2016 FIFA World Cup - Knockouts
Round of 16
The hosts welcomed the United States to the Parc des Princes, where they easily dispatched a quickly and clearly overwhelmed American side 2-0, scoring both goals before the 40th minute and then leisurely parking the bus for the remainder of the match. Group A's runner-up in Australia, for its own part, put on a clinic in Saint-Etienne, demolishing Hungary by a 4-1 scoreline aided by a Chris Wood brace that was nowhere near as close as the result would otherwise indicate, shockingly putting an end to what had otherwise been a budding hope of a decent run by long-suffering Mighty Magyar supporters.
Paraguay had looked, potentially, like the best South American team in France in its group stage, defeating Spain and topping its group after a fine performance in a 1-0 loss to a desperate Portugal; Argentina, meanwhile, looked to be punching below her weight in a World Cup yet again. But on a balmy, humid night in Bordeaux, these longstanding South American rivals fought to a draw in regular time, in part due to Gonzalo Higuain's penalty at 72' going off the sidebar, and though Albiceleste supporters were then convinced that the heartbreak endured every four years since 1988 was striking yet again, Argentina would live to fight another day, as both normal and added time ended on the same nil-nil scoreline, and Argentina advanced 4-3 on penalties. Their groupmates would see a similar result; Italy and Portugal met at Saint-Denis in a showdown of two of the highest-ranked teams in the world in what had been thought was a potential final, and the favored Azzurri showed verve in fighting back to a 1-1 draw against Os Azules Reales as Graziano Pelle at 84' rescued Italy's Cup hopes in offsetting Nani's goal from the first half, and advanced 6-5 after Portugal failed to unlock Italy's veteran, famously stout defense for the thirty minutes of added time that followed.
Robert Brady and Wes Hoolahan enjoyed early chances against a Germany that looked rather mortal in Lyon, but failed to convert them and would come to regret that dearly, as Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger scored quickly at 23' and 28' to take command of the match, with Mario Gotze adding a late penalty for good measure. While famed "giant-slayers" Ireland went down to defeat, however, Iceland stunned the world in Liege as they came back from a one goal deficit to dispatch Austria 2-1 [1], keeping their improbable fairy-tale run at the World Cup alive to become one of the great stories of not just the 2016 finals but of all time.
Britain had a long and sorry history of knockout round debacles, especially via way of penalty kicks, with such a method of loss having occurred now in the past four consecutive World Cups, with the most heartbreaking of the losses in 2008 when they had blown a 3-0 lead at the half in the World Cup Final. Old demons were exorcised in Marseille, however, as Britain defeated Colombia - who had knocked them out on penalties in the 2004 quarterfinals - after a 1-1 draw in which James Rodriguez had helped Colombia come back late and had nearly added a game-winner in added time. The Lions had held on, and would survive and advance out of penalty kicks for the first time since 1984, when they took silver in Russia. Groupmates Sweden and Bohemia also saw their match end on a 0-0 draw, a shock as Bohemia's tear through their group had made them overnight surprise favorites to finally take World Cup silverware home; that was alas not to be, as they were dispatched on penalty kicks 4-3 thanks in part to Sweden's stubborn, aggressive defense and what Bohemia supporters would for years afterwards maintain was shoddy refereeing.
Quarterfinals
Despite seeming mediocre for much of the tournament, Argentina found new fire at Saint-Denis as they faced off with France, taking the lead at the 50th minute and the hosts needing a late header from Raymond Balard to take the game to added time, where Olivier Giroud scored on a massive penalty at 116' to take France to the semifinals for the first time since 2004. Britain proved a stiff test for a Germany that had sliced through its competition so far, becoming the only team the entire tournament to prevent a single German goal all game; a Lions side not known for its tough defense managed to frustrate and infuriate Jurgen Klopp's Gegenpresse offense for ninety minutes in a remarkable tactical display by manager Gareth Southgate. On the flipside, Britain failed to find a goal for herself in all of this, with a crucial Harry Kane chance going wide and Wayne Rooney's header deflected out of danger by Manuel Neuer late; and in a grim reminder of World Cups past, Britain found itself staring down the barrel of another penalty kick, where Germany clinically and coolly advanced. German players later admitted that they thought Britain the toughest opponent of the tournament, and in their view the second or third best squad.
Australia, hoping to build off the moment of their 2012 miracle run and 2015 Confederations Cup championship, ran into the brick wall of Azzurri defense, and saw an early lead erased by young phenom Daniele Paolini and their penalty kick efforts snuffed out quickly by goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, with not a single Kickaroo penalty converting. The final quarterfinal, held in Marseille, pitted two Nordic sides against one another in an unlikely matchup of Iceland and Sweden, with the former in the midst of a true miracle run and the latter enjoying possibly her best tournament since the 1992 bronze medal performance. The game ended the only way it could have, becoming the fourth quarterfinal to go to added minutes and the third to head to penalties as two defensively-minded, offensively-challenged sides slugged it out without a goal for two hours, and Sweden returned to their fifth semifinal and first in a quarter-century, ending Iceland's dream run through a slice into the upper right of the net off the foot of captain Andreas Granqvist.
Semi-finals
One of the most famed footballing rivalries of all time is that of France and Germany, and they would connect for a semifinal match to mark the next chapter of said rivalry at Lyon for the semifinal turn. Germany had beaten France in Berlin in the final sixteen years earlier, off the head of Michael Ballack, and France hungered for their own glory on home soil as their archrivals had earned then. It was not to be - Germany jumped out to an early 2-0 lead they never relinquished, and by the end of the match the scoreline was 4-0. It was one of the most humiliating defeats in French sporting history, and ended an otherwise excellent run for the hosts to the point one could hear the silence in the stadium as the game concluded.
Italy and Sweden, for their part, met in their first faceoff at a major tournament since the group stages of Euro 2006 and their first match of real import since the 1992 semifinals, in which they had also met, then in Naples. In a strange twist of fate, the 2016 semifinal match in Saint-Denis between the Azzurri and the Tre Kronor ended on the exact same scoreline - a nil-nil draw at the end of one hundred and twenty minutes, Sweden's third such identical result and the first time that both sides in a semifinal were going to penalties for a third straight time - and, even more eerie, that Italy prevailed on penalties 6-5, just as they had in 1992. They their hopes for an improbable run to the Final were dashed, Sweden took the results as a good omen that they could take bronze off France in Marseille in the third-place game, while Italy dared to hope - in their time advancing not just to the Final but the last four since 1992 - that perhaps history was about to repeat itself as an excellent Germany awaited.
Third Place
Despite hopes that the magic of '92 was repeating itself, Sweden came staggering into the semifinals in Marseille having played a three hundred and sixty minutes of football over the course of the knockout round, compared to merely three hundred for France, and had gone through the psychologically-taxing gruel of two penalty wins and a penalty loss. The team looked clearly gassed even before taking the considerable talent differential into account, and then there was the matter of France, despite having just been run out of their own field in Lyon a few days earlier by their archrivals, being angry and eager to salvage something on home soil on behalf of their loyal fans.
As such, in a rematch of the Euro 2006 final, Sweden was obliterated from the get-go, giving up a goal in the fourth minute and France never looked back, scoring two more later in the game in what can best be described as a lazy but dominant performance. The hosts walked away with bronze medals and their last game was a win - just not the win they had wanted, even as they would be greeted the following week by a parade on the Champs d'Elysees as they brought home their first silverware in a decade.
[1] Assume my figures for the Group Stage were wrong, and Iceland was the group winner
The hosts welcomed the United States to the Parc des Princes, where they easily dispatched a quickly and clearly overwhelmed American side 2-0, scoring both goals before the 40th minute and then leisurely parking the bus for the remainder of the match. Group A's runner-up in Australia, for its own part, put on a clinic in Saint-Etienne, demolishing Hungary by a 4-1 scoreline aided by a Chris Wood brace that was nowhere near as close as the result would otherwise indicate, shockingly putting an end to what had otherwise been a budding hope of a decent run by long-suffering Mighty Magyar supporters.
Paraguay had looked, potentially, like the best South American team in France in its group stage, defeating Spain and topping its group after a fine performance in a 1-0 loss to a desperate Portugal; Argentina, meanwhile, looked to be punching below her weight in a World Cup yet again. But on a balmy, humid night in Bordeaux, these longstanding South American rivals fought to a draw in regular time, in part due to Gonzalo Higuain's penalty at 72' going off the sidebar, and though Albiceleste supporters were then convinced that the heartbreak endured every four years since 1988 was striking yet again, Argentina would live to fight another day, as both normal and added time ended on the same nil-nil scoreline, and Argentina advanced 4-3 on penalties. Their groupmates would see a similar result; Italy and Portugal met at Saint-Denis in a showdown of two of the highest-ranked teams in the world in what had been thought was a potential final, and the favored Azzurri showed verve in fighting back to a 1-1 draw against Os Azules Reales as Graziano Pelle at 84' rescued Italy's Cup hopes in offsetting Nani's goal from the first half, and advanced 6-5 after Portugal failed to unlock Italy's veteran, famously stout defense for the thirty minutes of added time that followed.
Robert Brady and Wes Hoolahan enjoyed early chances against a Germany that looked rather mortal in Lyon, but failed to convert them and would come to regret that dearly, as Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger scored quickly at 23' and 28' to take command of the match, with Mario Gotze adding a late penalty for good measure. While famed "giant-slayers" Ireland went down to defeat, however, Iceland stunned the world in Liege as they came back from a one goal deficit to dispatch Austria 2-1 [1], keeping their improbable fairy-tale run at the World Cup alive to become one of the great stories of not just the 2016 finals but of all time.
Britain had a long and sorry history of knockout round debacles, especially via way of penalty kicks, with such a method of loss having occurred now in the past four consecutive World Cups, with the most heartbreaking of the losses in 2008 when they had blown a 3-0 lead at the half in the World Cup Final. Old demons were exorcised in Marseille, however, as Britain defeated Colombia - who had knocked them out on penalties in the 2004 quarterfinals - after a 1-1 draw in which James Rodriguez had helped Colombia come back late and had nearly added a game-winner in added time. The Lions had held on, and would survive and advance out of penalty kicks for the first time since 1984, when they took silver in Russia. Groupmates Sweden and Bohemia also saw their match end on a 0-0 draw, a shock as Bohemia's tear through their group had made them overnight surprise favorites to finally take World Cup silverware home; that was alas not to be, as they were dispatched on penalty kicks 4-3 thanks in part to Sweden's stubborn, aggressive defense and what Bohemia supporters would for years afterwards maintain was shoddy refereeing.
Quarterfinals
Despite seeming mediocre for much of the tournament, Argentina found new fire at Saint-Denis as they faced off with France, taking the lead at the 50th minute and the hosts needing a late header from Raymond Balard to take the game to added time, where Olivier Giroud scored on a massive penalty at 116' to take France to the semifinals for the first time since 2004. Britain proved a stiff test for a Germany that had sliced through its competition so far, becoming the only team the entire tournament to prevent a single German goal all game; a Lions side not known for its tough defense managed to frustrate and infuriate Jurgen Klopp's Gegenpresse offense for ninety minutes in a remarkable tactical display by manager Gareth Southgate. On the flipside, Britain failed to find a goal for herself in all of this, with a crucial Harry Kane chance going wide and Wayne Rooney's header deflected out of danger by Manuel Neuer late; and in a grim reminder of World Cups past, Britain found itself staring down the barrel of another penalty kick, where Germany clinically and coolly advanced. German players later admitted that they thought Britain the toughest opponent of the tournament, and in their view the second or third best squad.
Australia, hoping to build off the moment of their 2012 miracle run and 2015 Confederations Cup championship, ran into the brick wall of Azzurri defense, and saw an early lead erased by young phenom Daniele Paolini and their penalty kick efforts snuffed out quickly by goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, with not a single Kickaroo penalty converting. The final quarterfinal, held in Marseille, pitted two Nordic sides against one another in an unlikely matchup of Iceland and Sweden, with the former in the midst of a true miracle run and the latter enjoying possibly her best tournament since the 1992 bronze medal performance. The game ended the only way it could have, becoming the fourth quarterfinal to go to added minutes and the third to head to penalties as two defensively-minded, offensively-challenged sides slugged it out without a goal for two hours, and Sweden returned to their fifth semifinal and first in a quarter-century, ending Iceland's dream run through a slice into the upper right of the net off the foot of captain Andreas Granqvist.
Semi-finals
One of the most famed footballing rivalries of all time is that of France and Germany, and they would connect for a semifinal match to mark the next chapter of said rivalry at Lyon for the semifinal turn. Germany had beaten France in Berlin in the final sixteen years earlier, off the head of Michael Ballack, and France hungered for their own glory on home soil as their archrivals had earned then. It was not to be - Germany jumped out to an early 2-0 lead they never relinquished, and by the end of the match the scoreline was 4-0. It was one of the most humiliating defeats in French sporting history, and ended an otherwise excellent run for the hosts to the point one could hear the silence in the stadium as the game concluded.
Italy and Sweden, for their part, met in their first faceoff at a major tournament since the group stages of Euro 2006 and their first match of real import since the 1992 semifinals, in which they had also met, then in Naples. In a strange twist of fate, the 2016 semifinal match in Saint-Denis between the Azzurri and the Tre Kronor ended on the exact same scoreline - a nil-nil draw at the end of one hundred and twenty minutes, Sweden's third such identical result and the first time that both sides in a semifinal were going to penalties for a third straight time - and, even more eerie, that Italy prevailed on penalties 6-5, just as they had in 1992. They their hopes for an improbable run to the Final were dashed, Sweden took the results as a good omen that they could take bronze off France in Marseille in the third-place game, while Italy dared to hope - in their time advancing not just to the Final but the last four since 1992 - that perhaps history was about to repeat itself as an excellent Germany awaited.
Third Place
Despite hopes that the magic of '92 was repeating itself, Sweden came staggering into the semifinals in Marseille having played a three hundred and sixty minutes of football over the course of the knockout round, compared to merely three hundred for France, and had gone through the psychologically-taxing gruel of two penalty wins and a penalty loss. The team looked clearly gassed even before taking the considerable talent differential into account, and then there was the matter of France, despite having just been run out of their own field in Lyon a few days earlier by their archrivals, being angry and eager to salvage something on home soil on behalf of their loyal fans.
As such, in a rematch of the Euro 2006 final, Sweden was obliterated from the get-go, giving up a goal in the fourth minute and France never looked back, scoring two more later in the game in what can best be described as a lazy but dominant performance. The hosts walked away with bronze medals and their last game was a win - just not the win they had wanted, even as they would be greeted the following week by a parade on the Champs d'Elysees as they brought home their first silverware in a decade.
[1] Assume my figures for the Group Stage were wrong, and Iceland was the group winner
