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We are now at the point in the World Cup where we can count the amount of Juventus players left with just one hand. We know that Blaise Matuidi is into the semifinals with France, but we also know that there won’t be another Bentancur Day with Uruguay being eliminated by that same French squad as well as Douglas Costa’s supersub efforts not being enough to overturn Belgium’s early 2-0 advantage.
Today will surely see one Juventus player take the field. His name is Mario Mandzukic and you may have heard of him before. He’s got the rep as a grumpy fellow, one to not take any of your bullshit as he tries his best to make your team’s defenders look like idiots.
Mandzukic and Croatia go for one of the two remaining spots that are up for grabs in the World Cup semifinals. This is the final day where we will have multiple days, which will make you quickly want to go back to the days where the group stage was about to end and we had two games GOING ON AT ONCE rather than just two games total.
The first game of the day, will result in one of two things:
- The English media will be absolutely insufferable.
- The English media will be absolutely heartbroken.
What fun there could possibly be today, right?
Fun, fun, fun!
And maybe it will result in Mandzukic breaking a smile. Or maybe it will result in Mandzukic yelling at somebody like a Russian player or the referee. I’m going to put my money on the second option even though the odds are probably not all that favorable for yours truly.
Go on and enjoy the second and final day of the quarterfinals. After today, there aren’t too many more World Cup days to have occupy our minds.
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
England vs. Sweden: 10 a.m. Eastern Time, 7 a.m. Pacific (NBC link here)
Russia vs. Croatia: 2 p.m. Eastern Time, 11 a.m. Pacific (NBC link here)
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Both the England-Sweden and Croatia-Russia games will be shown on FOX (United States); TSN4, TSN5 (Canada); UTV, STV Scotland, ITV1 UK (United Kingdom)
Online/mobile: Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (links above); Fox Sports Go (United States); TSN GO, RDS GO (Canada); The ITV Hub (United Kingdom)
Note: This post will be updated daily as the main World Cup viewing and off-topic thread here at BWRAO. Stay tuned to BWRAO for posts regarding Juventus’ representation in Russia as well as any transfer-related happenings that take place before, during or after the day’s schedule comes and goes.