THEY FINISHED 8TH: URUGUAY

With a population half that of London's, it's incredible how many good footballers Uruguay produces per head. Unfortunately one of their best ones was forced to sit out this tie, and it proved crucial as they lacked any sort of offensive threat without him and were simply guided out of the tournament by a superior French team.

Never a team to score a goal fest, they base their success on solid defence and inspired attack. But Suarez hasn't had a brilliant World Cup. And Cavani looked like he was moving into gear before his injury scuppered his nation's hopes.

World Cup Quarter Final: France 2-0 Uruguay

Oh, Cavani, where were thee? Your nation needed ye, and there you were injured.

A shadow of the team they were without you, never looked likely to score, and now homeward bound, while France dance on into the final (you need to bring more fans to the next game, though).

The Armchair predicted that France would reach the World Cup Semis and so it has proved. They never looked under threat today, though the Uruguayan keeper will not sleep well tonight, playing over and over the mistake that helped ensure his nation's hopes slipped through his fingers.

Another former winner of the World Cup gone, leaving just France and two others, Brazil and England. And the Armchair predicts we will lose another in tonight's game...

ROUND OF 16: Uruguay 2-1 Portugal

It’s Cavani who’s grabbing the headlines for Uruguay this World Cup, his brace here steering his nation past the Euro 2016 champions and into the quarter finals, again. No magic from Ronaldo here, and on the day Messi exited the tournament, the other of those players who have had a duopoly on the world’s best player award for much of the last decade also exited. The Armchair didn’t fancy Uruguay much this World Cup, but that’s looking like a mistake…