The World Cup Boot Battle: Day 9
Brazil were many people’s favourites for the tournament, but after an uninspiring draw with Switzerland in their first match, the pressure was very much on for them to beat Costa Rica.
The South Americans were unbeaten in five matches at the last World Cup, only losing on penalties in the quarter-finals to Holland. So, this one was set up nicely.
Elsewhere, Nigeria faced Iceland and Serbia played Switzerland.
Brazil finally win, Neymar finally scores
Neymar an emotional wreck: Brazil 2-0 Costa Rica
‘Finally’ is in the title of today’s World Cup review to premodify Neymar scoring and Brazil winning. This may seem premature after only one match of no Neymar goals or Brazilian wins, but that just signifies the immense expectations that we all had for Brazil and their talisman.
If we learned anything from this game though, it was that Neymar is an absolute emotional wreck. Complete emotional wreck. No exaggeration, he may be the most unstable person at the World Cup. We aren’t digging him out, we feel for the lad.
Anyway, before we get onto that, let’s start with the match. Costa Rica needed points badly, and they defended resolutely for a large part of the match, 91 minutes to be exact.
After Neymar won a penalty that was overturned by the higher power that is VAR (respect to VAR, thank you for blessing us with your presence), it looked like the first 0-0 of the World Cup was imminent. Then Brazil’s hero in the first match Philippe Coutinho popped up again as he burst into the box and poked home to score a late winner.
Neymar, after 96 minutes scored his goal after what the kids call a ‘sweaty goal.’ As soon as the whistle blew, he wept. He wept in the middle of the pitch. God knows what would have happened if they would have lost. What would have happened if he would have scored a hattrick!?
Anyway, the job is not done yet for the favourites. They still might need a result against Serbia in their final match.
Shaqiri sinks Serbia: Serbia 1-2 Switzerland
Fulham’s Matej Mitrovic looked sharp and scored with a crashing header after just five minutes, happy days one nil Serbia. That is how it stayed until Granit Xhaka came from outta absolutely bloody nowhere to smash home a bullet from distance to equalise.
So, 1-1. Share of the points. Everyone’s happy. Apart from Xherdan Shaqiri. He was not content. Being a Stoke player, he’d seen far too many losses and 1-1 draws for his liking and he thought “nah, not today”. He ran from the half-way line in the last few seconds and reached the penalty box – defender in chase. But nobody could do anything, as Shaqiri took out the frustration and agony of actually playing for Stoke for the whole season (seriously, surely he could set his heights a little higher) and finished calmly.
Nigeria have more points than Argentina: Nigeria 2-0 Iceland
We gave some stick to Nigeria for their performance in their first match, and rightfully so. And you know what, I think they must have read the first post. Buoyed by our criticism, they managed to not only keep a clean sheet, but also score two goals in the process and register three World Cup points. Well done, next time just don’t do it against everyone’s favourite underdogs Iceland.
Ahmed Musa was the Africans’ salvation, scoring a brace on the day to give his side a small chance of progressing into the last 16. He plucked the ball out of the air beautifully, controlling a tricky cross before smashing the ball into the net with an emphatic finish. For his second goal he clearly grew tired of passing to his teammates and decided to take things into his own hands. He ran through on goal from wide, showing real pace, before taking it past the keeper and firing into the net.
Gylfi Sigurdsson missed a penalty with seven minutes left so it turned out to be a great result for Nigeria, but they will need an equally good result against Argentina next to progress. Iceland will need to beat Croatia to go through.
Boot of the day – Nike Mercurial Superfly VI
Nike Mercurial Superfly VI football boots
Musa stole the show with his excellent two goals. The former Leicester striker brought his team three points with a heroic performance.
Goal of the day – Granit Xhaka
BANG! Absolutely sensational strike. What a great goal from Xhaka. He has done it before in an Arsenal shirt but this one was special.
Assist of the day – Mario Gravanovic
Keeper to midfielder, to striker, to goal. So simple, but Gravanovic’s ball split about five Serbian men and sent Shaqiri through – lovely ball.
Moment of the day – Neymar (take your pick)
It could be Neymar’s ridiculous dive which was rightly overturned by football’s saviour, VAR. It could be Neymar’s Jay Jay Okocha-like trick where he flicked the ball over the defender and ran onto it. Or it could be Neymar’s rather bizarre breakdown at the end of the match. We will leave it up to you.
The World Cup Boot Battle: Day 9
Points Awarded
Brazil v Costa Rica
Philippe Coutinho +8 (Nike) – One goal, one MOTM award, it was a good day for the Barca man.
Neymar +4 (Nike) – Got his goal.
Gabriel Jesus +2 (Adidas) – Assisted Coutinho.
Douglas Costa +2 (Nike) – Made Neymar cry/assisted him for a tap-in.
Alisson +3 (Nike) – Confidence-boosting clean sheet for the keeper.
Miranda +2 (Adidas) – Clean sheet.
Marcelo +2 (Adidas) – Clean sheet.
Thiago Silva +2 (Nike) – Clean sheet.
Fagner +2 (Nike) – Clean sheet.
Nigeria v Iceland
Ahmed Musa +12 (Nike) – Two goals and a MOTM performance.
Victor Moses +2 (Nike) – Assisted the first goal but truth be told, does not deserve these points as Musa did the work.
Kenneth Omeruo +4 (Nike) – Another assist that was more the goalscorer doing the work but hey, it still counts, clean sheet as well.
Francis Uzoho +3 (Nike) – Great clean sheet kept by his side.
Leon Balogun +2 (Adidas) – Clean sheet.
William Troost-Ekong +2 (Nike) – Clean sheet.
Serbia v Switzerland
Aleksandar Mitrovic +4 (Nike) – Scored a header.
Dusan Tadic +2 (Nike) – Great cross for Mitrovic’s goal.
Granit Xhaka +4 (Under Armour) – Brilliant finish from the Arsenal midfielder.
Xherdan Shaqiri +8 (Nike) – Scored the winner to top-off a MOTM performance.
Mario Gavranovic +2 (Adidas) – Assisted.
The World Cup Boot Battle: The best football boots in the world
| Adidas | Asics | Diadora | Mizuno | New Balance | Nike | Puma | Umbro | Under Armour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 189 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 501 | 78 | 2 | 4 |
Nike still storm ahead – can anyone catch these leaders? And a massive shoutout to Under Armour for entering the Boot Battle with an impressive 4 points.
Tomorrow’s World Cup matches
Belgium v Tunisia 13:00 (GMT)
South Korea v Mexico 16:00 (GMT)
Sweden v Germany 19:00 (GMT)
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