5 Things we learnt from Round 1 of the World Cup
We are just past the round 1 of the World Cup and we've already seen a lot of bizarre things already. The hosts slammed 5 past the Arabs. Portugal and Spain played out a 3-3 draw and Iran ended up topping the group after Morocco lost their first game after over an year. A country with a population of about 3 lakhs held Messi and co. Defending champions Germany were shocked by the Mexicans, France and Uruguay barely managed to beat what seemed like comparatively easier opponents. 5 own goals have been scored already and we are yet to see a goalless game.VAR has been really handy, referees decisions have not created controversies (yet?). Belgium and England did not have it easy against supposed minnows Panama and Tunisia. Japan became the first Asian tea to beat a South American team and Poland were shocked by Senegal both in a span of 5 hours. MSN are yet to get their name on the scoresheet and Ronaldo scored 3 against one of the best keepers in the world. Brazil, for all their firepower, were second best against a Swiss team who were unlucky to draw after a dominating first 65-70 minutes. A lot of things aren't really adding up. Here's 5 takeaways from what we've seen so far.
#1 There are no favourites
Building up to the World Cup, everyone had their "favourites" to win the cup. The tier 1 favourites were Brazil, Germany and maybe Spain. Then you could probably put your money on the likes of Argentina, France, Portugal and maybe Belgium. However, only Belgium managed to produce a convincing win. Argentina, Brazil were held by resilient European sides in Iceland and Switzerland. Spain and Portugal played out an entertaining draw, Germany were shocked by Mexico and France barely scraped through Australia.
It seems like we're back to square one. This can be anyone's tournament. The fact that the scorelines in these games are definitely a reflection of the game is something for the top-dogs to worry about.