Brazil are out (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fact that Martinez is a genius)

We all remember the 1930 World Cup, don’t we? Mark Lawrenson was enjoying football, Rafael Marquez was approaching his peak and – seriously, though – that was the last time the tournament didn’t feature Brazil or Germany in its last four.

Call me naive, but there used to be a time – not that long ago – when tuning in for Brazil at a World Cup was something of a treat: 1994, 1998, 2002. Now, as someone who I can’t remember pointed out on Twitter last night, they’re just another team pinning most of their hopes and putting most of their eggs in the basket of one superstar player.

And, like Brazil, Neymar never really got going at this World Cup despite a fair bit of fuss. In his defence, it took a succession of support acts – Willian, Gabriel Jesus and, finally, the lethally quick Douglas Costa – before Brazil gathered some late momentum. By then, though, Belgium had finally produced a statement performance at the highest level.

Ah, Belgium. So easy to write about the last few years, because the story was largely the same. Then came Roberto Martinez who, with Thierry Henry at his side, formed an unlikely-looking international management team. His job, like Marc Wilmots before him, was to shoehorn all that simultaneous world-class talent into the team while still teasing out Champions League performances from its individuals.

Last night was that night. Vincent Kompany was an injury-free titan in defence, in front of the telescopically-limbed Thibaut Courtois. Kevin De Bruyne thumped in another of this World Cup’s gorgeously-hit goals for the vital 2-0 lead. Romelu Lukaku, with the pace and willingness to use it that no 6ft 3in striker should have the right to, tore Brazil intermittently to shreds down the channels.

And then there was Eden Hazard – 10 dribbles attempted, 10 completed, the best numbers since Opta records began – who came into his own as Brazil really started to chase the game in the second half. If he really wants to elevate himself to Ballon d’Or level (and sometimes you get the sense from his pleasant post-match smiles that he isn’t that bothered) it is games like this that will ensure it.

Brazil are out, demons from 2014 not quite exorcised, but 2018’s dignity reasonably intact. But Belgium – great kit, stupidly good squad, manager sacked by Everton two years ago – are fully capable of capturing the imagination. If they won the World Cup, it would be weird, but fresh and – quite probably – deserved. Their semi-final against France should be a belter.

We’ve heard a lot about Uruguay in theory. Dirty they said: fewest yellow cards of any of the quarter-finalists, the records said. Virtually impregnable, they said: Fernando Muslera, we saw.

This is not to say Uruguay are, god love them, frauds. But, shorn of the unfit Edinson Cavani, whose tournament had finally come together against Portugal in the last 16, they quickly ran out of ideas against France other than “press France almost inhumanely hard in the first 20 minutes”.

For the first time at a World Cup, Luis Suarez failed to touch the ball once in the opposition penalty area and, at 31, it’s clear he cannot win games alone. The light-blue huffing and puffing made for some meaty challenges in the first half, but France – without being scintillating – kept their heads. Raphael Varane used his to great effect, guiding in the opener just before half-time.

Then, on the hour, Fernando Muslera had his “Oooooooh, Pat Bonner!” moment, allowing a swerving, dipping Antoine Griezmann shot to slip beyond his palms and agonisingly out of reach.

France, like Belgium, have their own array of talent and, like Belgium, that will take a few years to assemble properly into a team. World champions, though? They’re ahead of schedule, at least.

Add another thing to England’s list of worries against Sweden: timewasting. US analytics website FiveThirtyEight has painstakingly researched how long each World Cup side has taken to perform routine tasks such as throw-ins, goal kicks, corner kicks, free kicks and substitutions.

In doing, so they found that the Swedes, on average, have taken six seconds longer to get the game going while they’re winning than the tournament average. If England are chasing the game in Samara, prepare to get very frustrated.

“Putting my neck on the line, but if England get to the quarter finals with that squad, I will get the 23-man squad tattooed on me,” tweeted fan Dan Welch back in May, setting his World Cup expectations rather low.

Naturally, he was a man of his word and had each player’s name inked on to his thigh, plus that of manager Gareth Southgate. Meanwhile, he has surely become the only man on the planet to have a tattoo that includes Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope.

On this day, in 1984: Holland’s beaten 1974 final lineup drag themselves out for a rematch with Germany a decade on from The One That Got Away. This time round, they went 1-0 up again…and held on.

Revenge? Meh, not quite, but great to see an exhibition match played with such seriousness.

It’s a huge day for the hosts. After beating Spain in a dramatic penalty shootout in the last sixt….