The Confederations Cup continues, this article will highlight the events that took place in the matches that were played on Wednesday. The teams were Mexico which faced off with New Zealand winning 2-1 and Portugal faced off with the hosts Russia winning 1-0. The next stage in the group A matches is a final match which will serve as a knockout game thereby deciding which teams will head off into the semi-finals.
Mexico lead Group A despite suffering an injury
Mexico has gone and crushed New Zealand's hopes of reaching the semi-finals with their 2-1 defeat over them.
New Zealand had started the first half by scoring a goal against Mexico courtesy of Leeds United striker Chris Woods who got them into the lead just before the end of the first half. Mexico who went into the first half a goal down must have had adequate motivation from their coach Juan Carlo Osorio, especially considering that they had also suffered an injury in the first half on 23-year-old defender Salcedo to an AC joint injury, Salcedo landed badly on his shoulder.
During the second half, in the 54th minute, Mexico equalized with a low pass from Javier Aquino’s directed by Raúl Jiménez to the roof of the net. After more minutes of the Mexicans dominating against New Zealand, Javier Aquino in the 72 minute provided a pass that enabled Oribe Peralta to score from close range making the score 2-1 in favor of Mexico effectively eliminating New Zealand from the semi-finals.
This then allowed them to rise to the top of Group A, the pole position in the group was previously held by Portugal whose game finished before Mexico's.
3 players issued yellow cards after confrontation
The game also saw confrontation after a foul, which upon further assessment from the Video Assistant Referee's concluded with three yellow cards being dished out to Boxall, Herrera and Mexico’s Diego Reyes, with the initial foul being committed by Michael Boxall on Héctor Herrera.
Portugal secured the winning goal in the 8th minute
Christiano Ronaldo 32, the Real Madrid striker who although recently signed a 5-yearar contract with his team back in November now wants out of Spain after Spanish prosecutors accused him of tax fraud of which he denies. He reportedly wants to go to Manchester United, before anything can be done if at all it will happen he will first need to sit down with his current team and come to an agreement.
Even with this facing him, Ronaldo who made his 141st appearance for his country on Wednesday also scored his 74th international goal which luckily proved to be enough to earn them a win against hosts Russia. The goal came after Raphaël Guerreiro found room on the left flank and took the opportunity to deliver an inviting cross to the far post. Awaiting the cross was Cristiano Ronaldo who found a way to beat defender Fedor Kudriashov’s and secured a headed goal for Portugal.
Russia's gameplay
Russia’s goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev on his 100th cap proved essential to Russia as he made multiple saves from both Ronaldo and André Silva over the course of both halves. Russia also had a couple of missed opportunities from among others, Fedor Smolov in the first half, Alexander Samedov’s and Georgy Dzhikya in the second half. Russia now needs to beat Mexico in order to avoid elimination.