Day 13: Argentina rises from the ashes

A lot of drama yesterday night in Group D. With Argentina playing all or nothing against Nigeria and Iceland lurking in the background to steal the second place, spectacle was ensured in advance.

In his search for the right system, coach Sampaoli tried yet another formation. This time he tried to copy Barcelona's tactics, a 4-4-2 with Messi and Higuaín- preferred to Aguero- as strikers. Goalkeeper Caballero was replaced as well. There was a lot of pressure on Argentina and that was visible in their build-up play, with z lot of simple passes going wrong. But in desperate times, you need your leader to step up and Messi did just that. Around the 15th minute he slipped through the defense, controlled a pass from Banega perfectly and hit the ball out of reach for goalkeeper Uzoho. Messi directed the play like everyone had been waiting for him to do in the previous matches. He offered Higuaín a good opportunity and almost scored the second goal himself, but his free kick was saved by Uzoho with great help from the post. Nigeria offered little to nothing in the first half so the lead for Argentina at the break was not brilliant, but deserved. Iceland-Croatia was scoreless at the break, so there seemed light at the end of the tunnel for Argentina. The sky quickly turned dark again when Mascherano held Balogun in the box. There have been more obvious fouls not given in this World Cup but the VAR did not hesitate to intervene. Moses converted the penalty and Nigeria was through with this score. The goal was hard for Argentina and their team threatened to fall apart again. Nigeria had the best opportunity with Ndidi and when Rojo headed the ball on his own arm, there where shouts for a second penalty, but they were denied this time. Higuaín wasted a golden opportunity and when all hope seemed to have gone, Mercado found Rojo in the box and the defender finished it off with a volley you normally see from the best strikers. The euphoria was huge by Argentina- Diego Maradonna couldn't keep his middle fingers down in the stands- but an Iceland victory could still spoil the party. Croatia did their job professionally and beat Iceland with 2-1 thanks to goals from Badelj and Perisic. A Germany-esque escape from Argentina, they slipped through the eye of a needle as we would say it in Dutch.

All this spectacle and drama Group D offered, was completely absent in Group C earlier on the day. France and Denmark had the honor to play the first goalless match of the World Cup. After 38 matches, that is a record. Both teams didn't seem interested in getting a win. A draw ensured that France were the group winners and Denmark qualified as second team. The result meant it actually didn't matter what Australia would have done against Peru. But the Socceroos failed to do their job and lost with 2-0. Peru found their reward for their adventurous play and got their first World Cup victory since 1978, when they beat Iran 4-1 (some free trivia you can impress with on your next party).

We still have to wait for France's first impressive performance on this World Cup. Will it arrive against Argentina in the round of 16 or has Argentina's faith taken a decisive turn of fortune? In the other round of 16 match between these groups, I don't think many people will argue that Croatia are favorites to beat Denmark.