World Cup day 20 in a nutshell: England cast aside penalty hoodoo, Joachim Low to stay as Germany boss
Tuesday 10 July 2018 10:45, UK
On a day where England cast aside their infamous penalty shootout hoodoo, Joachim Low confirmed he will remain Germany manager.
We round up Tuesday's talking points from Russia, with England's penalty shoot-out victory - their first in 22 years - while Joachim Low said he would continue in his role as Germany manager despite leaving the tournament in the group stages.
Each day during the tournament, we will be pulling together all the big stories and best reaction right here in a nutshell, so you do not miss a thing.
Here are the highlights from day 20 at the World Cup..
The reports
Emil Forsberg's deflected strike booked Sweden a place in the World Cup quarter-finals after a 1-0 win over Switzerland on Tuesday afternoon.
A disappointing last-16 match was settled by a scruffy winning goal in the 66th minute, as defender Manuel Akanji accidentally steered the ball past Yann Sommer to set up a clash with either Colombia or England on Saturday.
The result means Sweden reached their first quarter-final since 1994 and are just two victories away from their second World Cup final, while Switzerland, who had Michael Lang sent off for denying Martin Olsson a clear goalscoring opportunity in injury time, went home after a flat display.
England put their penalty woes behind them with a shootout win over Colombia to seal their first World Cup quarter-final since 2006.
Harry Kane's second-half penalty, after he had been fouled from a corner, put the Three Lions in the driving seat, until the third minute of injury time, when Yerry Mina scored his third goal of the tournament from a corner of their own.
Jordan Henderson missed in the shootout after the two sides couldn't be separated in extra-time, but Mateus Uribe struck the bar with his spot-kick, before Carlos Bacca's effort was saved by Jordan Pickford - leaving substitute Eric Dier to fire England into the last eight.
Key quotes
"I think the coach is one of the best of the world, for the personality, for how he helps the players, and he helped me a lot of my person, myself. "Every game, before the game, he's important for me and I think he knows he is important when he talk to me before the game."
"I played while my father was in the hands of bandits. I had to suppress the trauma. I took a call four hours before kick-off [against Argentina] to tell me what had happened. I was emotionally distraught and I had to make the decision about whether I was mentally ready to play. I was confused. I did not know what to do but, in the end, I knew that I could not let 180m Nigerians down."
"It's brilliant to see an opposition team suffering. I don't mean that in a nasty way. We've had too much."
Moment of the day
Sorry Colombia fans - it has to be Dier's winning penalty to buck England's awful record in shootouts, having lost six of their last seven since first falling short against West Germany in 1990.
It looked like being a case of deja vu for the Three Lions when Henderson's spot-kick was palmed away by David Ospina, but when Colombia missed two of their own Dier stepped up to do the unthinkable.
Tweet of the day
Stat of the day
In the news
Joachim Low will remain in charge as Germany head coach despite their disastrous World Cup campaign.
Low is understood to have given a verbal commitment to see out the new contract he signed before the World Cup, which extended his stay in the role until 2022.
The Danish Football Association says it has reported death threats made against striker Nicolai Jorgensen to the police after he endured a barrage of online abuse for missing a World Cup penalty against Croatia.
Jorgensen's miss in Sunday's penalty shootout led to Denmark's elimination from the tournament following a 1-1 stalemate at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.
"Stop. Our society must never accept death threats - neither against World Cup stars, politicians or others," the Danish FA said in a statement on Twitter.
John Obi Mikel has revealed that he learned his father had been kidnapped just hours before he played in Nigeria's loss to Argentina which saw his country knocked out of the World Cup last week.
The Nigeria captain was informed of the news by a family member while he travelled on the team bus to the stadium in St. Petersburg. Mikel was told that he must call the kidnappers and when he did so, he was ordered to pay a ransom.
Mikel, who went on to play the full 90 minutes of the 2-1 defeat, refused to tell anyone at the Nigerian Football Federation in fear his father's life was at risk, and partly because he did not want to be a distraction before the game.
"I played while my father was in the hands of bandits," Mikel told The Guardian. "I had to suppress the trauma. I took a call four hours before kick-off to tell me what had happened."
And finally...
Gareth Southgate used 1970s war comedy M*A*S*H to describe England's dressing room following their 120-minute slog against Colombia.
Ashley Young and Kyle Walker both went off injured late in the game in Moscow, while Kane was left to control the game from midfield once clearly fatigued.
"It's like a scene from MASH in the dressing room," Southgate said. "Some just cramp, and some need just a little bit more assessment, so we'll know more over the next 36 hours.
"We've spoken a lot to this team about making their own history, and I feel they're really bought into everything we've tried to do with them."
