Today is the day many of you have been waiting for and to be hones the same goes for me. The start of the World Cup knockout stages. We start every day of the World Cup traditionally with a recap of the previous days. This means we start today with our view on World Cup day 15.
World Cup day 15
The 15th day of this World Cup was the one with the matches in the last two groups of this tournament. It started with group H, where Senegal played against Colombia and Japan took on Poland. The second round of the day was in group G where Belgium and England played for the first place in this group and Panama played Tunisia for the third place.
Senegal versus Colombia
This was one of the groups where the tension was high towards the end. Both these teams still played for a place in the knockout stages, but were also on the verge of leaving the tournament. After a boring first half, it was Colombia who opened the score. Now Senegal was the team to drop out so they pushed forwards, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to score an equaliser.
Japan versus Poland
Poland was already eliminated before this match, but Japan had every chance of going through. Strangely enough Poland was the better team and they scored the 1-0 in the beginning of the second half. When Japan heard about the score in the other match, they decided to take a 1-0 loss and take the risk that Senegal couldn’t score an equaliser. It was such a poor display from the Japanese team that I don’t want to write too much about this match.
England versus Belgium
Both teams started this match with six points, but they clearly didn’t want to win this match. It was a poor performance by these teams, but Januzaj scored a screamer, bringing the three points to Belgium. This means they win the group, but enter the hard part of this competition.
Panama versus Tunisia
The Panamanian team took the lead in this match for the third place in this group. They looked to be on their way to their first ever points on a World Cup tournament. but Tunisia turned things around in the second half. Those goals in the second half led to a 2-1 victory for Tunisia.
This was our recap of World Cup day 15. We’re glad it’s over and we start with the real part of the tournament now.