World Cup Insight

Diving: It's not just limited to swimming pools and ocean cliffs. In Friday's World Cup action, Brazilian star Neymar's team beat Costa Rica 2-0, but he didn't get away with a now-infamous dive. On the way to the victory, Neymar, barely touched by defenders, flopped on his back as if to hint the refs should call a foul. The referee went along with Neymar at first, but consulted the tournament's controversial new video assistant referee system and changed his mind. Penalty, flop, or new hot summer dance move? pic.twitter.com/Gy7Szer7JC — CBS Sports (@CBSSports) June 22, 2018 Viewers quickly made the failed flop into a meme. "Neymar for best actor," joked several, while others dug up GIFs of various actors falling or fainting to compare to the player's dive. "Who does Neymar think he is? Neo? The Matrix has found its new actor," said one Twitter user. Neymar for Best Actor. #FifaWorldCup18 pic.twitter.com/2opQ0xhE9T — Boris

Hoaxes, lies and doctored pictures are a plague of the modern internet, so why would the World Cup be any different? See how many of these hoaxes from Russia 2018 you recognise. It’s flying home Within days of the World Cup kick off, “it’s coming home” had gone from a catchy chorus in a song from the 90s to the inescapable sound of the summer: bellowed at every England game and whispered between fans as an informal greeting. When the RAF celebrated its 100th anniversary with a flyover of jets the day before England faced Croatia, a video appeared online showing dozens of Spitfires spelling the catchphrase of the competition in a formation over London. Hundreds of people shared it across Twitter and Facebook. Graphics and animation studio Potion Pictures waited a few days – and a few thousand retweets – before showing everyone exactly how they had faked it. Many were fooled by our manipulated RAF100 flyby video, here's our breakdown showing exactly how we manipul

According to some reports, piracy of the final stages of soccer's World Cup in Russia thrived on social media. VFT found 2,637 pirate streams of the July 10 and 11 semifinals on Facebook, YouTube and Periscope, with close to 30 million views, and 3,653 streams of the France-Croatia final, with more than 60 million views. Social media platforms for live streaming are now the prevalent channel on which to watch pirated content of live events, including sports. Irdeto manually tracked pirate live streams of the same World Cup semifinals and finals on Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, Twitch and other pirate sites. Of the total sample of 1,055 streams, 70% of them were on social media platforms. For the whole tournament, Irdeto tracked 9,430 streams, and 79% of them were on social media platforms. Regulations against piracy require copyright owners to send notices to websites, asking them to take down videos that are not compliant with copyright. Increasingly, content owners collabo

The World Cup may already seem like a distant memory. Attention in the UK has already turned back to Premier League transfer gossip or Champions League qualification (we're guessing in France they're still celebrating). But there are some players and nations who will have their names down in the history books for other reasons. Guinness World Records has released a list of the teams and players who broke records this summer in Russia. Here are some of our favourites. The oldest player to score a hat-trick We were treated to one of the best games of the tournament very early on. Cast your mind back to day two, when Spain played Portugal. Spain were three minutes from winning their opening game when Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up with one of the goals of the tournament. Not only did his free kick earn Portugal a point, it gave him a hat-trick - making the 33-year-old the oldest player to score one in a World Cup. The smallest country to play in the World Cup Croa

David Ramos - FIFA via Getty Images For every football fan, it doesn't get any bigger than the FIFA World Cup. Every four years since 1930, the tournament has been held in different parts of the globe, and honestly, it hasn't changed much. There was the expansion to include 32 teams in 1998, but the game's rules have rarely been altered -- largely because of FIFA's unwillingness to embrace emerging technologies. But the 2018 edition in Russia, which ended Sunday with France's win over Croatia, was different. For the first time ever, FIFA used the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at its flagship competition. And the tech, for better or worse (depending on which team you cheered on), certainly made a mark. There were 29 penalty kicks called at the World Cup 2018, 16 more than at the previous tournament in Brazil. Of those -- VAR, which lets referees use video to review questionable plays -- helped officials make a decision 11 times. Even if VAR wasn't called u

When the decisive blows arrived the entire squad piled on top of one another in the victory scrum. Hugo Lloris, the goalkeeper, had run the entire length of the pitch to join in the celebrations. All the substitutes were throwing themselves into this heap of arms and legs. There were even members of the backroom staff contemplating joining in, and who could blame them? France were on their way to winning the World Cup and a party was under way behind the goal where the tricolours were fluttering. Those were the moments when everybody knew that no side – not even one with Croatia’s resilience and powers of durability – would find a way back. Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé had scored in quick succession and the next edition of the France national shirt will have two stars, rather than one, above the cockerel. Didier Deschamps has become only the third man in history to win the World Cup as a player and manager, standing alongside two giants of the game in Mário Zagallo and Franz

At the final whistle the pocket of French supporters behind the goal to the left, with their tricolours and memories of 1998, could celebrate another triumphant night. France had made it to the World Cup final and will surely fancy their chances of being reunited with that coveted piece of gold in Moscow on Sunday. The players in blue were embracing and a Belgium side heavily made up of players from the Premier League will have to wonder whether the time will ever come for their golden generation. The unfortunate truth is it may not but, if nothing else, Belgium will go with a lot of people’s good wishes bearing in mind Roberto Martínez’s side knocked out Brazil to reach this semi-final and have contributed richly to what is being acclaimed as the most attractive World Cup in memory. Here, though, they could not build on an encouraging start and were worn down by a side with a superior blend when it comes to striking the right balance between attack and defence. That will make Fra

Before football comes home, it had to stop by the beach. Russia fans had one last chance on Sunday night to savour a squad that had already shattered all their expectations for this tournament. And they did it again in a bittersweet valedictory in Vladimir Putin’s dream city by the sea. All the best stories are comings-of-age, and Russia seemed to grow with each match, teaching a skeptical public that it was OK to believe again, that they wouldn’t suddenly embarrass them, that this time things would be different. It left pretty much everyone here asking the same question: where on earth did this side come from? Pressing a more gifted Croatia squad, belting in sublime curlers from 25 yards, nodding in equalisers in the 115th minute? “Guys! I am proud of you! I love you! Savour this moment!” yelled striker Artem Dzyuba in a fiery speech that mirrored a nation’s emotions just before Russia went out on penalty kicks. Long before that moment, high up in the stands, fans were starting to b

Long touted as World Cup contenders thanks to an abundance of talent, Belgium claimed their biggest scalp ever in beating five-time winners Brazil to reach just their second semi-final. A 'golden generation' featuring Thibaut Courtois, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku exited tamely to Argentina four years ago and blew a huge chance at Euro 2016 when on the kind side of the draw. Now in their prime, this group of players is unlikely to get a better opportunity to win a major international tournament than over the course of the next week, with France to come in the last four on Tuesday. Courtois stands tall The giant Chelsea stopper needed every inch of his 6 feet 6 inch (1.99 meters) frame to prevent Neymar hauling Brazil into extra-time with a stunning stoppage time save on Friday. "I know Neymar likes to curl it that way. I was ready and made a good save," said Courtois. "I have been unfairly criticised a lot this year. Today I proved again who I

How would you expect a young England team with no experience at this level to come back from the most painful punch they will ever take? Would you even hope to see them drag themselves up off the canvas and do anything quite like this? Here in Moscow, almost at midnight, Gareth Southgate’s World Cup novices reacted to unprecedented disaster with unprecedented nerve, bravery, and barely precedented success. Because the fact that England are in the World Cup quarter-finals, facing Sweden in Samara on Saturday, is not even the half of it. Never mind that this will be their most winnable quarter-final since Cameroon at Italia ‘90. Forget any questions about whether they would rather face Croatia or Russia in the Moscow semi-final next Wednesday. All that must wait, at least for a day or two. It will take some time to get over this. Not just because England won on penalties, a draining 4-3 come-from-behind shoot-out that was its own drama, with its own arc of what felt like an imminent f

There is a time for the great one to collapse. That is what happened to the two players that are considered as two greatest football player that ever grace their foot on earth. How the mighty fallen is the word that fits the fate of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Their greatness could not helped Argentina and Portugal advanced to the quarter-final. Messi and co. stopped by France, and Ronaldo on Portugal could not defeat Uruguay. For Messi and Argentina, There had been talk of them conjuring a repeat of 1990 when defeat by Cameroon inspired a defiant spirit that carried them to the final and, in some of their cruder challenges, it felt they might be following that template rather too closely. But the difference between then and now is that team could actually defend; this side can merely struggle. Dreams can endure only so long before they are overwhelmed by reality – and there are few realities quite so brutally uncompromising as the pace and finishing of Kylian Mbappé, who

Germany fans all around the world a few days ago mourned. Came to Russia as a defending champion, Germany is optimist that they can repeat what they achieved in Brazil four years ago. Moreover, they joined in a group that relatively easy. They were in group F with Sweden, Mexico, and South Korea. But, they could not go through to the knock-out stage. The signs of the so-called curse for the defending champion already seen in their first match. Shockingly, they lost 1-0 to Mexico. After that defeat, hope is shines back in the second match. They were able to defeat Sweden by 2-1 with a late-goal winner from Kroos. This win definitely made their chance to avoid the curse was open. With South Korea as their last opponent in the group stage, the chance was as wide as a highway. South Korea lost in their 2 matches, so Germany in theory could beat them easily. However, the fate said otherwise. In yet another shocking match, Germany lost 2-0 from South Korea. That defeat was even more pai