By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 18 – Somehow Germany always manage to get the job done. Not this time. In the biggest shock so far at the World Cup, the defending champions lost their opening game for only the second time in their history after Mexico pulled off an historic 1-0 win in Moscow – their first ever win over the Germans.
June 18 – Russia’s 5-0 opening win over Saudi Arabia has resulted in an immediate £50,000 win for the LGBT community as a Paddy Power marketing gimmick looks set to cost the bookmaker a lot more than they expected.
By Samindra Kunti in St Petersburg
June 17 – Iranian women, who have been banned from attending football in the Islamic state since 1980, have protested at Iran’s World Cup opening game against Morocco, seizing the exposure the world’s biggest sporting event, the World Cup, offers.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 17 – A freekick that will be talked about for years to come followed, 24 hours later, by a penalty miss that was equally, in its own way, memorable if only for the context involved.
By David Owen
June 16 – Iran ended eight years of Asian hurt at the World Cup finals in St Petersburg on Friday, cashing in on Aziz Bouhaddouz’s stoppage time own goal to record a hard-fought 1-0 win over Morocco.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 15 – They’re back. And before they’ve even kicked a ball, everyone has fallen in love with them – again. Two years after making the quarterfinal at Euro 2016, guess what were Icelandic head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson’s first words at his media conference on the eve of the country’s World Cup debut against mighty Argentina.
By David Owen
June 15 – It was a dream start for the host nation; but Thursday’s 5-0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia in the opening match of Russia 2018 was also the perfect entrance for sports equipment group Adidas at the 21st FIFA World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 14 – Walking round the streets of Moscow in the days leading up to tonight’s World Cup opener, you wouldn’t necessarily have known the Russian capital was about to herald the start of a competition that has taken eight years to organise and was so vital in terms of image and public relations.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 14 – So, after months of criss-crossing the globe, how did they manage to win so emphatically? As leaders of the triumphant North American 2026 World Cup bid took in the totally unexpected margin of victory, they were honest enough to admit that even they didn’t expect such an outcome.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 13 – It was the 13th item on the agenda and it proved to be unlucky verging on disastrous for Morocco as the United States and its partners Canada and Mexico were today awarded the 2026 World Cup.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 13 – He stayed away in 2010 when Russia won the vote as a sign of respect for FIFA, flying into Zurich only after the result became public.
By Samindra Kunti in Moscow
June 13 – On the eve of the World Cup, tickets remain for 19 of the 48 group matches, including England’s opening match against Tunisia. Last week FIFA announced 2.4 million tickets had been sold for the tournament.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 12 – Whether it should be this way is a matter of debate. But in the modern world, commercial clout and the promise of safe, sophistated infrastructure invariably carry more weight than passion and legacy – as Morocco seem likely to find to their cost when the race to stage the 2026 World Cup reaches its denouement tomorrow.
By Andrew Warshaw in Moscow
June 11 – The chances of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being expanded to 48 teams appear to have faded as quickly as they arose.
Plans for a feasibility study have been put on hold and the idea pulled from Wednesday’s FIFA Congress after FIFA President Gianni Infantino said agreement from the Gulf nation is a “precondition.”
June 11 – The CIES Football Observatory has ranked teams participating in the Russia 2018 World Cup by their transfer values. Top of the table are France with a total squad value of €1.41 billion.