Day 14
Group E – Serbia vs Brazil
Date – June 27, 2018
Venue – Spartak Stadium
Goal scorers – (Brazil) – Paulinho 36’ Thiago Silva 68’
Group E – Switzerland vs Costa Rica
Date – June 27, 2018
Venue – Nizhny Novgorod
Goal Scorers – (Switzerland) Blerim Dzemaili 31’, Josip Drmic 88’, Yann Sommer 90+3’(own goal)
Group E
Brazil and Switzerland advance from Group E
In a ‘2-2’ draw against Switzerland, Costa Rica became the last teams to score a goal in the 2018 World Cup
It was a tough task, but Serbia needed a victory against Brazil to have had any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. Serbia’s defeat to Brazil guaranteed Switzerland’s place in the Round of 16. Serbia had their chances, but it was nothing to demand the best of Brazil.
Group F – Mexico vs Sweden
Date – June 27, 2018
Venue – Ekaterinburg Arena
Goal scorers – (Sweden) Ludwig Augustinsson 50’, Andreas Granqvist 62’(pen)
Group F – South Korea vs Germany
Date – June 27, 2018
Venue – Kazan Arena
Goal scorers – (South Korea) Young-Gwon Kim 90+4, Heung-Min Son 90+7’
Group F
The trend of European title winners failing to escape from the Group stage continues after Germany crashed out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The last time Germany failed to advance from the group stage in a World Cup was in 1938.
Sweden came to win.
Sweden knew they would advance from Group F is South Korea could deny Germany a victory but just like most football fans, that was an unsafe bet. Sweden couldn’t afford to trust South Korea to help them secure a place in the Round of 16.
Sweden did their part to win Group F by beating Mexico. A ‘3-0’ victory against Mexico had the Mexicans on the brink of a World Cup group stage exit. A German victory against South Korea would have ended Mexico’s dreams of a World Cup title.
And here comes the shocker…South Korea scored two in additional time to knock out Germany.
Despite losing 2 matches, South Korea started the match with a slim chance of advancing from the group. That chance was eliminated when Sweden came back from the halftime break to score 3 goals against Mexico.
South Korea held on to a goalless draw against the holders for the entirety of the regulation time.
It was a match that a German goal would have killed any hope of South Korea coming out of the tournament with a point.
The winning goal for South Korea was VAR approved and came as a result of a late corner kick in additional time. The second South Korean goal was a result of the German desperation to find two late goals in the final minutes.
