It needed two late goals for Brazil to win against Costa Rica while Nigeria and Switzerland secured wins against Iceland & Serbia respectively to keep their hopes alive on making the round of 16 on day 9 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Croatia crush Argentina; France survive Peru
Argentina are almost knocked out, Australia came from a goal down…
Switzerland leave it late
A game where Serbia dominated most of the play saw them lose to Switzerland 2-1 in the dying moments of the game when Xherdan Shaqiri scored in the 90th at the Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad.
The Serbians pounced onto a golden opportunity in the fifth minute when Dusan Tadic curled the ball into the six-yard box for Aleksandar Mitrovic to head the ball into the top left corner.
Switzerland failed to respond as the Serbians sustained their attacking pressure. The Swiss were faulty with possession which allowed Serbia to keep the ball in their attacking half.
The best opportunity for Switzerland came when Steven Zuber’s dinked pass played Blerim Dzemaili in on goal whose shot was saved by the Serbian Goalkeeper, Vladimir Stojkovic.
Half Time – Serbia 1 – 0 Switzerland
Switzerland were off to a good start as they began to penetrate the Serbian defence courtesy of runs
from Steven Zuber and Xherdan Shaqiri. This allowed Granit Xhaka to score a stunner from 25 yards out into the far-right post to put the Swiss on level terms.
The Serbians missed a chance to take the lead, when an Aleksandar Kolarov low cross narrowly missed Mitrovic who had an open goal in front of him.
The pace of play increased rapidly as both teams went hammer and tongs at each other in search of a winner. Stojkovic made another valuable save as he denied Mario Gavranovic who took a strong shot from an undetected offside position.
The comeback was complete when Xherdan Shaqiri caught the Serbian defence off guard and made a brilliant sprint towards goal to slot it past Stojkovic for a tranquilizing solo goal which made Switzerland the first team in this year’s World Cup to win a game from a goal down.
Full Time – Serbia 1 – 2 Switzerland
Man of the Match – Xherdan Shaqiri
Goal Scorers
Serbia – Aleksandar Mitrovic 5’
Switzerland – Granit Xhaka 52’, Xherdan Shaqiri 90’Bookings
Yellow Cards
Serbia – Sergej Milinkovic-Savic 35’, Luka Milivojevic 39’, Nemanja Matic 45 + 3’, Aleksandar Mitrovic 86’
Switzerland – Xherdan Shaqiri 90’
Musa double revive Nigeria hopes
Where Argentina failed, Nigeria succeeded as they beat Iceland 2-0 to keep knockout stage hopes alive in the 2nd round of group D matches at the Volgograd Arena.
Iceland were the first to bring about an attack from a Gylfi Sigurdsson free kick but was denied by Francis Uzoho who parried it for a corner.
Nigeria on the other hand, while having 60% of the possession, did not manage to get a single shot on goal as they were constantly pushed back by the Icelandic defense which also frustrated the Argentineans previously.
Most of the game was played on the midfield third where the Icelanders were able to slow down the Nigerian pace and control the tempo of the game. The first half ended with Iceland getting a flurry of chances but were unlucky to not convert.
Half Time – Nigeria 0-0 Iceland
The tables most certainly turned in the 2nd half as Nigeria took control of the game and broke the deadlock with Ahmed Musa scoring in the 49th minute from what was only their second shot on goal.
A counter attack saw the ball going to Victor Moses on the right flank, who crossed it over to Musa and Musa made no hesitation in putting it with a thunderous shot past Hannes Halldorsson.
The tempo control of the Icelanders did not hold as Nigeria picked up their pace kept pushing up leading to the second goal of the day as Musa grabbed a brace. Musa sprinted past the defenders, dribbled around the keeper and calmly shot the ball into goal past waiting defenders.
Iceland received an opportunity for redemption as VAR came to their rescue to grant a penalty for a foul by Tyronne Ebuehi on Alfred Finnbogason. But Sigurdsson failed to convert as his shot saw the ball sailed past the bar taking away any hope left for the Icelanders.
Full Time – Nigeria 2-0 Iceland
Man of the Match – Ahmed Musa
Goal Scorers
Nigeria – Ahmed Musa 49’ & 75’Bookings
Yellow Cards
Nigeria – Brian Idowu 44’
Coutinho and Neymar rescues Brazil
Two injury times goals from Neymar and Coutinho gave Brazil a much needed 2-0 win against Costa Rica on a frustrating evening at Saint Petersburg Stadium, St. Petersburg.
Favourites of the encounter, Brazil started off the first half in a controlled manner as they managed to maintain most of the possession. However, the first real opportunity of the match came to Costa Rica but was sent wide of the goal by Celso Borges in the 12th minute.
Brazil kept calm and managed to get into an attacking style of play afterwards and created many chances while the best opportunity fell to Neymar when he came one on one with the Costa Rican goal keeper Keylor Navas but was unable to convert.
Costa Rica at the same time managed to threaten the Brazilian defence with a couple of counter attacks but was unable to finish off the move.
Half Time – Brazil 0 – 0 Costa Rica
Brazil came into the second half with a very dominative performance as they managed to constantly trouble the Costa Rican defence. Brazil managed to have several attempts on the goal while Coutinho’s shot deflected off the bar.
It was Navas who kept Costa Rica in the game throughout as he continuously saved several attempts on goal by the Brazilians while one of the best chances that fell to Neymar curved centimeters out of the post and a given penalty was ruled out by VAR.
However, the deadlock was broken by the Brazilians which was highly deserved for their prominent performance when Coutinho scored between from a Gabriel Jesus assist. Thereafter Neymar managed to seal the win in style in the 96th minute when he directed a wonderful cross by Douglas Costa into the Costa Rica goal.
Full Time – Brazil 2 – 0 Costa Rica
Man of the Match – Philippe Coutinho
Goal Scorers
Brazil – Philippe Coutinho 90+1′, Neymar Jr. 90+6′Bookings
Yellow Cards
Brazil – Neymar Jr 80′, Coutinho 80′
Costa Rica – Johnny Acosta
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