THE 2018 Soccer World Cup was played in Russia, the largest country in the world, between June 14th and July 15th. The tournament was attended by 32 nations, including Brazil, with games in 11 cities and 12 stadiums.
The definition of the venue for the 21st edition of the tournament took place in December 2010, in a dispute with three other candidates from European countries: England; Portugal and Spain; Netherlands and Belgium. On the same occasion, it was decided that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup.
In all, 64 games were played in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov and Nizhny Novgorod. The capital Moscow hosted games in two stadiums.
Participants
The 32 participating teams, with the exception of Russia, won the 2018 World Cup berth through continental knockout competitions. Russia won the place for being the host country of the event, as happened with Brazil in the 2014 Cup.
The International Football Federation (FIFA) determines the number of seats for each continent. Look:
Africa: 5 vacancies (Tunisia, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and Egypt)
Asia: 4 vacancies + 1 recap (Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia + Australia)
Central and North America: 3 vacancies + 1 recap (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama + Honduras)
South America: 4 vacancies + 1 recap (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia + Peru)
Europe: 13 vacancies (France, Portugal, Germany, Serbia, Poland, England, Spain, Belgium, Iceland, Switzerland, Croatia, Sweden and Denmark)
Oceania: 1 recap spot (New Zealand)
In the case of the 2018 World Cup, the following matches were defined for the recap:
Central and North America (Honduras) vs. Asia (Australia): Australia winner
South America (Peru) x Oceania (New Zealand): winning turkey
Australia competes in the Asian qualifiers because it is far superior to its mainland neighbors. To give you an idea, when Australia competed in the Oceania qualifiers, a score of 30-0 was common. The same is true in South America, where French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname compete for Central America.
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Games
The 32 teams classified for the world Cup from Russia were divided into eight groups. Brazil was in group E along with Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
The top two places in each group qualified for the knockout phase, popularly called the knockout, in which two teams face off to decide who advances to the next stage. The first knockout phase was the round of 16, then came the quarterfinals, the semifinals and finally the long-awaited final, which took place on July 15th in Moscow.
Participation of Brazil
Brazil's first game was on June 17 against Switzerland, when they drew 1-1. The selection was disqualified in the quarterfinals for having lost 2-1 to Belgium, on July 6th, finishing the competition in 6th position. See all games in Brazil:
Group stage
- Brazil 1x1 Switzerland
- Brazil 2x0 Costa Rica
- Brazil 2x0 Serbia
Round of Octaves
- Brazil 2x0 Mexico
Quarterfinals
- Brazil 1x2 Belgium
champion
France was the champion of the 2018 World Cup, beating Croatia in the final by a score of 4-2. The third position went to Belgium, beating England 2-0. It was France's second world title, which he won for the first time in 1998, when they defeated Brazil in the final by 3-0.
Ball
THE 2018 World Cup ball named Telstar 18, in honor of the 1970 World Cup ball. Telstar 18 is white with black details, as in the ball that gave rise to the name.
Mascot
O Russian World Cup mascot is a Siberian wolf that, as its name says, is a typical animal of Siberia, a region that occupies almost 80% of Russian territory. He was given the name "Zabivaka", which means "one who scores a goal".
by Adriano Lesme
Journalist
