MATT BARLOW’S WORLD CUP DIARY: Spain head out on penalties despite taking 1,000 each in training

The World Cup is now gearing up for the quarterfinals, with Croatia vs. Brazil and the Netherlands vs. Argentina set to decide the top two semifinal spots in Qatar on Friday.

England, France, Morocco and Portugal will follow on Saturday as we quickly approach the end of the tournament.

It’s been a World Cup full of intrigue both on and off the pitch, and here Sportsmail’s MATT BARLOW shares the latest installment of his World Cup diary.

Fans were left scratching their heads after Harry Maguire went down as Jacob on the FIFA lists

Confusion over Harry Maguire’s name

Harry Maguire has cleared up the confusion surrounding his name, which has appeared on FIFA lists as Jacob Maguire during this tournament.

It turns out that he was named Jacob Harry at birth, but his parents quickly decided that they weren’t interested in Jacob and always called him Harry. He had to wait until he was 18, but now he’s officially Harry Maguire in his passport and other official ID, so the Jacob thing is crazy.

Still, it’s probably better than Slab Head.

Back to the drawing board for Spain

And so it was a soccer death by a thousand penalties for Luis Enrique, who a year ago told his players in Spain that he wanted them to practice at least 1,000 penalties before the World Cup, then saw them lose in a penalty shootout against Morocco without scoring or one.

Enrique was fired yesterday and will be replaced by Luis de la Fuente. This World Cup also marks the end of the road for Paulo Bento (South Korea), Gerardo Martino (Mexico) and Roberto Martínez (Belgium).

Spain is out of the World Cup after not scoring in the penalty shootout against Morocco

Cat controversy over Brazil

Cat lovers were worried that Brazil might be taking advice from Kurt Zouma when the team’s press officer dealt with a moggy who was pacing the desk at a Vinicius Junior press conference by picking him up and throwing him to the ground.

Brazil’s coach, Tite, referred questions about the cat’s welfare, raised at his press conference yesterday, to his press officer, and a reporter meowed angrily in his general direction.

Brazil’s manager, Tite, answered questions about a cat that was mistreated by Brazil’s press officer.

Bernardo the bookie

Who knew Bernardo Silva was a budding bookie?

It wasn’t until his glimpse of Portugal’s World Cup build and the revelations that he challenged Ruben Dias to place a bet on the number of free kicks his Manchester City teammate Jack Grealish would win for England when they face Senegal.

“I was filming Rubén saying: “How many fouls do you think he will earn in these 25 minutes?” Rubén said nine and I said seven. I was closer.

Bernardo Silva has revealed that he had a friendly bet with Ruben Dias over Jack Grealish

Jonathan Swain makes his colleagues moan again

It did not go down well with the English football journalists who were there when GMB reporter Jonathan Swain invited the France players to criticize English media coverage of Kylian Mbappe’s absence from training on Monday, despite the fact that they accurately reported that Mbappe had been on his usual recovery. program and there was no drama.

Swain is the reporter who, during Euro 2020, took a selfie with a Jurgen Klopp lookalike before going on air to tell viewers, in all seriousness, that he had been with the Liverpool manager. Remarkable.