World Cup while you were sleeping: Dutch hammer Sweden, Undav double saves Germany
The Netherlands finally came to play at the World Cup and Sweden paid the price on Sunday, while the Ivory Coast were taught a harsh lesson about taking chances as Germany booked their spot in the knockout stages. Graham Potter knows what it’s like to hand out 5-1 thrashings, now he knows what it’s
By Josh Ball

The Netherlands finally came to play at the World Cup and Sweden paid the price on Sunday, while the Ivory Coast were taught a harsh lesson about taking chances as Germany booked their spot in the knockout stages.
Graham Potter knows what it’s like to hand out 5-1 thrashings, now he knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end, although the Sweden coach is unlikely to suffer the same fate as his Tunisia counterpart Sabri Lamouchi.
Germany, meanwhile, are into the knockout stages of the tournament after Deniz Undav’s late, late winner in Toronto in what has been an action-packed morning.
And there are two more games to come, with Ecuador and Curacao kicking off at 8am, and Tunisia taking on Japan at 12pm. Before all that though, here’s what happened overnight.
Deniz, Deniz
OK, so the late 1970s pop reference is probably a little opaque, but if you know, you know.
Anyway, given the creativity of football fans, there has to be a chant in their somewhere celebrating German super sub Deniz Undav, who’s second half double rescued a point against the Ivory Coast.
Trailing to Franck Kessie’s opener on 30 minutes, Germany, who beat Curacao 7-1 in their first Group E match, might count themselves lucky to have even been in a position to get a draw, let alone a win.
Kessie, Christ Inao Oulai and Yan Diomande all missed opportunities to extend their side’s lead in a dominant spell immediately after the break, only for Undav’s 68th minute volley to land like a classic sucker punch. He had been on the pitch for less than 10 minutes at that point.
His second, four minutes into time added on, was worthy of winning any game. The 29-year-old received a pass on the turn, before swivelling and firing home a ball that goalkeeper Yahia Fofana had no chance of stopping.
The Vfb Stuttgart striker now has nine goals in his past eight matches, and joins an increasingly packed race for the tournament’s Golden Boot.
Double Dutch delight
Fans were told to shelter in place because of lightning storms after the Netherlands had put five past Sweden, Graham Potter probably felt as though his side had already been struck several times.
It took the Dutch just five minutes to go ahead through Brian Brobbey, and the Sunderland striker added a second 12 minutes later in a blistering first-half performance that banished memories of the less than impressive draw with Japan last week.
Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo scored twice in the first nine minutes of the second half to put the Dutch 4-0 up, ensuring that Sweden’s lone strike from Anthony Elanga was only ever going to be a consolation goal.
Crysencio Summerville completed the Dutch rout with a fifth goal on 89 minutes.
The last time Sweden conceded five goals in a World Cup match was the 1958 final against Brazil when they lost 5-2.
Golden Boot
While Lionel Messi and Canada’s Jonathan David are presently leading the early running for the award for the top goal scorer at the World Cup, Undav, Brobbey and Gakpo are among a group of 12 players in a tie for third.
Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Brazil pair Vinicius Jnr and Matheus Cunha all have two goals to their name, although some are likely to go further in the tournament than others.
If we get to the end of the tournament and two players have scored the same number of goals, Fifa will decide the winner on total assists, followed by fewest minutes played.
