Guardian match report: Mexico 0-3 Sweden
Amy Lawrence was lucky enough to be at the Ekatrinburg Arena, where she saw Sweden hammer Mexico only for both teams to advance to the knockout stages anyway.
Guardian Match report: South Korea 2-0 Germany
Jonathan Wilson was lucky enough to be at the Kazan Arena to witness defending champions Germany crash out in the group stages, although he’ll almost certainly find something to complain about anyway.
Illustrious company for Germany: They join France (2002), Italy (2010) and Spain (2014) in the pantheon of World Cup champions who have crashed out of the next tournament in the group stages.
Rate! Rate! Rate! On a crazy afternoon at World Cup 2018, it’s time to hand out Perfect 10s to the players of Mexico and Sweden as they celebrate their progress to the knockout stages.
Match report: South Korea 2-0 Germany
Jonathan Wilson was at the Kazan Arena, to watch Germany crash out of the World Cup in the group stages. Did we ever think we’d see the day?
Match report: Mexico 0-3 Sweden
Here’s our early take on the goings-on at the Ekatrinburg Arena, where Sweden walloped Mexico, but both teams advanced to the knockout stages.
GERMANY ARE OUT!!! The World Champions are out in the group stages! South Korea beat them 2-0, which means Sweden go through as Group winners and will be joined by Mexico.
Boris Becker, Heidi Klum, Johan Guttenberg, Angela Merkel, George Frederick Handel, Hans Zimmer ... can you hear me, Hans Zimmer. Your boys etc and so on.
Germany have a corner: Hummels gets a free header and sends it over the bar. That’s an awful miss.
Or have they? The ref is going to VAR again! This is wonderful! It’s confirmed: South Korea 2-0 Germany and they’re still playing in Kazan.
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Result: Mexico 0-3 Sweden
Peep! Peep! Peep! It’s all over and Mexico’s players remain uncertain. They’ve no need to, because SOUTH KOREA HAVE JUST SCORED AGAIN!!!
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Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeep! It’s all over in Ekatrinburg, where Sweden win 3-0. Sweden’s players celebrate, while Mexico’s sink to their knees. They don’t seem to realise they’re on the verge of going through.
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90+4 min: Amazing scenes in the stands at Ekatrinburg, as Mexico’s fans find out that South Korea are a goal up against Germany deep in added time.
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90+4 min: Mexico’s players don’t know what the hell is going on! SOUTH KOREA’S GOAL HAS BEEN GIVEN!!!!
90+2 min: SOUTH KOREA SCORE!!!! BUT IT’s DISALLOWED FOR OFFSIDE!!! The Mexicans in Ekatrinburg go wild and think they’re safely through. FAKE NEWS, MEXICO FANS! FAKE NEWS!
90 min: South Korea’s Lee goes down in agony after taking a shot from Toni Kroos straight in the nuts. Milk it, Lee!!! Milk it!!! Stay down!
89 min: Mexico corner. They play it short and Lozano fires over the bar from distance. Mexico substitution: Layun off, Peralta on.
88 min: In the game I’m supposed to be reporting on, Sweden’s Mikael Lustig gets booked for a lunge on Hirving Lozano. In the game I’m not supposed to be reporting on, Germany bring a smart save out of South Korea’s goalkeeper.
87 min: I knew this day would come - two minute-by-minute reports at the same time. With all these keyboards and technology I feel, so alive; like Rick Wakeman or Chris Lowe from The Pet Shop Boys.
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86 min: Toivonen goes down injured after getting an elbow in the back of the head from Miguel Layun, who is booked. In Kazan, South Korea have a corner ...
84 min: Javier Hernandez runs to his team’s bench to ask what the score is in Kazan. “It’s South Korea 0-0 Germany,” comes the reply, in stereo. Meanwhile in Kazan, assorted German players are looking incredibly stressed as they lay siege to the South Korean goal to no avail. THIS IS MAGNIFICENT!!!
81 min: Javier Hernandez smashes a ball across the face of goal from the left side of the sic-yard box. The ball takes a deflection off Lustig and sits up for Carlos Vela. He stretches and heads wide from about two yards!!! Mexico can still save themselves in the event of a German victory if they can bang in a few goals.
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80 min: Mexico free-kick, a few yards outside the Sweden penalty area. Carlos Vela shoots straight into the defensive wall.
79 min: It remains 0-0 in Kazan, where South Korea have just gone close to opening the scoring against Germany. This is real edge-of-the-seat stuff, but Sweden are in the box-seat to qualify from Group F.
76 min: Mexico right-back Edson Alvarez cuts a forlorn figure as he wonders what on earth just happened to him. Sweden took a long throw from the right touchline, the ball was flicked on by Thelin and Alvarez somehow contrived to kick it on to his own standing leg pinball it over the line from two yards out.
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GOAL! Mexico 0-3 Sweden (Alvaraz 75og)
Mexico’s woes increase. A freakish own goal from the right-back. Mexico’s World Cup hopes are reliant on South Korea keeping Germany scoreless.
72 min: Mexico’s players soldier on, trying to do what they can for themselves in this match rather than relying on events in Kazan. If Germany score against South Korea there, expect all hell to break lose among the sombrero-wearing hordes in the stands at Ekatrinburg.
As a neutral, of course, you want results that leave both sets of players and fans at one venue in ecstasy, while both sets of players and fans at the other are in despair.
70 min: Mexico free-kick wide on the right. Fabian swings the ball into the penalty area, where Javier Hernandez gets a free header, but smacks the ball over the bar.
67 min: Mexico substitution: Marco Fabian on for Jesus Gallardo. Sweden substitution: Isaac Thelin on for Marcus Berg.
65 min: Should Germany score against South Korea and things stay the same in this game, Mexico will go out of the tournament despite having won their opening two games. They’re in huge trouble.
64 min: It was unquestionably the correct decision to award that penalty to Sweden. Moreno dived in on Marcus Berg, taking out the Swedish striker’s standing leg. As the Mexican defender’s team-mates protested to the referee, he stood quietly to one side with his hands on his hips. He knew ...
62 min: Granqvist scores his second penalty of the tournament, blasting the ball into the top left-hand corner. Guillermo Ochoa went the right way, but was unable to keep it out. In Kazan, it remains Germany 0-0 South Korea.
GOAL! Mexico 0-2 Sweden (Granqvist 62)
Sweden double their lead through their captain, Andreas Granqvist!!!
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PENALTY FOR SWEDEN
Hector Moreno concedes a penalty for a foul on Marcus Berg.
Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Reuters
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59 min: Now Marcus Berg is down for Sweden, after shipping one in the ribs from Edson Alvarez as the pair contested a high ball on the left side of the Mexico penalty area.
57 min: Seb Larsson has gone down injured, holding his face and sits up looking rather dazed and confused. He signals to his team-mates that he’s not fit to continue and is stretchered off. Gustav Svensson replaced him. I have no idea what happened to Larsson there, but he looked in a bit of bother.
55 min: Sweden have gone close(ish) with two long-range efforts since going a goal up. Forsberg and the goal-hungry Augustinsson have both sent the ball over the bar, but not by much.
53 min: The match between Germany and South Korea in Kazan is still scoreless. As things stand, Sweden will go through as group winners along with Mexico.
51 min: Sweden’s left-back Ludwig Augustinsson scores his first ever goal for his country, rampaging up the field to volley home from a tight angle after connecting with a Viktor Claesson cross from the right on the half-volley.
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GOAL! Mexico 0-1 Sweden (Augustinsson 50)
Sweden lead!!! Augustinsson volleys past Ochoa after getting on the end of a cross from the right.
48 min: Lindelof sticks out a leg to concede a corner as he intercepts a low cross from Gallardo. Across the sports desk, the Guardian’s Swedish football editor Marcus Christenson is wearing his best poker face.
47 min: From the free-kick, Victor Lindelof hoofs the ball straight out of play for a goal-kick. On the bench, his manager Janna Anderson looks decidedly unimpressed.
46 min: Moreno clatters through the back of Marcus Berg and concedes a free-kick just inside the Mexican half. He’s done that a couple of times now, but hasn’t been booked yet.
Second half: Mexico 0-0 Sweden
46 min: Mexico kick off, with no changes in personnel on either side yet.
Half-time: Mexico 0-0 Sweden
It’s all square at the break in an open, entertaining game which Sweden have dominated. Mexico have had the best chance, mind - with Carlos Velo coming closest to opening the scoring. Mexico should have had a penalty, even if Phil Neville doesn’t agree. In the studio, Matthew Upson and Leon Osman both think it was a clear handball and are ripping the micky out of poor Phil.
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45+2 min: Marcus Berg shoots into the side-netting from a tight angle from a good position, when he should have aimed the other side of Ochoa.
45+1 min: Granqvist sticks out a leg to make a crucial interception from a drilled Vela ball across the face of the Mexico goal.
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45 min: It’s goalless but entertaining as the clock ticks towards the break. Meanwhile in Kazan, it’s scoreless between Germany and South Korea. As things stand, Mexico and Germany will progress to the knockout stages.
43 min: Sweden win a free-kick just inside the Mexico half, on the edge of the centre-circle. Lindelof hoofs the ball forwards, aiming for Toivonen but the ball ends up going out for a goal -kick. Moments previously, Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen had shoved Hector Moreno in the chest and the Mexico central defender threw himself to the ground holding his face. Nice.
“If Sweden build a defensive wall, will Mexico have to pay for it?” asks Prashan Thalayasingam, as we approach half-time.
41 min: Hirving Lozano stretches every sinew, but is unable to get a touch on Jesus Gallardo’s cross from the left.
39 min: End to end stuff as Mexico counter. The ball’s played to Carlos Vela on the right side of the Sweden penalty area. He cuts inside and unleashes a shot which fizzes high and wide.
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38 min: Mexico win a thrown-in deep in Sweden territory, but Sweden break on the counter. The ball’s played to Lustig in a good position on the right after a lung-busting sprint up the pitch, but Lozano had tracked him and intercepts. Good defending.
36 min: Sweden’s manager Janna Anderson remains absolutely fuming on the touchline, giving the fourth official both barrels as he rants and raves over that handball decision.
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33 min: Curiously, on the BBC, Phil Neville is adamant that Hernandez did not handle the ball. I think he did. My interpretation: he went to chest down a long-range free-kick and clearly shifted his body so that he caught it with his upper right arm, rather than his chest. A deliberate hand ball, in that case. Nevertheless, Phil disagrees and so did the referee. One thing we can say for certain that it certainly wasn’t the “clear and obvious error” from the referee that the VAR rules call for.
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31 min: From the ensuing corner, Mexico’s defence is at complete sixes and sevens, all over the shop. Berg goes close with a header, but Guillermo Ochoa saves brilliantly, tipping the ball over the bar.
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29 min: No penalty! The ref consults his monitor and decides it’s no penalty, despite the counsel of the lads in Moscow. Corner for Sweden.
28 min: VAR!!! The ball appears to hit the arm of Javier Hernandez from a Lindelof free-kick. The ref goes to consult his monitor.
26 min: Sunderland and Hull City old boy Seb Larsson gets booked for catching Hirving Lozano on the inner thigh with a high foot while contesting a header. He’ll miss Sweden’s next game if they make it to the knockout rounds.
25 min: Marcus Berg sends a looping cross towards Ola Toivonen from the left, but Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa beats him to the ball and sets up a counter-attack.
22 min: Mexico win their first corner and take it short, with Hector Herrera and Miguel Layun down by the flag. “They always take their corners short to draw out a few big Swedish players, then try to play their way towards goal,” says Phil Neville, who is doing co-comms on the UK coverage. They don’t manage to do so on this occasion, choosing instead to cross to Moreno, who doesn’t get much purchase on his header.
20 min: This has been an excellent match thus far. Sweden should be leading, but Mexico have had the chance of the game so far. Regarding a certain colleague’s permutations - apparently they’re wrong. Many thanks to the 100s of readers currently clogging up my inbox to let me know.
17 min: Lustig sends in a decent cross from the right, Toivonen missed the header and – behind him – Berg sent a half-volley high over the bar from about seven yards out. He should have scored!!!
16 min: Carlos Vela goes mightily close with a shot I thought was in. Toivonen gave the ball away in midfield, Lozano picked out Vela with a pass and the striker sent a curling effort from distance inches wide of the far post from distance. That was an excellent Mexico counter-attack.
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15 min: Forsberg tries to play the ball in behind the Mexican defence for Toivonen to chase. His pass ricochets back to his own feet off Salcedo and he sends a wild shot high over the bar.
13 min: Sweden have been bossing Mexico in these early stages and are looking very dangerous on set pieces.
10 min: Sweden win the first corner of the match and Carlos Salcedo is given a talking-to by the ref, who warns him not to grapple with Andreas Granqvist, who is significantly taller than the Mexican central defender. The ball’s sent in to the mixer by Ludwig Augustinsson and the Swedish captain wins the header. Wide, but not by much.
8 min: It’s been a lively start and Sweden will be delighted by the manner in which Mexico look a bag of nerves in these early stages.
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5 min: From a position not hugely dissimilar to that from which Toni Kroos broke Swedish hearts the other night, Emil Forsberg tries to whip the ball in at the near, top corner. His shot is on target, but Guillermo Ochoa scrambles across to claw the ball clear.
4 min: Guillermo Ochoa is penalised for handling the ball outside his own penalty area and replays suggest it’s a harsh decision. Sweden free-kick on the left-hand side of the Mexico penalty area, about two inches outside it.
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2 min: Chance! From the free-kick, Seb Larsson sends the ball into the Mexico penalty area. Marcus Berg flicks it on and Toivonen sticks out a leg. From six yards out, he is unable to poke the ball goalwards. Gallardo got a crucial touch to save Mexico.
1 min: Wow! Mexican left-back Jesus Gallardo gets a yellow card on 15 seconds, completely misjudging the flight of a high ball and clattering into Ola Toivonon in mid-air while contesting a high ball.
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Mexico v Sweden is GO!!!
1 min: Sweden get the ball rolling at the Ekatrinburg Arena, their players wearing wearing yellow shirts, navy blue shorts and yellow socks. Mexico’s players wear green shirts, white shorts and red socks.
The coin-toss ...
It’s first blood to Mexico, who win the coin-toss ahead of kick-off, which is just moments away.
Not long now: The teams are out on the pitch and the national anthems have begun. Mexico are up first and their players are enthusiastic, if not particularly capable of carrying a tune.
Sweden’s national anthem is next up. Guardian football editor and patriotic Swede Marcus Christianson declines to stand, choosing instead to remain seated in his swivel chair for this rousing rendition of Du Gamla, Du Fria.
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An added perk for this game: From my position in Guardian Towers, I have in my eyeline a Football Editor who hails from Sweden.
Marcus Christenson, for it is he, will have to endure the trauma of trying to watch this match while simultaneously feigning interest in phone calls from various operatives on the ground in Russia who are working on comparatively insignificant matches.
As well as regular updates, we’ll bring you live reaction from Marcus as the goals go in.
My brother in Germany has just sent me this graphic, which I officially anoint as the World’s Most German Infographic. #weltmeisterschaftsqualifikationsmatrix pic.twitter.com/9n6Rk4U88y
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 27, 2018
Both managers name unchanged sides ....
Mexico boss Juan Carlos Osorio has picked the same 11 players who beat South Korea, while his opposite number, Janne Anderson, has named an unchanged Sweden team to the one that started that heartbreaking injury defeat at the hands of Germany.
Mexico v Sweden line-ups
Mexico: Ochoa, Alvarez, Salcedo, Moreno, Gallardo, Layun, Guardado, Herrera, Vela, Lozano, Hernandez.
Subs: Jose de Jesus Corona, Ayala, Marquez, Gutierrez, Jonathan, Fabian, Jimenez, Giovani, Jesus Corona, Peralta, Aquino, Talavera.
Sweden: Olsen, Lustig, Lindelof, Granqvist, Augustinsson, Claesson, Larsson, Ekdal, Forsberg, Berg, Toivonen.
Subs: Johnsson, Olsson, Guidetti, Svensson, Helander, Hiljemark, Krafth, Jansson, Rohden, Durmaz, Thelin, Nordfeldt.
Referee: Nestor Pitana (Argentina)
Last call on our Guardian Experts’ Network team profiles: Some of these excellent team profiles may not have stood the test of time, having possibly been overtaken by events from the opening two rounds of matches, but they remain an invaluable source of information which we welcome - nay, encourage - you to pass off as your own in work or down the pub.
How things stand in Group F: My colleague Martin Belam recently emerged from a darkened room, looking frazzled and unkempt, but holding an important piece of paper bearing lots of squiggles and sums, along with the following information ...
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Mexico will qualify with a draw. They also qualify if Germany fail to beat South Korea.
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Sweden qualify if they get a better result than Germany.
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Germany qualify if they beat South Korea by two goals or more. If Germany and Sweden both draw their games, then the team involved with the higher-scoring draw will go through, alongside Mexico.
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South Korea can still go through if they win heavily and Mexico also win.
Confused? You should be.
Group F: Mexico v Sweden
Ekatarinburg is the venue for one of two Group F deciders being played today. Mexicop take on Sweden in a group where all four teams still have chances of progressing to the knockout stages, while South Korea will go toe to toe against Germany in Kazan. In a nutshell, Mexico are guaranteed to progress if they secure a point today, while Sweden need to get a better result than Germany to scrape through. Kick off is at 3pm (BST), but stay tuned for team news, even more complicated permutations and all the build-up.
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