The World Cup in knockout mode

Yippee!! The football World Cup has reached the knockout stages, and are we in for a treat. The group stage has already seen quite a few upsets along with some brilliant attacking football. Ghana proved to be the surprise package of Group E, qualifying ahead of big teams like the Czech Republic and the USA.

The 2nd round promises some good games (although half of the games are over as I write this). Germany won comfortably over Sweden, who could have been tricky. Argentina won a rather close match with Mexico, which went into extra time. England huffed and puffed (again) to victory over Ecuador, while Portugal came through an ill-tempered encounter with Holland, that featured a record 4 red cards.

The upcoming games include Italy v/s Australia, which could prove tricky for the Italians, thanks to the Aussies' fighting spirit and Guus Hiddink's guidance. Another interesting game is the one between Spain and France, both fancied sides, though France is low on form, while Spain isn't. Switzerland take on Ukraine in another match. The Ghanaians could ruffle quite a few Brazilian feathers with their strength and pace.

We already have 2 promising quarter-final match-ups decided. Let's see how the others shape up.