Too much bed rest for Marcelo

Marcelo's mysterious injury during Brazil's win over Serbia on Wednesday night was caused by a bed, according to team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar, who believes a mattress at Brazil's hotel in Moscow was responsible for forcing Marcelo off the pitch after just nine minutes.

The left-back looked to be in some distress during the opening stages of the group game clash, which finished 2-0 to Brazil.

And spectators were left bemused when Marcelo was replaced by Filipe Luis before the clock even reached double figures, with no injury apparent.

However, it seems the Real Madrid ace was suffering with an unspecified problem that had been caused by the bed in his hotel room.

Lasmar said: “(Marcelo's injury may have been caused by) the mattress at the hotel where we were staying in Moscow.

“It's still early to talk about the evolution of the problem. He has responded very well to the physiotherapy treatment that we carried out in the stadium, but we have to wait 24 hours to make a better diagnosis.”

However, Marcelo was in a cheerier mood as he took to social media to allay fears he could miss the rest of the tournament.

The defender wrote: “Thanks for all the messages. In a short time I will be back. Thank god it was nothing serious. Very happy for the victory!”

A KOREAN MIRACLE IN KAZAN

From the beginning, it was different. All of the Korean players, including the starting eleven and the substitutes, gathered in a circle in front of the bench. Like a sacred ritual, this went on for a while, until the referee was ready to blow the whistle for kick-off. Their opponents, the reigning champions, were already set in their formation waiting for the Koreans to come up to the pitch.

Right from the off, the mighty Germans were firing on all cylinders, as if they were out to make up for their lacklustre start to the tournament.

However, every time Germany surged forward to break the deadlock, something went wrong: all of their shots and crosses into the box were blocked by Korea. Even when some of them managed to break through, Jo Hyeonwoo was on hand to parry the danger.

“I've never had a perfect game like this before, in my entire career,” the slender goalkeeper told FIFA.com after being named man-of-the-match. “But I wasn't saving all the shots by myself today – I thought the other goalkeepers [Kim] Seunggyu and [Kim] Jinhyeon were also giving me a hand.”