Brazilian Samba fades away – They scored twice in a 2-1 match (One in the right net and another on the wrong one) but lost versus the pundits mighty favorite’s Belgium.

BBelgium was ahead in the early period with 4 shots and none on goal, but still leading 0-1 courtesy of the own-goal of Fernandinho.
One more at the World Cup in 2018! Unlucky 13th – The Highest ever tally of own-goals in World Cups.

1. Belgium repeated the “phantom of opera” act as they did with Japan, but while they did not come from behind to clinch the victory, they mostly shattered Brazil’s semi-final chance by scoring a photocopy goal of the last one they inflicted on Japan.
   Belgium’s own Samurai display! Honorable and committed but without requiring fussy efforts.
   As we shared multiple times on the live-show, the five-time World Cup winners, Brazil, were inflicted an unbearable pain at an early stage that they could not recover fully from, even though with some “painkillers” they were able to get one back, but the Belgium’s own Mexican Wall, that they build exclusively for this match and for free, was insurmountable.

2. If Croatia beats Russia in tomorrow’s other quarter-final match, we will be having a full semi-finals based on European Teams. 12 Years on since last time that happened. Stats are evidence of it:
   That unlikely event happened in 1934 (Italy, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Austria),
   Then 48 years later in 1982 (Italy, West Germany, Poland and France)
   And with half of the waiting time, 24 years, in 2006 (Italy, France, Germany and Portugal).
   Italy won all of those 3 events, but this time Buffon signed for PSG, foreseeing a potential win of France (lol).

3. Belgium 3rd,
   France 7th,
   England 12th,
   Croatia 20th,
   Sweden 24th,
   Russia 70th.

   Those are the FIFA ranking of the teams still playing at the World Cup.

   Will the continuous run of Belgium’s 24 unbeaten matches stand versus France?

4. A match that might be or might not have been influenced by refereeing decisions for the second time in the tournament – That includes VAR. Highly questionable decisions, but we believe worldwide audience & pundits had a 50/50% views on it.

   Coutinho’s awe-inspiring assist to China’s based Renato Augusto’s goal was the last proud moment for Brazil that saw Courtois to impossibly save what would have been the 2-2. Not this time!!

   Goodbye samba – Hello Waffles, Chocolate and Fries!

5. Brazil 1-2 Belgium
   (Renato Augusto '76 ; Fernandinho '13 og | K. De Bruyne '31)