Groups E and F headline group stage action on Wednesday with four matches taking place across Russia.
Six teams are battling for four places in the Round of 16 while two teams look to spoil the party.
Mexico’s clash with Sweden is one of two matches to kick off the day, as both sides are still alive in Group D. El Tri is coming off of a 2-1 win over South Korea while Sweden fell to Germany, 2-1, in heartbreaking fashion.
Germany also remains alive heading into their final match against South Korea. A Toni Kroos free kick in stoppage time on Saturday helped the Germans down the Swedes. South Korea is still alive, though, but results will need to go their way.
Group E sees three teams remaining in the race for advancing with Brazil, Serbia, and Switzerland all alive. Brazil’s clash with Serbia is the main course this afternoon with both teams coming off opposite results. Brazil beat Costa Rica, 2-0, last Friday, while Serbia fell to the Swiss, 2-1.
Switzerland faces off with the already eliminated Ticos looking to advance into the knockout stage. Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri helped the Swiss to an important come-from-behind win over Serbia last Friday.
The SBI Editorial Staff will be providing live commentary on today’s matches and would like you to join the fun. Feel free to join us and comment along in the section below.
Enjoy the action.
the final group g games will play out tomorrow at 2 pm, heavy-weights belgium-england and already-eliminated panama-tunisia.
mexico’s opponent on july 2 in the round of 16 will be (gasp!) brazil. and sweden’s opponent on july 3 will be switzerland.
fivethirtyeight.com
brazil is now in 1st in group e with 7 points, switzerland is in 2nd with 5 points, serbia is in 3rd with 3 points and costa rica are last with 1 point.
fivethirtyeight.com
93rd minute, serbia’s wc is almost over
and three whistles means full time in moscow! final score brazil 2-0 serbia.
shot serbia! a powerful strike but in the wrong zip code and the package wasn’t delivered
serbia try several times to build an attack
89th minute, brazil 2-0 serbia in moscow
the fanciful dancing in the magical land of the mouse king continues in moscow
as the brazil fans chant something that sounds like “neymar, neymar”
84th minute, brazil 2-0 serbia in moscow
if these results stand, brazil will be 1st with 7 points, switzerland will be 2nd with 5 points, serbia will be in 3rd with 3 and the already-eliminated costa rica will be 4th with 1 point.
a spinning shot attempt by serbia is cleared harmlessly
one lucky fan got the game ball about half way up the first level. that’s a keeper!
brazil are dancing with the ball in the serbia box, the mouse king is neymar.
76th minute, brazil 2-0 serbia in moscow
brazil are like mice (are we back to the nutcracker again?) and the ball is like a ball of string. brazil are in complete control suddenly, just toying with serbia.
brazil shot! a powerful, low blast was stopped well by the serbia keeper. BUT HE COULDN’T HOLD ON TO IT. serbia were lucky the rebound didn’t fall to brazil.
brazil shot! weak, deflected but the build up was excellent.
70th minute, brazil 2-0 serbia in moscow
GOAL BRAZIL!!!
corner kick and a powerful header beats the serbia keeper in the 68th minute
shot serbia! just peppering the brazil goal with shots now. wow!
two more shots by serbia! it’s mayhem in the brazil box, what on earth is going on there??
Costa Rica finally scores and ties Switzerland 1-1. Why couldn’t they have played like this, and as we have seen them in CONCACAF qualifying in the first two games?
this eases the pressure on serbia a little bit
Serbia still need to win.
shot serbia!
a surprising, close range header by serbia in the 61st minute almost catches brazil napping!
59th minute, brazil 1-0 serbia in moscow
shot brazil! two brazil players on the fast break, neymar’s shot was stopped by the keeper, but it looked a little threatening for a moment there.
serbia MUST WIN or their world cup ends right here (i’m pretty sure)
53rd minute, brazil 1-0 serbia in moscow
32-year-old Bryan Ruiz converts a stoppage time penalty for Costa Rica to tie the game with the Swiss. Too little too late for another CONCACAF country. it was going to be a rough World Cup for CONCACAF, but the no show by CR in the first two games hurts our region.
a low cross by brazil is cleared out