Football: Knockout stages well under way

English football fanatic and Ministry and Wakatipu Tavern manager Dan Crawford is watching every second of the 2010 Fifa World Cup being held in South Africa. Here's his take on the action.

The weekend saw the start of the last 16 knockout stages well under way, with Ghana and Uruguay being the first teams to make it through to the quarter-finals.

Ghana ended up needing extra time to see off the United States.

This will be the first time in history that the African team has made it this far in a world cup tournament and it has done all of this without its star player, Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien - job well done.

Uruguay sealed its victory against South Korea, winning 2-1.

Striker Luis Suarez scored an absolute stunner to put the South Americans through to the next round.

However, the South Koreans gave it all they had with some great attacking play, although several times their defence was caught napping.

We have some big matches coming up over the next few days.

England takes on arch rivals Germany early this morning - a game that could go either way based on previous encounters.

I can see this one going to extra time and penalties and I just hope it's not going to end up how it has done on so many occasions and England crashing out of the tournament prematurely.

Capello is going to need his big stars firing on all cylinders.

Rooney, I'm sure, has been frustrated thus far not to score a goal in the tournament, so here's hoping this will be the match for him.

This game could easily have been a World Cup final showdown but, sadly, they had to meet at this early stage.

That's just the way the cookie crumbles in World Cup football.

Next up will be Argentina against Mexico.

I think this South American encounter will be one not to miss.

My money will be on Argentina.

I think the Argentinians will be just too much up front for the Mexicans to handle.

The Netherlands face Slovakia, while Brazil takes on Chile.

Paraguay is up against an on-form Japan, leaving the final place up for grabs between Spain and Portugal.

I think this will be the pick of games so far - two teams filled with stars left, right and centre.

If I had to pick, I'd probably say Spain should come out on top, but we shall see.

Make sure if don't manage to get up to watch the games, you record them, because I think we are set to see some quality football over the next couple of days.

Watch this space!

Predictions:

England to beat Germany (on penalties), today, 2am.

Argentina to beat Mexico, today, 6,30am.

The Netherlands to beat Slovakia, tomorrow, 2am.

Brazil to beat Chile, tomorrow, 6.30am.

Japan to beat Paraguay, Wednesday, 2am.

Spain to beat Portugal, Wednesday, 6.30am.