The 22nd FIFA World Cup is approaching its end. By Sunday evening, we will have our champions, but there'll surely be a few more twists and turns yet in a tournament that's had more drama than an Eastenders omnibus.
The group stages were fun, garlanded with enough upsets and good games to keep us intrigued.
Often, major tournaments start strongly and then simmer down into tactical slogs once the stakes get higher in the knockout stages. But we had four fine quarter-finals, each one rammed with tension and talking points.
Perhaps the quality hasn't been sky high, but who needs quality when you have penalty shootouts and schemozzles?
Which leads us to the first of our semi-finals on Tuesday night: Argentina v Croatia.
Croatia are a remarkable team. Having made the World Cup final four years ago, they're back in the last four thanks to technical excellence, impressive nous and bucketloads of resilience.
The evergreen Luka Modric has further embellished his wonderful career with another fine tournament but there's been plenty of excellent performers around him.
Josko Gvardiol [above] is regarded as one of the best young centre-halves in the world. The 20-year-old RB Leipzig man has every top club in the world chasing him. He's exceptional - a calm, aggressive leader.
However the much-maligned Dejan Lovren has quietly shone beside him. Lovren moved from Liverpool to Zenit Saint Petersburg two years ago and while he certainly has mistakes in him, it has to be said that he's been flawless so far.
The likes of Ivan Perisic, Mateo Kovacic and Marcelo Brozovic provide a tough, experienced spine while Celtic right-back Josip Juranovic has really turned heads with his performances, not least in how he subdued Brazil's Vinicius Jnr.
Croatia needed extra-time and penalties to beat both Japan and Brazil, but boss Zlatko Dalic insists fatigue won't be a factor. They have their tails up - and believe they can go all the way.
"The semi-final match against England in the last World Cup was the greatest match of all time; the game against Brazil comes in second," he said.
"If we win tomorrow that would make it the greatest historical game for Croatia of all time.
"It is one of the most important, most significant matches for us, after just four years to repeat the success would be such an achievement on the world stage with a new national team is fantastic and I believe it is a great success.
"We are among the four best teams in the world, that is an extraordinary success for Croatia, it is a great thing for two World Cups in a row to be in the four best nations teams in football.
"We want more, we are playing the great Argentina, a terrific team led by Lionel Messi, they are highly-motivated and under more pressure than Croatia at this moment in time.
"I am an optimist by nature, I do trust my players, they have demonstrated a high-level of quality, strength of character as we would not have made it to the semi-finals without that. We will not change the way we play.
"My pride has no limits, the sky is the limit. Everyone has a dream and my dream was to be head coach of my country but I could never have wished for this."
To paraphrase Mike Tyson, everybody has a plan until Messi punches them in the mouth. His genius has been distilled into lethal combinations that can flatten opponents in the blink of an eye, such is the precision the great man possesses. He'll often stroll around on the periphery of games before settling them with a few seconds of brilliance.
Argentina will need Messi to conjure up something special once more against a tightly drilled Croatia.
After a highly tempestuous quarter-final against the Netherlands in which Argentina squandered a two-goal lead and then won it in a shootout, Messi said: "We suffered too much. It was a very tough game. We lived it on the pitch for the people. And Diego Maradona is seeing us from heaven, he is pushing us to the very end.
"Croatia is a very difficult opponent. They have great players, they know themselves very well. They have the same coach since the last World Cup and it's a World Cup semi-final, it’s going to be tough."
There were a record-breaking 18 cards handed out in Argentina's clash with the Dutch. Full-backs Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel are both suspended for the semi-final but manager Lionel Scaloni will have been relieved some of his men didn't see red as things well and truly boiled over.
Even Messi lost the head, exchanging words with Louis van Gaal and his assistant Edgar Davids at the full-time whistle.
"Sometimes things like arguments can happen, but that's all. That's why there's a referee."
Croatia had four players one booking away from suspension in their last-eight showdown with Brazil, Modric and Kovacic among them. All four got through it without getting a yellow so Dalic pretty much has a full, healthy squad to pick from.
On the eve of the match Scaloni was philosophical about Argentina's chances. "Sometimes luck can be on your side. If we have a good performance, we'll have an easier road to reach our objective. But this is football, this is sport, so sometimes the best team may not win," he said.
When was asked about the criticism directed his players for their behaviour in the wake of the win over the Netherlands, Scaloni added: "The previous game was played the way we had to play... that's football.
"Sometimes things like arguments can happen, but that's all. That's why there's a referee.
"We need to put an end to this idea that Argentina behave like this. We lost to Saudi Arabia and didn't say anything.
"We won the Copa America in Brazil and experienced the most sporting behaviour from Messi, [Leandro] Paredes, Neymar - who were all sitting together in the tunnel in the Maracana. I'm really not convinced of this idea of unsporting behaviour."
This will be a game of fire and ice; the passionate Argentinians driven on by their huge support, taking on a highly experienced team of canny operators. Don't be surprised if it's decided by another shootout.
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