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Two weeks, 48 games and 122 leading goals have brought us here: the knockout stages of the 2018 World Cup. The eighths of Final will start Saturday with France against Argentina and will be followed by seven more cracking matches.
Questions abound before games. How will France deal with Lionel Messi? Can Mexico get up and give itself the strength to beat Brazil? Is there any hope for Denmark against Croatia in form? Can Portugal surpass Uruguay on plays ?
Here, B / R breaks each tie, look at the key factors that might decide it, indicate where it will be won and lost … and Predict a score too!
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Despite the 3-0 win against Russia proving that Uruguay can grab the mantle and can impress us with good football, it seems likely that They will retreat into their more pragmatic shell for the knockout stages.
They will all be aware of the damage Cristiano Ronaldo can do – many of their players, including their pair of center backs, come into regular contact with him in La Liga. While facing Russia, they pushed Diego Godin to face the hosts' attacker one-on-one, so they could be more cautious here.
This may be the right way to do things; Excluding games where Portugal was allowed to focus solely on the counterattack (Spain), they have struggled tremendously to create opportunities.
Bernardo Silva was a huge disappointment, while Bruno Fernandes and Joao Mario did not show their best. Ricardo Quaresma may have scored an incredible goal but struggled to get the best of Iranian defender Ehsan Haji Safi in his only start.
It's a battle that, like many group matches before it, could be won plays. Uruguay has scored all its goals up to here of these situations; Portugal scored three out of five.
Prediction: Uruguay 1-0 Portugal
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France against Argentina is a battle of the underwhelmers. Given the talent present in both teams, everyone knows what he is capable of, but so far they have not shown it yet.
France has more or less crossed Group C in the lead with seven points. for their stodgy style. There were times in the games when they looked good, but they failed to maintain those times for more than 20 minutes, losing their pace soon after.
The fluid football that you expect from one side containing Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe have not materialized yet. In fact, it is remarkable that every time Nabil Fekir leaves the bench, they obviously improve; maybe he could be online to take the start against Argentina?
That said, there are some matches here that look good for Les Bleus. How torn back sides of Argentina have the intention to handle the speed and cheating of Mbappe, and if Javier Mascherano is able to follow Griezmann, it's another game.
The Argentine tournament was largely horrendous. in the third group match after the deployment of Ever Banega in the central midfield. His ability to choose passes and dictate the pace of the attack frees Lionel Messi from having to charge it, and the result is a nice relationship between the two for the first goal against Nigeria.
If France is smart, she will stick Golo Kante on Banega in a man-made role and watch Argentina's system collapse as a result. This would distract Messi from Hugo Lloris' goal and place the creative burden on players like Mascherano and Enzo Perez.
Prediction: France 2-0 Argentina
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Did Mexico reach a high early in this competition? This victory against Germany was unbelievable – no matter the poor quality of Die Mannschaft – and at the final whistle of their 3-0 defeat to Sweden in Game 3, the highs of that day went by since a long time.
We will have to recover and prepare to face a team that is on a more promising upward slope: Brazil. They gradually grew up in this tournament and start to look like the team we were waiting for: the purring midfielder, the dominant central defenders, the attackers improving.
Neymar accelerated through the gears against Serbia. began to show, and Paulinho's energy began to bear fruit. With Philippe Coutinho knitting everything together, it is a formidable prospect.
Perhaps the fact that El Tri could probably focus on the counter-attack will work in their favor. Their speed and openness, exploited mainly by Hirving Lozano, Carlos Vela and Hector Herrera, can tear teams apart at the break. Brazil should deploy Casemiro in the space ignored by Germany, which could make a big difference.
If that does not work, it's hard to see where the breakthrough comes from. The only defensive weakness of Brazil in this tournament so far is the fight against the centers in the box – Miranda often does overtime to eliminate them – and Mexico is a small team that probably will not benefit from that. [19459089]] Brazil 2-1 Mexico
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It is quite remarkable that Japan is at this stage. Not only were they de facto the weakest in Group H, but they changed hands last March, which plunged the preparations for the World Cup into chaos.
Luck played a part in their progression. This is not a bad team, but a third-minute red card to Carlos Sanchez played a big role in the win against Colombia, and they ended up sneaking up on the fair play rule, becoming the first team to do it.
They will now face a Belgian team that has won all three group matches and looks much stronger on paper. With stars such as Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku to return to the cool and rested side, this tie seems quite one-sided.
The Samurai Blue must therefore do everything in his power point in the formation of Roberto Martinez: Yannick Carrasco. It plays the left wing out of necessity, and Panama and Tunisia have targeted it successfully. Japan has better players than these two teams and can achieve something similar.
In central midfield, beware of the Japanese Gaku Shibasaki, who had a fantastic under-the-radar tournament. His ability to produce long and accurate passing passes could be the key to placing Japan behind Belgium
Prediction: Belgium 3-1 Japan
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The punishment of Russia for losing the last group match, and thus giving up the first place, is a match against Spain. This is not an impossible task – The Furia Roja has been far from perfect – but it is discouraging.
The moment when Spain stops shooting in the foot defensively is the moment when the chances of victory of the World Cup diminish. The penalty concessions, David de Gea stammers, communication problems, bad scoring in the turns … you name the act of transgression, Gerard Pique and Co. have probably committed it.
Offensively, they did quite well and impressed with their complex ball work and overloading the flanks with technical players. They use a lot of line breaks, Isco and Andres Iniesta, in particular, occupy excellent positions. There have been suggestions, there is no plan B, but plan A has gone well till now.
Expect that they are heading straight to the space between Yury Zhirkov on the left and Sergei Ignashevich on the left back to try it. So expect Isco to grow in the game more and more, with his battle against the excellent Mario Fernandes at the back right.
In the other direction, Aleksandr Golovin will have to be in great shape to weave through the lines on the counterattack and escape Sergio Busquets, while the role of Artem Dzyuba to relieve the pressure is crucial.
Finally, Denis Cheryshev-a man that all Spaniards should know as he is a player from Villarreal and formerly Real Madrid has been revealed to be the predator diving on the left flank and must be closely followed [19659009] prediction: Spain 2-1 Russia
