Now that the punishment results are out, that scene has come to an end, and the media has shifted their attention to the final round of the group's life-and-death battle.

The brutal side of the World Cup was revealed in the final round of the group stage, after which half of the teams had to go home.

The third round of matches started on the 22nd, and in order to avoid the suspicion of match-fixing, the two matches in the final round were played at the same time.

Group A matches will be played first, and the French team will face off against the hosts at the Bloemfontein Free State Stadium. The do-or-die match between Uruguay and Mexico will be played at the Royal Bamferken Stadium in Rustenburg.

Aside from France, Uruguay have the best shape and are currently in second place with three points from a life-time draw. They only need a win over Mexico to qualify. Mexico, on the other hand, is in third place with one draw and one loss, and even if they beat Uruguay, they will have to wait for the result of the match between France and South Africa.

Before the game, Uruguay coach Tabárez stressed that they want to take their destiny into their own hands and will not give Mexico any chance.

Mexico coach Sergio Aguirre stressed that they should not think about qualifying now and that a win over Uruguay was their only option.

As for the other game, France coach Domenech told the media that although the French team has already qualified early, the French team will take the last group game seriously.

South Africa coach Pereira of Brazil said he believes that a miracle will be born, and South Africa only needs to beat the French team to have a chance to qualify.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the two games started at the same time.

At the Bloemfontein Free State Stadium, Domenech fielded a large number of substitutes. Let Claude Makelle, Thuram, Henry and other veterans sit on the bench. The South African team, which had no way out, wanted the French team to launch a ferocious attack from the beginning of the game.

Due to the substitution lineup and the ferocity of the opponent's attack, the French team retreated to the front of the penalty area. The South Africans were greeted by a wave of shockwaves amidst the shouts of their home fans.

In the twentieth minute, South Africa had a chance to score. Chabalala took a corner kick from the right, Lloris came out but couldn't reach the ball, Kumalo jumped high at the back post to beat Diaby and smashed in with a header from 4 meters in front of goal!

The score became 1-0!

It was South Africa's second goal of the tournament and the first for France to concede at the tournament. The news reached the Royal Bamferken Stadium in Rustenburg. Morale in Mexico has been boosted. With this scoreline, as long as they can beat Uruguay, they will be able to qualify for second place in the group with a goal difference.

Twenty-third minute. Mexican midfielder Guardado fired a long-range shot from 30 yards out. The soccer ball hits the crossbar. They missed the goal.

In the 43rd minute, Uruguay took the lead in breaking the deadlock. Cavani's cross from the right was met by an unguarded Suarez with a header from the edge of the six-yard box!

Uruguay leads 1-0!

The first half ended. France is 1-0 down, and Mexico is also 1-0 down. Mexico is on the brink of elimination. As for South Africa, they have a one-goal lead but are demoralised because even if they beat France and only Uruguay win, they will still not be able to qualify.

The reality is harsh, and South Africa is realizing that they are getting closer and closer to leaving the World Cup. After a demoralised South African's onslaught at the start of the second half, the French took control of the rest of the game.

In the 70th minute, Sagna assisted to the middle of the front field with a left-footed direct pass, Ribery successfully countered offside, and the right side of the penalty area faced the attacking Josephs cross, and Malouda pushed the empty goal with his right foot eight meters in front of the goal!

The score became 1-1 and France equalised.

On the other side of the turf, Mexico's attack was in full swing, and they frequently threatened the Uruguayan goal. With their tenacious defense, Uruguay broke up the opponent's offensive again and again, and they played a solid counterattack.

As the referee's whistle blew at the end of the game, Uruguay defeated Mexico 1-0 with Suarez's goal, ranking second in the group with two wins and one loss, accumulating six points and advancing to the round of 16.

The French team drew with the hosts, accumulated seven points with two wins and one draw, ranked first in the group and advanced to the round of 16. The hosts are in third place with two points from two draws and one loss, and they were eliminated with Mexico with one draw and two defeats.

This is the first time that the host country has been eliminated after the group stage, and the record of the entire 80-year World Cup has been broken.

The world's major media called it the "South African tragedy"!

In the history of the World Cup, the host nation has won the title six times, and the remaining 13 times have all at least qualified from the group. Among them, Brazil in 1950 and Sweden in 1958 were runners-up.

Chile in 1962, Italy in 1990, South Korea in 2002 and Germany in 2006 all reached the semi-finals, while France in 1938, Switzerland in 1954 and Mexico in 1986 all reached the quarter-finals.

Mexico in 1970, the United States in 1994 and Japan in 2002 all exited in the first round of the knockout round. The closest thing to a "South African tragedy" in history was Switzerland in 1954. At that time, there was no single round robin in the group stage, and Switzerland and Italy both played 1-1, and according to the rules, the two teams had to play a rematch, and Switzerland was lucky to beat Italy 4-1 to qualify.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the host country has finished third in the group at the World Cup: in the history of the World Cup, except for the two World Cups in 1934 and 1938, when there was no group stage and the elimination system was adopted, the host country has won the group 10 times and the group second 6 times.

However, in the 1994 World Cup, the United States ranked third in Group A with only 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. Fortunately, there are only 24 teams in the World Cup in the United States, and the best four third-place finishers can also enter the knockout rounds. Uncle Sam happened to be third out of 6 group thirds, and completed the task of qualifying in a thrilling way.

South Africa is out of the tournament and is expected to take a bigger hit at the World Cup attendance. Previously, the organizing committee had optimistically estimated that even if South Africa was out, fans could still support African teams, but at present, Cameroon has been out of the remaining five in Africa.

Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Algeria are also largely out of the curve. FIFA has previously said that ticket sales are at an all-time high outside of the 1994 World Cup.

But at the moment, almost every game, you can see a lot of empty seats. The attendance discipline set by the 1994 World Cup in the United States and the 52,491 per game set in the 2006 World Cup in Germany may not be broken in South Africa.

The hosts are out, setting a record of shame in the history of zào, and coach Brazilian Pereira has been criticized by many in South Africa. Cliff, the first coach of the South African national team, known as the "godfather"? Barker, in an interview with reporters, hit the nail on the head when he said that the South African Football Federation's hiring of a Brazilian coach was in itself an unforgivable mistake!

Buck said: "The South African Football Association has a problem with the procedures for doing things. As a South African footballer, we still don't understand how Santana came to South Africa as the national team manager.

When he arrived in South Africa, South African footballers had such doubts. 'What does this man do?' 'How can he be the head coach of the South African team?' ’。 Santana's arrival was a big blow to South African footballers.

Because our idea is. Many of the coaches in the South African domestic league are from Europe, and if you have to find a foreign coach, it should also be from Europe, such as Guus Hiddink. ”

Buck said. "As for Pereira. I admit he's a good coach. And the fans, the club and all the forces are fully supporting him. However, none of the World Cup winning teams used foreign coaches, which speaks volumes about how only South Africans can lead South Africans to go far!

Like I said when I first took over the South African national team. Only South Africans know South Africa, white, black or other races, only South Africans know how to put them together and be the strongest team.

Santana? Pereira? Maybe they are high-level coaches, but they simply can't treat their players with the emotions of their grandparents like I did, and let all the players play for South Africa with a sense of family happiness. ”

……

For Uruguay to lose the first game and qualify as the second in the group, Uruguay has been praised in the country. With the hosts and defending champions in Group A, their chances of qualifying with Mexico are slim.

Uruguay's famous media "La Repubblica" commented: 1-0 defeat to Mexico, 3 games, 2 wins and 1 loss, two-time World Cup winner Uruguay finally broke into the round of 16 of the World Cup again!

From the Italian summer of 1990 to the South African winter of 2010, 20 years have passed in a hurry, and Uruguay has already gone through several generations of players.

The youngest in the current squad, Nicolás Lodeirou, had just turned one year old at the time, and even the oldest Abreu was only 14 years old at the time, but the veteran coach Tabares personally led Uruguay to the last 16 of the World Cup after a gap of 20 years.

Tabarez is one of the most famous managers in Uruguay's history, taking over the Uruguayan national team in 1988 and leading the team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where Uruguay drew 0-0 in the opening game and then lost 3-1 to Belgium.

But in the final round of the life-and-death battle, Uruguay faced stubborn resistance from the Taiji Tiger South Korea. After a long period of attack, Tabares replaced Fonseca, and finally Fonseca completed the stunner in the 90th minute. Uruguay finished third in their group to reach the round of 16.

Since leaving the Uruguayan national team, Tabares has had a wealth of experience, having coached Argentine giants Boca Juniors twice and Cagliari in Serie A.

In 1996, he was spotted by AC Milan, who had just lost Capello, and became the new manager of the Rossoneri, but in 1996 AC Milan was at a low ebb, and the departure of the Dutch Three Musketeers left the team in vain, and Tabarez was sacked after 22 games in charge.

Uruguayan football was plunged into a 20-year dark period after leaving Tabares, with the two-time World Cup winners only participating in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, missing three World Cup events in the United States, France and Germany.

In 2006, the Uruguayan Football Federation finally decided to bring Tabares back. In the South American qualifiers, Tabarez's balanced tactics were fully demonstrated, although in the end only finished fifth with 6 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses, and in the play-offs, Uruguay beat Costa Rica to finally advance to the World Cup finals.

Despite the fact that Uruguay face an eighth of their opponents, who are likely to be the top of Group B, Argentina, we are still confident. We believe that after the battle of life and death, our team is getting stronger and stronger! (To be continued......)