Topical anniversary dept: Exactly 36 years ago to the day, Italy beat Brazil 3-2 in what is considered one of the World Cup’s greatest matches. Here’s our match report, from Patrick Barclay:

Here are Falcão’s memories of the game:

And here are Jonathan Wilson’s tactical observations:

“Sweden are the world champions of team spirit”

Here are Sven-Goran Eriksson’s thoughts on the England match, courtesy of the Press Association (though the quotes are taken from today’s Mirror):

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson says Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Sweden will be “their most difficult game so far”.

The 70-year-old Swede, who led the Three Lions to the last eight of the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, believes his home nation possess similar attributes to England’s Euro 2016 conquerors Iceland.

And Eriksson warned that Gareth Southgate’s side may have been better off facing tournament favourites Brazil rather than Sweden.

“England have a great chance to make a World Cup semi-final,” Eriksson said in quotes reported by the Mirror. “But, if anyone in the squad thinks they have an easy game on Saturday, they’re wrong. It’ll be the most difficult game they’ll have played so far, they can bet on that. It would be easier for England to beat Brazil than to beat Sweden, in my opinion.

“As a team, the way they work together, they are one of the best,” he added. “Sweden today are a very hard team to break down. Their strikers are defenders when it’s time to defend, and they can defend in their own box as well. You won’t find a better team - Sweden are world champions of team spirit.

“Harry Kane will be a tougher challenge than they’re used to, but Sweden won’t be impressed by Kane - or whoever is in the England team. Not at all. I can see a draw and extra-time. England have set-pieces, Sweden will make some chances, but the game will come down to luck - the team that makes the most of their luck will win. It will be very tight. Sweden’s defence is a great strength. Especially from set-pieces. Sweden are a tall team at the back and very well organised.”

This is cruel: Sweden’s Sportbladet ask English journalists (including our own Dominic Fifield) to identify members of their World Cup squad from photographs. They don’t do very well.

5 Jul 201804.01 EDT

Simon Burnton

Morning/evening/whatever everyone! It seems like only yesterday that I was inserting into the liveblog pictures of the teams arriving in Russia. Here’s the Japan team arriving back in Tokyo today:

View image in fullscreen

View image in fullscreen

Some non-World Cup related admin to start: it’s today’s transfer rumours.

5 Jul 201803.28 EDT

Mike Hytner

And on that note, I’ll hand over to London. It’s been fun. Until next time.

Trawling through old footage of England v Sweden games and it’s impossible to overlook this one. Stan Collymore was certainly quite enthused. “I’ve just seem the most insane goal I’ve ever seen on a football pitch!”

One man who’s not buying into all this New England/humility/work ethic stuff is former Sweden player Håkan Mild, who says: “They are spoilt kids who earn a lot of money. They don’t have the desperation [hunger] needed. It couldn’t be a better draw. They think they are so good but they are not.” Of course, there’s a chance Mild’s view of English players may still be clouded by this:

Tackling was never really Paul Scholes’s forte. Anyway, Daniel Taylor has more on the cautious optimism that is surrounding the England camp.

Team news: we know what Dr Adil Rami thinks of Edinson Cavani’s chances, but what of Harry Kane, after he experienced some discomfort in his calf, and Jamie Vardy, who had to have a sugar injection in his groin after the game.

It’s been a veritable feast of back-slapping since the penalty hoodoo was broken – justifiably so, you might argue – and while Pickford was having praise heaped on him by Henderson and others, he and Gareth Southgate were quick to credit those working behind the scenes in the England camp. So who are they unsung heroes? Dominic Fifield has the answers:

An entire nation was thankful to Pickford once Eric Dier’s spot kick hit the back of the net in Moscow, but the importance of his shootout save was particularly important for one man: Jordan Henderson. Henderson, who missed his penalty and in doing so placed himself right in the firing line of the legendarily forgiving England public, clearly knew the potential consequences of his miss and said afterwards that he will be “forever in his debt”. To Henderson’s great credit, he’s also said he’d be up for taking another one, if it comes to that. Not sure everyone will be on the same page though.

Sizeable tenders are certainly a bonus if you ever find yourself in a position of having to take a penalty in a World Cup shootout. It’s not for nothing that the Japanese team didn’t bother practising taking them as a team, since it is impossible to recreate the pressure players feel in that situation. Some takers can handle it, some can’t. Some, of course, are just unlucky, or they come up against a quality keeper.

So to Jordan Pickford, who was England’s hero the other night with a big hand to deny Carlos Bacca. It’s been quite the rise to prominence over recent years for the 24-year-old. Louise Taylor charts his rise here:

Should we be preparing for more penalty shootout fun over the next two days or so? You wouldn’t bet against it. Uruguay haven’t yet had a chance to practise their spot kicks in a game, which is a surprising fact given the sheer number awarded so far, and might not be too enthused about the idea of their game against France going all the way. Antoine Griezmann, the French striker, has slotted two so far this tournament.

Paul Parker, the former England international, was on the pitch during the semi-final against West Germany in 1990 that went to a shootout. He’s remarkably honest about his feelings at that moment. “The first thing I was thinking was: ‘I hope I don’t have to take one.’ I was concerned with crossing the halfway line, never mind taking penalties, at that time.”

Sometimes an email lands in the inbox that you simply cannot argue with. This, from Shah Sahari, is one such email. “I keep reading about England’s ‘52 years of hurt’. Why 52? England won in 1966, so why would they be hurting between 1966 and 1970, when they relinquished the trophy. Shouldn’t it be 48 years of hurt? Or even 50, if you want to count the 1968 European championship, when England lost 1-0 to Yugoslavia in the semifinals? Thanks.” No, thank you Shah Sahari.

5 Jul 201802.19 EDT

Mike Hytner

Hello. Sterling work of the non-Raheem variety from Naaman there. Mike here for the briefest of stints before handing over to London. Amid all this talk of shithousery (and we should be careful as it’s in real danger of becoming this World Cup’s most overused buzzword), it hasn’t been lost on Sweden that England player have been up to no good too. In particular, non-official shithouser-in-chief, Ashley Young, has been singled out as one to keep an eye on. “I know him well,” said Emil Krafth, who plays at Bologna. “I am a Manchester United supporter and I have seen him a lot. He is a good player, very fast, who likes to cut inside. We must do not do anything stupid with him inside the box.”

More from David Hytner here:

I’m going to hand over now to my esteemed colleague Mike Hytner. Thanks all for the great comments and the two or three good puns from a field of far, far too many.

I’ll leave you with this from Chris Oakley’s last chance saloon

And with this stat for Uruguay v France. Can’t wait. It’s gonna go off.

In the comments, I’d say that “organisation” has become the watchword. That fearsome Uruguay defence is dominating the analysis below the line.

Featherstone1 writes: “Unless France can sneak through an early goal via a mistake this is going to be an incredibly difficult task for them, and as the game wears on and they become increasingly desperate for a breakthrough they’ll undoubtedly become vulnerable to the Uruguayan counter.”

Obdulio agrees: “France so far played very well for, what, 20 minutes in the second half against anarchic Argentina. Uruguay will not give the French strikers space to run.”

It’s the same for those looking forward to Sweden v England. Organisation, organisation, organisation.

cantthinkofagoodname: “I think our lack of a creative midfielder could really hurt England against a well organised Sweden. They won’t make idiotic challenges on Kane like previous opponents.”

Heliopower, the lone voice of dissent: “England are just as well organised as Sweden. Let us not get overcome by this idea that Sweden are somehow a super organised team. Solid yes - but not without flaws.”

Before we dive into the comments – which I will round up in a sec – let’s hear from the fans. This great piece rounds up all eight of our quarter finalists. It’s a great precis of each team, and a distillation of how they’re seen at home. I’ll start with tomorrow’s four teams.

Belgium: “Roberto Martínez is delivering exactly what he promised: exciting but sometimes gung-ho football. It’s the total opposite of the rather dull and cautious football served by his predecessor, Marc Wilmots.”

Brazil: “Neymar’s antics attract all the attention but the defining statistic is that Brazil have only conceded six goals in 25 matches under Tite. Belgium are the team that can hurt us the most, with Eden Hazard and Dries Mertens running at our full-backs.”

France: “I’m pretty sure we can win this tournament. The toughest challenge will be the quarter-final against Uruguay. We have nothing to fear from the other teams.”

Uruguay: “We’ve look well prepared for this tournament. A lot of thought has been put into teamwork and understanding among the players. They have left everything on the pitch and played with a lot of “garra charrua,” a term used in Uruguay to describe effort.”

Thanks to Peter Oh for the first “It’s coming home” email – and hey, it’s actually funny and bearable. “Hi Naaman,” he writes. “It’s coming home? I see England’s point (inventors of football ‘n all), but if home is a place of familiarity, a place of comfort, wouldn’t the World Cup be coming home to Brazil? It’s been there five times.”

Ooft. As an Australian, I personally believe football will truly “come home” in 2034 – when Daniel Arzani, aged 37, fires home the winner in the 90th minute of the final, watched over by the smiling, nodding face of super-coach Tim Cahill, aged 163.

The puns have begun. Below the line, socraticperms has got a pearler: “With all his histrionics, Neymar is becoming a regular Brasil Fawlty.”

BradGoodman writes: “When Colombia scored their last minute equaliser my friend turned to me and said ,‘they would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those Medellin kids’.” Cheers Brad, no “shame spiral” for you.

And not a pun, but one for the Australians: “I hope someone takes Neymar aside and tell him he’s missed this years Logies.” Thanks kejovi. Eases the pain.

Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble but ... that photo doing the rounds of Japan’s spotless dressing room after the Belgium game?

So it’s cheers to the cleaners, rather than the memers.

Imagine, in the following video, that there’s a big label above Alisson that says “ME” and a label over the ball that says “THIS STORY”.

Jorge Valdano writing on Kylian Mbappé? Bloody hell, you better read it.

“Football is a very serious game but it is full of people doing all they can to make idiots of footballers. Mbappé, in this year of adaptation to his price and the expectations placed upon him, played well and played OK (he doesn’t know how to play badly). He also saw team-mates of the level of Edinson Cavani and Neymar from up close. A fine education, if you know how to see it, how to look for the right lessons.

“If a player so young can come out of that cocktail of experiences alive, he is a phenomenon, not just once but twice: for his talent and for his maturity.”

Jan Müller has emailed in with this fascinating tidbit: “As we get to read a lot about World Cup statistics lately, I wondered which nations are the most successful in World Cup history in relation to the size of their population.

“I did some basic math and the results are quite astonishing: Uruguay is leading the pack by a large margin in all 3 categories of World Cups won, total games played and games won. Sweden, Croatia and Belgium are in the top 5 of games won and Sweden and Croatia also are in the top 4 of games played.

“So, this year’s quarterfinals are packed with historically overperforming teams. And none of them is called Brazil, England or France. Following the logic of the population size based ratio of World Cup performances this year’s semifinal pairings will be: Uruguay vs Belgium and Croatia vs Sweden. Let that sink in for a minute... Go Uruguay! and greetings from New York.”

In the comments, Orlando98 echoes Jan’s sentiments: “I want a Uruguay-Croatia final. Two tiny wee nations punching incredulously above their weight both in terms of performance and also in terms of how many amazing players they produced. Scotland take note.”

It’s coming home, etc. etc. Official word from Twitter HQ – there have been half a million mentions of “It’s coming home” in the last 24 hours.

And let’s not forget that monster ratings news, with 24 million English TV sets tuning in to watch the historic shoot out. That’s enough to wallop the London Olympics closing ceremony, and dethrone the royal wedding.

Tactics time. Here’s Jonathan Wilson on the early exits of Spain and Germany, and what makes the World Cup so unpredictable.

“Over the past four decades, as club football has become increasingly sophisticated, international football has looked a make-do-and-mend botch job by comparison. That is part of its charm: it’s arguably a greater test of coaching to find a way to cope with a long-term dearth of, say, left-wingers than simply going out and buying one, while the lack of preparation time perhaps introduces a greater element of randomness than is present in the club game.”

And here’s Stuart James on what Roberto Martínez has to do after Belgium scraped past Japan. Drop Yannick Carrasco? Start Marouane Fellaini? I think we all agree he has to do something.

Below the line, chobbes writes: “Can we make today all about puns, like ‘those Swedes have been a real turnip for the books this World Cup’, or ‘Russia have taken all the right steppes so far’.”

I usually detest puns, but promise I will put the best (only the best!) ones from the comments up here. It’s punning home? I hate this already.

Here’s how we see the teams shaping up. Brazil are still favourites, but France have shot up the rankings with enough speed to attract a shove in the back from Marcos Rojo. Nick Ames’s analysis makes both teams favourites to progress against Uruguay (fourth) and Belgium (fifth). Read on below:

Something to get the conversation started – this piece from Stuart James has clearly struck a chord as we try and digest how to live in this brave new VAR-heavy world.

“Everyone’s at it now, including – and let’s not kid ourselves – England players,” he writes. “‘Shithousery” is the word that gets bandied around these days. Others will know it simply as cheating and, sadly, it’s the one cloud that hangs over an otherwise brilliant World Cup in Russia.”

But of course, there’s the argument that we’re not seeing elevated levels of shithousery, but it just stands out when everything else has been so heavily policed by VAR.

What do you think? Email, tweet or have a go in the comments.

Look away Uruguay fans. The latest Cavani injury news is not good. French defender Adil Rami – admittedly, no doctor – has declared that the Uruguayan striker will have to “destroy medical science” if he wants to be fit for tomorrow’s clash with France.

The two-goal hero suffered a hamstring injury in his personal demolition of Portugal, and sat out training yesterday.

“I had the same kind of injury and it took time,” Rami told Omnisport. “So if he plays against us, he’ll have destroyed science, so stop making us believe that he’ll play against us. Unfortunately, one man’s loss is another man’s gain.”

It’s a shame, given what a joy Cavani was to watch in the last 16. No shade on Rami, but it should be mentioned for balance that he will of course have to “destroy” the two or three better defenders ahead of him in the squad to also have a chance of starting.

5 Jul 201800.00 EDT

Preamble

Naaman Zhou

And breathe. Here we are. The rest day after the rest day, which if scenes from London are to be believed, wasn’t really a rest day at all.

Yes, the round of 16 was fantastic. But the quarter finals start tomorrow, so update that wallchart, eye up the Swedish defence, and shed a tear for James Rodriguez. Can we make this blog anything other than thousands upon thousands of “It’s coming home” memes? I will do it or die trying.

Anyway, there’s plenty to ponder. Uruguay v France looks fascinating, and Brazil v Belgium looks a cracker, so we can start the build-up today – a 24 hour, simmering build up slower than Spain against Russia. Am I the Isco of the liveblog team, or the Vladimir Granat (75 minutes, 5 passes attempted, none completed)? Sound off in the comments.

We’ll cover the pressing questions of the day. How is Edinson Cavani’s hamstring? How will Roberto Martinez tweak his tactics? How many times can you say “It’s coming home” before I start filtering it out of my email inbox completely?

As always get in touch! On email (naaman.zhou@theguardian.com) or Twitter (@naamanzhou), or below the line. Meanwhile, you could do worse than sign up for the World Cup Fiver – all the cool kids are doing it.