So in the end it was England, USA, Germany and Ghana who were the lucky quartet to progress from today’s matches. Looking at Group C first, it could have been Slovenia going through until the USA scored deep into injury time. Both England and USA kept clean sheets. Again the English offense wasn’t so fluid. Wayne Rooney will be frustrating his fantasy football owners no end. As would Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard who both had fantastic goal scoring opportunities.

In the end it was Jermain Defoe who scored the priceless goal. England progress despite just scoring two goals but on the other hand they did only let through one – THAT goal.

USA will be thrilled as they will be battling with Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea for a spot in the semi-finals.

Ghana also made it through despite only scoring two goals – both of which have been penalties. So they haven’t scored a goal in open play which is why you should think twice about choosing any of them in the next round. They will take the hopes of Africa will them into the final 16.

I said in their team preview that Germany not making the second round would be the biggest shock of the tournament and again they made it through. They now face England in what will be the biggest match of the tournament to date.

As for Australia it was a case of too little, too late. They will forever regret their performance against Germany which basically cost them any chance of progressing. Against Serbia they were more positive and on the plus side finished the match with 11 men. Did anyone have Brett Holman in their fantasy football side? He is the only Australian to score in more than one match at the same World Cup. The problem was that they couldn’t finish the match which a clean sheet. Australia is the third side of the tournament to date, to be eliminated on four points.

For Serbia, they finish last despite ending up on three points. Ever since the draw they were less than complimentary of Australia and this came back to bite them.

As for the next four matches, anything is possible in Group F. Paraguay will go through if they take a least a point against New Zealand. The only thing of interest from Group G is Denmark – Japan which is basically a playoff game for second spot.

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