Monday Cannon Fodder: World Cup Day 16

The passage of (World Cup) time is relentless. In less than two weeks, the competition will be over and we’ll have a winner crowned. Today, the Round of 16 marches on, with Japan-Croatia at 10 am ET and Brazil-South Korea at 2 pm ET. The big news is the Neymar has been cleared to return to action after the ankle injury he picked up in Brazil’s opening match.

France 3 - Poland 1: Kylian Mbappe is something else. He’s the best player in the world at the moment, right? France’s first choice side has yet to be challenged at the World Cup, but they face a tough test (and vice-versa) in England in the next round. Poland’s goal came from a last kick of the match penalty converted by Robert Lewandowski on a retake after his first, hilarious poor, stutter-step effort was saved. But Hugo Lloris had come off his line, likely because of the jump (almost) stop and several French players had encroached the area. It was really a comedy penalty sequence.

England 3 - Senegal 0: Jordan Henderson opened the scoring, Harry Kane broke his World Cup 2022 duck, and Bukayo Saka added a third as England cruised to victory. Jordan Pickford did have to make one really good save at 0-0, but other than that, Senegal did not muster much. It’s a shame that Sadio Mane missed the competition through injury.