World Cup Warm-Up: 1,000 passes, two shootouts and one party

1,114 passes. One thousand, one hundred and fourteen. One pass every six seconds.

And yet, when Artem Dzyuba hammered home Russia’s 41st-minute equaliser, Spain were still waiting for a shot on target. Or a shot of any sort, since their opener had come courtesy of a flailing Sergei Ignashevich. For two hours they passed and passed and passed, often going down a Russian cul de sac, and you started to long for the sight of someone running with the ball instead.

In extra time, substitute Rodrigo did just that - and exposed the hosts’ defence in an instant - before Igor Akinfeev warmed up for his imminent heroics by palming the angled shot away.

This futile hammering at the Russian door played into the home side’s hands: host nations have now won their last five World Cup penalty shootouts. Koke sidefooted into Akinfeev’s body and, after a Russian quartet converted their kicks, poor Iago Aspas found the goalkeeper’s boot instead of 17.86m2 of goal net. Andres Iniesta’s international swansong was both inappropriate and entirely fitting: tiki-taka had taken a tonking.

This was only the second day in World Cup history that both matches had gone to penalties. Croatia and Denmark promised something rather different by trading blows within the first four minutes in Nizhny Novgorod but, as both hesitated to look for the killer blow over the next 116, penalties did what they always do: stepped in to sort out what proper football couldn’t.

Kasper Schmeichel, who hoodwinked Luka Modric to save a penalty with five minutes of extra time to go, stopped two more in the shootout. But Denmark - including Christian Eriksen, a man who usually looks immune to nerves - missed three of their own, Modric atoned for his earlier aberration and Ivan Rakitic was a handy option to wrap things up.

A word of warning, though. Of the last 14 sides to win a World Cup game on penalties, 12 have then lost their next game. Perhaps the euphoria takes too long to leave the system.

If England are supposed to be encouraged by the tumbling dominoes of World Cup contenders, then think how Brazil must be feeling. Their bid for redemption from four years ago has been buried under the day-to-day tournament narrative, but it is now surely a case of “should” rather than “could”.

“I think our evolution has been impressive since the first match,” captain Thiago Silva said, careful not too tempt too much fate. “We are well-prepared and planning to progress to the quarter-finals. The coach provided us with all the necessary tools; we have plan A and plan B. We hope that [Monday] will be a wonderful day, and that Neymar will be as inspired as everyone else.”

The good news for Brazil’s No.10 - who hasn’t comprehensively caught fire at this World Cup yet - is that Mexico apparently have no intention of following Russia’s lead and bedding themselves in for 120 minutes in Samara. “We will try to keep possession of the ball and I believe we can be better at it,” coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. “Our intention is not to stay behind the ball all the time. We don’t want to stay very deep; they are very good in the last third and always score.”

That will surely leave space for Neymar and Philippe Coutinho to exploit with the ball at their feet. In a tournament where everyone is now questioning their standing, Mexico may well be the ones who find their expected level - they have been eliminated at the last-16 stage of the last six tournaments, after all - but Brazil have long lost their right to World Cup complacency.

Belgium's Dries Mertens has an unusual incentive to find the net during the World Cup: free TVs for his friends. Electronics company Krefel has offered customers a full refund on newly bought sets if Roberto Martinez's side score 16 times in Russia.

"My friends bought a television, so I am thinking about that," Mertens said, but his side will need to find seven more goals - and probably reach the final - for his mates to cash in. Penalty shootouts, I’m sure the small print will confirm, do not count.

Nothing about the phrase “the Gareth Southgate effect” would have sounded appealing, say, a year ago. It’s all different now, though, thanks to the technicalities of the lop-sided World Cup draw and Gareth’s influencing of sorts of things. Including - if Marks & Spencer are to be believed, and if you can’t trust M&S the world really is down the pan - a 35% boost to sales of waistcoats this summer.

Forget the potential for heatstroke - it’s all about the three-piece.

On this day in 1982, Brazil and Argentina go at it in the second group stage, Maradona gets himself sent off, everyone thoroughly enjoys themselves:

Once Brazil and Mexico are done in Samara, Belgium will try not to fall at the first knockout hurdle a they face Japan in Rostov. If that all sounds too exotic, try Cowdenbeath’s friendly with Dundee instead.