The Lions of Senegal from West Africa with an unenviable record of being the first country to be ousted by FIFA’s fairness rules of yellow card issuance led the 16 countries to leave Russia, venue of the 2018 World Cup placing 17^th above embarrassed defending Champions, the German that placed a dismal 22^nd place among 32 countries of the world that qualified for the mundial.

Placed according to performances of points scored and the goal difference achieved at the group stages, their report cards could be sent to their home countries like that of a high school child. In the assessment, Egypt who book makers thought were good enough for the semi-final dropped to the 31^st position (0pt -4GD) above debutant Panama (0pt -9GD). If the league system were to be applied, the last four countries of Iceland (0pt -3GD) position 29^th, Poland 30^th (0pt -3GD), Egypt and Panama should not contest in the next world cup preliminaries. Incidentally the last four countries refused to score a point.

Here is their report card. 17^th Senegal (4pts 0GD); 18^th Iran (4pts 0GD); 19^th Korea (3pts 0GD); 20^th Peru (3pts 0GD); 21^st Nigeria (3pts -1GD); 22^nd Defending Champions Germany (3pts -2GD); 23^rd Serbia (3pts -2GD); 24^th Tunisia (3pts -3GD); 25^th Saudi Arabia (3pts -5GD); 26^th Morocco (1pt -2GD); 27^th Australia (1pt -3GD); 28^th Costa Rica (1pt -3GD); 29^th Iceland the compatriot of Super Eagles in group D leads the pack of pointless teams (0pt -3GD); 30^th almighty Lewandoski’s Poland (0pt -3); 31^st Egypt of Mohammed Sallah (0pt -4GD) and Panama that went frenzy scoring at their first world cup is 32^nd with no point and a whopping -9GD which is one goal above the total goals Russia scored to place 2^nd highest goal scoring team after Belgium that scored 9 goals.

A total of forty-eight matches of the sixty-four matches have been decided. 122 goals were scored making 2.5 goals scored per match. No country played in the group stages without scoring a goal; Denmark is a lucky country among the low scoring countries as she qualified for R16 from group C with only two goals. Imagine that.  Thirteen countries scored twice none scored once. They were Saudi, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Australia, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Peru, Iceland, Panama, Costa Rica and Serbia.

Kudos should go to countries with clean sheet i.e. not conceding any goal at all but only Uruguay has it. Instead, we have four countries that only one goal were scored against them. They are France, Denmark, Croatia and Brazil. It is amazing that FIFA statistical records Germany were the best attacking team with 252 moves; Iran had 149 clearances, tackles or saves to be best defensive team. Spain made 2,089 of the total 36,349 complete passes to be best passing team. Top goals in a match were 7 scored in Belgium v Tunisia. Neymar of Brazil has the highest attempts at goal with 17 shots. Brazil scored 5 and conceded 1 goal.

Of the total 122 goals scored so far, the number of goals scored dropped in the third round to 37 from 38 in the first round and laudable 46 in the second round. Golden trophy for best scorers is for Harry Kane of England (5goals); Romelu Lukaku of Belgium and World’s best player, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal have four goals each. Here only Ronaldo and Harry Kane have bagged Hat trick each. This is a terminology used for scoring three goals in a single match while a brace is used for scoring two goals in a match like that of Ahmed Musa of Nigeria against Iceland. Mexico’s Goal tender, Guillermo Ochoa looks good to bag the golden gloves for best keeper having 17 saves his credit.

The yellow cards increased tremendously from 69 in 2^nd round to 158 which is a difference of 56%. Senegal bagged 8 yellows which was their bane but the match between Belgium v Panama alone witnessed 8 yellows between them. It is a case of one red card per round so we have three red cards.

One of the banes of the group stages is the controversial Video Assistant Review (VAR) which appears to have helped the mighty teams to advance to the R16. Argentina has the Kuwait Ref to thank against Nigeria for refusing the VAR leading to grant a second penalty from an obvious foul. He later said he could not comprehend why he did not approve the penalty creating the second “Hand of God” goal, which was introduced by Diego Maradona of Argentina himself, thereby afflicting the destiny of a nation. FIFA needs to check the man if reports we hear are true that he is often chosen to regulate in most controversial Argentina matches, Barcelona matches (the club of Lionel Messi) by both FIFA and EUFA.

The second issue is the creed of FIFA which is FAIR PLAY. It is observed that Refs overlook offences similar to that which they book others especially when it comes to black players. There is evidence of subtle racism. Thirdly, is there a way FIFA can come to the defense of coaches who are insulted at the mundial by their players? The coach is a stake holder like the Ref, if there are regulations defending Refs there should be another defending coaches like that of Diego Costa who called his coach names for substituting him. We saw James Rodriguez snub everybody and walk to the dressing room because he was substituted. There must be discipline in football. This is for football governing officials at the continental and national levels to look at. Football must not be brought to disrepute.

Here are the fixtures for the R16. It is knockout now where penalties may be used to decide matches if there is no winner at regular time. Eight teams will proceed to the quarter finals.

Note: Later today, we shall preview R16 matches.