World Cup 2018 – LIVE: Latest news from Portugal and Spain VAR controversy, plus Nigeria vs Argentina and Lionel Messi updates, predictions, schedule and more
All the latest World Cup news from day 13 in Russia
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Your support makes all the difference.The 2018 World Cup is in full flow in Russia.
What a controversial day Monday proved to be! Both Spain and Portugal made it to the last-16 as expected, but the way they did it was not in the script at all. At one stage Portugal were at risk of being knocked out of the World Cup if Iran had found another goal – following a controversial penalty in their favour – while Cristiano Ronaldo was lucky not to see red for what appeared to be a swinging elbow. Then Spain upped the VAR controversy against Morocco when Iago Aspas’ equaliser was initially ruled out before being overturned.
With all that in mind, today’s action could be even more frantic. Argentina face crunch time as they must beat Nigeria – and handsomely – to avoid going home early from the World Cup. They also need Croatia to do them a favour and beat Iceland, or else Lionel Messi’s last chance to win the World Cup will be over. Those are the late games, with France set to take on Denmark in the earlier kick-offs and Australia needing a big victory over Peru to stand any chance of progressing.
We will have all the latest news, views, pictures and video direct from Russia throughout the day as we pick up the pace at the biggest football tournament in the world.
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↵In the other 3pm kick off, this is how Australia and Peru line-up:
It's a must-win game for the Socceroos while Peru will be playing for professional pride and are one of the two sides yet to score at this World Cup.
Last chance saloon for both.
And you can follow all of the action live, here at the Independent as Mike Jones guides you through both games.
Kick off in both matches is 10 MINUTES AWAY.
National anthems to come shortly.
Away from this kick-off, there's more from the Egypt fallout of their disastrous World Cup campaign.
Mohamed Salah, their talisman and Liverpool's shining light this season was meant to pave the way to the Egyptian dream.
Instead, the fans would rather bury this World Cup memory into the abyss.
Simon Hart delves deeper into the issues that have plagued Egypt here in Russia:
PERU HAVE SCORED!
That makes it 31 of 32 nations to have scored in this tournament! Just Costa Rica to go...
They've taken the lead against Australia courtesy of a wonder strike from Andre Carrillo.
This is great news for Denmark who are currently more than holding their own against France.
So, we're over 30 minutes into Day 13 of the 2018 World Cup and *thus far* VAR has thankfully had no say in the matter.
That makes a change!
But regardless of whether you're pro or anti-technology, Forza Football has polled its users to gauge fan feeling, debating if VAR is good or not.
Over 50,000 responses have been analysed and apparently 74% of fans internationally are pleased at the introduction of VAR for the World Cup.
Meanwhile, in England, on the lower ebb of the scale, 65% are happy about its introduction.
That still sounds quite high to me, especially after my forays on twitter!
What do you think?
And one of the main beneficiaries of VAR have been penalties and by golly, there's been an influx of them.
Boffins at Sporting Index have been crunching the numbers so with penalty numbers swelling, how much is this 2018 World Cup going to smash the previous record by?
Well, apparently we're on a collision course to seeing 33 penalties (the previous record was 18!)
Six of the 20 penalties have been given on review after the referee initially rejected the appeals which highlights the significance of VAR thus far (as seen in abundance last night with Iran and Portugal.)
At least there's plenty of goals, ey?
Earlier this tournament, Mexico were fined for the actions and chants of their fans following their 1-0 victory against Germany.
Now it's the case of Argentina who have been handed a hefty fine for violent and homophobic chanting during their clash with Croatia which finished in a 3-0 defeat, leaving them on the brink of elimination.
More on this story here:
Some good news amidst the bad for the Socceroos.
They really needed to win today and instead, they find themselves 2-0 down to Peru.
Meanwhile, France and Denmark appear more than happy to play out a 0-0 draw.
The crowd, less so.
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