The second write up of the tournament covers matches 9 to 14 with some real surprises. Loving it so far!
Costa Rica v Serbia
A pretty even game on the stats which was won by a great free kick from Kolarov. Seven of our team anticipated this outcome.
Germany v Mexico
Wow – what a result. The sort of thing that England normally do, but to be fair Germany are on a poor run of form and thankfully it is continuing into tournament football. Not surprising no-one even dared to predict a draw let alone the Mexico win!
Brazil v SwitzerlandÂ
Shock number two has seen the most boring team on the planet get a draw against the tournament favourites. No-one got the result spot on, but three people got the draw: Lee/Deb, Pete Lee and David Bailey – top tipping!!
Sweden v South Korea
Another match, another penalty. Seems to be at least one a game these days. Didn’t watch this one, but Sweden sneaked a 1-0. Eight of the ONS crew nailed this one.
Belgium v Panama
Belgium started off pretty much like France, plenty of talent and no idea how to play as a team. But the second half saw them take up a level. A surprising eleven people in our pool managed to predict this outcome. Congratulations all!!
Tunisia v England
It all started so well for England, lots of chances early on and a goal. Then the usual happened – even with VAR, an odd penalty was awarded – odd as there was some Greco-Roman wrestle moves going on with Kane quite a few times without any whistle. Anyway, it took a trip to the gents from myself in the final few minutes for Kane to seal the win. Phew! An even more amazing twelve of us got this one right – lots of people with the right mix of optimism and realism when it comes to England in the World Cup. Still plenty of time to blow it yet! If Southgate has any sense, Sterling won’t be putting on his football boots again in this tournament – he is shocking.
After the second update, Ben Baker is leading by a point from Gemma Keane with Craig Taylor in third. Early days, a few spot on results and you will soon be zooming up the charts!