Morning all. It was a mixed night for the Arsenal players at the World Cup last night. Joy for Gabriel Martinelli and Brazil after his late winner; sadness for Kai Havertz and Germany after he scored a second half goal but missed a penalty in a shoot-out as they went out to Paraguay. Meanwhile, Jurrien Timber’s brother Quentin missed a penalty in a shoot-out for the Netherlands which saw Morocco advance to the Round of 16. Let’s start with the positive bit, and after going behind in the first half against Japan, Brazil were up against it. Not least because in Casemiro they had a player whose first half performance was so incredibly bad I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. I’m certain he would have been hauled off at half-time had Lucas Paqueta not picked up an injury just before the break. And sometimes the universe works in funny ways. Brazil turned the screw after half-time, with 70% possession and 11 shots to Japan’s 1, and the fact Casemiro drew them level with a back post header about 10 minutes into the second half made me chuckle. He is good in the air, the finish was solid and the ball from Gabriel was really good as well, but after that first half he was lucky to be still on the pitch. Football, eh? That goal had been coming, and there were other chance for Brazil. One was scrambled off the line by Takehiro Tomiyasu before Vinicius Jr left the former Arsenal man for dead and drew a superb save from the keeper. In injury time though, Japan gave it away in a dangerous area, Bruno Guimaraes played a deft ball in the box to substitute Martinelli whose touch was excellent and the speed he got his shot away was vital to the ball hitting the back of the net [video here]. Afterwards, he said: Man, I don’t even have words to describe it. It’s the joy that is in my heart now, seeing all the Brazilian people happy with the qualification, my family there, my wife, my mother, my father, my friends. I can’t even explain to you what I’m feeling now. I think it will only sink in after some time. I think I like Martinelli in central areas a bit more than wide ones. It’s when he has time to think he can sometimes over-egg the pudding, but this reminded me a little of the goal he scored against Man City last season. There was only one thing he could do, he had to do it quickly, and he executed it perfectly. That also makes 4 assists in the tournament so far for Guimaraes, and while I do understand people’s reticence towards him from a character point of view, he really is a fantastic player and could bring a lot to our team. For more on that, by the way, James and I had a big discussion about that potential signing on the new Arsecast Extra. I didn’t stay up for the second half of Germany v Paraguay, but having gone a goal behind to ex-Brighton man Julio Enciso, Havertz’s flicked header drew them level early in the second half. After that it looks like it was all Germany, with 13 shots to 3 and 73% possession, but no breakthrough. They did have a goal disallowed for what looks like a fairly soft foul on the goalkeeper, but it’s also a pretty obvious soft foul on the goalkeeper, so you can see why it was chalked off. Then, a penalty shoot-out. Havertz went first and missed with a poor effort, a good height for the keeper, as they say. He’s usually better at that from the spot. They traded two successful penalties each, Newcastle’s Nick Woltemade saw his one saved, Paraguay missed two themselves to give Germany a sniff, but when Jonathan Tah fired his over the bar, that was that. Paraguay were through, an amazing result for them, disappointment and some recrimination for Germany, and Kai Havertz is the first Arsenal man whose World Cup is over. That will obviously be a personal disappointment for him, but with my red and white hat on, the more rest our lads get the better. Not to mention I feel like he’s someone who uses those difficult times as motivation. He’s got a lot to think about over the summer, and hopefully the the response to that is evident for us next season. Overnight, Netherlands lost to Morocco on penalties. They went ahead through Cody Gakpo in the second half, but a late equaliser sent the game into extra-time, quality delivery and header for that goal btw. Statistically this game looks a bit mad though, Netherlands with just 30% possession over the course of 120 minutes, and it fell to just 9% in extra-time. Obviously Morocco deserve a lot of credit because they played well enough to force that, and kept their nerve better during the somewhat chaotic penalties, but you can’t help but think there’s a big chunk of Ronald Koeman as a factor here. They generated just 0.2xG in the whole game compared to Morocco’s 1.4. He’s just a really uninspiring coach. For a guy who was such an incredible player, whose quality on the ball was preternatural at times, to consistently produce teams who play such dismal football is a bit weird. Maybe though it’s because of that to an extent. Other great players have found it difficult to be as effective as managers/coaches, because they see the players they’re working with as inferior so over-compensate. Or he could just be a balloon-headed gimp. I might be overthinking it. So, congratulations to Morocco who now face Canada; Paraguay will face the winner of France v Sweden later today [22.00], with Viktor Gyokeres and William Saliba likely to feature; while Brazil will play the winners of Ivory Coast v Norway [18.00], with Martin Odegaard set to return to the starting line up for his country after sitting out the last game. The overnight game sees co-hosts Mexico take on Piero Hincapie’s Ecuador, so plenty of Arsenal interest in today’s games. Right, I’ll leave it there for now. The Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet. Have a good one folks. Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS The post Martinelli sends Brazil through, Havertz and Germany go home appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.