1. Referees need to be braver
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“THE REFEREE IS a human being and is bound to make mistakes, but a lot of mistakes is questionable,” raged coach Stephen Keshi after Nigeria’s controversial loss to France earlier.
And it was hard not to sympathise to a degree with Keshi to a degree, as France were the beneficiaries of a number of poor decisions in the game.
It was as if American referee Mark Geiger was determined to avoid making big calls – Blaise Matuidi only received a yellow card for a horror tackle on Ogenyi Onazi, while Olivier Giroud’s elbow on John Mikel Obi similarly went unpunished.
Moreover, Nigeria should have had at least one penalty, as Patrice Evra blatantly tugged back Peter Odemwingie in the box.
It would be unfair to single out Geiger however, as officials’ reluctance to make big calls is something that has characterised this World Cup and football in general for quite some time.
2. France class prevails eventually
On paper, France have unquestionably the better team man-for-man compared with Nigeria.
Nevertheless, they struggled to deal with the African side’s energy and physicality for much of the earlier parts of Monday’s game, and were ultimately somewhat fortunate to prevail owing to those aforementioned contentious refereeing decisions.
Yet their class eventually told — an individual error from Enyeama helped them on their way, but the classy touches of Benzema and Pogba among others eventually told and became increasingly prominent as the game developed, ultimately seeing off the dogged Nigerians.
And indeed, it has already been a recurring theme in this round of 16 — a noble effort from the underdogs falls just short, as the big guns sneak a win.
3. Football’s a cruel game
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Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama has generally been one of the standout goalkeepers of the tournament so far, making a string of impressive saves, and Monday evening against France was no exception.
It’s a shame therefore that the goalkeeper’s one mistake will surely forever be remembered as the moment that cost his team dearly.
Enyeama flapped badly at a ball played into the box, allowing Paul Pogba to head into the empty net and send France on their way to victory.
At 31, it’s unlikely that the Lille goalkeeper will get another chance to represent his country at the World Cup finals — it is consequently and sadly almost destined to remembered as his own inglorious ‘Packie Bonner moment’.
4. Results are all that matter
“There is a saying in the United States for coaching called ‘survive and advance’ and today we survived,” said Germany assistant manager Oliver Bierhoff after they were made to work for to a 2-1 win over Algeria.
They may have bossed possession but in terms in terms of free-scoring attacking play, this German performance was a far cry from the one which saw them put four unanswered goals past Portugal in their opening group game.
The introduction of Andre Schurrle certainly made the difference and the Chelsea man scored his fifth goal in as many competitive international matches at the start of extra-time before the out-of-sorts Mesut Ozil chipped in with a second and Abdelmoumene Djabou claimed a late consolation.
We’d have preferred to win in 90 minutes, but the Algerians did a good job,” added Schurrle. ”We don’t care how we did it, the main thing is we’re in the quarter-finals.”
Algeria, playing in the knockout stages for the first time, deserve a huge amount of credit for how they have acquitted themselves in Brazil but Germany progress to face France in the quarter-finals.
5. Neuer excels in sweeper keeper role
Algerian goalkeeper Raïs M’Bohli had a superb game between the posts last night and was handed the official man-of-the-match award by FIFA but his opposite number Manuel Neuer was equally impressive in not one but two positions on the pitch.
With the Germans playing a high defensive line and Algeria looking to utilise their pace by catching them on the counter attack, the Bayern Munich stopper was called upon to dash out from his goal and regularly fill in as a ‘sweeper keeper’.
Islam Slimani caused plenty of problems for the cumbersome Per Mertesacker and his defensive partner Jerome Boateng and, although it’s a dangerous game to play, Neuer’s timing was impeccable as he mopped up with an incredible 19 touches outside his box on the night.
