Quietly, Uruguay have managed their business
Only 16 of the 64 games remain in the World Cup and after some serious edge-of-the-seat stuff in the group stages, games resume on Saturday with some of them likely t\o be decided by penalties.
That 10 of the 16 pre-quarter finalists are from Europe doesn’t surprise me. What does is that there is none from Africa. Senegal and Nigeria not being there is proof of how narrow the gap was between those who are in and those who are not.
Japan’s place could easily have gone to Senegal but the positive thing for Asia was that four of its five teams won a game. But for a moment of magic from Andres Iniesta, Iran too could have been among the elite and wouldn’t have looked out of place at all.
Barring Germany, all the top dogs are in the mix. But as I have said earlier, I am sceptical of Argentina. Argentina showed great commitment against Nigeria but I am not sure whether that will be enough against France. Especially with Lionel Messi expected to be shackled by players more adept at defensive duties than Nigeria. France haven’t really fired but they pack enough ammunition to put Argentina out of their misery.
In all the talk about Germany’s ouster and Argentina’s struggles, Uruguay have gone about their business quietly. With three clean sheets in an all-win record, they will line up against Portugal confident that a quarter-final berth isn’t out of reach. Man for man they are better than Portugal and though football games are not decided on that, that does have its advantages.
Brazil, Spain and Belgium should not have it too difficult to qualify for the quarter-finals and, dare I say, England would have a slight advantage against Colombia if James Rodriguez is unavailable.
Given how Croatia dismantled Argentina, they would be favourites to beat Denmark. And though Sweden had a great win against Mexico, my team for that tie would be Switzerland. So, at the risk of getting it all wrong, my quarter-finalists would be: France, Uruguay, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia and England. About the last team though I am the least sure.