Mark's World of Sports

Hey all hope you're all enjoying this glorious weather. Well, it's as good as England's World cup Campaign they are through to the knocku=outs without even facing Belgium. This match is another classic world cup rematch except for the last time England played Belgium in the knockout it was in the last 16 of Italia 90. When the World Cup draw was made it created headlines as it became a battle of the Premier League stars as all of England's players in the league and some of Belgium's best players like Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard, and Thibaut Courtois. Even their head coach and assistant coach in Roberto Martinez and Thierry Henry are ex-Premier League. This game is being played in Kaliningrad which if you don't know where it is on the map it's a little province of Russia between Poland and Lithuania. Because Group H was decided earlier, the next opponents for England would either be either Japan or Belgium. Luckily for England, they won't be threatened wit...

The second game of Englands' was against Central America country Panama. Panama secured their place at the World Cup at the expense of USA and featured players who were retiring at the end of their world cup campaign so for Panama to play England that was the highest point of their careers. The game was taking place in Nizhny Novgorod a city that has only been open to visitors for a few years as it was closed off to them as it was the home to the military factories that built the tanks and weapons for the Soviet Red Army. For England, there was only one change to the team that beat Tunisia which was Ruben Loftus-Cheek replacing Dele Alli. A win for England meant that England Belgium would qualify for the knockout rounds and their match in Kaliningrad would be a battle for the top spot in the group.  England started the game off strong and got rewarded for that with a goal of a corner delivered in by Kieran Trippier and headed in comfortably by John Stones with 8 minutes in t...

England started their world cup campaign in a match that was already heightened up with Belgium beating Panama earlier in the day. England's first match took place in Volgograd in the south of Russia near the Caucasus mountains. The city has a history going back to before the Second World War and became famous for one of history's greatest battles, today it became the setting for the start of England's 2018 World Cup finals campaign. England was going into the tournament with the nightmare of going out to Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016 in the minds of fans, pundits and players. This is the first match of their group stage games. The next one is Panama on Sunday, and then the last game in the Premier League derby against Belgium. This is the second time England has played against Tunisia in the World Cup. The last time these two played was again their opening match though it was in France 98. England was lined up in a 3-5-2 formation which has been Gareth Southgate...

The last game of Friday's football was the most anticipated match since the World Cup draw was made back in December. 2010 World Cup winners and 2 times European Champions Spain taking on 2016 European Champions Portugal. The game has been seen as arguably the best game and pre-match there was a feeling of if the World Cup needed a wake-up call this is the match to wake it up and boy, did it wake the tournament up. The game was taking place in the Fischt Stadium in Sochi, the same stadium that did the Opening, closing and medal ceremonies in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Before the World Cup, there was controversy in the Spain team as their former head coach became the new Real Madrid Manager. In response, the Spanish Federation sacked the coach and installed their former sporting director as the coach with immediate effect. Meanwhile, in the Portugal camp, there was only one question. Could Cristiano Ronaldo finally end his World Cup woes? In his previous 3 world cups, he had s...

Today's first match at the world cup was at Yekaterinburg, the most easterly stadium in the World Cup, between Egypt and Uruguay. This was seen in the days leading up as a clash between 3 of the top players in Europe's best leagues, Uruguay's Luis Suarez and Edison Cavani of Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain and Egypt's Ballon d'Or Contender Mo Salah of Liverpool. However, before kickoff, it was found out that Salah would be starting on the bench as a precaution of that injury he suffered in the Champions League final. This was Egypt's first game in a World Cup since Italia 90 meanwhile for Uruguay it was hope for two of their top players and everyone was hoping that Luis Suarez would have a quiet World Cup compared to his last two World Cups when he caused controversy. It looked a little worrying for Cavani at the start of the game when he went down with what looked like a knock, but he recovered very quickly. He then had the first chance of the game, but the...

The World Cup started today as Russia played Saudi Arabia. The Opening Ceremony and the first match took place in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow which hosted the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea in 2008, and the athletics events in the 1980 Summer Olympic Games. The opening ceremony was performed by Robbie Williams and performed his big hits Let Me Entertain You, Feel and Angels accompanied by Russian Soprano Aida Garifullina. Russia is the lowest-ranked team in the whole tournament. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has the second-highest goalscorer in the qualifying stages, the only player scoring more was Robert Lewandowski of Poland. The pressure on Russia was tremendous because of the hosts having to win the opening match especially as they were coming without a win in 7 games and some experts calling it the weakest team in the whole tournament. This is also the first tournament to have Video Assistant Referee or VAR being used. The use of VAR was critic...

Hi, all it's that tournament that comes round every 4 years. It's the FIFA world cup. This year it's being held in Russia. Throughout the competition, I will be writing about the big matches that are taking place. I will also be writing reports on the England matches. But I thought I'd start by doing a preview of the tournament. This is Russia's second major sporting event in recent years after the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The World Cup has been seen as a chance for Russia to see itself in a good light after the IOC suspending them from the Rio Summer Olympics and this years Winter Olympics in South Korea. Also leading up to the World cup there has been issues of racism from the Russian fans, but that the team are prepared to take in their stride. Also, there have been issues with hooliganism after the Russian and English fans collided before their match in Marseille in Euro 2016. Aside from that, the country is also welcoming 31 of the world's best inter...