Sweden vs South Korea and VAR decides yet another World Cup match after a penalty decision wasn’t initially given by the referee, but after checking VAR he correctly overturned his decision. Sweden’s captain Andreas Granqvist was the surprise penalty taker, but he converted the spot-kick very comfortably and in the end Sweden held on to the win quite easily.
Sweden were the better team overall and deserved all three points even without being outstanding, they did a job though against a poor attacking South Korean team. Who only started playing once they went behind and could have equalised right at the end of the game. Sweden should have been three up by half-time but their chances were saved by Cho Hyun-woo.
Sweden 1–0 South Korea
Granqvist Goal 65′ (pen.)
Next fixtures for Sweden vs South Korea:
Saturday June 23rd: Germany v Sweden (Group F) – Sochi, 7pm
Saturday June 23rd: South Korea v Mexico (Group F) – Rostov-on-Don, 4pm
Belgium vs Panama was not great game by a long stretch, especially the first-half which in our opinion was pretty terrible. Panama were poor generally and looked out of their depth, whereas Belgium were just poor compared with what we know they can do. The game was so slow and pedestrian from both teams and it wasn’t helped by some poor referring decisions and what seemed like every bit of contact given as a foul.
Finally the game woke up at the start of the second-half when Mertens scored a superb volley from an angle that zoomed over Penedo in the Panama goal. With Panama tiring around with twenty minutes to go, Belgium capitalised knowing they could take full advantage and they sure did with a couple of quick passing moves. De Bruyne first set-up Lukaku with a great chipped ball and that was quickly followed up by a slide in pass from Eden Hazard again to Lukaku who grabbed his second.
Belgium 3–0 Panama
Mertens Goal 47′
Lukaku Goal 69′, 75′
Next fixtures for Belgium vs Panama:
Saturday June 23rd: Belgium v Tunisia (Group G) – Moscow (Spartak), 1pm
Sunday June 24th: England v Panama (Group G) – Nizhny Novgorod, 1pm
England vs Tunisia and it was the Harry Kane late show that won it for England in injury time, just as Tunisia thought they’d done enough to earn themselves a point. The first-half was quite open but England were by far the better team, especially in the first twenty minutes when Kane scored his first ever World Cup goal.
If they’d taken all the chances they created that half they could have been a few goals up before Tunisia equalised from the penalty spot, after Kyle Walker used his arm to blog off an opponent. In the second-half Tunisia sat in and defended bravely as they frustrated England as they struggled to make as many chances as the first forty five. England kept going though and eventually the pressure told and captain Harry Kane headed in his second World Cup goal to give his side the three points. Twenty years ago it was 2-0 to England against Tunisia but a wins a win.
Tunisia 1–2 England
Sassi Goal 35′ (pen.)
Kane Goal 11′, 90+1′
Next fixtures for England vs Tunisia:
Sunday June 24th: England v Panama (Group G) – Nizhny Novgorod, 1pm
Saturday June 23rd: Belgium v Tunisia (Group G) – Moscow (Spartak), 1pm
