Crawley Town Lost

In League Two CRAWLEY TOWN lost 2-0 at home to Hartlepool and picked up their 8^th blank of the season. They have now lost 10 of their 21 league games.

Argentina Play Croatia in Semi-Finals.

CROATIA played BRAZIL in the first game of the quarter-finals with high hopes that Brazil will beat Croatia. In the first half, both teams did well in attacking and defending and it was 0-0 after the first half. In the second half it was Brazil that did most of the attacking but they did not somehow have the finish that we are used to see. So the game ended 0-0 and into extra time. Brazil came out fighting in the first half and Croatia did have a couple of chances to go in the lead but it was Brazil that scored in the 105 minute by Neymar which is his second of the tournament. Somehow after their goal Brazil came off the boil and it was Croatia that put the pressure on and they equalised in the 117 minute of extra time through Petkovic. The result after extra time stood at 1-1. Penalties followed in which with another shock to the World Cup Croatia go through to the semi-finals 4-2 on penalties. Croatia are on a total of 6 goals which Brazil are out with a total of 8 goals.

Brazil have been in all of our nine World Cups and their best score came in the Korea/Japan 2002 where they netted a total of 18 goals and they became World Champions once again. In Russia 2018 they finished with 8 goals and went out the in quarter-finals. Their average total scored in a World cup is 10 goals. 

The NETHERLAND played ARGENTINA in the other game and the game started off in a more of a faster pace. It was Argentina that scored first in the 35^th minute from Molina and that’s how it stood at half time. Messi scored from a penalty in the 73^rd minute in the second half, which is his 4^th of the tournament. Netherland never gave up in this game and they started to come back at Argentina with a goal in the 83^rd minute from Weghorst. The Netherlands scored in the very last minute of injury time in the 90+11 minutes through Weghorst again to claim his second goal of the tournament. So the game ended 2-2 in a thrilling game. But someone has to go home and penalties followed. That team was the Netherlands as they lost 4-3 on penalties to Argentina. Argentina are now on a total of 9 goals and they will play Croatia in the semi-finals.

Netherlands are in their 7^th World cup with us and their best score in a World Cup is 15 goals in Brazil 2014. That was the last time that we had them in Golden Goals and they went out in the 3^rd/4^th play-offs, beating Brazil 3-0. The Netherlands average World Cup score is 9 goals.

Gillingham in Next Round

In another FA CUP 2^nd round replay, GILLINGHAM had drawn 1-1 away to Dagenham & Redbridge in their first attempt but they made sure of going through to the next round as they win 3-2 at home. Gillingham with their biggest result of the season, have now taken their goals tally up to 15.

Stockport Win Replay

In the FA CUP 2^nd round replay, STOCKPORT COUNTY drew 2-2 against CHARLTON in their first meeting and so this replay was all to play for. It was Stockport that went through to the next round after they beat Charlton 3-1 at home. Stockport are now on a total of 39 goals and they have now scored in all of their last six games. Charlton picked up goal number 40.

Top Fifteen After Second Round

Here is how the table stands after all of our teams that were left in the Second Round, have now played and your scores have been added on. You will see that I have printed a red number in brackets against your name. This number indicates the number of teams that you have left in the Qatar World Cup 2022 Quarter-finals. The good news is that most of us have some still in with three or even four teams in the Quarter-finals but just to re-cap on our rules that extra time goals DO count, but penalty shoot out’s DON’T!

                      SECOND     FIRST                                              GOALS

                  ROUND     STAGE      NAME                            TOTAL 

                                 1                  5             D. HARRINGTON (4)        38        

                           2             1             B. BARNES (2) (2)             36

                           3             18           J. BLYTH (4)                      36

                           4             10           R. WOOD (4)                      36

                           5             2             LUCIFER (3)                       35

                           6             3             T. KING (3)                        34

                           7             12           M. LIDDLE (4)                   34

                           8             27           S. STUBBS (4)                    34

                           9             17           B. BARNES (1) (3)             33

                           10           6             M. LAVER (3)                    33

                           11           14           D. MORBEY (3)                 32

                           12           24           R. NETTING (3)                 32

                           13           8             AMANDA STUBBS (3)      32

                           14           4             S. REEVE (2)                      31

                           15           25           C. SETFORD (4)                 31  

Our best teams that we have in the 2022 World Cup after the second round games have been played. They are.

ENGLAND (12) PORTUGAL (12) FRANCE (9) SPAIN (9) total of 42 goals

In this second round, we have collected a total of 110 goals. In the last Golden Goals World Cup we reached a total of 96 goals from the second round games.

SPAIN holds the current record for the highest score with that 7-0 win over Costa Rica in Group E in their opening game.

BELGIUM, DENMARK, TUNISIA and WALES finished as our worst teams as they have all scored just 1 goal in their three games in the first round.

Canada's Alphonso Davies has scored the fastest goal in Group F against Croatia, when they lost 4-1 in their second game in the first round. It took him just 68 seconds.

Top goal scorer in Qatar 2022 is Kylian Mbappe from France with 5 goals. We then have 9 players with 3 goals each.

We had one player that picked up the highest score after the second round games with a total of 16 goals. They are James Blyth who has Brazil, France, Netherlands and Portugal.

As you can see from the table above, that Danny Harrington is now in the lead after the second round. Danny’s teams are Argentina, Brazil, England and Portugal.

The Quarter-Final games are as follows

NETHERLAND v ARGENTINA, CROATIA v BRAZIL will be played on 9^th Dec

ENGLAND v FRANCE, Morocco v PORTUGAL will be played on 10^th Dec

Morocco and Portugal are in Quarter-Finals

It’s the last day for the second round games with Morocco who were winners of Group F playing SPAIN runners up in Group E with 8 votes. There is not much to report on the first half as both side missed chances of taking the lead. Evenly match, the score at half time was 0-0 and all to play for in the second half. The second half and you must give Morocco some credit for keeping Spain at bay. You had that feeling that after an hour play, that this game was going into extra time and even penalties. The game did liven up in the last ten minutes and the added injury time but extra time was needed. Watching the extra time was like watching a different game. Both teams were eager to win as both had great chances for scoring.  But we finished with our first goalless game in this season round. In the penalty shootout I have never seen such bad penalties being taken. What a shocker but Spain go out as Morocco win 3-0 on penalties and, for the first time in their history, they are through to the quarter-finals. Spain had only won one of their games in the first round which is the tournaments biggest score to date when they beat Costa Rica 7-0 in their opening game. Spain go home with a total of 9 goals. They are in their 9^th World Cup with us and their best total in the World Cup is 10 goals. They have done that twice in USA 1994 and in South Africa 2002. They went out in the Russian 2018 World Cup also in the second round with 7 goals. 

In the other game of the day PORTUGAL winners of Group H with 12 votes had to play SWITZERLAND runners up in Group G with just 1 vote. This was a very different game as both side raced from end to end with Portugal having more shots on target than Switzerland. So it is no surprise that Portugal scored first in the 17^th minute from Goncalo Ramos his first of the tournament. Portugal went 2-0 up after Pepe scored in the 33^rd minute. Switzerland did counter attacked straight after the Portugal’s goal but it was cleared off the line. Half time score is 2-0 to Portugal. The second half was more of the same as Portugal scored in the 51^st, 55^th through Ramos to get his hat-trick and Guerreiro in the 67^th minutes. Even one of their subs scored in the Leao in the 90+2 minutes. Switzerland did score a goal in the 58^th minute by Akanji. A great game as Portugal picked up their biggest score of the tournament, by winning 6-1. They have doubled their goals tally to 12. Switzerland have finished with a total of 5 goals. 

After the second round games have now all been played and we have just 7 nations left in the World Cup. We have now taken our goals total to 110. At this stage in Russia 2018 we had a total of 96 goals from 18 teams.

Croatia and Brazil are in Quarter-Finals

Japan who was winners of Group E played CROATIA runners up in Group F with 4 votes. There seemed to be no urgency in this game with either team, although I would have put Japan on points for the entertainment. Each team was breaking up each of their attacks but there was always a chance of a goal and it came from Japan’s Maeda in the 43^rd minute. Half time 1-0 to Japan. In the second half Croatia did start to have more of the ball and they equalised in the 55^th minute through Perisic. That is how the game finished after 90 minutes 1-1. The first game to have extra time and the headlock remained one a piece. In the penalty shootout which followed Croatia won 3-1. Croatia scored their 5^th goal of the tournament. 

In the other game of the day BRAZIL winners of Group G with 31 votes had to play South Korea runners up in Group H. Brazil came straight out of the starting blocks in this game and they scored in the Vinicius Junior in the 7^th minute of play. Not long after that Brazil scored their second through a penalty in the 13^th minute. Not quite sure if it was a penalty. No involvement with VAR this time. The penalty was scored by Neymar. Although the South Korean’s did try and come back against Brazil, it was game over when Brazil struck again by Richarlison in the 29^th minute. That is his 3^rd goal of the tournament. The poor Korean’s could not stop the fast flow of the Brazilians as they score their 4^th in the 36^th minute by Lucas Paqueta. At half-time Brazil are winning 4-0. In the second half, Brazil are right back into the thick of it, but it was the Korean’s that scored the last goal of the night in the 76^th minute by Paik Seung-ho and what a cracking goal it was. Brazil did have a fantastic game but they took their foot off the pedal once the Korean’s had scored. Final result, Brazil win 4-1 and they are on a total of 7 goals. Brazil will play Croatia on 9^th December in the Quarter-Finals.