ArriveDerci, Italy!

The sunset of Europe did not happen: six teams of the Old World are not without difficulties, but still entered the playoffs. However, a miserable sight, there is no other word that was once one of the strongest national teams in the world-the France team, and the extremely unsuccessful performance of the world champions of the 2006 Italians is the main sensation of the South African championship. Both teams - the finalists of the last championship - not only did not get into the decisive round, but also took the last places in their groups

The legendary Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro comforts the teammate after the defeat in the match with Slovakia
There were many expectations about the Serbia team: one of the forecasts ( Simon Cooper and Stefan Shimansky, the authors of the “Footballonomics”. - The New Times No. 21 ), the Serbs were supposed to play in the semifinals against the Spain team. It did not happen. Yes, and the Spaniards were in the balance of the failure: everything decided the final match in the group H - Chileans failed to stop the main favorites, according to bookmakers, at the stage of the group tournament. One God knows how the “coin” for Slovaks will fall further (the tournament grid brought them to the 1/8 finals with the Dutch), but in any case they can drink champagne. Their match with the Italians will be remembered for a long time by football fans: they managed to score three goals into the gate of the “Skuadras Adzurra” and hold the score, despite the fact that in the last minutes of the meeting, the Italians suddenly remembered their fans and played, as in the best years. By the way, the coach of Slovakov Vladimir Weiss at one time coined the Ramensky Saturn and was expelled from there "for unsatisfactory results." Now our national team will have to try it on itself in the fall-in the qualifying matches of the European Championship 2012.

Slovakia celebrates the exit in the playoffs
The group tournament resulted in the triumph of America: the USA, Mexico, five South American teams entered the playoffs. Only Honduras could not leave the group, well, no one expected anything from him.
Africans are upset: the Black Continent will be represented in decisive matches only by Ghana, for the first time in the history of the mundials, the team of the championship-the team of South Africa did not leave the group, did not live up to the expectations of the Kot-D'Ivoir team.
The Asia playoffs were slightly wider-the company of South Korea was Japan (by the way, the Australia team, which performed relatively successfully), also took the special decision of the FIFA from Asia to the championship).

In the 1/8 finals, after the victory over the Danes, the Japanese were also
The honor of Oceania in South Africa was defended by New Zealand, which, although she did not go further than the group, nevertheless performed better the Italians, not suffering a single defeat and gaining 3 points. For the first and only time, the New Zealanders came to the Mundial back in 1982 and made all 3 matches there, losing, including the USSR national team.

And the Chileans (in red) left the group even despite the defeat from the Spaniards
The play-off promises many surprises. So, in the quarterfinals, the tournament mesh reduces the winners of the matches of Uruguay - South Korea and the USA - Gana (matches took place when this number was already in the printing house). So one of these teams, which on the eve of the championship, none of the specialists seriously examined, will definitely be in the semifinals and will enter the four best on the planet. The helpless game of favorites at the start led to the fact that some of them would have to fight each other at the early stage of the playoffs: in the 1/8 finals, the fans saw the collision of the national teams of Germany and England (this match also took place after signing the number in the seal). The winner of this meeting on July 3 risks getting to the brilliantly playing Argentina, led by Diego Armando Maradona: the legendary striker, apparently, also got an excellent coach. By the way, after the victory over Greece, one of the correspondents asked Maradona whether he would someday lead the Russian team, to which the Argentine coach only crossed himself silently. According to Maradona, the World Cup in South Africa demonstrated the full failure of European football and said that the Final of Argentina, Brazil, would be the logical end of the mundial. The Brazilian coach Dunga, in turn, to the question of whether he was afraid of a possible meeting in the final with the Argentines, said: "Let them be afraid of us." Another brightest sign of matches of the 1/8 finals is the Pyrenee derby: the Spaniards with the Portuguese will find out the relationship on June 29.