The 2022 World Cup reached another progress milestone on day nine of the tournament, with the second round of group fixtures now fully complete.

Cameroon, Serbia, South Korea, Ghana, Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal and Uruguay were all in action across Group G and Group H, playing out some really exciting stuff on the whole.

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Harry Symeou hosts Scott Saunders and Toby Cudworth to look back on South Korea/Japan ’02 as part of the ‚Our World Cup‘ series. We take a trip down memory lane – join us!

If you can’t see the podcast embed, click here to download or listen to the episode in full!

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He has made history at this World Cup by becoming the first male player to score in his fifth global tournament, but Cristiano Ronaldo ended up being a bit of a laughing stock on Monday over his desperation to claim a goal.

Ronaldo was adamant that he made contact with a cross from Bruno Fernandes that made its way all the way into the net.

FIFA awarded it to Fernandes because there didn’t appear to be any touch from Ronaldo, only for it to be claimed in Spain that Portugal were preparing to submit ‚evidence‘ that it should be retrospectively awarded to Ronaldo – he is, after all, chasing Eusebio’s national record for World Cup goals.

However, adidas have sensors inside the balls being used in Qatar and have been able to prove that Ronaldo did not touch the cross on its way past.

Portugal’s 2-0 victory over Uruguay puts them safely into the last 16 with a potentially favourable run through the knockout bracket.

Ronaldo, despite his protestations that he scored, didn’t really contribute all that much to the victory. The 37-year-old, and that is probably an important factor here, attempted three shots, none of which were on target, and had already come off the pitch by the time Portugal sealed the win.

Head coach Fernando Santos is never likely to bench Ronaldo, but if it means being able to start Rafael Leao, it has to at least be considered.

Those old enough to remember Euro ’96 will know that Czech Republic legend Karel Poborsky effectively built a career off a scoop lob he scored against Portugal in that tournament.

Fast forward to Monday at the World Cup and Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar pulled out a delightfully similar goal against Serbia. It was initially flagged offside, but thank God for VAR…for once.

Aboubakar has been around for some time, playing many seasons in the Champions League for Porto, but there is little else like scoring an out of the ordinary World Cup goal to ensure you will be remembered.

In the whole of the 2018 World Cup, there was a single 0-0 draw and it was a dead rubber group stage clash between France and Denmark after both had already qualified for the knockout stages.

By the penultimate day of the second round of group stage in 2022, there had already been five goal-less stalemates. That is only two shy of the all-time World Cup record for 0-0s at a single tournament – which had been the case in 1982, 2006, 2010 and 2014.

But on day nine of this World Cup, at last the goals flowed freely. There were 11 in the first two games of the day between Cameroon and Serbia and South Korea and Ghana. Brazil only scored once to beat Switzerland, while Portugal then scored twice without reply against Uruguay.

In total, there were 14 goals across the four games played.

Uruguay potentially had the ingredients to go far at this World Cup – top quality players, a good mix of youth and experience throughout the squad, and a relatively favourable group and knockout route – but after two rounds of games they now have to fight just to stay alive.

Failure to break down South Korea followed by defeat to Portugal leaves the two-time former champions on one point heading into the final round of group games. They will face a decent Ghana side still out for revenge for that Luis Suarez handball in 2010 and only a win will do.

Suarez was particuarly poor against South Korea, while Edinson Cavani replaced him to face Portugal and didn’t do much better. Uruguay have ended up being still too reliant on 36-year-old Diego Godin at the back, while the likes of Darwin Nunez, Federico Valverde and Mathias Olivera haven’t flourished as would have been hoped.