Switzerland wins, moves to last 16
DOHA, QATAR >> Switzerland advanced to the last 16 of the World Cup for the third tournament in a row after a 3-2 win over Serbia on Friday.
Remo Freuler scored the winning goal just after halftime as the Swiss secured second place in Group G. They will next face Portugal on Tuesday at Lusail Stadium.
Xherdan Shaqiri put Switzerland ahead early in the first half before Aleksandar Mitrovic and Dusan Vlahovic responded for Serbia. Breel Embolo evened the score just before halftime.
Switzerland needed a win to guarantee itself a place in the knockout round after beating Cameroon and losing to Brazil in its opening two games. The team reached the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and again four years later in Russia. They lost 1-0 in both matches, to Argentina and Sweden, respectively.
Against Portugal, the Swiss will be looking to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since hosting the competition in 1954. CAMEROON 1, BRAZIL 0 >> Vincent Aboubakar scored with a header two minutes into stoppage time in Cameroon’s win over Brazil, a result that still allowed the
five-time champions to win the group and eliminated the Africans.
Aboubakar was then sent off with a second yellow card for taking off his shirt during his celebration.
Brazil, which had already reached the knockout stage after victories over Serbia and Switzerland, will face South Korea in the round of 16.
Brazil finished with six points, the same as Switzerland but the South Americans had a better goal difference. The Swiss also advanced and will face Portugal. Cameroon ended with four points and Serbia one.
Coach Tite rested nearly all of his regular starters and made 10 changes from the win against Switzerland
on Monday.
Brazil was still without the injured Neymar, but the star forward was at Lusail Stadium to watch the match with his teammates. SOUTH KOREA 2, PORTUGAL 1 >> South Korea advanced to the round of 16 on the tiebreaker of goals scored after beating Portugal following a stoppage-time strike from Hwang Hee-chan.
South Korea was heading out of the tournament until Son Heung-min led a length-of-the-field breakaway in the first minute of added time and slipped a pass through to Hwang, who converted a low finish.
Son and his teammates then formed a huddle in the middle of the field after the final whistle and watched coverage of the end of the other Group H match between Uruguay and Ghana on a cell phone. South Korea’s team’s fans were in tears, and some were praying.
When that game finished 2-0 to Uruguay and South Korea was sure of its second-place finish, the players erupted in joy.
South Korea finished even with Uruguay with four points and both had a goal difference of zero, but the Asian team scored four goals compared to Uruguay’s two.
Portugal had already advanced after two games and won the group. URUGUAY 2, GHANA 0 >> Uruguay and Luis Suarez were eliminated despite a win over Ghana.
The result also put Ghana out of the competition.
Suarez played a key role in both first-half goals for Uruguay scored by Giorgian De Arrascaeta.
Uruguay was in a position to go through until South Korea’s late goal gave it a 2-1 win over Portugal in the other Group H game. That meant Uruguay needed to score one more goal in the dying minutes of its game to qualify.
It didn’t and Suarez was distraught on the sidelines and covered his face with his shirt having been substituted in what was likely his last World Cup appearance.