On Saturday afternoon (July 7), the World Cup 2018 bracket took shape for the semifinals, as two more teams advanced. France and Belgium had already punched their tickets after quarterfinals wins. That left two more games, with England taking on Sweden, and Russia battling Croatia. When it was all said and done, two teams emerged victorious, with the second of those teams participating in the matchup of the day.

England defeated Sweden 2-0

In the earlier of the two World Cup quarterfinals games, England was victorious 2-0 over Team Sweden. The English side had a goal scored in each half of the matchup.

Harry Maguire and Dele Alli helped give their team the comfortable win to advance to the semifinals round.

Unfortunately for Sweden, they just had too many missed chances and ran into a dominant effort from their opponents. England controlled possession for 57 percent of the matchup. They also benefitted from three saves due to a brilliant performance by goalie Jordan Pickford. The win makes for the first World Cup semifinal for England since 1990. Would the World Cup cat have picked that?

They'll now enter a semifinals matchup against a hot Croatia team that willed their way to a win against the host country.

Croatia edges Russia on kicks

The second game of the day was the most intriguing. The matchup featured a host team in Russia that had surpassed all expectations heading into this tournament. However, Saturday was to be their final day in the World Cup. Unfortunately, this game ended up tied at 2-2 and Croatia took down the Russians on the deciding penalty kicks.

Early in the first half, Russia gained a 1-0 advantage thanks to a goal kicked from far off by Denis Cheryshev. Not long after, Croatia answered with an Andrej Kramaric shot. In the 101st minute, Domagoj Vida had an impressive header to put his team up 2-1.

Mario Fernandes was the late hero for Russia, as he managed to tie things up with five minutes left in regular time.

That would send it to a deciding shootout. Croatia ultimately won that 4-3, after Fernandes had a wide kick. It ended the underdog host's run in the tournament and dashed the home area fans' hopes of a World Cup for Russia.

Semifinals set for this week

On Tuesday, July 10, France will play Belgium. The French defeated Uruguay while Belgium defeated Brazil to get here. The two sides clash in the first World Cup semifinals matchup starting at 2 PM ET on FOX.

The second semifinals match will come on Wednesday (July 11) when England battles Croatia. That World Cup 2018 game is scheduled for 2 PM ET as well and is also on FOX for television viewing. Games will be live streaming on Fox Sports Go and other Soccer live stream services. Are more surprises in store, like when Germany failed to advance?
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