Like I mentioned SOMEwhere in this thread, or another WC thread... I just don't know about Russia. I think they were in a weak group... so there's that... but they did what they were supposed to do.
Sweden truly looked good to me against Mexico. I thought they looked pretty good in the loss to Germany as well. You have mentioned how teams, the better teams, build from opening day... Sweden seems to me to be doing just that.
As set so far there isn't a match in the knockout round that doesn't look to be great.
