Alexis Sánchez has had a strong World Cup for Chile, which doesn't surprise his national team manager Jorge Sampaoli.

Sampaoli believes Sánchez is prevented from reaching his full potential at Barcelona due the presence of players such as Lionel Messi and Neymar.

"With Chile, Alexis knows he is a decisive player," Sampaoli said ahead of his side's last-16 clash with Brazil on Saturday. "He is very highly thought of - a superlative player.

"But perhaps at Barcelona, with the team-mates he has and all the great players there, it is more difficult. But for me he has all the conditions to be one of the best players in the world: assists, goals, dribbles, everything... 

"He can still get much better than he is at the moment and he'll be one of the key players in club and international football over the coming years."

Sánchez has been linked to a move away from Barça this offseason, particularly in a potential deal with Liverpool for Luis Suárez.

The most probable World Cup quarterfinalists in order of likelihood are Germany (87%), Argentina (76%), Brazil (73%), France (67%), Netherlands (64%), Greece (58%), Colombia (54%) and the United States (50%).

In terms of winning the World Cup, Brazil are still most likely to do so (23.4%), but Argentina (19.3%) and Germany’s chances (15.6%) are much closer than many believed prior to the start of the tournament. The Netherlands (10.5%) are fourth favorites with nearly double the chance of fifth favorites Colombia (5.4%). 

There is just under a 70% chance that this year’s World Cup winners will come from Brazil, Argentina, Germany or the Netherlands.

The United States have anywhere between a 76 percent and 80 percent chance of advancing to the Round of 16 following their 1-1 tie against Portugal.

The United States will automatically advance with a win or tie against Germany.

Here are the other scenarios from Asa Hopkins based on the goal differential of their match against Germany, as well as the Ghana-Portugal match.

Lionel Messi's goal in the 91st minute gave Argentina a 1-0 win over Iran.

Argentina struggled to break through despite dominating possession due to Iran's well-organized defensive efforts.

“I’m happy about the result, for our qualification in what was a complicated and difficult game, in which at no time could we find a way through their solid defense, which didn’t allow us any spaces.”

“We weren’t expecting a game like this, but those of us in attack couldn’t find spaces against such a strong defense. They weren’t letting us get onto balls between the lines, which we like so much and from which we can cause so much harm for opponents.”

Chris Wondolowski compared the United States playing without Jozy Altidore to Portugal missing Cristiano Ronaldo.

While there are many tiers separating Altidore and Ronaldo, the former does play a role for the United States in which they lack alternatives.

He explained: "Jozy is a special player – that's like saying 'Hey, go be Cristiano Ronaldo'.

"You can't necessarily replace certain aspects of it, but I think that both Aron (Johannsson) and I bring different styles, different sets of skills that I think are useful.

"And I think that's what we have to go do is incorporate those skill sets, and fit into the game plan as well.

"We're going to have to do certain things that Jozy did, and incorporate our styles as well."

Cesare Prandelli is seeking consistency from Mario Balotelli on his Italy squad ahead of their match on Friday against Costa Rica.

“If we look at the four years that we have had with Mario there have been times when he has been our weapon, he was the asset, he was the man who would have taken us to the moon,” Prandelli said. “But then, after two months, he wasn’t performing. Many thought that he would not even make it to the World Cup so what really matters is that he concentrated and he is focused.

“It’s important for him to do what he did in the last match, to be as intense. If he can do that for 90 minutes, great. Otherwise we will have someone just as good and just as fresh in the pitch. We started with 23 men and he is one of those 23 men. He may be decisive, he may be important but, as in the last match, he must give 100%.”

Eden Hazard has distanced himself from comments made by Belgium manager Marc Wilmots that he could become one of the top-5 footballers in the world.

"Seriously? He said that? Well, I never like to talk about myself in that way because, to be honest, I don't think I deserve it at the moment,” Hazard told Fifa’s official website. “To be thought of as one of the best five in the world, I would need to score more goals for a start. 

“I would really need to score almost every game because that is what the best players in the world - like Messi and Ronaldo - do every season. 

“These are the guys everyone else has to aim for. It's nice of the coach to say such things, but I wouldn't say the same."

England will restore Wayne Rooney to a central attacking position behind Daniel Sturridge for their match on Thursday against Uruguay.

Rooney was a playmaker in the middle of an attacking trident, operating behind a lone forward, throughout the training session at their base in Urca on Tuesday, with Raheem Sterling often on the right and Danny Welbeck on the left.

“I said from the start I want to do everything I can to make sure I’m ready for these World Cup games and as part of that, I was doing extra training a week before the squad joined up,” Rooney said on his Facebook page. “That’s exactly what I did [on Monday], my own extra training, because that’s what I wanted to do.”

After the first day of Group G play, the United States now have a 63 percent chance to advance to the round of 16. Jurgen Klinsmann's squad had a 33 percent chance of advancing before their 2-1 win over Ghana.

Germany has a 98 percent chance of advancing following their 4-0 win over Portugal.

Portugal has dropped to 27 percent chance, while Ghana is an extreme longshot at 12 percent.

Arjen Robben ran 37 kilometers per hours to outrun Sergio Ramos (30.6), according to data from FIFA.

Converted to the 100 meter dash, Robben would have run it in 10.28 seconds.

The previous record was 35.7 kilometers per hour by Theo Walcott.