The opening 20 minutes of Mexico versus Brazil couldn’t have gone any better from an El Tri perspective. Carlos Vela and Andres Guardado were finding joy on the left with Fagner looking set for a nightmare. Chucky looked dangerous. But more importantly, Philippe Coutinho and Neymar hardly got a sniff of the ball with Rafa Marquez, Edson Alvarez and Hugo Ayala all taking turns putting the Brazilians on their backs.
Miguel Layún came on at halftime for Mexico and immediately set about making life difficult for Neymar. After a handful of physical challenges between the two, the El Tri defender stepped on the Brazilian No. 10 on the sidelines. Should red have been shown for the Layun stomp on Neymar? Or did the latter deserve red for flopping around like a dead fish?
Who is Chucky Lozano? Mexico’s Hirving "Chucky" Lozano is, like France’s Kyllian Mbappé, one of this World Cup’s rising stars.
But where did he come from and where is he headed?
Hirving Lozano came out of Club Pachuca’s football academy. The institution has been a cradle for young Mexican talent, forging the likes of Héctor Herrera, Jürgen Damm, Rodolfo Pizarro and Erick Gutiérrez.
If you thought watching Javier Mascherano hurry and hassle France’s trio of Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante was a fascinating but doomed exercise pitting a warrior of yesteryear against the game’s brightest talents, boy, do we have another cracker for you: it’s 39-year-old RAFA MARQUEZ shielding Mexico’s back four against Neymar, Philippe Coutinho and Paulinho. Let’s get it on!
Can Mexico reach the quinto partido? They will have to beat a staked Brazil team to get there but this World Cup has shown that anything is possible. Beligum will try to keep their hot form against Japan.
For all the love players like Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo receive, for all the fans of Brazil, Germany and France, there is nothing like an underdog succeeding on the world’s biggest stage. As proof, we present to you the biggest World Cup upsets in 2018.
The appeal of the World Cup comes in a variety of flavors. There’s the excitement of watching the world’s best players go head-to-head as they compete for ultimate glory. But there’s also the joy of seeing teams from smaller, non-traditional footballing nations going up against the tournament favorites.
With all of the group stage matches finished, the attention now focuses on the Round of 16. This next stage will now see the loser eliminated from the World Cup. Harsh, we know. But that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Here's the World Cup Round of 16 schedule with the dates, times and the stadium it will be played at. Strap yourself in, because the World Cup is about to get even better.