By Yemi Babalola, Lagos
The Russia 2018 World Cup has no doubt been one of so many surprises. The biggest football competitive stage in the world. The competition, which featured 32-national teams, who after the group stages were cut down to 16-teams and now we are looking forward to the quarterfinals of this surprise-filled world cup in Russia.
Come Friday 6 July 2018 there would be two fixtures to behold by 3pm Nigerian time Uruguay would take on France. While by 7pm former champions Brazil would take on the young and quality filled Belgian side whom a lot of football pundits have been hoping would stand up to be counted at the elite stage of football would slug it out on the pitch of play.
The French side we know are young, energetic and full of skillful players, though they would be without the services of Blaise Matuidi who brings in a certain leadership quality to the French team but would be hoping Paul Pogba would man-up and lead his side to excellence.
The Uruguay side, who might be without the services of Edison Cavani, would be hoping that their solid defense led by Diego Godin would once again fend off the youthful attack of the French side. Luis Suarez (2-goals) whom we have seen flashes of what he can do would also fill the void in need be in the attack line. No doubt, these fixtures would be interesting.
Brazil is quite strong with the return of Neymar, Phillipe Coutinho who has stepped up for the team in the competition and fans would be hoping Marcelo starts since Casemiro would not be playing due to disciplinary reasons.
For Belgium, football fans want to see them finally come up and a way to make a big statement would be by defeating Brazil in the quarterfinals they are not short of stars, they have quality players in Eden Hazard, Romelo Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and super-sub Marounne Fellaini to mention a few. Defeating Brazil would no doubt place them as strong favourites to win the World Cup in Russia.
URUGUAY V FRANCE (FRIDAY 3:00PM)
BRAZIL V BELGIUM (FRIDAY 7:00PM)
While on Saturday 7 July 2018, the stage would be set for two other teams to join up with which teams’ progress in the first two quarterfinal fixtures from Friday. No doubt, the Saturday game would be largely influenced by the outcome of the previous day’s fixtures.
Sweden has enjoyed a good run so far in the competition without Zlatan Ibrahimović, which is quite commendable to the team and football fans and pundits would love to see how good they could hold their own against the very youthful and quality England side.
England coming from the heels of the penalty decided fixture against Colombia would be hoping mother luck has not left their side and would be hoping their energy would pay off when they take on the compact Swedish side later tomorrow. Harry Kane who is the current highest goal scorer of the competition (6-goals) and also the captain of the team would be looked on to lead the English side to victory come Saturday, Jamie Vardy is already ruled out of the fixture.
While the host nation Russia who have had fairytale run so far in the competition would be hoping they can continue their run, knowing that they were the first ever lowest ranked team to host this competition but have performed beyond expectation. Igor Akinfeev has to continue his leading the team with his inspiring performance at the goal post once again.
Croatia who has so far not lost any match in the competition would be hoping to stop their fellow eastern European neighbors and host nation from going to the semi-finals. They have, at every stage responded to their opposition well on the pitch. The savviness of Luka Modric (2-goals), Mario Mandzukic, Ivan Rakitic and their goalkeeper Danijel Subasic would be a confidence booster for them going into this cracker fixture.
SWEDEN V ENGLAND (SATURDAY 3:00PM)
RUSSIA V CROATIA (SATURDAY 7:00PM)
