WTG Gareth... surreal..... he prepared them for this and that was a shocker when Colombia scored.

Can I breathe now?? It's not this....

Sweden has been a close equal to England when they play... as of now, hard to say, Sweden has played very very well.......

Colombia got the goal and got the momentum....but England wrestled it back I think in those last 15 minutes... more opportunities.....

Dodged a bullet from Colombia, hell, how'd that happen....????

Unofficially, 5 yellows for Colombia, 2 for England.....Henderson and Lingard

  GO ENGLAND!!! 1-0

Losing to Germany actually probably helped the Swedes a lot...

Size comes up again. I really don't care and I don't know where one draws the line at being "short" and ma;ybe the times have changed,  Maradona certainly wasn't tall, Pele was not too tall either.

Pele 1.73 M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelé

Maradona 1.65 M https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Maradona

So, though I recognize the tall and big advantage, being small has to have some advantages, being lighter on the feet though, it certainly does not pan out in international football.  Could it? You'd have to say, Japan certainly made a go at it. Maybe they are lacking in other places rather than just a simplistic analysis.

Look at that goalkeeping by Japan, Kawashima, win or lose, their effort and commitment has to earn them a lot of respect......against Panama I believe, it took Belgium a while to turn the jets on..... they are getting the better of play now, but we will see. This match has gone in waves.....

Fellaini header, 2-2, this is some game. Belgium back in business......

Red Devils get one back 2-1

Belgium has not been able to get over the hump, they are said to be set and good for WC 2014, the last Euro, but haven't done it yet.... lots of time left.... Japan an unknown quantity to many...

Blue Samurai, Belgium's much better, Colombia's much better but someone didn't tell them.

It's water under the bridge, I don't care... but straight-up from yesterday's Spain/Russia game, I really do think two of the Spaniards were taken down on the corner kick by Russian players and that could have been a penalty.  The referee doesn't want to decide the game and maybe the referee is correct in that. Russia certainly deserve the win.

To call a penalty in these knockout rounds, perhaps it needs to be very flagrant as in that yesterday versus Croatia.

Except for Mexico's first match vs. Germany, they've been rather tentative since.... and too bad the Mexican player did that dirty play....not as if Brazil's a stranger to these kinds of acts.....

Fine Goal, Brazil 1-0 early in the 2nd....

Mexico has played Brazil many times. Mexico may play up to the opposition I think.....they'll be up for this. 

I'd go with Mexico.  They seem to be good lads.... except for Rafael Marquez who I believe they said is starting....he's been in some hot water. MXC 2-1.

Japan/Belgium, who knows? After those two fine matches yesterday....I wrote down 2-1 Belgium to win....

Update: 0-0 AGAIN at half.... at this rate, it would be a draw obv..... Mexico starting out attacking, Brazil getting some licks in....the lack of goals is a bit disappointing.....difficult to see Brazil winning this at this rate,  Mexico perhaps.

I thought the choke was in for Croatia, avoided a nightmare....

Once in the African Cup of Nations, two of those teams really hit up near 20 penalty kicks, Ivory Coast and maybe it was Cameroon.

Danes gave a good game.....

It's strange people say "if the defender was going for the ball",  I've only seen one real replay, he doesn't get to it but it does seem he gets close.

Midlands

Just now, Ewood Ace said:

How is that not a red card? He took him out from behind as he was about to roll the ball into an empty net.

It makes one wonder if the Croat should have taken a shot as soon as he could, he was going to almost walk it up to the net....this is sure some sort of deja vu with Croatia it seems to me. They might be a bit unnerved in a shootout.

BLAST IT,  PK blocked by goalkeeper, dang....

Sure goal, tackle, Croatian player would have scored.... hope they can make it, Croatia. PK

There's usually lots (relatively) of shootouts in the knockout games.

With that one goal, even if it is an own-goal,  this game already seems to be over with.

Russia, like Canada, ice hockey powers. I wonder why it doesn't translate into better national football teams with that kind of a talent pool.