#zverve

England faced Sweden in 3rd QF of FIFA 2018 world cup.  They had not reached SF since 1990 in Italy. Match started on even terms. Maguire, outstanding once more, broke the deadlock on the half-hour when another England set-piece bore fruit - Leicester City's powerful defender flashing a header past Sweden keeper Robin Olsen from Ashley Young's corner. That gave England the momentum. Sweden hardly looked like getting a goal post that. England defended well. England keeper was brilliant as well as he made a couple of good saves. They reached half time at 0-1. England sealed their victory after 58 minutes when Alli headed in Jesse Lingard's cross at the far post. England had not played like this in FIFA tournament for a long time. To be fair to other teams, they had the best of the draw in league stages, got lucky when Spain and Germany were knocked out early. Draw opened up and they had to face a relatively 2 weak teams in 2nd round and QF. But in both these matches they played their heart out. 17 of 23 players in current England squad were not even born when England last reached world cup SF in 1990. They would definitely start as favorites against Croatia who beat Russia in penalties.

Croatia faced Russia in final QF. It was a brilliant match with both teams literally playing as war is in progress on the field. Denis Cheryshev first-half curler from outside the box gave him his fourth goal of the tournament and one of the best at this World Cup. But only eight minutes later an Andrej Kramaric header amid slack marking brought Croatia level, and after the break Ivan Perisic saw a low shot crash against the post and out across the face of goal as Zlatko Dalic's side began to control the game. Match went to extra time. Croatia took lead in extra time when Vidas cored. Russia bounced back 5 minutes later when Fernandes equalized from Alan Dzagoev's free-kick. Both teams played penalties for 2nd consecutive match. Fernandes who was Russian hero turned out to be villain in penalties as he missed.  That was the decisive spot kick as Croatia won 4-3 in penalties to storm to SF. They played last SF in 1998 when they lost eventual winners France.

In Wimbledon, 8 out of top 10 seeds had lost and still 4th round matches had not started. Pliskova and Halep were the other only players left. Halep lead by a set and 4-3 against Hsieh of Taiwan. Hiseh then bounced back to level the match. Match looked like done and dusted when Halep took 5-2 lead in 3rd set.  But Taiwanese player who is world number 47 shocked everybody when she bounced back to win the set 7-5 and eventually the match. Pliskova is the only player in top 10 still in the draw. Wimbledon is ready to place red carpet to Serena for her 24th slam win with the way current draw is progressing. Kerber is the only player who could challenge her. In Mens championship, Zverev was given another early exit in slam by qualifier Gulbis. Zverev won the 2nd set after Gulbis won the first set tiebreaker. Gulbis lead 5-3 in 3rd set. But Zverev bounced back to win 4 games in a row. It looked like ZVerev would cruise post that. But he ran out of steam. He just won 3 games in last 2 sets. Kyrgios was stunned by Nishikori in straight sets. Djokovic showed local hope Edmund the door. Next gen players have found it tough to reach 2nd week of the slam again. Only Thiem has played with consistency in French open. In other slams, its only veterans who have won. This looks like another slam where rest of 127 players fight to decide who plays Federer in finals. Nadal cruised to 4th round with straights set win over De Minaur. He would face Vesely in 4th round who shocked Fognini in 4 sets. 4th round matches look as below

Federer vs Mannarino

Raonic vs Mcdonald

Nishikori vs Gulbis

Isner vs Tsitsipas

Del Potro vs Simon

Anderson vs Monfils

Djokovic vs Khachanov