Weekend return to packed blighty to see the brave Aussies go out.
One part of the plan, that had been cast in stone from the start, was the return flight from London back to Australia via Qatar. The only question was from where in Europe (or Africa, Tunisia was definitely on the agenda as another country to visit) and when to go back to London.
I decided two nights near the airport would be enough to see a few mates who I'd missed out on the first time around and an opportunity to watch the last of the group games and the first of the Round of 16 matches.
So, as I landed in Gatwick I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to all that plus some more decent beer and fish & chips.
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| On my way back to blighty |
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| Frosty hole by my window |
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| Gatwick Arrival |
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| Great to see a country supporting Ukraine |
Friday, 2nd December - Back to Blighty
The flight to Gatwick went very smoothly and it's always pleasant to land back in good old England. I have so many warm memories of home here. Once I'd arrived, a had a few panics. The first was finding the bus from Gatwick to Heathrow so I could get to my hotel in time to drop my bag off and find the pub in Ealing where I'd arranged to meet "my ol' mucker" from High Wycombe, to watch the football.
The second was - did I actually book the hotel I'd thought. Not for the first time on this trip I managed to not have any record of my booking in my emails or on Booking.com. Note to self: try to use some other hotel booking site.
As I closed in on the hotel, the 6pm matches were getting close to starting. Never mind, I thought, I should get to the pub in time to catch the end of them at least.
After a bit of confusion actually getting into my room, I was off into the night. I walked around the corner to catch the H98 bus to the Hayes & Harlington tube station where I caught a train to Ealing Broadway.
6pm Group H Deciders: Portugal v South Korea & Ghana v Uruguay
The situation in Group H appeared quite clear cut. Portugal had already qualified so it was a battle for the final place between the three other teams.
South Korea had to beat Portugal and hope that they did so by a greater margin than Uruguay could beat Ghana. A draw or a win for Ghana would see them through no matter what happened to Portugal.
Portugal would play South Korea at the Education (for males) City Stadium whilst the other tie would take place at the Al Janoub stadium.
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| Portugal v South Korea @ Education (for men) City |
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| Ghana v Uruguay @ Al Janoub |
The results this evening were of particular interest to me because my one ticket to watch a game in Qatar would be the winners of Group H versus the runners up in Group G. Right from when the draw was made, I had a hunch it would end up being Portugal v Switzerland and that was still the favourite - but I was still hoping that results might contrive to create a classic Portugal v Brazil tie for me.
Game #45 Portugal v South Korea / Game #46 Ghana v Uruguay
I missed the start of the games but kept abreast of the scoring on my mobile phone as I closed in on the Kings Arms.
Inside five minutes Portugal stated their intent with a goal by Ricardo Horta. He slammed in a cross from the right from wing back Dalot past Kim.
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| 5m. Horta, Portugal 1-0. |
This didn't change the group significantly, except that South Korea slipped to last place and looked less likely to qualify than before.
Meanwhile, at Al Janoub, Ghana had started brightly and in the 20th minute were awarded a rather dubious-looking penalty when their goalkeeper, Rochet, was judged to have brought down Kudus. He seemed to be playing for it though, to be honest.
And I guess justice was done when Forest boy (to be) Andre Ayew's spot kick was easily saved.
So, no change in the table there. A goal for Ghana would have obviously put them in a very strong position.
Five minutes later, Ghana would be made to pay further for their miss when a comedy of errors at the back led to Giorgian de Arrascaeta nodding in from close range to but the Uruguayans ahead.
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| 25m. de Arrascaeta, Uruguay 1-0 |
Now this did change things. Uruguay now leapfrogged Ghana into second spot.
A few seconds later, at Education City, South Korea edged their way back into contention too when a corner was not dealt with by Portugal and it fell to the feet of Kim Young-gwon, who smashed it into the net.
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| 27m. Young-gwon, South Korea 1-1 |
A few minutes later, back at Al Janoub, de Arrascaeta pounced again with a lovely volley to put Uruguay firmly in command.
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| 32m. de Arrascaeta, 2-0 |
Again this didn't affect the table apart from giving Uruguay a little more breathing space.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a sitter just before half time, so the ties remained the same at the interval.
In the second half, Ghana came back strongly but could not score and it seemed it would be the same story for South Korea but then, injury time, a fantastic 70m run from Son created space for Hwang Hee-chan to go clear and slot the ball in for an amazing last-gasp winner to take them, and not Uruguay, into the knock-out round.
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| 90+1m. Hwang Hee-chan South Korea 2-1 |
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| Portugal and South Korea go through. |
I missed all this as I arrived at the Kings Arms just a few minutes after all this drama had died down.
Time for a pint and to get ready for the next game as "the lads" arrived and we had a good chat about the good old days and some harsh realities we have to face today.
10pm Group G Deciders: Brazil v Cameroon & Serbia v Switzerland
The situation in Group G also appeared pretty much settled. Brazil were already through but if they lost to Cameroon and if Switzerland beat Serbia by a margin two greater, my dream of a New v Old World Portuguese clash might still be on.
Dream on!
Game #47 Brazil v Cameroon / Game #48 Serbia v Switzerland
Switzerland started with a lot of desire and almost scored in the first two minutes. They did take the lead in the 20th minute when a Xherdan Shaqiri shot was deflected to the near post to put the Swiss ahead. I saw these two battle it out in a very attacking game in the Russia 2018 World Cup in the Kaliningrad (Koenigsberg before it was ethnically cleansed) stadium so it looked like this was going to be a hum-dinger too.
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| 20m Shaqiri, Switzerland 1 Serbia 0 |
This score definitely put the Swiss in the driving seat for that second qualifying slot,
But Serbia weren't finished so easily and a simple break-away lead to a hoof into the box where Fulham's goal machine Aleksandar Mitrovic flicked in a header into the gaping goal.
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| 26m. Mitrovic. Serbia 1 Switzerland 1 |
Nothing changed as far as the group table was concerned, just back to square one.
But them six minutes later, things events seemed to be turning around again as Dusn Vlahovic turned on a sixpence to stroke the ball into the net and put Serbia ahead 2-1.
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| 26m. Vlahovic. Serbia 2 Switzerland 1 |
Now Serbia were in pole position to qualify for the next round match against Portugal.
But just as Serbia might have been starting to think about facing Cristiano Ronaldo, the Swiaa struck back with a goal just before half time (44m) when Breel Embolo arrived unmarked at the far post to tap in a simple cross to equalise.
At the Lusail stadium Brazil with, perhaps not suprisingly, a weakened team, were still dominating and Gabrielle Martinelli would have scored a hattrick if it hadn't been for the brilliant goalkeeping of Devis Epassy.
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| 44m Embolo, Switzerland 2 Serbia 2 |
So the group table switched back to par again. It looked like my match would be Portugal v Switzerland, as I'd predicted from the start.
Switzerland put Serbia out of the misery just after half time when Forest new boy, Remo Freuler finished a lovely move to put the Swizz back into the lead.
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| 48m. Freuler. Switzerland 3 Serbia 2 |
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| Pint for Freuler. |
Amazingly, in injury time it was Cameroon who got a last gasp winner with a great headed goal from Vincent Aboubakar. Unfortunately for his team it was too late to make a difference to the group table and unfortunately for Aboubakar, he received a second yellow card, hence a red, for taking his shirt off in all the excitement of scoring against Brazil.
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| 90+2m. Aboubabkar. Cameroon 1 Brazil 0 |
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| Crazy Red Card |
If only Serbia could have equalised against the Swiss, Cameroon would have qualified, but despite having the same number of points as Switzerland, the same goal difference and scoring more goals, the Swiss went through because they had beaten them earlier in the tournament.
So, it would be Brazil v South Korea and Portugal v Switzerland in the round of 16 in a few days.
At the end of the group phase, I like to compare all the teams' performances. As they've now all played three games, it's valid to list them all in a league table.
It's not often that England have had the best record of all the teams at the group stages but this was the situation at this point...
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| England had the best record in the group stage |
The Round of 16 Draw....
So, that was another hectic day of travel and football.
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| Malta > London Gatwick |
My overall mood score was 12-1 - the "one" being the feeling of panic and stupidity after thinking I'd not got a hotel booking after all. A misplaced fear in the end but it did put into a bad mood for a while.
Saturday, 3rd December - Day Out in London
Right. So this was the last day in Europe I had before flying to Qatar for my small sample of the 2022 World Cup.
When in England... eat fish & chips and go to pubs, is my mantra and so it was not rocket science as to my plan for the day. Head into London. Do a bit of shopping. Find a good fish & chip shop. Then find a nice pub to watch Holland v USA and then find another to watch Australia v Argentina.
I followed the same route as the night before to reach Hayes & Harlington tube station and from there it was straight into the heart of London. The new Elizabeth line went straight into Bond Street so that was the obvious destination. Once on Oxford Street I managed to renew my SIM card which had expired along my travels.
I was starting to feel a bit peckish so I headed to a tried and trusted fish & chip shop I know, Gigs, not far from UCL.
I last came here with my dear wife, Lesley, in 2018, just before the last World Cup semi final when England played Croatia.
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| Gigs |
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| Another Great Fish & Chips |
After a great scoff, it was time to make my way to a pub to watch the first of the knock out games, Netherlands v USA. At this stage I had no particular place in mind but London has so many pubs I knew it wasn't going to be difficult to find one.
I ended up at a lovely old (built in 1735 apparently) pub called Shakespeare's Head on Carnaby Street, a very busy and fashionable area at the best of times but it was choc-a-bloc on the day I visited.
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| Shakespeare's Head on Carnaby Street |
The choice of ales was wonderful and I had a good session (104g of alcohol) that day for sure.
Game #49 (Round of 16) Netherlands v United States of America
Back to the football and in Qatar, at another architecturally fine, but morally sick, stadium - the Halifa International Stadium, the World Cup was about to start it's "pointy end," where defeat means 'you're out!'
The first match up was USA v Holland and the front bar at the Shakespeare's Head was packed with fans ready to watch the game. I guess the balance of support was roughly 50-50. There were clearly a lot of American tourists in there going for their boys and, from what I can gather, most other people were going for Holland, including a few that were actually Dutch.
Holland were the favourites but should have fallen behind very early on when Pulisic missed a good chance for the USA in the 3rd minute. Holland came back strongly and Memphis Depay scored a neatly worked goal after just ten minutes...
Just before half time, Holland made it 2-0 with another neatly worked goal, culminating in Daley Blind slotting the home ball under the US goalkeeper, Matt Turner.
So, with Holland well in charge, the mood among the Americans at half time was, shall we say, not quite as cocky as it usually is.
In the second half, both teams looked to score the next goal and Matt Turner, in goal for the USA, made a couple of good saves to keep Holland out. But in the 76th minute it was Haji Wright who got the next goal, a fortuitous one, for the USA to keep alive their hope of progressing in the tournament.
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| 76m. Wright. USA 1 Holland 2 |
But Netherlands were not to be denied and came back strongly. Five minutes later, a simple cross from the left found Denzel Dumfries completely unmarked and he volleyed in to make it 3-1.
So that was it. Holland went through to the quarter finals to play the winner of the next tie - Argentina or Australia.
I had an hour or so to find another pub to watch the socceroos match. I decided to stroll down Carnaby Street and head into the West End to the Canadian bar I'd been in a few weeks ago.
The streets were so packed. Amazing.
Piccadilly Circus was packed too. Then, through Leicester Square on towards Covent Garden.
Through Trafalgar Square...
Game #50 (Round of 16) Argentina v Australia
The Maple Leaf was packed too, of course, and as I couldn't find anywhere to sit I had to watch the game standing up on my own.
There was definitely more support for Argentina in the crowd than Australia which, I must say, I found a bit disappointing and surprising.
After quite a promising start for Australia, it seemed inevitable that Leonel Messi would be the man to put Argentina ahead after 34 minutes.
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| 34m. Messi. Argentina 1 Australia 0 |
In the second half Argentina pressed hard for goal number two, and the Aussie keeper, Matt Ryan made a howler of a mistake and gave the ball away in front of goal to oblige.
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| 57m. Alvarez. Argentina 2 Australia 0 |
Under the old school coaching of Graham Arnold though, the socceroos are pretty resilient and they didn't just roll over and die. Arnold made three substitutions in the 72nd minute (Garang Kuol for Matthew Leckie; Jamie Maclaren for Mitchell Duke and Fran Karacic for Milos Degenek) and the changes had an immediate effect.
3 minutes later Australia made it 2-1 with a deflected strike from Craig Goodwin.
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| 77m Goodwin (Fernandez own goal). Argentina 2 Australia 1 |
The aussies had their tails up now and with just ten minutes left to go, an amazing, direct run on goal from left back Aziz Behich left him dribbling right through the heart of the Argentinian defence until his close range shot was blocked.
And then, with practically the last kick of the game, the young (18 year old) susbstitute striker, Garang Kuol, found himself one on one in front of the Argentinian goal and Aston Villa goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez. He struck low and hard and on target but the shot was well blocked.
So that was the end of the first night of four days of round of sixteen games and the first quarter final was now set...
Netherlands v Argentina.
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