RIO DE JANEIRO, July 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Quarterfinals will begin in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza at the FIFA World Cup on Friday. France will play with Germany and Brazil will clash with Colombia. Only the winners of their groups that did not suffer a single defeat have qualified for quarterfinals. There will already be no obvious favorites in these two matches, though the Colombian squad showed itself better scoring already four victories.

Only four out of 13 European teams succeeded to break through to quarterfinals. The teams of France and Germany showed almost the same results in general, securing the top places in their groups without losing any points and then experiencing problems with African rivals in the Round of 16. In the 1980s, the Federal Republic of Germany and France played two bright semifinals at World Cups. The game in the Spanish city of Seville in 1982 became one of the best matches in the history of football world championships ending in a 3-3 draw, but the German squad has won in a penalty shootout. A forthcoming match will be held at Maracana Stadium and a referee brigade headed by Nestor Pitana from Argentine will judge the match.

The teams of Brazil and Colombia will play in the city of Fortaleza. The World Cup hosts reached the quarterfinals without any difficulties, but Colombia still shows a very confident attacking football. Colombia, coached by Argentinean specialist Jose Pekerman, secured a berth in quarterfinals for the first time in their history and many experts estimate the team as a favorite of a forthcoming match. Colombia is waiting for a victory from their team, in this case they will be able to fight even for the champion title, and no one expected this after an injury of their leading forward Radamel Falcao. President of the South American republic Juan Manuel Santos declared Friday as a brief workday, as the match will kick off at 3 pm Colombian time. Santos intends to watch the game right at Castelan Stadium. The chief referee of the match is Spaniard Carlos Velasco Carballo.

Winners of Friday quarterfinals will play in a semi-final match in Belo Horizonte on July 8. Argentine and Belgium, the Netherlands and Costa Rica will clinch in other quarterfinals on July 5.