With half of the World Cup teams heading home, we look back on the group stage of the 2014 World Cup and which teams and players stood out.

England staff were still dismantling the team games room and meeting room at their hotel yesterday but the hotel clearly anticipated their early early departure from the World Cup.

Lionel Messi did something that we had not seen from him before at this World Cup. Not the two goals, or the casual match-winning brilliance.

Herald on Sunday's Michael Burgess looks at five things we learned from day 14 of the FIFA World Cup.

Luis Suarez faces being thrown out of the World Cup after Fifa officially charged him with biting Giorgio Chiellini - but his captain is standing behind him.

Three bites and you are out, writes Chris Rattue. That should be football's response to a third Luis Suarez biting scandal in four years, this one damaging the image of the World Cup.

The video circulating around a gleeful Argentina has not been lost on the long-suffering Brazilians, just across the eastern border.

It's taken 64 years for the World Cup to return to Brazil but, in just over a week, it feels like football has regained some of its true essence.

Adidas predicts it will sell a third more Germany jerseys this year than when the country hosted the World Cup eight years ago as fans worldwide get behind the team in Brazil.

Mario Balotelli is already an international football star and could become one of Italy's greatest ever strikers.

The Kiwi football referee who received death threats after officiating a World Cup match this week is "frustrated" by the vitriolic backlash but "happy" with his performance.

Michael Burgess looks at the five things learned from today's action in Brazil including the increasing pressure on the hosts.

Ghana was yesterday exposed as agreeing to take part in international football matches organised by match fixers.

Brazil are on home soil, with a history of success, many talented players and two World Cup winning coaches on board. But that doesn't mean they will win the tournament.

Hundreds of English TV viewers are calling for adverts featuring England football players to be pulled after being knocked out at the group stage of the World Cup.

Didier Deschamps claims that Karim Benzema has finally discovered his "joie de vivre" with France.

Is there anything weirder than the miserable story of the English football side? Why is the mother ship so useless at the world's biggest sport?

Amid all the goals, thrills and English inquests, a wider pattern is unfolding in Brazil that might yet develop into the World Cup's most significant narrative.

New Zealand officials did a good job controlling their first football World Cup match, says a friend of the referee.

Even in Brazil where football is a religion, the miraculous sight of wheelchair-bound fans leaping from their seats has prompted calls for a police investigation into claims of ticket fraud.

Four years since their infamous player mutiny at the last World Cup, France look poised to make a more positive impact on this tournament as they swept aside Switzerland 5-2 yesterday.