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The World Cup is approaching its peak. Already headed to home are the defending champions Germany and 2010 Spain winner, not to mention Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The tournament has received praise for its last-minute dramas and the proximity of the games. This trend is expected to continue as the July 15 final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow approaches. Despite international political tensions, Russia is enjoying a sort of triumph in public relations as the host cities warmly welcome the hundreds of thousands of foreign fans who have invaded the streets in colorful celebrations.
What's left?
Eight teams and eight games. Four of the quarter finalists (Belgium, Croatia, Sweden and Russia) have never won the tournament, while the five world titles of Brazil are more numerous than the other former champions (Uruguay, France and England) combined. Uruguay and France are leading the action today in Nizhny Novgorod. Belgium, who is aiming for his second appearance in the semifinals of the World Cup, will then try to deny the Brazilians a 12th semi-final against Kazan. Saturday's matches pitted England, victorious in 1966, against Samaria, the 1958 finalist, Sweden, and Russia in Sochi.
2. What do the experts say?
There have been so many surprises at this World Cup that even the most respected points of view should be taken with a pinch of Siberian salt. If the follow-up is your mantra, the bookmakers are waiting for the following semi-finals: Brazil against France and England against Croatia. Oddschecker.com notes that the most popular bet is Sweden to beat England at odds of 4 to 1, which means that a successful bet of $ 1 would give a profit of $ 4. Second most popular is England to win the World Cup at 9-2. A few head-to-head points for the quarter-finals:
• France vs Uruguay – France have won only once in their previous eight games, with World Cup matches World 0-0 (2002 and 2010) and 2-1 Uruguay in 1966. Uruguay won its last match 1-0 in 2013.
• Brazil vs Belgium – Brazil has won its last four games, including a 2-0 victory en route to the 2002 title.
• England vs. Sweden – two historically well-matched teams, with eight wins in England, seven in Sweden and nine draws, including at the 2002 World Cups and 2006, according to Soccerbase.com.
• Russia vs Croatia – After a Croatia won its last 3-1 meeting in Russia in 2015.
3. Who will win the tournament?
The Brazil record, which won one of four World Cups, helps establish the list of South American bookmakers. He also got the most common defense with Uruguay – both having only allocated one goal to Russia 2018. On the other hand, Brazil won it. only once in Europe (in 1958, the first and only non-European winner on European soil). Neymar and his teammates will also have to negotiate a tough opposition – France or Uruguay – to reach the final. England, pulled by the tournament's top scorer, Harry Kane, is the favorite for the other half, followed by Croatia. While the host countries have won six of the 20 World Cups, Russia remains far from having exceeded expectations by going that far.
4. What was different at this World Cup?
Arbitrators make large rectangular shapes with their fingers, then replay controversial moments on a television screen. FIFA, the governing body of football, has introduced "video badistant referees", or VARs, to help judge goals, penalty decisions and more. Four examiners are watching the action from a play in Moscow, and they have been busy. The receipt of VAR has been largely (if not totally) positive, with most critics not coming from the current system but from flawed interpretations of referees or the failure of VAR deployment. The concern to slow down the games has been largely unfounded.
5. Another different thing?
The lack of 0-0s – just one up here, Denmark vs France. Thanks in large measure to VAR, Russia 2018 has been high on penalties awarded (already a record at 28) and low on the red cards (four) and offside. The 10 goals scored in this tournament broke the record of six in France in 1998. Senegal became the first team to be eliminated due to a worse "fair play" record: the African nation had a record identical to Japan, but lost because he had no more yellow cards. Iceland fans hit the stadiums during their first World Cup appearance, while Panamanian fans ferociously celebrated the first goal of their World Cup team by beating England 6-1. as if they had won the match. Another novelty: England finally won a penalty shootout in World Cup.
6. How are the banks and the psychic animals derived from them?
Some forecasters are learning the hard way that fair play can not be reduced to mere statistics and data modeling. Commerzbank AG and UBS Group AG both concluded that Germany was the most likely champion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is still racing: he has chosen Brazil to beat England in the final. EA Sports, the official video game company that correctly predicted the last two winners by simulating all the tournaments, chose France to secure the title. After the success of Paul the octopus in predicting results in 2010, pointing a tentacle at one of the two food boxes carrying the national flag of each team, Russia promoted a deaf cat called Achilles as an oracle of tournament. However, the psychic powers of the feline are limited to the games of St. Petersburg and Achilles wrongly predicted that Nigeria would defeat Argentina. Rabio, an octopus who correctly predicted the first three results of the World Cup in Japan, was killed and sold as seafood before the team's second round match: Japan lost 3-2 against Belgium after leading 2-0.
There will be no English officials out of the way after British Prime Minister Theresa May ruled out the presence of politicians and members of the British family, including Prince William, President of the Football Association in England following the British poisoning. the floor of a former Russian spy and his daughter. It looks more and more like a personal political goal in May, according to Thomas Penny of Bloomberg, especially if the English are advancing to face Russia in the semifinals. An absent player: Russian football hooligans, known as "ultras".
8. The 2010 vote of FIFA's executive committee awarding Russia this year's tournament is still under criminal investigation by French, Swiss and US prosecutors, with lingering accusations that the vote was rigged. The memories of the doping scandal that occurred after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and which resulted in the ban of the Russian Winter Games team from this year are still very present. (Vitaly Mutko, former sports minister banned from the Olympics, was part of the FIFA committee that selected Russia and led the organizing committee until his resignation in December.) Due to the 2013 law banning homobaduality soccer fans were warned not to hold hands or otherwise manifest their affection.
9. What about Russia?
Putin's government spent 683 billion rubles ($ 11 billion) for its preparations, largely on new stadiums and transport infrastructure. Beyond that, the economic impact will be "very limited" as most of the 12 stadiums are in areas – like Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains – that should not attract tourists, according to Moody's Investors Service. Putin has used the Sochi Olympics to reinforce his public image, but his approval ratings are so high that the World Cup should not affect his position at home. Although the success of a World Cup probably did not influence his critics abroad, many fans noticed that Russia was much more pleasant and welcoming than expected .
• Neymar or Kane? Choose the World Cup winner with Bloomberg
• A BBC guide for teams and key players
• How the British protest fizzled out
• The World Cup City.
• The Human Rights Watch Guide
• A QuickTake on World Cup Corruption
• Author-journalist Ken Bensinger asks: Has Russia stolen the World Cup World
– With the help of Stephanie Baker and Jake Rudnitsky
To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Clark in Singapore at [email protected], Tony Halpin in Moscow at [email protected] [19659031] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Leah Harrison Singer at [email protected], Laurence Arnold, Tony Halpin
© 2018 Bloomberg LP
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