2018 RUSSIA WORLD CUP, WEEK 1 – ARSENAL PLAYER

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed there’s a World Cup taking place in Russia. Some of the players in the tournament play for Arsenal.

We figured we should see what they’ve been up to. It doesn’t make for great reading…

Mohamed Elneny
Egypt (0 – 1) Uruguay
Friday 15 June

Egypt, without Mohamed Salah who stayed on the bench, managed to keep Luis Suarez at bay but they still succumbed to Jose Jimenez’s 90th-minute winner. Our Mo, who enjoyed an 87.8% pass completion rate, looked dejected when the whistle went. Spoiler alert – it doesn’t get much better in the next game.

Alex Iwobi
Croatia (2 – 0 ) Nigeria
Saturday 16 June

An Etebo own goal and a Luka Modric penalty were enough for a clinical Croatia to deal with the Super Eagles. Iwobi, who was pretty anonymous before being subbed in the second half, didn’t even get to wear the funky new home kit.

Joel Campbell
Costa Rica (0 – 1) Serbia
Sunday 17 June

Joel ‘Get Out While You Can’ Campbell came on as a second half substitution as Costa Rica chased an equaliser following Aleksander Kolarov’s deadly free-kick. He didn’t do much to help their cause.

Mesut Ozil
Germany (0 – 1) Mexico
Sunday 17 June

Mexico, with Carlos Vela in the team, repeatedly hurt Germany on the break to record a momentous win against the reigning World Champions. Mesut desperately tracked the onrushing Hirving Lozano on 35 minutes but couldn’t stop the left winger from cutting inside and smashing what turned out to be the winner.

Stephan Lichtsteiner & Granit Xhaka
Brazil (1 – 1) Switzerland
Sunday 17 June

Granit and Stephan put in gritty, disciplined performances for the Swiss as they bounced back from Philippe Coutinho’s opener to snatch a 1-1 draw with favourites Brazil. Lichtsteiner picked up a booking on 31 minutes but kept his head to the Selecao attack, while Xhaka grew into the game after Steven Zuber’s headed equaliser.

Danny Welbeck
Tunisia 1 – 2 England
Monday 18 June

Danny didn’t play. Apparently, he accidentally sprayed bug repellant in his face during the warm-up. That wasn’t the reason he didn’t play though.

David Ospina
Colombia 1 – 2 Japan
Tuesday 19 June

Colombia suffered a nightmare start to their campaign as Carlos Sanchez conceded a penalty and received his marching orders for handling Shinji Kagawa’s shot after just 3 minutes. Ospina couldn’t do anything to stop the Dortmund man’s spot kick. Juan Quintero’s clever free-kick levelled things before the break before Yuya Osako headed a winner on 73 minutes.