FULL TIME, Uruguay 2-1 Portugal: Uruguay are through! What a spectacular effort by the South Americans, and both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been knocked out of the World Cup on the same day. That’s incredible, and now it’s Luis Suárez who will try his luck against the French juggernaut.
GOAL! URUGUAY 2-1 Portugal (Cavani 62’): Uruguay are back in the lead! A long ball from the goalkeeper falls to Bentancur, who gives the ball to Cavani at the edge of the box and the striker curls a spectacular ball into the opposite corner to put his team ahead.
GOAL! Uruguay 1-1 PORTUGAL (Pepe 55’): Corner for Portugal, and Pepe heads home the equalizer early in the second half. We’ve got a game, y’all!
SECOND HALF KICKOFF! Uruguay 1-0 Portugal: Let’s finish the job, Luis!
HALFTIME, Uruguay 1-0 Portugal: This has been as physical as expected, with a lot of hard fouls and a few bookings. Suárez has been tremendous in the first half, making a beautiful assist and bothering the Portuguese defense throughout the first 45 minutes.
GOAL! URUGUAY 1-0 Portugal (Cavani 7’): URUGUAY TAKE AN EARLY LEAD! The deadly duo up top combines for a great goal as Luis Suárez plays a sensational cross into Cavani who heads home the opener!
KICKOFF! Uruguay 0-0 Portugal: COME ON, LUIS!!!!!
LINEUPS
URUGUAY
Starting XI: Muslera; Cáceres, Giménez, Godín, Laxalt; Nández, Torreira, Vecino; Bentancur; Suárez, Cavani
Bench: Campaña (GK), Silva (GK), Varela, Silva, Pereira, Coates, Sánchez, Rodríguez, De Arrascaeta, Stuani, Gómez, Urretaviscaya
PORTUGAL
Starting XI: Rui Patrício; Ricardo, Pepe, Fonte, Guerreiro; Bernardo, William, Adrien, João Mário; Guedes, Ronaldo
Bench: Lopes (GK), Beto (GK), Bruno Alves, Ruben Dias, Mário Rui, Cedric, Manuel Fernandes, João Moutinho, Quaresma, Bruno Fernandes, André Silva, Gelson Martins
The World Cup Round of 16 is here! We have eight fantastic matchups with big nations looking for a quarterfinal place, and one of the most anticipated games of this phase is the one we’ll see tonight.
The Fisht Stadium in Sochi will be the home of Uruguay vs Portugal, which should produce fireworks in every sense of the word. These two teams are defensively solid, very physical and with one world-class striker that could win a game at any moment. Uruguay have Luis Suárez (and Edinson Cavani), and Portugal have Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yes, the Barcelona and Real Madrid superstars will dominate the headlines of this one, and deservedly so. But there’s so much more to look forward to. These teams hate possession and love intense, physical play at all times, so we could see quite a few yellow cards and not a lot of goals. Maybe one goal is enough to win this, and both teams have a world-class scorer of goals.
So yeah, this will be fun, and I simply cannot imagine which team Barcelona fans will be supporting here. Just kidding, we all want Portugal to win. RIGHT???????????
Anyway, LET’S LIVE BLOG (when the team news come out)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MATCH INFO
Date/Time: Saturday, June 30, 2018, 8pm CET (Barcelona), 7pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 2pm EST, 11am PST (USA), 11.30pm IST (India)
Venue: Fisht Stadium, Sochi
HOW TO WATCH, STREAM WORLD CUP
How to watch on TV: FOX (USA), ITV 1 (UK), SuperSport 3 (Nigeria), Sony ESPN (India), TSN (Canada), others
How to stream: ITV Hub (UK), TSN GO (Canada), FuboTV (7-day free trial, click here to sign up)
Matchday Thread Rules
We don’t have a lot of rules here, but there are a few things to keep in mind when joining our matchday threads:
Even if the referee sucks or we lose the game, no swearing. It’s just unnecessary. Also, don’t discuss illegal streaming links. Those who do will be warned, and those who post links will be banned. Finally, be nice to each other. This is a Barcelona community and we don’t need to offend one another, especially when it’s the World Cup.
Have fun with the game! Forever and ever, no matter the competition, VISCA EL BARÇA!