ROUND OF 16: Sweden 1-0 Switzerland

The Armchair is no fan of either of these teams and is wondering what the hell they are doing still in the competition. They reek of average. A good team spirit, maybe, but without the Zlat, Sweden has nothing to recommend them. Shaqiri has his moments, but whether he had any here, who knows. Certainly not the Armchair who didn’t watch this, but did see the goal that settled it. An own goal. Nuff said.

ROUND OF 16: Belgium 3-2 Japan

What a comeback by the team The Armchair has his money on, most of which he found down the back of his close friend Sofa. They looked on their way out, before Martinez shuffled his back, and what a transformation, from two down to three-two winners and a place in the quarters. Belgium showed a resilience that’s been missing from their last couple of tournaments. But a word for Japan who performed magnificently throughout. I guess that extra bit of quality showed. And The Armchair believes that Belgium has more quality than any other team in the competition, including the one they face next. Brazil. 

ROUND OF 16: Brazil 2-0 Mexico

The Armchair was not in front of his television for this one, or even to the side of it. But he thought it might go to extra time. It didn’t. Although Neymar’s goal has been overshadowed by his faking of pain after being trod upon on the sideline. It probably hurt an ickle but but not as much as he was making out. No wonder footballers have such a bad rep for being fakers, tarts. What about all the people in the world who suffer genuine pain all day. How does seeing some multimillionaire over-mothered footballer writhing around make them feel?

ROUND OF 16: Croatia 1-1 Denmark (Croatia win on pens)

Two goals in the first five minutes is sometimes a starter course for multiple goal thrillers. Not so here. This one went all the way, although Modric could have abridged proceedings had he converted a late penalty. He made amends by scoring in the shoot out, eliminating a Denmark team who were, quite frankly, punching way about their weight. Schmeichel was great in goals, his dad entertaining in the crowd with his reactions. But Croatia could be the real deal in this tournament. 

ROUND OF 16: Spain 1-1 Russia (Russia win on pens)

If there’s one thing The Armchair has learned in all his years of tournament blogging, it’s always  expect the hosts to do a little better than their ranking would dictate. And Russia came into their tournament as the lowest ranked team of all the competing nations. Now, having beaten many people’s favourites, Spain, they won’t end the tournament in such a lowly position. Spain were disappointing here, their goal an own goal and their play too lateral to break down a Russian side given such an impetus by the vociferous home crowd. They bought a ticket for the lottery of penalties and hit the jackpot. 

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…

ROUND OF 16: France 4-3 Argentina

The day Messi took a back seat and Mbappe came of age. A seven goal thriller, which Argentina took close to extra time. But the French ran out deserved winners, their second from Pavard, a right back, a veritable stunner and strong candidate for goal of the tournament. It’s taken a while for France to get into gear, and Argentina were never really firing here, but take nothing away, this French side looks like it’s got the ingredients to win it. 

THE ROUND OF 16 PREDICTIONS

And so the field is cut in half. Those that flunked the group stage fly home. Those that excelled stay and do battle in the knock out phase.

Here's how The Armchair predicted things would look at the World Cup 2018 Round of 16 stage

before the start of the tournament :

And here's the actual line up of  Round of 16 ties: with predictions

The Armchair predicted 2 TIES DEAD ON (Fra v Arg, Bra v Mex.) And 11 of the 16 teams to get this far.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: GERMANY

BIGGEST SURPRISE: Denmark / Sweden / Japan

The Armchair's two finalists are still IN and can still both play each other in the final: BELGIUM v SPAIN.

World Cup 2018 Group G Final Games: Belgium 1-0 England; Panama 1-2 Tunisia

A couple of stats here. Panama’s goal means all teams in World Cup 2018 scored at least twice. And Belgium beat England for the first time. The Armchair predicted Belgium to win this group, and so they did. But the game against England was no classic. With both sides already qualified they chose to rest players and the quality suffered but Belgium showed they have greater strength in depth. England won’t even mind losing as, on paper, it makes their route to the final seem easier. In the other game, Panama took a surprise lead, but Tunisia eventually turned things round to deliver the expected result.

THEY FINISHED 17TH: SENEGAL

The last African team standing fell at the final hurdle in disappointment circumstances. Anything bar defeat against Colombia would have seen them through but they lost and will be disappointed that they didn’t go for it earlier. They entertained in their previous two, but maybe the pressure told in the last.

World Cup 2018 Group H Final Games: Japan 0-1 Poland; Senegal 0-1 Colombia

So so close. To lose out on the number of yellow cards will leave Senegal fuming, The Armchair shares their anger. Wanting to throw a cushion at the television The Armchair thought Senegal would be the only African team to make it out of the group stage, but they failed in the last game, narrowly. Losing that game 1-0, but losing out to Japan on the aforementioned tiebreaker. Colombia walk off with first place in the group and Poland salvaged some pride with a win in the final game, after two disappointing defeats.

THEY FINISHED 18TH: SERBIA

Not much to remember them by. Just OK, you know. Nothing outstanding. 3 points from 3 games. This is the epitome of average. A win against the team that finished bottom in the group, defeats to the other two. Nothing spectacular, and they are going home.

World Cup 2018 Group E FINAL GAMES: Serbia 0-2 Brazil; Switzerland 2-2 Costa Rica

The expected sometimes happens, And Brazil are always expected to get to the knockouts, but then so are Germany and we all saw what happened to them. No such disasters for Brazil, with Serbia dispatched and the group won. Serbia’s defeat left the way open for the Swiss to claim their spot which they duly did.