It’s Quarter-Final Time!

Russian Federation midfielder Alan Dzagoev says he is fit to play against Croatia in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday after recovering from injury. Well if anyone thought that this tournament had a clear-cut victor think again. “But now I’m training in the main group and I’m ready for the match”.

“It’s normal for defenders to be a bit tougher against him but for me he’s going to be the best player in the world in the future”.

The variables are plenty.

If it can beat Sweden on Saturday in a quarterfinal, this eccentric World Cup will bring it a first semifinal since 1990, which was so yawningly long ago that, at the time, the mayor of Turin, the late Maria Magnani Noya, expressed understandable concern about having English fans in her city.

For all the drama around England, the victor of the tournament is more likely to come from the top half of the draw, where the teams can boast a combined eight tournament wins. The match will be played at the Kazan Arena and the victor will face either France or Uruguay in the semi-finals in Saint Petersburg on July 10. Not one pundit believes Russian Federation will win the game, with eight going for Croatia and just Mauricio predicting a draw, and thus a penalty shootout.

France overran Argentina in a last-16 match that appeared to signal the passing of a torch to a new generation of superstars, as 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe scored twice to outshine Lionel Messi and dump the 2014 finalists out of the competition.

Brazil versus Belgium is shaping up to be the game of the quarterfinals considering the depth and quality of both squads.

At 2-0 down to Japan, Roberto Martinez’s side got a real wake up call, something the team spoke about afterwards.

The Japanese took their feet off the gas and allowed Belgium right back into the game. At a rate of 3.5 minutes on the ground per game, if Brazil reaches the final and Neymar keeps it up, he’ll have spent nearly 25 minutes on the ground for the whole tournament. Pele was absent after suffering from some heavy-handed Portugal defending in a 1-0 defeat three days earlier, and the Selecao were heavily criticised back home after a defeat that also saw the Belgium side comparted to Hungary’s Mighty Magyars. We’ll take a flier on an underdog that keeps on cashing with Sweden defeating England in an upset!

The round of 16 is over, and that means there are just eight games left in the 2018 World Cup.

But the attractive game has also been a con game at times, with stars like Brazil’s Neymar frustrating with their theatrics as well as dazzling with their individual skills. They’re just doing enough, but I think there’s more to come from them. If you look at the teams they’ve beaten, they’re not ripping it up.

“We need players like Neymar”, said the former West Germany captain, who won the inaugural Federation Internationale de Football Association world player award in 1991.

Sweden will set-up to play for penalties – England will have to be very patient, and not get caught on the counter-attack with a sucker punch. Or will it come to an end? Even a semi-final for us would be a big achievement.

Behind Mbappe, France boasts an impressive group of players like Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and Olivier Giroud, all of whom can both score and create at an elite level.