Sports

New ball for knockout stages in Russia

June 27, 2018 12:00 am

A new match ball will be used for the knockout stage of the World Cup in Russia, Fifa has announced.

The Telstar Mechta will replace the Telstar 18, the Adidas ball used throughout the group stage.

The new ball comes with a “vivid red design”, said to be inspired by the host nation’s colours and “the rising heat of knockout stage football”.

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Mechta translates as “dream” in Russian and the new ball will be used for the first time on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the matches tomorrow, at 2am, South Korea plays Germany while Mexico plays Sweden and at 6am, Switzerland faces Costa Rica plus Brazil battles it out against Serbia.

You can watch Mexico-Sweden and Brazil-Serbia matches on FBC TV and can catch the South Korea-Germany plus Switzerland-Costa Rica games on FBC Sports.