Weekly Football News, June 23, 2014
Portugal remain in the World Cup - just
Portugal escaped with a 2-2 draw against the United States to give them the slimmest of chances of progressing to the round of 16 from Group G.
Five minutes into injury time at the end of the game, second-half substitute Varela bulleted a header from Cristiano Ronaldo's perfect cross to shock the US, who had been on verge of booking a berth in the knockout stages.
Nani scored first for the Portuguese, but goals from Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey looked like decisively sending Jurgen Klinsmann's side through and Portugal out.
Nevertheless, the Portuguese now need a win against Ghana as well as a favourable result from the Germany-United States game.
"The 2-2 doesn't put us out of the World Cup mathematically, but it does leave us in a very difficult situation," said coach Paulo Bento. "Now all we can do is to give everything in our very last game and try and make the most of the very little chance that we have left."
Tiredness no concern for Hazard
Eden Hazard has shrugged off any suggestions of tiredness after an arduous Premier League season with Chelsea following his man-of-the-match performance in Belgium's 1-0 win over an organised Russia side.
Hazard's jinking run and cross for Divock Origi's winner two minutes from time proved to be the difference between the sides in a slow-paced game in Rio.
The 23-year-old, who played 49 games for Chelsea this season, scoring 17 goals, on the way to being voted the country's best young player, also provided a valuable assist for Dries Mertens' winning goal in his team's first game of the tournament, a 2-1 win against Algeria in Belo Horizonte.
Hazard said: "I feel good. I've been trying to make a difference, and often I end up doing that at the end of matches - that proves that I feel fresh."
Belgium, who top Group H, now have the luxury of resting players such as Hazard for the final pool match against South Korea.
Algeria 'almost perfect': Halilhodzic
Algeria blew away South Korea with three goals in 13 first-half minutes to run away 4-2 winners in Porto Alegre.
The Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic made five changes from the side that lost to Belgium 2-1, and his surprise line-up certainly caught South Korea cold in the first-half.
The North Africans took a deserved lead after 26 minutes when Islam Slimani showed greater determination than the Korean defenders to latch onto a long ball.
Soon after, Rafik Halliche headed home Nabil Bentaleb's corner and then Abdelmoumene Djabou heaped further misery on the out-of-sorts Koreans when he swept home Slimani's clever pass.
"I would like to dedicate this victory to the fans who were here and the Algerian people back home who have waited a long time for this victory. It means a lot to us all," said Halilhodzic.
"Today the team played to its strengths. I told the players to keep it tight for the first 15 minutes and I felt that did extremely well and effectively in the first half.
"It was almost perfect."
Shaw inclusion continues England's focus on the future
England full-back Luke Shaw will become the national side's second-youngest World Cup participant if he starts against Costa Rica tomorrow in place of Leighton Baines.
Baines, the Everton defender whose form forced manager Roy Hodgson to omit Ashley Cole from the England squad for Brazil, misses the final group match because of a hamstring injury.
Baines' absence means 18-year-old Shaw will be handed his first competitive start for England, becoming the second youngest player to play for the Three Lions at a World Cup behind former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen.
The inclusion of Shaw is expected to be one of several changes by Hodgson, with Frank Lampard set to captain the side in his farewell World Cup appearance.
"If you interpret that as planning for the future I would understand but basically it's not planning the future and it's certainly not sentiment," said Hodgson.
"I'm making certain a group of players I personally believe have done everything they possibly could to give us some success on the field, coming home far too early and bitterly disappointed, get a chance at least to say 'that I wasn't just there for the ride'."
Compiled by Marc Fox
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