Arsenal's presence has been felt in the knockout stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
football.london had been keeping tabs on how the Gunners' stars fared during the group phase and will continue to do so during the knockout stage as the tournament in Qatar slowly draws to a close. What started out as a 10-man group has since been cut down to six for one reason or another in the past week.
Matt Turner became the second Arsenal player, after Thomas Partey, to be eliminated from the World Cup as the USA were beaten by the Netherlands on Saturday, whilst a knee injury has resulted in Gabriel Jesus' tournament ending earlier than he would have expected.
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Nonetheless, the outcome of yesterday's round of 16 ties means at least one Arsenal player is guaranteed to reach the World Cup semi-final. William Saliba was an unused substitute as France overcame Poland 3-1 in a game that saw Kylian Mbappe net a stunning brace and Olivier Giroud become the nation's all-time leading scorer.
The reigning world champions will face England next after Bukayo Saka scored in their 3-0 win over Senegal with Jordon Henderson and Harry Kane also on the scoresheet for the Three Lions. Once again, Aaron Ramsdale was a spectator from the substitutes bench.
Takehiro Tomiyasu is in line to make his first start at the World Cup when Japan face Croatia this afternoon and he could get a chance in his usual central defensive position for the national team as Ko Itakura is suspended for the game after picking up his second yellow card of the tournament in the win over Spain.
However, Gabriel Martinelli looks set to make way for Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior when Brazil take on South Korea in the day's late kick-off as manager Tite is expected to revert to the team that started wins over Serbia and Switzerland which could also mark the return of Neymar.
The Paris Saint-Germain superstar missed the final two group games after suffering an ankle injury against Serbia but has returned to training ahead of the last-16 tie and is in line to feature: "Yes, he will be available," Tite said when asked for an update on Neymar. "He will train with us this afternoon [Sunday], if everything goes well, he will play."
As ever, Granit Xhaka has been documenting his time in Qatar on social media. Yesterday he uploaded an image of the front page of a newspaper from back home in Switzerland to his Instagram Stories which appeared to be praising him heavily for his performances so far.
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