Hello and welcome to
Sports Mole's live news coverage from the 16th day of the
World Cup.
For the first day in this tournament, we are without a game! What are we going to do with ourselves? Fortunately, there is still plenty of news coming from
Brazil, mainly involving Luis Suarez, but team news ahead of the last-16 fixtures has already started to come through and there is a big blow for Argentina. Below, we've picked out three stories that have dominated the headlines over the past 10 hours.
Chiellini: 'Suarez ban is excessive'
Suarez returns to Uruguay
Aguero ruled out of Switzerland clash
Last night saw
Algeria earn their place in the last 16 of a World Cup finals for the first time in their history after they earned a 1-1 draw against Russia. Striker Islam Slimani, who netted the all-important equaliser, has admitted that seeing his team progress past the group stage is a
"dream come true".
Chile get the knockout stages underway on Saturday evening when they go up against hosts Brazil, and winger Alexis Sanchez is excited to be facing a team of "impressive quality". However, the Barcelona attacker has revealed that he is
concerned about the performance of English official Howard Webb.
Netherlands have impressed everyone after progressing through a group containing Spain,
Chile and Australia with three wins to their name, but they are likely to face tough test when they face
Mexico on Sunday. You can read our preview, while also catching the thoughts of the
Sports Mole team,
here.
Brazil striker Fred hasn't enjoyed the most successful of tournaments from a personal perspective, but he believes that he has found a way to get the better of Chile on Saturday - target their
lack of height.
When the draw for the World Cup was made last December, I'm sure that many of you didn't have
Costa Rica playing
Greece in the second round, but that's exactly what will be happening in Recife on Sunday evening. You can catch our preview of the game by clicking
here.
The England squad have been only been home for a couple of days but it hasn't stopped two of the younger members of the squad being associated with moves to a Premier League giant. Southampton defender Luke Shaw has
completed his £30m move to Manchester United, while Saints midfielder Adam Lallana is on his way to Liverpool for a medical.
Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa has been one of the star performers in Brazil, and the 28-year-old, who is currently without a club, has insisted that his team must
continue to impress in defence if they want to reach the latter stages of the World Cup.
I will now hand you over to Alex Meyers, who will take you through the next four hours of the day. Over to you, Alex.
Thanks Darren. There may not be any games today, but we have plenty of news from Brazil. We'll start with Germany manager Joachim Low, who has
praised his side for their dominant performance in a 1-0 victory over the USA yesterday.
Belgium manager Marc Wilmots has said that his team are
ready for the knockout stages of the World Cup. The Red Devils claimed a 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday to maintain their 100% record in the tournament so far and set up a last 16 clash with the USA.
Ecuador midfielder Walter Ayovi has said that his country's exit from the World Cup has been
"tough to take". The South Americans were making only their third appearance in the tournament and failed to make it out of Group E, with France and Switzerland taking the top two spots.
Diego Simeone has
praised the performances of Argentina duo Lionel Messi and Sergio Romero in this year's World Cup.
"Lionel Messi has stepped up in the important moments to win games for Argentina at this World Cup," Simeone told Goal.com. "He is a player who offers something different to Argentina, but the team needs to grow as a unit and I'm convinced they will do that as the World Cup moves into the knockout phase."
Alessandro Nesta has said that FIFA were
right to ban Luis Suarez for four months following his bite on Giorgio Chiellini in
Uruguay's World Cup victory against Italy. The former Milan legend says that he thought spitting at another opponent was the worst thing that you could do, but biting goes beyond even that.
Despite Russia being knocked out of the tournament, the country's manager Fabio Capello has
praised the standard of this year's tournament.
"In my career, I've never seen a World Cup at this level," he told FIFA.com. "The quality is absolutely incredible, the pace is so intense. This is a great tournament. If you make the slightest mistake, you pay for it."
France manager Didier Deschamps has
praised Karim Benzema for his displays at this year's World Cup. The striker has found the back of the net three times already in Brazil, with his country set to face Nigeria in the last 16 next week.
Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo has said that he is only
concentrating on his country's World Cup match against France, despite a row over bonuses. The Super Eagles boycotted training on Thursday, after demanding to be paid their appearance bonus for reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup.
Memphis Depay has
praised his
Netherlands teammate Arjen Robben for his performances at the World Cup.
"Robben is fantastic," Depay told reporters. "It's fantastic to train with him every day. I can't believe my eyes what he can do with the ball. It's unbelievable how fast he is with the ball. He's a great player."
The president of the Russian Football Union has said that Fabio Capello will
remain as manager of the national side. There had been speculation that the former England boss would be dismissed following Russia's exit from the World Cup, but he has been backed by Nikolai Tolstykh to lead the country into their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
One manager who won't be stay is Safet Susic, who has announced that he will
step down as the coach of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The country were making their first appearance at the World Cup finals this summer, but failed to make it out of the group stages.
Brazilian legend Ronaldo has
insisted that his country will meet Argentina in the World Cup final.
"I'm pretty sure that the final will be Brazil-Argentina," he told reporters. "It will be a dream if we win. But to lose would be a nightmare. So hopefully Argentina lose before then."
Shinji Kagawa has admitted that Japan do not possess enough
quality in their side following their World Cup exit. The Asian Champions were knocked out of the tournament after a 4-1 defeat to
Colombia in their final Group C match.
"We can play well as a team, but in terms of individual quality, we are not good enough to score or avoid conceding in the final moments, which is the difference between us and the best teams in the world," he told reporters.
Alessandro Nesta has said that Italy should focus on the development of their
younger players. The Azzurri crashed out of the World Cup at the group stages and the former Milan defender admits it may be time for some of their more senior players to step aside.
USA manager Jurgen Klinsmann has revealed that he is
optimistic that Jozy Altidore can return from injury against
Belgium.
"We are very optimistic. Every day is a big step forward with Jozy," Klinsmann told reporters. "It's 11 days now and it's looking better every day so we're optimistic to have him being part of the Belgium game."
Well, that's all from me. I will now hand you over to Sian Cowper, who will be bringing you the latest news over the next few hours!
Thanks Alex. Good evening, even though there's no live coverage to bring you tonight, there's news emerging all the time from Brazil as the teams still involved in the tournament prepare for their round of 16 matches, so stick around for the next few hours as we continue our World Cup Live coverage.
The action will resume tomorrow when Brazil face Chile and
Colombia take on
Uruguay. Colombia have in strong form recently, and have not lost since last year, when Uruguay beat them in the latter stages of the qualifying campaign. Even though Uruguay will be without Luis Suarez, Colombia striker Teofilo Gutierrez admits that they will be
tough opponents.
English referee Howard Webb will be back in action as well tomorrow, as he takes charge of the host nation's clash with Chile. He was also the referee when the two teams met in South Africa four years ago. There have been some speculation that referees have been giving Brazil soft decisions so far in this tournament, but team spokesman Rodrigo Paiva insists that
that is not the case.
One person who hasn't had the day off is ex-footballer and Sky Sports pundit Chris Kamara, who has been working at the tournament. He posted on Twitter earlier this afternoon that he had spent his day with the police after chasing down a street thief and helping officers arrest the man, and it would appear there was a happy ending for the victim:
Chile looked impressive in their first two group matches, beating Spain and Australia, before suffering a defeat in their final game against the Netherlands, leaving them facing a last 16 tie with Brazil. Coach Jorge Sampaoli insists that they will continue with their
fast style during the knockout stages.
Belgium have a bit of a wait before they play their round of 16 match. They face the USA on Tuesday for a place in the quarter-finals, but may have to do so without the aid of captain Vincent Kompany, who has been plagued by a groin injury. Coach Marc Wilmots believes that it's currently
too soon to tell whether the Manchester City defender will be fit in time for the match.
So far in this tournament, there are three players to have scored four goals; Brazil's Neymar, Argentina's Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller of Germany. Brazil captain Thiago Silva believes that Neymar has
same level of ability as Messi.
On Monday, Group G winners Germany will face one of the tournament's surprise packages,
Algeria, for a spot in the quarter-finals. Benedikt Howedes played all three of their group games at left-back, despite being generally more recognised as a centre-back. The Schalke 04 man believes that he
did well in the role.
Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho achieved a personal milestone earlier this week when he scored his first World Cup goal during Brazil's 4-1 win over Cameroon. Ahead of tomorrow's match against Chile in the round of 16, he told
FIFA.com: "I've
always dreamed of playing in the World Cup and wearing the Selecao jersey, but I knew how difficult that was, what with me playing in Ukraine for Shakhtar.
"Last year, though, when I moved to England and began playing in a much bigger league with a much higher profile, I could see things coming together for me. I fought hard, chased my dream and got the call-up for the game with South Africa in March. Everything I did from June 2013 onwards was with the goal of making it here to the World Cup.
"[After the match] I went back to the hotel, had a bath and tried to stay focused, while my family were at home getting congratulatory messages from everyone. I'm sure they felt more excited about the whole thing than me, but I was delighted to make them that happy."
Germany's Thomas Muller, who was the winner of the Golden Boot in 2010, could be in line to win the prize again this time around. He jointly leads the standings after netting four times during the group stages, but he admits that he would
rather win the tournament than have the individual accolade.
In their final group game yesterday, USA midfielder Jermaine Jones suffered a broken nose when he clashed heads with a teammate. It seems he's made of tough stuff though as the team have confirmed that he will be
available for selection and won't be wearing a protective mask during their last 16 clash with Belgium next week.
Switzerland will take on one of the team's with the biggest travelling fanbase in Brazil; Argentina. However, goalkeeper Diego Benaglio is optimistic that the locals will cheer for them and make their last-16 encounter feel like a
home match for Switzerland.
So that's all for our World Cup live coverage today, but don't worry because we'll be back tomorrow as the action gets back underway in the round of 16. If you want, you can read previews for both of tomorrow's matches here:
Brazil vs. Chile
Colombia vs. Uruguay
Our live blog will be online from 11am tomorrow as we build up to both of those matches, but we'll be here all night too to keep you up to date.
I'll leave you with this picture from the USA Soccer Twitter account, which shows what their squad got up to on the first day with no matches. Thanks for joining us throughout today, goodbye.
