Mexico V Sweden World Cup 2018

Mexico V Sweden

(Synopsis in red)

Beers: Group F of Beer World Cup:

World Cup of Beer Group F

Corona need only one more win to get into the last 16, while Crocodile of Sweden has been very disappointing so far in my Beer World Cup.

Corona get the victory, as once again I couldn’t really get any discernible taste at all from Crocodile. As light as Corona is, its still a relativity nice drink on a very hot summers day.

PreGame:

Mexico Beat South Korea in their last game but I was far from convinced by that performance. Lets be honest they wouldn’t have scored in the first half if it wasn’t for the penalty. They were very slow to get motoring at times, and defending with over 25 minutes to go is a bit beneath them.

Mexico got the penalty in the first half, a definite peno, don’t know what the Korean defender was doing flying in with his hands up. Nice penalty from Vela, about all he did in the game.

The thing I hate about Mexico is that they always waste so many score-able opportunities and good forward play with sloppy play or ballooning the ball over the bar. Layún did it in the first half, Lozano did it a good few times, even the usually reliable Javier Hernández kicking the ball out of the stadium. FFS lads try and keep your shots low to gravity.

R Márquez made an appearance and proceeded to have a brain freeze gifting the ball to Min, who should have done better. Corona came on and I was wondering what Porto got for their 10 million, as he barely made a forward run at all, tripping up over the ball at times. Anyway Korea pulled one back and Mexico held on, just about.

I am not so sure about Mexico now and cant see them getting to far into the tournament after this display.

Wow, what a game that was Germany V Sweden, a game of high stakes all in pressure, wow. Where do I even begin to start? Sweden were unlucky to let in the goal, had defended stoutly for most of the game, and put it up to the Germans. And fair dues to the Germans, looking dead and buried at half time, and even worse when Boateng stupidly got sent off, they somehow, somehow, managed to get a win in this game. How??????

German started off fine, stretching Sweden down both flanks, but Sweden showed they could be dangerous early on when Neuer made himself big for Berg to hit it straight at him when through. That was the big scare that should have woken the Germans up.

But it didn’t, and in the 32nd minute Toivonen was through, and somehow chipped Neuer from nearly an impossible angle, one nil to Sweden, oh heck! Claesson, later then had a great chance to make it two nil, but he was let down by a terrible first touch, on a 2 v 1 break. Tut tut.

I really couldn’t see how Germany could get back into this game. They were not playing well, had a load of passengers on the team and no leader on the pitch to drag them to victory. But luckily for them Reus was on target, in the right place at the right time, in the box to score level, just after the break.

Now surely Germany would ease to victory and get that second goal. Or so we thought, but the minutes started to tick away, and then Boateng got himself sent off for a silly reckless challenge. It was hard with 11, now it was going to be near impossible with only 10.

Gomez missed a point blank sitter, amazing really how he can call himself a striker, then Brandt hit the post with a long range effort, Robin Olsen the Swedish goalkeeper in between making a number of excellent saves. The Swedish back line were under all sorts of pressure. With only about 30 seconds of the allotted time left, Jimmy Durmaz, with the paedo like beard, gave a silly free kick away on the edge of the box. This was surely the last chance for the Germans, it was a tight enough angle but no bother for Kroos who, with a quick one two with Reus, smashed it over the wall into the net. Brilliant recovery from Germany, and they are still in this years World Cup. PHEW, my heart!

As for Sweden they will hope to bounce back today against Mexico, but I fear they wont. They already sound like a defeated team, Jimmy Durmaz, moaning to the press about death threats (on the fucking internet!) and the whole Swedish team complaining about the German celebrations. I know its modern Sweden, but man the fuck up. What a team of losers.

A more detailed review on Mexico here and on Sweden here

Looked at the first half of this game.

Mexico nearly caught out early doors, ball flying across their box and no Swede to tap it into the empty net. Warning signs early on.

But Sweden kept up the pressure and continued to hit Mexico hard from free kicks and corners. Forsberg blasting in a good free kick that Ochoa in the Mexican net did well to push over for a corner. Berg with a clever overhead that just went the wrong side of the post. Forsberg, again, blasted over with a free shot on goals when he could have got it at least on target. It was all Sweden.

The the first controversy of the game. It appeared that Javier Hernández handled in his own box, at least thats what it looked like to me. But not top the referee who had to refer it to VAR and still made the wrong decision. In my opinion it should have been a peno.

Berg had a point blank shot superbly saved by Ochoa, brilliant save to tip over the bar. At the end of the first half Sweden were miles and away the better team. And so that proved as they only went and got three goals in the second half, wow!!

Must say that their defence is the best I have seen in this years World Cup, very tall and difficult to break down. In particular, Granqvist in the centre of the defence has caught my eye with some great performances in the 3 games so far. Take a bow Sweden, well done today.