2014 World Cup - Quarterfinals Time!

The World Cup is halfway done and now enters its most critical phase with only 3 games left to decide who will reach their destiny - footballing immortality.

The quarterfinals have been decided now and are as follows -

Saturday, 5 July 2014
France v Germany, Rio de Janeiro, 4:00am NZT
Brazil v Colombia, Fortaleza, 8:00am

Sunday, 6 July 2014
Argentina v Belgium, Brasilia, 4:00am
Netherlands v Costa Rica, Salvador, 8:00am

The winners of each quarterfinal will play the other winner on the same day, i.e. Brazil or Colombia will take on France or Germany, while Argentina or Belgium will play the Netherlands or Costa Rica.

The way the draw has worked out, has thrown up some potentially tasty semifinal match-ups. Here are some semifinals we'd like to see -

Netherlands v Belgium - the Low Country neighbours are quite feisty when they play each other at a World Cup - they played each other in the group stages in 1994 and 1998 with a draw and one win to Belgium. The Belgians are currently hailed as the team with all the depth and talent and would love to put one on their neighbours if it means a maiden World Cup Final appearance.

Netherlands v Argentina - there's not much love between these two sides, stemming from that controversial Final on this continent 36 years ago when Argentina overcame the Oranje in controversial circumstances in Buenos Aires. The Dutch got one back in 1998 to knock out Argentina from the quarterfinals and will be keen to spoil Argentina's dream of a Final against Brazil in South America.

Brazil v France - Brazil would love to get one back on Les Bleus who have had the wood on them at World Cup time since 1986. Now would be a good time for the Selecao with a place in the Final at stake but they face a coach who knows how to get one on the Brazilians, i.e. Didier Deschamps.

Brazil v Germany - Two of world football's most successful international sides, who met for the first time in a World Cup Finals in the 2002 Final. Germany will be keen to spoil the big samba party after having had their own party spoiled in 2006 and 2010.

Let's hope the likes of Germany, Brazil and Argentina finally turn up in 6th gear - their performances so far suggest that they are currently well below that threshold with Colombia and the Netherlands the hottest so far, while Belgium are still very much in the boiler nudging out win after win from the bench.

Indeed, the 2nd round was a bit of a let down after the goal fest of the 1st round even though there was plenty of attacking endeavour on show - the best game was the last game between Belgium and the USA - it was 0-0 after 90 minutes like several other ties here but it was never dull and that extra time was just sublime. Credit should be given to both sides - Marc Wilmots for his bravery and getting his tactics spot on, i.e. getting Lukaku on at the start of extra time against a tiring American defence, and Jurgen Klinsmann for inspiring his charges to never give up even when they were 2-0 down in extra time.