6 Footballers Whose Reputations Took A Battering At World Cup 2018

Not an England player in sight for once!

Lewandowski WC 2018
By Светлана Бекетова (soccer.ru) [CC BY-SA 3.0GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

World Cup 2018 has been bloody brilliant so far. We've had unbelievable upsets, shocking late goals and VAR actually working too!

Many players have had phenomenal tournaments; Diego Godin has been a rock at the back for Uruguay, Luka Modric was undoubtedly the best all-round midfielder during the group stages for Croatia, and Harry Kane joined Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker on the illustrious list of England players who have scored hat-tricks at the World Cup.

It remains to be seen whether they can continue this form throughout the knockout stages and get their hands on the trophy, but whatever happens, they'll always have highlights from this summer's tournament.

However, there have been some who spectacularly failed to live up to expectations. Worse still, they're leaving Russia with their reputations in tatters having flopped on the biggest stage of them all.

The World Cup is the place to enhance your footballing reputation and write your name into the history books as someone who stood up and was counted for their country. For these six footballers, they'll remember the 2018 World Cup for all the wrong reasons...

6. Bernardo Silva

Lewandowski WC 2018
By Кирилл Венедиктов [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Granted, Silva was probably one of the best players for Portugal in their last-32 match against Uruguay, but aside from that he had an incredibly disappointing tournament.

A sensation in Pep Guardiola's record-breaking Man City side, the midfielder failed to produce a goal, shot, assist or key pass during the group stage, having been tipped by many to assist Cristiano Ronaldo in dragging Portugal to the latter stages of the World Cup.

Lacklustre, lethargic performances saw him substituted against Spain and Morocco, and the 23-year-old lost his place in the starting line-up for the final group game against Iran.

Silva failed to bring cohesion to the Portuguese attack, was wasteful in possession and disappeared in the moments when his country needed him most.

He heads back to the Etihad needing to hit the ground running at the start of next season if he's to demand a first XI place for the champions.

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