World in Russia | Unlikely Finalists in an Unpredictable World Cup

We are all set for the final showdown in this edition of the FIFA World Cup. And it's France against first time challengers Croatia. Who would have predicted Croatia in the final but again that's the beauty of the game.

This world cup also highlights the supremacy of European football in all aspects. In the quarterfinals we had 6 European teams against 2 from South America. Both the South American teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals and we were left with an all European semifinal. Last time that happened was in 2006 when too France was the finalist.

The quarterfinal stages had 4 previous winners and 4 aspirants competing for the cup. And appropriately we have 1 previous winner and 1 aspirant making it to the finals. Last time an aspirant reached the final was Spain in 2010; which they won.

If Croatia wins the world cup it will be a record of sorts; it would probably the smallest country since Uruguay in 1950 to achieve that feat. And surely the youngest one having been born just in 1991 as a nation.

So as we edge towards the finish line lets take quick re-look of the matches in the quarter and semi final stages as I had done so for the group stages and round of 16 in my earlier posts.

Uruguay vs France: This was expected to be a keenly contested game because both the teams were performing equally good in all quarters; in fact Uruguay played a more vibrant football and looked to be in swing. But the absence of Cavani hurt them. Suarez had been lingering under the shadow of Cavani all through the tournament. France on the other side made up their absence of skill with speed. Uruguayan defenders were finding it hard to catch up to the speed of Mbappe, Pogba, Kante and Griezman.

The first goal was a set piece but the second goal was an absolute blunder from the goalkeeper Muslera. It came a straight shot in the hands of the goalkeeper and he could have played it safe by simply blocking the ball. The shot was powerfully struck by Griezman. Instead the goalkeeper tried to direct the ball in flight without gripping it. That was a miscalculated maneuver which failed and definitively crashed all hopes for Uruguay.




Brazil vs Belgium - Both Brazil and Belgium had one of their best teams in a long time playing in this world cup. And it was mostly thought whoever would win this game will win win the world cup too.
But on this day Brazil had a bad outing. They were first let down by an own goal from Fernandinho; his header was so precise that for a moment it was lost that he headed into his own net. And then came a brilliant run from Lukaku in the counter attack followed by a powerful strike form De Bruyne.
Brazil had their chances of redemption too but they kept on missing. It was a well contested game but the Belgians defended resolutely having taken an early 2 goal lead in the first half. Though Brazil did strike but it was too late and they never found an equalizer.
Neymar seemed quite off color in this match. He was effectively neutralized by the Belgian defense. The unnatural play acting to which Neymar had resorted to in the earlier matches was also missing. It seemed the troll and meme machinery had its effect on Neymar. The referee also seemed to got a sniff of all that and he was quite careful in calling a foul. That's the problem when you over do your art.

It was the first time that Brazil is beaten by Belgium in world cup.

Sweden vs England - I must say that this was the most boring game of the quarterfinal stage. It seemed Sweden was a lost team. The Sweden which thrashed Mexico was nowhere to be seen. For England it was the same old story of long ball and set pieces. Both the teams showed a lack of intensity to win. Thankfully England won in the stipulated time. And reached the World Cup semifinal for the first time since 1990 to meet Croatia, a country which didn't exist then.

Russia vs Croatia - This was the most closely contested and longest game of the quarterfinal stage. On paper Croatia was the stronger side but Russia had the home advantage. As like their earlier match against Denmark, Croatia started from behind and it was a sinusoidal ride ahead.
First Russia scored and Croatia equalized quickly. Then in the extra time Croatia went ahead but in the last minutes of extra time Russia found an equalizer. It almost seemed Russia found the equalizer riding the chants, shouts and prayers of the thousands of spectators who were present in the stands.
This was the second successive penalty shootout for both the teams and both their goalkeepers had performed brilliantly in the previous match. However this time Croatia came on top with Subasic doing some good work under the bar.

Thus ended the quarterfinals. When compared to the quarterfinals the semifinals were less eventful. Because of some twisted luck many of the big teams had faced each other early in the quarterfinal or in the Round of 16.

Before the semifinals below some good statistics were published by The Telegraph. 

France vs Belgium - In this match, hyped as the contest between Asterix and Tintin, Tintin was expected to prevail. Bengali cartoonist Mahfuz Ali aptly captured the mood of the contest in his drawings.
But Belgium strangely failed. It's not that France played a more dominating football but they somehow managed to score one goal early. And then hung on to that one goal lead for the hour or so. France wasted time and defended resolutely. Belgium too had a lackluster day. Apart for some initial spark shown by Hazard there was not much they Belgians did.

On this day more than the World Cup semifinal, it was Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer to Juventus which was trending.

The below one captured the mood after the match.

Croatia vs England - When England came to this world cup their press and media had little expectations. This was a relatively young team which performed well beyond expectation and reached the semifinals.
But once they reached the semifinal, chants of 'bring the cup back home' started. Their pundits and media went overboard and wrote off Croatia. Could be all that high expectation burdened the team.

Croatia on the other hand was a hard working team and had reached the semifinal after having played two knock-out games till the extra time. In this tournament the members of this team have displayed amazing commitment. Players like Modric, Mandzukic, Perisic, Rakitic, Vida could be seen all through the field; it was almost like they are playing total football. Modric has run more than 39 miles in this world cup so far; the longest by any player.
As in the previous games, in this as well Croatia initially bell behind but came back strongly with an equalizer in the second half. And then a winner in the extra time.

With this semifinal Croatia has played 90 minutes of additional football in the world cup i.e. they have almost played an extra game. And they are still bursting with energy.

Along side are Mahfuz Ali's cartoons capturing the mood of this semifinal.

This has been one of a kind unpredictable tournament. Whenever something was expected to happen, surprises and upsets came up.  Who would have thought that Croatia would be in the finals with France. Who would have expected that none among Argentina, Brazil, Spain or Germany would be present in the semi-finals. Quite unthinkable before the start of the tournament.

The final is on Sunday and with that curtains will be down on this world cup. But before that a great contest awaits us. To be seen if we get a first time winner. Or France manages to be the second double winner  along with Argentina and Uruguay.

P.S.: The pictures used in this post are sourced from internet. The statistics is sourced from The Telegraph: Source1, Source 2. The cartoons are sourced from the Facebook page of Mahfuz Ali.