Colombia’s 3-0 demolition of Poland signalled the end of the second round of matchday fixtures at the 2018 World Cup. A
plethora of Liverpool stars have been in action, with Sadio Mane the last to feature on Sunday afternoon. I’ve taken a look at how they all performed.
On Tuesday, Mo Salah got his chance as he started Egypt’s crucial match against the hosts, Russia. Unfortunately for Salah, his nation lost 3-1 and crashed out of the World Cup, although he did score a penalty.
Thursday saw the highly anticipated clash between Dejan Lovren‘s Croatia and Argentina. The central defender put in an amazing performance that Liverpool fans have become accustomed to as Croatia ran out 3-0 winners.
Roberto Firmino was once again a substitute but came on earlier, this time in the 68th minute. He played an integral part in Brazil’s late opener as his knockdown fell to Gabriel Jesus who flicked the ball on for ex-Liverpool player Philippe Coutinho to score.
Marko Grujic was an unused substitute for Serbia as they were on the end of a Swiss comeback, losing 2-1 in a game marred with controversy due to Granit Xhaka and Liverpool target Xherdan Shaqiri’s celebrations.
Like Marko Grujic, Simon Mignolet was not used by Belgium as they coasted to a 5-2 victory over Tunisia.
Sunday saw the next England game, with Jordan Henderson again preferred to Eric Dier and Trent Alexander-Arnold being an unused substitute. The Three Lions roared to an impressive 6-1 win over Panama.
Later on Sunday, Sadio Mane opened the scoring for Senegal but the Africans let their lead slip twice and only managed a draw against Japan.
Lovren, Mignolet, Henderson and Alexander-Arnold are all through to the last 16. Mo Salah is sadly already eliminated with one game left and the fates of Firmino, Grujic and Mane will be decided over the next week.
