sorry lads, it's coming home

So, for question 11, who's correct? The obvious answer would be these lot:



A record of losing in the last 16 every single time dating all the way back to 1994 (only not going back further because they were banned in 1990 in comical circumstances), Mexico's result against Brazil was inevitable and would gain Namath12, eleanor60 and eyebooger three points.

Another three pointer was this lot:



Portugal's defeat to Uruguay gave Vilica, LostOstrich and Fatal Checkraise a correct result.

But wait, there's more three pointers!



Denmark went out to Croatia on penalties, giving JMurder3, MindFckr and Eric T a bucket from downtown.

More you say?



Switzerland lost out to Sweden thanks to a huge deflection in an otherwise dire game, which gave rtspurs, envelope and Jack W a correct answer.

Which leaves us with a couple of deuces:



Colombia weren't able to prevent it coming home, and teejayC and mw828 get the joint best answer of the round, along with these fellow CONMEBOL slappies:



Argentina scored the second most goals in the round, just happening to run into the one true GOAT as Mbappe helped the French to get the most goals, Dara D and lukethefluke being the beneficiaries of a team thinking that using a Man City centre back without two ex-Blades alongside to bail him out if he ****s up is a good idea

nobody is my friend, nobody is

thanks again for the reveals

wow, those penalties cost me some money, but I had no idea they would cost me the PEEHS as well

Now for our question 12 corrects:



Belgium were not looking like a very good pick with a quarter of a game to go, until the siege tower was freed, giving lukethefluke, Jabonator, MindFckr, SYF, LostOstrich, Namath12, Adam W, PeteBlow and Bob Dobelina our sheep answer with nine and giving my bank account a nice boost.

Our next most popular selection was your pre tournament favourites:



In amongst being a whiny little *****, Neymar managed to see Brazil through to the quarter finals and give xander biscuits, rtspurs, Nemesis, LFC_USA, Eric T and Vilica six points.

Next up:



Schlitz mmmm finally gets a correct answer at the twelfth time of asking who picked England, along with Giroudgeous and Yippie ki-yay

A two pointer next:



Uruguay were likely to have a tough game, but a Cavani brace gave Fatal Checkraise and Benedmonds correct answers.

We round off with two aces:



France didn't have many believers, or maybe they were too obvious a pick? One way or another Dara D got his first ace and a perfect pair of questions.

Our other ace:



Croatia were made to work but got home against Denmark, just about, giving Jack W a first ace of the quiz.

was fun while it lasted

Question 11 results:

2 - Colombia (teejayC, mw828)
2 - Argentina (Dara D, lukethefluke)
3 - Denmark (JMurder3, MindFckr, Eric T)
3 - Switzerland (rtspurs, envelope, Jack W)
3 - Portugal (Vilica, LostOstrich, Fatal Checkraise)
3 - Mexico (Namath12, eleanor60, eyebooger)
12 (6 correct answers + 6 for Russia sheep): S.K (Uruguay), xander biscuits (England), YKY (Poland), mic_check12 (Serbia), kingweed (Russia), Cinarocket (Russia), vruuuuk (England), NicReynolds (England), Jabonator (Poland), Giroudgeous (Russia), Nemesis (England), Benedmonds (Croatia), SYF (Russia), LFC (Russia), Planetist (Russia), Schlitz mmm (Poland), Adam W (Uruguay), Peteblow (Sweden), Bob Dobelina (England), Booker Wolfbox (Iran)

Question 12 results:

1 - France (Dara D)
1 - Croatia (Jack W)
2 - Uruguay (Fatal Checkraise, Benedmonds)
3 - England (Giroudgeous, Yippie ki-yay, Schlitz mmmm)
6 - Brazil (xander biscuits, rtspurs, Nemesis, LFC_USA, Eric T, Vilica)
9 - Belgium (lukethefluke, Jabonator, MindFckr, SYF, LostOstrich, Namath12, Adam W, PeteBlow, Bob Dobelina)
15 (6 correct answers + 9 for Belgium sheep) - S.K (Spain), JMurder3 (Germany), mic_check12 (Spain), teejayC (Argentina), kingweed (Spain), Cinarocket (Portugal), vruuuuk (Colombia), NicReynolds (Germany), mw828 (Spain), envelope (Argentina), Planetist (Colombia), eleanor60 (Colombia), Booker Wolfbox (Germany), eyebooger (Colombia)

Scores after 12:

Woah, thought I for sure lost my lead with these questions.

oh. Nice jump there.

GET THERE

We have enough information to be able to reveal questions 19 and 20 in the morning, although as I will be able to reveal question 18 unless exactly one unlikely result* happens in the Russia/Croatia game, I think I will wait until after that game is done and do the three at once

Who's ready for some reveals?

18) Name a team which will cause an upset win during the tournament according to current Elo ratings (must be in normal time or after extra time, games going to penalties = draw, current rating list is below)

Will look at the teams in batches of four, from the worst to the best.

Worst team was Saudi Arabia, who therefore had three shots in the group stages to be right. The first one wasn't close. The second one was closer, but still not there, then, in the 95th minute, they got this:



Alas, this is an unused correct answer.

Mainly because they were facing the home nation with possible riggage, an actual good team in Uruguay, and then Egypt, who thus only had the two shots against Uruguay and Russia. They lost both of them and lost their last game for good measure to be incorrect, taking down Schlitz mmmm, Adam W and eyebooger.

Next up was Tunisia, who pushed England close, couldn't really do the same against Belgium, but had one last shot against Panama, and got this one:



This would be enough to give Yippie ki-yay and LFC_USA our first correct picks of the question.

Elo oddly had Panama ranked above them, they proved to be a bit of a joke, fortunately nobody picked them. Moving on...

The 28th ranked team was quarter finalists Russia, who got wins in the group of LOL against Saudi Arabia and Egypt to qualify, both of whom were ranked below them, their first shot at being correct would be against Uruguay, and that didn't work, so they got another shot against Spain, but couldn't get the winner in normal or extra time, which gave them one last shot against Croatia, and couldn't hold the lead against them either. A win on penalties would have extended the question for another few games until they would run into the unstoppable force of it's coming home, but they couldn't do it, giving NicReynolds and Bob Dobelina an incorrect answer searching for the rig to be in.

Next up was Japan, who were correct after their first group stage game:



They wouldn't get another win despite getting out of the group, but they didn't need to. Pity it was unused, eh?

Nigeria come next:



Ahmed Musa's brace against Iceland in game 2 makes them a correct selection, giving vruuuuk and envelope a two point play.

Last answer of this post is Morocco, who despite having three possible shots to win, could only get one point in any game, they were a correct answer going into stoppage time against Spain but an Aspas equaliser gives mic_check12, rtspurs and MindFckr an incorrect answer.

Teams ranked 24-21 are next. Australia weren't picked by anybody and were easily incorrect, only getting a point against Denmark.

Costa Rica were quarter finalists four years ago and came in as the lowest ranked team in group E. They came home with just the one point, only losing to a sweet Kolarov free kick, keeping it level with Brazil until injury time and equalising late against Switzerland, but you don't get points for trying so Fatal Checkraise, lukethefluke and Planetist are all incorrect.

South Korea did this:







Unused, alas.

Senegal were correct after their very first game:



Their defeat of Poland gave xander biscuits and Nemesis two points each.

Our next bunch of teams give us a few incorrects. Serbia were selected by JMurder3, but could only get a win against Costa Rica and not hold the lead against Switzerland which would have made them correct.

Iceland were next, three games, one point, no wins, unused.

Iran only had shots against Spain and Portugal, and were extremely close to being a correct answer, but couldn't quite get there against CR7 +10, despite a seeming lack of realistic chances to be correct, Namath12 and Booker Wolfbox both opted to pick Carlos Queiroz's outfit, and both would be wrong.

Our last team in the bottom half is Sweden, who became correct in the last game of the group stage:



A 3-0 drubbing of Mexico gives PeteBlow a first ace!

On to the top half of teams. Poland had a disastrous tournament, only getting the one win against Japan who were ranked below them when they were already out of things. S.K is incorrect as a result.

Denmark only got one win in their opening game, but against Peru it would be enough:



It was that unremarkable a game they didn't even seem to send commentators to cover it, but kingweed, SYF and LostOstrich are all correct regardless.

Croatia, despite being in the semi finals, only have the one qualifying victory thanks to lolwilly



Vilica gets an ace as a result.

Mexico are the last of this post, and another correct answer:



Beating Germany doesn't seem that impressive in retrospect but it would have been a correct answer for someone.

Switzerland are an incorrect answer, only picking up the one late winner against lower ranked Serbia, but were unused.

Uruguay were used though, not being eligible to win until the knockout stages, they would get a chance to be correct against Portugal, which they took:





Giroudgeous is correct for his second ace of the game.

Peru didn't manage a win in the tournament until it was too late, and it was only against Australia, an interesting pick from Jack W and a wrong pick at that.

The last team outside the top 8 were Belgium, strongly fancied and with a game against a higher ranked lolengland, this happened:



England playing the long game perfectly gives teejayC, Cinarocket, Jabonator, Benedmonds and mw828 our sheep answer of the round. They'd be right again in the quarters and have the chance to be right for a third time in the semi final.

We only have one more correct answer to date. Colombia were unused, being the highest ranked team in group H, they got two wins there but couldn't make it count in the last sixteen where they might have been a correct answer.

England is who they faced, and we've yet to face a team higher than us, and will only do so in the final if we face France. Still, as we're unused, who cares.

Portugal were used by Eric T, with only Spain as a potential correct game before the quarter finals, even a Ronaldo hat trick wouldn't be enough.

France are correct though:





Mbappe's pair added onto Pavard's wonder strike and a Griezmann penalty, giving them a correct answer against Argentina. eleanor60 and Dara D are our last picks of the round and the last correct picks as well.

Argentina, Spain and Germany could all only get the one win in the group stage against worse teams, Argentina and Spain getting the chances to set up later possible correct attempts but failing to do so, Germany didn't even manage that, and Brazil were obviously impossible to be correct unless FIFA set up some sort of Space Jam-style end boss

Scores:

1 - Sweden (PeteBlow)
1 - Uruguay (Giroudgeous)
1 - Croatia (Vilica)
2 - Tunisia (YKY, LFC_USA)
2 - Nigeria (vruuuuk, envelope)
2 - Senegal (xander biscuits, Nemesis)
2 - France (eleanor60, Dara D)
3 - Denmark (kingweed, SYF, LostOstrich)
5 - Belgium (teejayC, Cinarocket, Jabonator, Benedmonds, mw828)
14 (9 correct answers + 5 for Belgium sheep) - YKY (Serbia), S.K (Poland), mic_check12 (Morocco), rtspurs (Morocco), Fatal Checkraise (Costa Rica), NicReynolds (Russia), lukethefluke (Costa Rica), MindFckr (Morocco), Planetist (Costa Rica), Schlitz mmmm (Egypt), Namath12 (Iran), Adam W (Egypt), Eric T (Portugal), Bob Dobelina (Russia), Jack W (Peru), Booker Wolfbox (Iran), eyebooger (Egypt)

As mentioned before, we've got enough information to do the last two questions, so let's go:

19) Name a team that qualified for both 2014 and 2018 who will last longer in Russia than in Brazil
20) Name a team that qualified for both 2014 and 2018 who will be eliminated quicker in Russia than in Brazil

We had 20 teams that were available for selection. Let's look at those teams that are wrong for both questions:

Mexico went out in the last 16 for the 289465890346th World Cup in succession, which caught out S.K who thought they'd go out at the group stage, which they would have done, but we can blame the Germans.

Australia went out in the group stage for the third tournament in a row, but nobody thought they'd go further.

Switzerland went out in the last 16 for the second time in a row, vruuuuk tipping them not to make it out of the group.

Iran went out in the group stage the same as in 2014, but nobody picked them to go further, while South Korea did the same - Jack W thought they'd get out of the group, so is one of our last incorrects.

The only other incorrect came from xander biscuits - he'd gone for there to be no correct answers in question 19. Now it's entirely possible that when sending in a PM clarification, he wanted this answer to be changed to Brazil, rather than for question 20, where he'd picked South Korea, who couldn't have been eliminated quicker than the group stage. I'm reading it as him thinking he wanted South Korea to be changed, as that was more obviously wrong, and picking Brazil to reach the final would have been a bold, aggressive and incorrect play. Turns out that no correct answers was also impossible to be correct - at a minimum, one of Portugal, Spain or Iran would be correct, and there might be others, but oh well.

So as there's no other incorrects for either question, let's look at the corrects.

For question 19, we wanted a team to last longer.

Croatia are in the semi finals having been knocked out in the group stages last time - they were a popular pick used by NicReynolds, Jabonator, Nemesis, MindFckr and Vilica, but by no means the most popular one.

That would be Spain, going out in the group stages in Brazil but making it to the last 16 this time - JMurder3, mic_check12, teejayC, Fatal Checkraise, kingweed, Benedmonds, Adam W and Booker Wolfbox giving us the sheep of the round.

Japan did the same as Spain in that getting out of the group and nothing else would be fine, but weren't used.

Uruguay needed to reach the quarter finals to be correct, and they did exactly that, giving Steve Yzerman fan an ace.

England just needed to get out of the group to be right, and are still going and into the semi finals - S.K, Yippie ki-yay, lukethefluke, envelope, LostOstrich and Schlitz mmmm are the beneficiaries of an easy enough group.

France have also lasted longer, reaching the semi finals to go one better as a minimum than their quarter final defeat last time around - Eric T and eyebooger get a decent score on this one.

Portugal were the co-sheep of this round, they went down to Uruguay but that's still better than going out in the group behind the United States, so rtspurs, Dara D, mw828, LFC_USA, Planetist, Namath12, PeteBlow and eleanor60 all get the easy enough eight points.

Belgium have also gone one better than in 2014, Bob Dobelina being the only player to think that Bob's side would reach the semi finals.

Russia are the last potential correct for this one, and Giroudgeous, vruuuuk and Cinarocket all correctly tipped them to get out of an easy-looking group.

For question 20, we wanted a team to go out quicker than in 2014.

Brazil did, giving xander biscuits an ace.

Colombia did as well, although they needed penalties to manage this, kingweed, Jabonator, envelope and Eric T all collecting four points.

Costa Rica were almost certain to go out earlier, and did so comfortably. It was so obvious a pick that it's an overwhelming sheep, YKY, JMurder3, mic_check12, Dara D, Fatal Checkraise, Cinarocket, Nemesis, Planetist, LostOstrich, PeteBlow, Jack W and Vilica all getting 12 points.

Nigeria made the knockout stages last time, but went down fighting in the group stages this time - Giroudgeous, mw828, SYF, LFC_USA, Schlitz mmmm, Adam W and eyebooger all being correct on this one.

Argentina would be correct unless they made an unlikely repeat run to the final, we all saw that they didn't going out to France in one of the games of the tournament in the last 16, only MindFckr, Namath12 and eleanor60 going for what looked like a safe play.

Another safe play was Germany who would have to have been the first team in 56 years to defend their title to be incorrect. teejayC, rtspurs, NicReynolds, lukethefluke, Benedmonds, Bob Dobelina and Booker Wolfbox all played the percentages but may not have expected the correct answer to come quite as easily as it did.

That's every possible correct answer, so the only unused correct in either round was Japan, so a good spread of answers.

Scores for question 19:

1 - Uruguay (Steve Yzerman fan)
1 - Belgium (Bob Dobelina)
2 - France (Eric T, eyebooger)
3 - Russia (Giroudgeous, vruuuuk, Cinarocket)
5 - Croatia (NicReynolds, Jabonator, Nemesis, MindFckr, Vilica)
6 - England (S.K, Yippie ki-yay, lukethefluke, envelope, LostOstrich, Schlitz mmmm)
8 - Spain (JMurder3, mic_check12, teejayC, Fatal Checkraise, kingweed, Benedmonds, Adam W, Booker Wolfbox)
8 - Portugal (rtspurs, Dara D, mw828, LFC_USA, Planetist, Namath12, PeteBlow, eleanor60)
16 (8 correct answers + 8 for Spain/Portugal sheep) - xander biscuits (Nobody), Jack W (South Korea)

Question 20 answers:

1 - Brazil (xander biscuits)
3 - Argentina (MindFckr, Namath12, eleanor60)
4 - Colombia (kingweed, Jabonator, envelope, Eric T)
7 - Germany (teejayC, rtspurs, NicReynolds, lukethefluke, Benedmonds, Bob Dobelina, Booker Wolfbox)
7 - Nigeria (Giroudgeous, mw828, SYF, LFC_USA, Schlitz mmmm, Adam W, eyebooger)
12 - Costa Rica (YKY, JMurder3, mic_check12, Dara D, Fatal Checkraise, Cinarocket, Nemesis, Planetist, LostOstrich, PeteBlow, Jack W, Vilica)
18 (6 correct answers + 12 for Costa Rica sheep) - vruuuuk (Switzerland), S.K (Mexico)

Current scores:



For reference, everyone on 130 or lower is in the sidepool except for SYF, Bob, Vilica, eyebooger and S.K

For the rest of the questions, 13-14 are going to need to wait until after the final regardless of what happens, 16 could potentially be revealed after the semi finals - it's waiting on a bunch of players in the France/Belgium game, and 17 might be the same but possibly not dependent on who gets through the England/Croatia game. That said, I have just noticed that question 15 can be revealed later, although I'll do that one this evening