Day 9 Recaps: Brazil Gets Crucial Win, Nigeria Find the Net, Swiss Complete Comeback

Group E finished the second round of their matches today, along with a Group D matchup between Nigeria and Iceland. First up was Brazil-Costa Rica. In the 25th minute, Brazil thought they scored when Gabriel Jesus found the back of the net, only for offsides to deny him the goal. Philippe Coutinho then chipped a ball to Neymar, only for Costa Rica keeper Keylor Navas to get to the ball first. In the 40th, Navas stopped Marcelo's low shot, and both teams entered the half scoreless. In the 49th, Gabriel Jesus headed the ball close, only for the crossbar to help keep the Brazilians scoreless. Seconds later, Coutinho's close range shot was deflected just wide for a corner, which ultimately led to a Neymar tap in denied by Navas, who tipped it over the bar. Neymar then curled a shot just wide in the 73rd, and had a penalty shout denied in the 79th after he embellished a foul in the box. Casemiro shot straight at Navas in the 89th, but Brazil would find the net twice in stoppage time to make Costa Rica eliminated. The first was a close range Coutinho strike from a Roberto Firmino header, and the latter goal came on the last play of the game. Neymar got the second on a tap-in via a Douglas Costa cross.

Iceland-Nigeria brought an intriguing match up as the winner would move into second place. Nigeria had NO shots at all in the first half, and Iceland's only shots on goal in the opening half were straight at keeper Francis Uzoho. Nigeria would then out shoot Iceland overall by having 16 shots and 4 of them on target. Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa gave the Super Eagles the lead in the 49th minute, when Moses' cross was control superbly by Musa, whose close range blast went into the top netting, beating Iceland keeper Hannes por Halldorsson. Halldorsson would soon have tip out a long strike by Wilfred Ndidi. Musa had a shot bang the crossbar, but he scored his second in the 75th by rounding the Icelandic defense and Halldorsson, before shooting into an empty net. Iceland had a PK in the 87th, but Gylfi Sigurdsson hit his shot well over the bar. Nigeria's 2-0 win puts them in 2nd, 2 points above Iceland and Argentina.

The last match was a stellar comeback from the Swiss, who beat Serbia 2-1. Serbia went up in the 5th when Alexsandar Mitrovic headed a Dusan Tadic cross past keeper Yann Sommer. Just before the half, Serbia nearly got a second from a corner, when Dusko Tosic's point blank header deflected off his teammate and went out of play. Granit Xhaka got the equalizer in the 52nd, when Xherdan Shaqiri's blocked shot fell to Xhaka, whose curling shot got out of reach of Serbia keeper Vladimir Stojkovic. Shaqiri had a curling shot from the right side of the box clip the crossbar minutes later, and Serbia had a cry for a PK when Mitrovic was pulled down by multiple Swiss defenders during a cross. Stojkovic stopped a long-range blast from Breel Embolo in the 82nd, but Shaqiri would get one past Stojkovic in the 90th. Shaqiri got behind the Serbia defense in his OWN half, leaving a one-on-one with Stojkovic, who couldn't save Shaqiri's low driven shot. Switzerland are now tied with Brazil for first, as Switzerland need to beat Brazil to move on. Costa Rica are now eliminated with the result.

Musa's (green, #7) first goal came from this powerful close range strike