Spain pillage Costa Rica, Japan shock Germany, Croatia bore us all, Belgium survive

Spain turned back the clock to the 16th century and absolutely pillaged poor Costa Rica to the tune of 7-0 to highlight Wednesday’s action at the World Cup, and relegate Japan’s upset of Germany to a second mention.

Spain scored early and often, grabbing goals in 10-minute intervals to build a 3-0 lead by half time, then added a few more in the second half to record their biggest World Cup win ever. Ferran Torres had a couple and even former Chelsea flop Alvaro Morata got in on the action, but it was a strong team effort overall from Luis Enrique’s side. Cesar Azpilicueta started and played the full 90, continuing his great late-career renaissance in the national team.

Earlier, Germany became the latest victims of this World Cup’s attempts to endear itself to the general public after a controversial genesis and inauspicious start, when Japan came from behind with two late goals to notch the latest shock result with a 2-1 win. Kai Havertz, who played so well in Germany’s last game, failed to make a similar impact deployed as the starting center forward — he did see a goal chalked off for an inexcusable offside.

Unlike Germany, fellow favorites Belgium had no trouble grinding out a narrow 1-0 win over an enterprising Canada side, with The Ex-Chelsea Batsman, deputizing for the injured Romelu Lukaku, continuing his good goalscoring form and grabbing the game’s only goal just before half-time. Thibaut Courtois saved an early penalty, springing to his right like a coiled snake to deny Alphonso Davies, and even though Canada would outshoot Belgium at a rate of three-to-one, they would be unable to find a breakthrough.

Also, Croatia and Morocco sleepwalked to a scoreless stalemate in the day’s early kick-off, with neither Mateo Kovacic nor Hakim Ziyech able to conjure up the sort of magic we know they can conjure up.