The group stage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia has been concluded, and what a couple of weeks it has been. It may have started slowly, but we have had some memorable moments as far as the group stage is concerned, and there is still a lot more to come.
The world champions Germany were dumped out at the first time of asking after shock defeats to Mexico and South Korea. Argentina, the runners-up from four years ago just about snuck through to the round of 16 thanks to a brilliant volley from Marcos Rojo, but it still looks like they’ve got a lot of work to do.
We saw Spain and Portugal battle it out in arguably the best game of the tournament so far (at the time of writing), with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a superb tournament to get himself up and running in Russia. Both eventually went through, but they both suffered scares against Morocco and Iran.
France and Brazil also secured progression to the round of 16, but despite having two of the strongest squads on paper at the tournament, you feel both are yet to hit top gear. If they do, they will be tough to stop.
Then to England. The hope of a nation has grown after an impressive group stage, and by finishing second in the group, they are in what appears to be the weaker half of the draw.
The debate about VAR rages on. We’ve seen it work well, such as to allow the goal that knocked out Germany, and we’ve seen it work badly, like when awarding Iran a last-minute penalty against Portugal for a dubious handball.
We have also seen some excellent individual performances, and for many this will be the only real chance they get to show their talent on the world stage, some may wish to take this chance to earn a move to a bigger club.