Brazil vs Costa Rica and it was the late late show from Brazil when these two met earlier on this afternoon in the Group E clash. After a disappointing draw and performance against Switzerland last week for Brazil, today was surely the day for the joint favourites for this tournament to shine. Shine they did throughout the game but they missed numerous opportunities to score and finish off the match early doors.
Injury time came around and although Costa Rica had played poorly, despite defending tremendously for ninety minutes, they couldn’t hold out any longer. Brazil had earlier been given a penalty when Neymar was supposedly pulled to the ground, VAR replays showed he wasn’t and the referee overturned his decision. Just as all seemed lost and with Brazil heading for another draw, a loose cross into the box found Coutinho, who’d sprinted into the box himself to meet it and he made it 1-0 Brazil. A few minutes late the game was confirmed as all over as Neymar got his first goal of this years tournament.
Brazil 2–0 Costa Rica
Coutinho Goal 90+1′
Neymar Goal 90+7′
Next fixtures for Brazil & Costa Rica:
Wednesday June 27th: Serbia v Brazil (Group E) – Moscow (Spartak), 7pm
Wednesday June 27th: Switzerland v Costa Rica (Group E) – Nizhny Novgorod, 7pm
Nigeria vs Iceland wasn’t the best game of the tournament by a long shot, in fact it was pretty dull throughout, even though both teams tried to score via their own game plans. Iceland will be gutted this evening that they did not get anything out of the game, especially as they had good chances to take the lead. As once they take the lead you could have seen them holding on to it. Only problem was that they didn’t take the lead which allowed the Nigerians to grow into the game more.
The lead was taken by Nigeria after both some brilliant control and then superb finish from Musa just as the second-half had started. Iceland continued to try to press forward, but the pace of the Nigeria attacks and breaks hurt them all the time and eventually they were punished once more when Musa scored again, this time a brilliant solo dribble. The match might have been close towards the end, but Iceland missed a penalty with ten minutes to go and then gave up.
Nigeria 2–0 Iceland
Musa Goal 49′, 75′
Next fixtures for Nigeria & Iceland:
Tuesday June 26th: Nigeria v Argentina (Group D) – St Petersburg, 7pm
Tuesday June 26th: Iceland v Croatia (Group D) – Rostov-on-Don, 7pm
Serbia v Switzerland and both teams headed into this match with confidence, the Serbs were top of the group after their win over Costa Rica and the Swiss were happy after their draw with Brazil. Serbia started brightly with Mitrović having a very early header saved, it didn’t worry him though and moments later the big Serb had yet another chance. This time he found the back of the net from a few yards out after he rose superbly to nod in Tadic’s delightful cross.
The Swiss never created all that much in the first-half but after a couple of half chances for Serbia, they sprung into action in the second-half and started to counter attack more and more. That is how they equalised too, as after an excellent break the ball fell to Shaqiri who hit a powerful shot but it was blocked. The ball spun away and out of the area but the oncoming Xhaka ran onto it and smashed in a first time effort, what a goal! Shaqiri then became the match winner for the Swiss as Serbia pushed for an injury-time winner, it broke to the little winger who charged through on goal and he finished calmly to send his team second.
Serbia 1–2 Switzerland
Mitrović Goal 5′
Xhaka Goal 52′
Shaqiri Goal 90′
Next fixtures for Serbia & Switzerland:
Wednesday June 27th: Serbia v Brazil (Group E) – Moscow (Spartak), 7pm
Wednesday June 27th: Switzerland v Costa Rica (Group E) – Nizhny Novgorod, 7pm
