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· Golden Boot table
7.17am BST
That's been one of the big themes of the World Cup so far but Brazil's combative manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has come out fighting. Although he admits it's been "emotional" so far, as our chief football writer Daniel Taylor writes Scolari has brought his psychologist of the last 20 years to help his players cope with the expectation.
6.58am BST
The fans out in Brazil better start getting ready now if they're getting dressed up again.
6.50am BST
Germany are confident - Tony Kroos simply says they're the better team - and have every right to be.
In an idle moment I calculated that they've never failed to reach a World Cup final for three successive tournaments in the post-war era. Their record goes 1954, 1966, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 2002. So, after missing the last two ...6.37am BST
Anyway, back to the round of eight, as I don't think anyone calls it, and the big question of who's going to win.
The Guardian's latest World Cup preview features French football pundit Julien Laurens, who not surprisingly plumps for France, but with the proviso that Germany don't exploit Les Bleus' weakness at left-back. Step forward Patrice Evra. You can watch the preview here.
6.23am BST
No World Cup would be complete, however, without some sort of ticket scandal and this cups of cups has provided.Police in Rio say they have arrested 11 suspected touts and believe that an as-yet unidentified Fifa official has been supplying them. Tickets have been sold by the touts for up to eight times their face value with the touts looking to reap $100m. That sounds like quite a lot until you discover that the average price being quoted for the final through agencies is now more than US$7,000.
6.14am BST
If a rematch of the 1982 and 1986 semi-finals is not exciting enough then the Brazil-Colombia tie is, as they like to say on the telly, mouth-watering.
Saliva levels are already running high in Fortaleza where big crowds turned out to peer through gates to, maybe, catch of glimpse of Brazil training on Thursday and where a large contingent of Colombians is expected.
6.04am BST
I don't know about you but I'm pretty excited about these quarter-finals. In fact, I might have to have a lie down before the kick off, which considering the France-Germany game starts at 2am here in Australia is probably what's going to happen.
5.58am BST
Good morning and welcome to Friday's coverage of the World Cup, featuring all the breaking news from Brazil and reaction to the latest results, injury news, squad stories and fan reaction.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 23 hours ago.
· Check out the latest brick-by-brick videos
· Watch the latest World Cup preview with Nat Coombs
· Latest results, schedule and fixtures
· Golden Boot table
7.17am BST
That's been one of the big themes of the World Cup so far but Brazil's combative manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has come out fighting. Although he admits it's been "emotional" so far, as our chief football writer Daniel Taylor writes Scolari has brought his psychologist of the last 20 years to help his players cope with the expectation.
6.58am BST
The fans out in Brazil better start getting ready now if they're getting dressed up again.
6.50am BST
Germany are confident - Tony Kroos simply says they're the better team - and have every right to be.
In an idle moment I calculated that they've never failed to reach a World Cup final for three successive tournaments in the post-war era. Their record goes 1954, 1966, 1974, 1982, 1986, 1990, 2002. So, after missing the last two ...6.37am BST
Anyway, back to the round of eight, as I don't think anyone calls it, and the big question of who's going to win.
The Guardian's latest World Cup preview features French football pundit Julien Laurens, who not surprisingly plumps for France, but with the proviso that Germany don't exploit Les Bleus' weakness at left-back. Step forward Patrice Evra. You can watch the preview here.
6.23am BST
No World Cup would be complete, however, without some sort of ticket scandal and this cups of cups has provided.Police in Rio say they have arrested 11 suspected touts and believe that an as-yet unidentified Fifa official has been supplying them. Tickets have been sold by the touts for up to eight times their face value with the touts looking to reap $100m. That sounds like quite a lot until you discover that the average price being quoted for the final through agencies is now more than US$7,000.
6.14am BST
If a rematch of the 1982 and 1986 semi-finals is not exciting enough then the Brazil-Colombia tie is, as they like to say on the telly, mouth-watering.
Saliva levels are already running high in Fortaleza where big crowds turned out to peer through gates to, maybe, catch of glimpse of Brazil training on Thursday and where a large contingent of Colombians is expected.
6.04am BST
I don't know about you but I'm pretty excited about these quarter-finals. In fact, I might have to have a lie down before the kick off, which considering the France-Germany game starts at 2am here in Australia is probably what's going to happen.
5.58am BST
Good morning and welcome to Friday's coverage of the World Cup, featuring all the breaking news from Brazil and reaction to the latest results, injury news, squad stories and fan reaction.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 23 hours ago.