When the draw for Brazil 2014 World Cup was made, as usual there were predictions of favourites, groups of deaths, dark horses & no hopers by fans & commentators around the world.
Brazil 2014 has so far turned out to be one of the most exciting in recent memory as match after match predictions are proven wrong!
Defending Champions Spain, the favourites alongside hosts Brazil were one of the first teams to be eliminated after only 2 matches whilst Brazil were lucky to win their opening game vs Croatia & struggled vs a resolute Mexico & unless they beat Cameroon they may not of top the group.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica, the so called no hopers in the group D, the group of death, have beaten both England & Italy & in the process made sure England were eliminated!
At the same time Iran made Argentina struggle & only win thanks to a 92nd wonder goal by Messi. The result should read Messi 1 Iran 0. Australia's Socceroos also gave Holland a mighty scare before succumbing to a 3-2 loss whilst Ghana produced one of the performances of the tournament to hold Germany to a 2-2 draw.
France & Holland on the other hand have impressed with their fluid football whilst undoubtedly Spain, England, Portugal & Russia have been disappointing.
Spain have been found out by fast counter attacking sides. Following the lack of success by Bayern & Barcelona in the Champions League, Spain's failure will further question "Tiki Taka" as an effective system & some commentators are already predicting its total demise.
Amongst the three main picks as the so called dark horses, Chile & Colombia have reaffirmed the tag whilst Belgium look less capable of going far in the tournament.
Here are my prediction for the round of 16th encounters:
Brazil vs Chile
Columbia vs Italy
Croatia vs Holland
Costa Rica vs Ivory Coast
France vs Iran
Germany vs algeria
Argentina vs switzerland
Belgium vs USA
The early departure of Spain, Uruguay (or Italy) , Portugal & England means there is a chance that the first half of the quarter final draw will pair 4 former World Cup winners like this:
Brazil vs Italy
France vs Germany
And the bottom quarter final pairs could be:
Holland vs Costa Rica
Argentina vs Belgium
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