better watch this:
Uruguay 3. Russia 0 And their game against Spain was pretty much a cowardly disgrace. Sorry but coming out admitting you aren’t even going to try to play is pretty dire. Great for Russia to make the quarters, but they sure weren’t proud about doing it
Thank you Sir Hayaka. And thank you alot Sir Nuzzo for your detail explaination to me. I actually like Russia team (don't like the coach), I went into this WC with no expectation from them at all, and they fight and get this far. I'm shock that they (Russia) make it this far, especially they such an underdog, aren't they rank like low on the FIFA ranking? I did root for Croatia, as I feel that Croatia is a better team go against England. Good luck to Croatia in the next match.
My all time fave was a PK shootout was from the MLS playoffs a couple years back. Went the full eleven rounds, completely with matching saves, a PK that hit both posts before coming out (I beleive) and to top it off the decider was the two goal keepers shooting on each other. Portland’s keeper made the save and they went through. Awesome stuff. The only PK shootout I’ve ever liked