Croatia made heavy weather of beating Denmark in their worst performance of the tournament, but will seek to rediscover their fluency in a weekend showdown against Russia for a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
France coach Didier Deschamps was relieved to come through his side's 2-0 quarter-final win over Uruguay without losing any of his players to an unnecessary suspension, he said after Friday's match in Nizhny Novgorod.
Tunisia will start third-choice goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi and have striker Fakhreddine Ben Youssef act as his back-up in their final World Cup game against Panama on Thursday after FIFA rejected their request to add a replacement keeper to the squad.
Not even a lively performance from Lionel Messi - at least in the first half in St Petersburg - as they edged out Nigeria 2-1 to finish second in Group D will give their large travelling band of supporters in Russia much in the way of confidence.
Argentina may have been knocked out of the World Cup in Russia, but plenty of their frustrated fans remain, holding tickets to finals they expected their team to feature in - while hoping desperately that bitter rivals Brazil get eliminated.
Uruguay forward Edinson Cavani scored twice to earn the South Americans a 2-1 win over European champions Portugal in their World Cup round of 16 clash on Saturday and set up a quarter-final against France.
Panama and Tunisia have been the fall-guys in the two top-scoring matches of World Cup 2018, but both teams will hope to show they have learnt some lessons from their efforts in Russia before they head home after their Group G match on Thursday.
Only a small contingent of diehard English fans have made the journey to see the start of their team's World Cup campaign in Russia, with many others put off by fears of violence and a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow.
Croatia were in dreamland on Thursday after advancing to the knockout phase of the World Cup for the first time in 20 years with a 3-0 rout of Argentina that left a subdued Lionel Messi and his team mates facing yet another flop.
With Argentina looking dysfunctional and under-performing throughout the qualifiers, Messi's dream of matching Maradona in Russia always looked a tall order.
A diving header from Mario Mandzukic took a deflection off the Nigerian midfielder and crept into the goal for a deserved lead as Croatia dominated the count of chances created in the first 45 minutes.
Zoo director Vladimir Gerasimov believes Cleopatra might have a little better understanding of soccer than other animals.
Uruguay, with 3.3 million people, are into a quarter-final with Argentina's conquerors France after four straight wins including a stunning 2-1 knockout victory over Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.
While Africa, Asia and North America will not be represented, dashing any hope of a revolutionary breakthrough in the eventual destination of the trophy, at least one of this year's finalists will not have reached the title decider for half a century, if at all.
FIFA slapped the Mexicans with a CHF 10,000 fine for what it called "discriminatory and insulting chants" during their surprise 1-0 win over Germany on Sunday.
Germany scored five times in 27 minutes in the first half to crush Estonia 8-0 and make it three wins in three Euro 2020 Group C qualifiers.
Keisuke Honda announced his retirement from international football following Japan's elimination from the World Cup at the hands of Belgium on Monday night.
England's World Cup 2018 team, and remarkable similarities emerge between the XI expected to start the semi-final against Croatia
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances