Nicolas Otamendi kicks Ivan Rakitic and Luka Modric mimics THAT goal against Manchester United: Things you missed from day eight in Russia

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Argentina are on the verge of heading home after being humbled by Croatia while Australia grabbed a draw against Denmark.

We've had more VAR controversy, a dejected-looking Lionel Messi and a player getting booked for almost kicking someone in the head.

Sportsmail has had its eye on events on and off the pitch in both matches and now brings you the best of the things you missed from day eight of the World Cup 2018. 

Croatia's Ante Rebic celebrates scoring their first goal in the 3-0 win over Argentina

The follow-through

Croatia were 2-0 up and sailing towards a shock victory over the great Argentina, so tempers were bound to flare up at some point. However, it was hard to imagine just quite how much they would.

Nicolas Otamendi, clearly frustrated with his team's display, took the opportunity to kick Ivan Rakitic extremely close to his head while he was down on the floor. With the ball in front of his foot, the Manchester City star clearly thought he could get away with it by following through with a pass.

More shockingly, the defender was shown a yellow card and not even the Video Assistant Referee deemed it enough of an infringement to change it to a red.

Nicolas Otamendi takes his chance to kick Ivan Rakitic close to his head while he is down

Rakitic's head is thrown back after the ball appears to hit him in the face as he lies on the floor

The Croatia and Barcelona midfielder fortunately escapes injury in the shocking incident

Otamendi tries to ruffle more feathers as he squares up to Croatia defender Dejan Lovren 

Otamendi is shown a yellow card and the Video Assistant Referee allows the decision to stand

They should have seen it coming!

Luka Modric's beautiful curling effort is likely to compete for the goal of the World Cup, but Argentina could have prevented it if they had done their homework.

The diminutive playmaker scored an almost identical goal against Manchester United in the Champions League five years ago.

On that night, he ended Sir Alex Ferguson's dream of winning one final European title before retirement. On Thursday, he may have put paid to Messi's dream of winning the World Cup. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MODRIC'S GOAL

Luka Modric curls a delightful effort into the Argentine goal to double Croatia's lead

A new World Cup benchmark... for referees

If there was to be a record set in Argentina's match against Croatia, you would expect the five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi to be the one to do it. If not, at least then one of the players. But it was actually the referee claiming this accolade.

Ravshan Irmatov may not be a name many people in Europe recognise, but the Uzbek referee made history on Thursday by becoming the first man to officiate 10 World Cup matches.

Notably, he was the man in charge when England drew 0-0 with Algeria in South Africa eight years ago. You know, when Wayne Rooney moaned about the England fans live to millions of... England fans.

He's also taken charge of two quarter-finals and one semi-final. At just 40 years old, Irmatov has plenty of time to add to his record. 

Ravshan Irmatov (right) took charge of his tenth World Cup game, Argentina's tie with Croatia

Schmeichel's attempts to put off Jedinak fails

Kasper Schmeichel turned to dark tactics as he attempted to put Mile Jedinak off his penalty kick after Denmark fell victim to a contentious VAR call.  

The decision itself was enwreathed in controversy after the referee penalised Yussuf Poulsen - who, coincidentally, gave away a penalty in Denmark's first game after the technology was consulted - for handling in the area. 

Schmeichel was incensed by the referee's decision and wanted to try and create his own justice. He barked a few words in Jedinak's ear. It was along the lines of: 'I know where you put your penalties'.

Kasper Schmeichel tried to put Mile Jedinak off as he prepared to take a penalty on Thursday

The Danish goalkeeper barked a few words in his ear as Jedinak placed the ball on the spot

He screamed 'Come on' as he took his position and began to do star jumps as Jedinak, who was doing well to ignore Schmeichel's antics, took a deep breath and prepared himself.

The Australian wasn't phased or flustered, though. He had been in that position before and calmly sent Schmeichel the wrong way to score.

It was his third World Cup goal, all of which have come from the spot, and ended up earning Australia a valuable point.

Schmeichel, for all his efforts and mind games, still had to pick himself up and retrieve the ball from his goal.

Schmeichel shouted 'come on' and done star jumps as Jedinak prepared himself 

The Australian sent Schmeichel the wrong way to equalise and earn his side a valuable point

Jedinak kneels on thin air

The Australian captain again kept his composure to score from the spot on Thursday.

But it was his celebration that earned the midfielder plaudits on social media. 

People were stunned when a picture of Jedinak appearing to kneel on thin air done the rounds on Twitter.

The 33-year-old's jump was equally as impressive, managing to reach a height comparable to that of Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Mile Jedinak appeared to kneel on thin air as he celebrated converting from the spot

Peru fans take over  

Everywhere you looked they were there. The Ekaterinburg Arena was a sea of red of white with a couple of blue buoys dotted around.

It was like a home game for Peru and that inspired a fast-paced start from the South Americans.

If you closed your eyes for a moment, you'd be forgiven for mistaking this game of football for Lima carnival.

The Ekaterinburg Arena in Russia was a sea of Peru fans on Thursday evening

They were singing and blaring horns all through the match but couldn't stop Peru from losing

Horns were blaring, fans were signing and every Peruvian tackle was greeted with a cheer. Every time France touched the ball, there were boos, whistles and jeers.

ITV commentator Lee Dixon said: 'I have never seen a World Cup game so dominated by one set of supporters. It's just incredible.'

Indeed, it was a sight to behold, but it had little effect on the game with Kylian Mbappe scoring the winner in the first half.

Mendy's personalised boots  

Benjamin Mendy was gifted a personalised pair of SharkTeam GLITCH skin football boots by Adidas on Thursday.

The French defender couldn't resist showing them off and was spotted wearing the boots during the pre-match warm-up against Peru.

Mendy coined the term Shark Team, which originally he used to describe Manchester City.

'We're the big shark and when teams swim up alongside us we gobble them up,' he explained earlier this year.

Mendy didn't manage to get on the pitch during France's win, but we may get another chance to see the shark boots at some other point as he is expected to don them for the rest of the World Cup.

Benjamin Mendy was gifted a personalised pair of SharkTeam football boots by Adidas

The France defender was spotted wearing them during the pre-match warm up on Thursday