Surprises continue as France faces an early exit
The surprising events of upsets continued yesterday at the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa as this time, the team on the receiving end were the1998 World Champions and the 2006 runners-up, France. The French were left helpless and on the brink of a first round exit from the World Cup as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Mexico.
The Central American team managed to take an early advantage just 19 minutes into the second half as Javier Hernandez scored to give the Mexicans first blood in a game which saw a goal-less first half. Later the Veteran Cuauhtemoc Blanco converted a late penalty to clinch Mexico’s victory and leave the French men scratching their heads.
This was Mexico’s first victory over France and with this victory they now stand at par with Uruguay as both teams sit with four points ahead of their June 22 Rustenburg clash. If the match is drawn between the Mexicans and the Uruguayans then both teams will advance to the next round.
France will next play against hosts South Africa, who have a point each, thus if either team does manage to win and not draw and at the same time if the other game (Mexico against Uruguay) delivers a positive result, then the goal difference could come into play, in order to decide the next round advancements.
In group B yesterday, Greece emerged as winners in a thrilling match against Nigeria, as they sealed their first ever World Cup victory 2-1 with Vassilis Torosidis scoring Greece’s wining goal in the 71st minute of the game.
Greece’s win puts them on three points with South Korea, who earlier lost 4-1 to table-topping Argentina, while Nigeria are yet to trouble the scorers having no points from two games.
Complete dominance was witnessed in the other group B clash between Argentina and South Korea as Gonzalo Higuain scored the first hat-trick of this World Cup and thus giving his team, Argentina a huge step towards the second round as they thrashed South Korea 4-1 in at the Soccer City.
All throughout the game the Argentineans played some of the best approach seen at the tournament so far and their star power of Messi, Carlos Tevez and Angel Di Maria were outstanding in their attack.
So far the events that have unfolded have been nail bitingly interesting and more is to be on display today. Today in South Africa, England will face Algeria with a lot at stake, since they desperately need to win in order to regain control of the Group C standings.
England have never lost to the African opposition but as the events so far at the world cup have unfolded, they would certainly have it on their minds that it only take one game or better yet one goal to change the stats of history.
It is also most likely that the top spot in the group will likely to be decided on goal difference and thus England have on their heads the pressure to win and that also with a big margin.
In the other group B match today, the United States will take on Slovenia and while they remain favourites as is the case with England in today’s game, the U.S will have to follow the same cautious approach that the English men will be following and that is to give the game their level best and try to win with as big a margin as possible.
Also today in the Group D match Serbia will go up against the Germans, with the Serbians also requiring a desperate win to stay in the tournament. Serbia has already warned Germany that they will be no pushovers.
Germany so far have been impressive in the tournament as they thrashed Australia 4-0 in their opener.
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