Croatia surely must have felt that they deserved a bigger scoring margin. A dozen minutes in and Croatia had their second. Perisic's header was weakly blocked by a defender on the post, so a rebound was relinquished and Eduardo made no mistake with his finish. With little more than a quarter hour left, Wales survived a scare. Eduardo headed a cross off the crossbar and then Price made a save off Mandzukic and prevented an Eduardo tap-in. Croatia made the tactical mistake of not playing more defensively and it nearly cost them as Wales winger Gareth Bale run a one-man counterattack through three defenders, but goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa was there to save their blushes.
Skopje was the selected site for Macedonia as they laid out the welcome mat for Serbia. Serbia were the favorites, but they came out flat and never picked up their level of play. Nevertheless, they had the only chances in the first half. However, they would waste them all. The half ended 0-0.
The match turned on a foul in minute 57. Serbia's Nenad Tomovic was shown a straight red in the penalty area for a shirt pull as the last defender. The resulting penalty kick was converted, and Macedonia had a 1-0 lead with a man advantage. They would have double it were it not for a timely block Milan Bisevac ten minutes later. With five minutes to go, Serbia's Aleksandar Ignjovski fired from just outside the penalty area, but Macedonia goalkeeper Tome Pacovski set the ball to himself for the catch. Macedonia win 1-0.
Belgium knew a win at home in Brussels over struggling Scotland would lift them into first place alongside Croatia. Two minutes in and Scotland's back line were all ready faltering. Gary Caldwell was dispossessed by Dries Mertens, but his goalkeeper Allan McGregor was there to pick up the pieces with a flurry of three saves. McGregor made at least seven saves in the first quarter of the match. Shaun Maloney had a chance for Scotland on a curling free kick, but McGregor's counterpart Thibaut Courtois made a leaping save to keep the affair level on zero goals apiece. With less than five minutes on the clock, Courtois made another fine sprawling save to deny a Kris Commons free kick that was bent around the wall.
Belgium were reborn as their dominant selves in the second period, but an early opportunity was headed onto the top of the crossbar from within the six-yard box by Christian Benteke. A Kevin de Bruyne cross provided Benteke with a redo twenty minute after his earlier miss, and this time Benteke made no mistake with a clinical headed finish. Belgium center back Vincent Kompany then made himself out to be a center forward as he joined the attack, juked his man back and forth, and unleashed a powerful strike for Belgium's second goal four minutes after their first. Belgium win 2-0.
Belgium 10 pts +7
Croatia 10 pts +4
Serbia 4 pts +1
Macedonia 4 pts -1
Wales 3 pts -8
Scotland 2 pts -3
Goals
Croatia
Mario Mandzukic 27
Eduardo 58
Macedonia
Agim Ibraimi 59 PK
Belgium
Christian Benteke 69
Vincent Kompany 71
Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1785746/index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19974731
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1785769/index.html
http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/253504/report
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1785805/index.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2218672/Belgium-2-Scotland-0--match-report-Craig-Levein-hurtling-sack.html
Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Zd578CWVk (Croatia v. Wales)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qui41BKwvZI (Macedonia v. Serbia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5CYp6wY4U (Belgium v. Scotland)
No comments:
Post a Comment