Australia, which made the World Cup via a penalty-kick shootout against Uruguay, exited the tournament Monday at the painful end of a penalty decision in second-half injury time.
Spain is quick, confident and eager to shed its tag as underachiever. France, full of veterans from its 1998 World Cup title, looks to dispel the impression it is too old to win.
Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira sees a specter hovering above the second-round game with Ghana.
Throughout the World Cup, the Netherlands coach kept stressing the need for his young team "to make progress," and to "continue growing."
Portugal has the delicate skills to score the pretty goals. As they showed against the Dutch, the Portuguese can play rough, too.
The Dutch were digesting their exit from the World Cup in a bitter defeat 1-0 second round defeat against Portugal, with one newspaper on Monday suggesting mild anti-depressants or a vacation in the sun.
Brazil will have more on the line than a spot in the quarterfinals when it plays Ghana.
Dutchman Pim Verbeek was on Monday named new coach of South Korea's soccer team.
Breaking the all-time record for goals in the World Cup is not top of Brazil striker's Ronaldo's list but beating African side Ghana in Tuesday's second round clash is.
Sven-Goran Eriksson believes England are saving their best until last after they squeezed past Ecuador to set up a World Cup quarter-final showdown with Portugal.
A quick glance at the history books suggests the World Cup second round showdown between France and Spain is balanced on a knife edge. Spain have won 11 of their previous 27 meetings and France 10.
The French were blowing out candles in honour of birthday boys Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira on the team coach heading back to their secluded chateau which serves as their World Cup headquarters after mission accomplished against Togo on Friday.
Polar icebreaker Snow Dragon arrives in Antarctic
Xi's vision on shared future for humanity
UN's top environmental honors go to three in China
German trains collide near Duesseldorf, several people injured
China beats Germany 7-4 in men's curling Olympic qualification
Bayern beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 in UEFA Champions League
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 20100000002731 
