Russia V Croatia World Cup 2018

Russia V Croatia

Synopsis in red

Beers: Round of 8 Beer World Cup:

Similar in the football, Croatia were also strong on the beer front, coming top in a very strong group, Beer Group D, with a duo of beers from Super Bock and Gallas Cerveja, then beating Fosters from Australia in the last 16. On the other side, Russia actually won my Beer Group A, so I gave second place to the Saudis’ who lost to Portugal in my beer world cup last 16.

Portugal V Croatia

Portugal (Super Bock and Gallas Cerveja) eased to the top of my Beer World Cup Group B, then went on to knock out Saudi Arabia in the last 16. An easy win since there are no beers from the Arab kingdom, a bye in essence. Croatia (Ožujsko and Bura Brew), on the other hand, came top in Beer Group D, up against heavy hitters from Iceland, Argentina and Nigeria. Then in the last 16, the Croatians when on to beat Australia (Fosters)

Super Bock Gallas Cerveja

Ožujsko Bura Brew

Super Bock up against Ožujsko to decide who makes it into the last four of my Beer World Cup. Tough battle. Superbock is a mildly sweet refreshing lager that hits the throat lovely and there is a nice bitter and sour aftertaste that lingers for a short while. It’s a very easy beer to drink.

For Ožujsko, it is a typical full bodied lager, malty, light and clean, quaffable and not bad. Nice big mouthfuls to enjoy at the start. Slightly hoppy and a little bitter but overall easy to drink and perfect to quench the thirst.

You can see I enjoyed both lagers. So this had to go down to the wire, i.e: more than one beer of each! After a few I decided that Croatia should edge it, in that its the more quaffable of the two.

Read who qualified for my Beer World Cup last 8 here

PreGame:

It is a strange but exciting World Cup. We have lost Argentina and Messi, we have lost Ronnie and Portugal, we lost the Germans, last night we lost Neymar and Brazil, and thanks to Russia we have lost Iniesta and the Spanish. WOW!

Some people will moan at the negativity of the Russians in their game V Spain, but they came with a game plan and it worked perfectly. The Spanish for all their great passing in midfield simply couldn’t break them down.

Of course having your best player on the bench for 65 minutes isn’t going to help. What the fuck was the clown Hierro doing there, totally disrespectful to the Russians. Spain needed Iniesta on the pitch early on, they needed someone to inject some pace into the game, and to pick those incisive passes. No he went for Asensio! Who? Exactly!

Spain scored early when Ignashevich put it into his own net under pressure from Ramos at the far post, from a great cross, after only 12 minutes. Danger already for Russia.

But Spain then reverted to the Tiki-taka for the remainder of the half. They were rightly punished for it when Pique stupidly touched the ball in his own box resulting in a penalty for the Russians, who had put Spain under some pressure at the time. Dzyuba slammed home the peno like the boss he is, one all just before half time.

Still no sign of Iniesta, still no impedance in the Spanish game. They never ran at the Russian defence, were far too slow in the build up, at walking pace, and their wing backs, and particularly Carvajal when he came on, always stopped shot of whipping in a cross, always cutting back in and passing it across the Russian defence. A bit too predictable for any defence, far too easy to read.

Iniesta did come on, and immediately had an affect, nearly scoring himself, close but a good save from Akinfeev. At this stage it felt that Spain were chasing the game, when they should have had it in the bag well before this stage. Russia really gave up with attacking the ball, so they really were there for the taking.

Rodrigo came on with about 15 minutes of extra time left, and his first real chance was to run at the Russians. And guess what it worked (imagine that!) He ran and got himself into the box unleashing a shot from a tight angle that again Akinfeev did well to save. Too little too late from Spain.

Penalties came, and Russia won, Akinfeev saving two to send Russia to the last eight. Who would have predicted that at the start of the tournament, not even Vladimir himself I Guess.

Must also mention that I thought Fernandes from Russia was excellent in that game, great and solid in defence, and when he was able to, a great release on the wing. Man of the match in my eyes, even if Akinfeev gets all the plaudits today.

Denmark v Croatia:

I was just after sitting down to the game and Denmark managed to score the first goal, less than two minutes into the game. M Jorgensen with a goal that was a bit of a fluke, hitting it off the arm of the goalkeeper to go in.

And if you thought that was quick, the response from Croatia was shit fast, two minutes later they got the equaliser. Mandzukic with a nice goal to level the game early on.

Croatia with Modric bossing the midfield started to come into it after that, Vrsaljko and Rebic on both wings stretching the Danes at every opportunity, it looked good for Croatia.

But Denmark weathered the storm, took all that Croatia could throw at them, and slowly ground the Croatians down. Second half was dull, the game was rubbish. Denmark had totally neutralized Croatia.

In extra time, I thought that Croatia were on the ropes and dead on their feet, and if Denmark were not so fucking boring and shite they might have knocked them out. Where was their big time player Eriksen? Useless.

But there was still some drama to go before the ref blow it up. Modric played in Rebic perfectly who rounded Schmeichel and just had to tap it in for an easy goal, except Jorgensen clipped him before he did all that. A definite penalty, dont even know why Schmeichel was arguing about it. Ok we thought, surely game over now, but no this world cup keeps giving and giving, and Schmeichel saved Modric’s last minute spot kick to send the game into a penalty shootout. What drama!

The penalty shootout had more drama than most of the game. Erkisen had his shot saved, a waste of space, was brave of Modric to step forward again this time making no mistake, Schmeichel saving two more, and then what a joke seeing N Jørgensen take a penalty, the cunt can’t score from 5 yards out never mind 12, give me a fucking break, lol!! Subasic did amazing to save three, and it was up to Rakitic to put Croatia into the last 8, and deservedly so, the footballing team won out tonight.

To be honest wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this game! Well I should have known that to be wrong with the amount of twists and turns we have had in this world cup so far!

A lively start from Russia, with the crowd roaring from the stands, but after a while it slowed down a bit and was beginning to look a tight affair with neither team threatening too much at the start, particularly difficult for Dzyuba out on his own in the Russian front line, albeit he was brilliant as the lone target man.

Then out of nowhere, Cheryshev scored a great goal, a brilliant curler that flew into the net, the goalie no chance. What an unbelievable opener. Could we have another shock on our hands here?

But that lead only lasted a few minutes, as Croatia got on the score sheet when Kramaric scored a nice header, free as the Russian defence fell asleep, great work from Mandzukic on the wing unchallenged to cross it in. Too easy.

Game eventually went for a draw full time, and to be fair to the Russian manager he put on a few fairly attacking substitutions in the hop of getting the win, while the Zlatko Dalić, EVENTUALLY, pushed Modric more forward in the hope they might snatch a winner.

Vida, who had a good game in his tussle with the man mountain Dzyuba, eventually got Croatia back to form, with a decent headed goal from a corner and surely that was to be the game settled?

Not quite, Figueira Fernandes, who has had a great World Cup, got his head on the end of a good well floated ball from a free kick to power home the equaliser and send the game into penalties. Oh what drama, what a great World Cup. Surely Russia couldn’t steal this one, eh?

Penalities, knew Russia would miss the first, just look at the state of the fella Fedor Smolov ffs, he looks like a heroin addict, shud be in rehab, but then Mateo Kovacic missed for Croatia, but golden boy Mario Fernandes also missed his, taking it far too quickly in my opinion, basically leaving it up to Ivan Rakitic to once again score the winning peno in the shootout to put Croatia into the last four of a World Cup. Have to say the best team won, fair play to Croatia and Modric who can be a joy to watch at times, and also well done to Russia for trying their best with a limited team and a knuckle head a manger, nearly did a Korea on it, but better than expect I think.

Music to get you in the mood

PPK – Resurrection (Russia) V Dino Dvornik – Tebi Pripadam (Croatia)