PORTUGAL vs USA - click here for the Live Match Centre
- GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!! 65th minute: What a phenomenal strike! Right off the top drawer, Jermaine Jones collects the ball after a USA corner is cleared, takes a touch to his right and sends in a powerful curler into the net. Beto is frozen on his line — Messi would be proud of that.
- 63rd minute: Eder releases Ronaldo, who has switched sides and is now on the right. He races forward and into the box and takes a shot from a tight angle. He's scored from this angle dozens of times, narrows it, and fires the ball past the near post in a shot that was the epitome of frustration.
- OFF THE LINE! 54th minute: The USA spring a quick attack and Jermaine Jones plays in the ball just as Beto rushes to block him. The goal is empty and Michael Bradley takes the shot first time, it's heading in for a certain goal before Ricardo Costa throws his body onto the shot and blocks it. Incredible.
- 45th minute: My word what a save! It looks like Howard had gifted a goal to Portugal as he fumbled Nani's shot onto the post. The ricochet is to Eder whose attempt is brilliantly tipped away by Howard, who had to get up after the first save, take a few steps back and maintain his balance all at the same time.
- 43rd minute: Portugal launch a counter attack and Ronaldo finds Nani running in from the right as as his marker backs off him, but Nani's shot is well saved. There's a foul at a scoring distance immediately after the save but Ronaldo has ballooned it over.
- 35th minute: Lots of attempts from USA — the latest from Jones forces Beto to sharply get down and collect it. Michael Bradley has tried twice and Dempsey once, but they're off target. USA moving forward very encouragingly though, it must be said.
- 16th minute: Dempsey runs onto a through ball from Michael Bradley but the angle is too tight -- Dempsey reaches it, shoots, but it's been kept out by Beto.
- Substitution: End of the match for Helder Postiga, the injured striker replaced by Eder.
- GOALLLLL!! 6th minute: Miguel Veloso plays in a speculative diagonal from the left and the USA cannot clear it — it rolls over to Nani who takes a touch and smashes it into the roof of the net. Oh, and special mention to Ronaldo who dodged three USA defenders with the skill footballers usually reserve for promo-videos.
Portugal XI: Beto, Bruno Alves, Veloso, Ronaldo, Moutinho, Costa, Meireles, Nani, A. Almeida, Pereira, Postiga
USA XI: Howard, Bradley, Besler, Beasley, Dempsey, Bedoya, Jones, Beckerman, Zusi, Cameron, Johnson
ALGERIA vs SOUTH KOREA - click here to read match report
- Full-time: Algeria produce a stellar display and we will see more of them in the World Cup it seems. The Koreans rallied and were looking good at 1-3, but Algeria's sucker punch came early and since then there was only one winner of this match.
- GOALLLLLll!!!! 72nd minute: The Koreans flood Algeria's box and Lee Keun-Ho capitalises on the scramble to cross in — Koo Ja-Cheol knees it into the net. 4-2.
- GOALLLL!!!! 63rd minute: Any hopes that Korea had of a comeback in this match have probably been buried. They've pushed bodies forward and it leaves a space at the back for Brahimi to play a quick one-two and slot it past the keeper. 4-1 to Algeria.
- 60th minute: OH WHAT A SHOT! And what a save!! Ki Sung-Yeung lets loose from about 35 yards out, it's rising, swerving and heading for the net when Mbohli's outstretched hand comes out of nowhere to stop it.
- GOAAAAAAAALLLL!! 50th minute: Korea's first goal comes off their first shot on target. Son Heung-Min sees a long ball all the way and collects it brilliantly on his back (some may say he got lucky), twists, dummies a turn and then shoots low through the legs of the goalie. Great goal, it's 3-1 now.
- GOALLLL! 38th minute: Slimani collects another direct ball in the box and simply sidefoots it in the way of Djabou who is as calm as a cucumber in the front of goal — slides it past SR Jung in style.
- GOALLLL! 28th minute: Halliche rises highest as the corner comes in from the left and bam! Algeria 2-0 courtesy a brilliant header.
- GOALLLLL! 26th minute: Slimani powers through South Korea's defence after collecting a long ball and dinks it over the keeper! 1-0 and well deserved.
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Algeria shots in 25 minutes
Algeria XI: Mbolhi, Bouguerra, Halliche, Mesbah, Feghouli, Brahimi, Medjani, Slimani, Bentaleb, Djabou, Mandi
South Korea XI: SR Jung, SY Yun, YG Kim, HM Son, CY Park, Y Lee, JC Koo, KY Han, SY Ki, CY Lee, JH Hong
Teams which have qualified for the Last 16: Argentina, Belgium, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia and Netherlands
BELGIUM vs RUSSIA - click here to read the match report
- Full-time: Belgium are through to the last 16 after finally getting past a resolute Russian defence. But in all fairness, Russia should have buried the match in the first half when they had a flurry of chances.
- GOAAAAAAAALLLLL - 87th minute: Hazard beats his marker on the left with raw pace and then pulls it back for Origi to slam in! All of Belgian's goal in this World Cup have come from substitutes.
- 84th minute: Mirallas with a low freekick from about 25 yards out and it's hit the post!
- 81st minute: Layoff for Eschenko who's bombing down the right... and it's wide! Another chance for Russia goes begging.
- 75th minute: It's hard to admit, but this has been one of the most boring matches in the World Cup so far — especially given the players on the pitch. Nothing has happened in the last 20 minutes that generated even a wee bit of excitement.
- 56th minute: Kevin de Buryne drives through midfield and tries to thread a pass to Lukaku, who just hasn't looked mobile enough at the top of the line for Belgium. And with that, he's even taken off -- on comes Origi.
- 44th minute: Woah what a chance!! Kokorin is free in the box and Glushakov finds him with a lovely cross — the striker heads it out though... that was the chance of the match so far and the least Kokorin could have done was hit the target. He was under no pressure either.
- 30th minute: Russia force another save from Courtois as Shatov finds space from distance. Belgium spring their own attack through Mertens who escapes down the right and is looking for the low cross for Lukaku but Akinfeev blocks it before it reaches the burly striker. Squeezed between these two attacks was Vermaelen coming off for an injury sustained during warm-up. Vertonghen is on.
- 20th minute: Dries Mertens decides to run at the Russian defence and beats his man before sending a stinging shot towards goal which swerves wide. Russia have attacked too, mainly exploiting the spaces out wide. Good match this is — a goal will make it better.
Russia XI: Akinfeev, Kozlov, Ignashevich, Kanunnikov, Glushakov, Kokorin, Berezutskiy, Shatov, Samedov, Fayzulin, Kombarov.
Belgium XI: Courtois, Alderweireld, Van Buyten, Kompany, Vermaelen; Witsel, Fellaini; Mertens, De Bruyne, Hazard; Lukaku.
6.00 pm: Manuel Neuer gaffes and then un-gaffes in the space of a couple of seconds
The German keeper nearly commits a blunder but then recovers in time against Ghana. Takes some talent to recover this fast!
5.15 pm: Rooney urges England to get nasty
England striker Wayne Rooney believes his country's players need to acquire more "nastiness" if they are to arrest 48 years of underachievement at major international tournaments.
The 1966 world champions were dumped out of the World Cup on Friday, halfway through the competition's group phase, after losing 2-1 to both Italy and Uruguay in their first two Group D matches.
Rooney has now tasted disappointment at five major competitions and having seen England flop in Brazil despite preparations that were widely considered to be ideal, he feels the problem is one of mentality.
"I think you look at teams who have won the tournament over previous years and you can see that nastiness in them. I think we need to get that in us," he told a group of journalists in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
"Maybe we're too honest, as a team. Uruguay the other night (Thursday), they stopped the game, they committed I don't know how many fouls. Clever fouls, really, to slow the game down.
"I think we're a bit honest in terms of the way we play. It's small margins. But those small things can amount to a big thing in terms of staying in the competition or going out."
AFP
5.00 pm: Rihanna up Klose!
16.20 pm: How much of a football fan are you?
We are willing to bet not as much of a fan as this guy:
16.00 pm: World Cup mascot Fuleco does a little dirty dancing
Think of mascots and kid-friendly cuddly images instantly come to mind. There is Gobi, suit-wearing sheep dog from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona or the Snowlets, a group of four owls, from the 1998 Nagano Winter games.
For the 2014 World Cup, FIFA and Brazil came up with Fuleco, the three-banded armadillo. The armadillo is an endangered species and his name is a mash-up of the words Futebol, meaning football, and Ecologia, meaning Ecology.
The choice was so well received, Thierry Weil, FIFA's marketing director said this two years ago:
Not only is he well-known and recognised by the vast majority of Brazilians, he also seems to have built up a rapport with football fans and is a popular figure, even gaining his own affectionate nickname 'tatu-bola'. He is fast becoming the most successful FIFA World Cup mascot of all time
All of which means it was impossible for Fulecao not to be captured on camera when he decided to to do a little dirty dancing a couple of days ago:
Now that's not very mascot-like behaviour.
14.55 pm: Messi goal saves gambler $350,000
According to a story on ESPN FC, Messi not only saved his team, he saved a Las Vegas gambler from losing a bundle.
The unnamed better first put down $230,000 on an Argentina win and a minute later followed it up with another bet of $120,000 on the same result. The story states the first wager was already the largest single World Cup bet taken by the 100 William Hill sportsbooks in the state of Nevada.
Messi saved more than his team against Iran. Reuters
At the 90-minute mark, the punter must have had his heart in his mouth with the two teams locked in a goal-less. But in injury time Messi sent a left-footed shot from outside the area curling into the top left corner to the visible relief of his team and probably the unknown gambler.
The most surprising thing in all this is the payoff was relatively small - a profit of around $30,000.
14.30 pm: The original Ronaldo congratulates Klose
Records, they say, are meant to be broken. Still the Brazilian Ronaldo must have hoped his scoring record in the World Cup would last a bit longer than it seems it will. Ronaldo set the record in 2006 in his third World Cup when he went past Gerd Mueller's 14 goals - a mark that had stood since 1974.
Against Ghana, 36-year-old Miroslav Klose not only rescued a point for Germany but tied Ronaldo's all-time scoring record with literally his first touch of the ball in this tournament. It is likely he will own the record all by himself before too long.
So you wouldn't grudge Ronaldo for being a bit upset by this turn of events but he took the high road instead.
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