Topic: FIFA World Cup 2022 Group Stage Highlights - page 22. (Read 11659 times)

So far Morocco has surprised people around the world with what they did in the Qatar world cup, they were not seeded against Spain and also Portugal but they got through it, as well as against France in the semi-finals later.
so I think there is a chance that Morocco will be able to surprise again.

and for Argentina against Croatia it will be very tough because these two teams have a very strong mentality.
and I also really don't like Argentina after what happened during the match against the Netherlands, they almost failed because they had to concede 2 goals in the last minute, that's a bad thing in my opinion.
and Croatia are the teams that have progressed so far because of penalties, and I hope that in the semifinals there will also be penalties and let's see who has more luck.

Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/argentina-under-investigation-two-world-28701433

Breaking News!

FIFA is investigating Argentina regarding breaches against the Netherlands during the quarter-finals. It is possible that there will be sanctions for Argentina and some of its players who were involved in a commotion with Dutch officials. Considering that the match was hot between the players, the referee even issued a total of 17 yellow cards for players from the two countries. Even the Argentinian coach also received a yellow card from the referee. Even though Argentina won the match on penalties, it seems that this case will be of particular concern to the Argentine side, hoping that the players will still be able to play in the semifinal match against Croatia later, especially Messi is a key player in the Argentina squad to win the next game.

I can't see how Morocco would win against France. Giroud is having a great performance, Mbape and Dembele didn't impress me against England, but Morocco isn't England. The English team played surprisingly well against France, but the referee didn't give them more penalties.
The match between Croatia and Argentina seems unpredictable. Perhaps Croatia could achieve a draw in 120 minutes and win in the penalty shootout. The Balkan team became well known for it's ability to eliminate it's opponents via penalties. Just look at what they did in the last World Cup in Russia. I'm not impressed by Argentina, they were the better team against Netherlands, but I just don't like their style.

Maybe your prediction is right because Morocco is the first African country to reach the semi-finals.  And with that some good teams like Brazil Portugal Netherlands England all got eliminated from the World Cup. Now if Morocco can beat France then Morocco will go to the final and I think if Morocco qualify for the final they can face Argentina but I have  doubt if they can win against Argentina.

Now saying that Morocco will win the world cup is not really that weird.

So many strange and unusual things have happened in this world cup.

Portugal, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, all gone.

Agree, don't say the surprise is over because this year's World Cup we have experienced many unexpected things in the top 16 up to the semi-finals which have produced a national team far beyond expectations. The trip to Morocco was originally considered a complementary spice to the world cup but in fact, it was able to get rid of the giant national team which clearly had the experience of the world cup. Croatia certainly has quality players who have sent Brazil home. The Netherlands was sent home by Argentina, and Portugal also finally had to accept defeat. England is not a weak national team, but in front of France they had to submit and the fate of Harry Kane, who missed the penalty, was clearly an unexpected factor. As a result, the semi-finals will be even more exciting because it will be more difficult to guess who will pass with the best performance of their respective national teams.

you never can tell, you should not conclude that there are no more surprises in the world cup if there have been surprises from the onset to this very moment you should look out for more surprises again I am very surprised that you counted Crotia out, people that eliminated Brazil why do you have to count them out in the contest. If Crotia can eliminate Brazil it means that they can do so to Argentina, nothing is sure and nothing is safe until the last 90 minutes of the game

I was impressed with the English players, they were matched with the France stars,I didn't see much difference in terms of quality,if it was not Harry Kane penalty miss I think England would have win at extra time, I felt bad that it was Harry Kane that miss the penalty that send England out of the world cup because he did a lot for them to be in that tournament,but I know he would miss because it would be difficult scoring Hugo lloris (his club teammate) two penalties in one game.

France played good football and deserved win last night against England. I think Morocco also performed pretty good (far better than what was expected from them). At this point my bets would be on Argentina and France. I think no more surprises are expected at semi finals. Argentina is better team and Messi will be enough for them to handle Croatia defence and unlock their key. France on the hand has lot more quality midfielders and attackers compared to Morocco. Sorry but, gonna be end of Moroccan dream this round. They may hit 3rd place tho.

We need to be realistic and admit that Brazil has the best players in the world, but they obviously don't have the best team.
Very good individuals don't necessarily make a very good team, and this has now been shown in the case of Brazil.
Brazil has been winning so far thanks to the great individual quality of its players, but against Croatia, for the first time, they encountered a worthy opponent, with a great midfield and good organization of the game, who found a way to stop their football dance.
In today's modern football, great individuals no longer win, but national teams that have a better organized team and team spirit, as well as a good organization and game plan.

I don't know why the coach felt Ronaldo was unnecessary in the last two games. Coach Fernando Santos did not give Ronaldo enough opportunities to play against Switzerland. Even then, Portugal played well against Switzerland. Perhaps this is the reason why coach Santos does not want to give Ronaldo a chance against Morocco. Morocco's defense is very strong. Coach Santos needed to have players like Ronaldo on the field from the start to break such a defense. I don't know why Santos made such a stupid decision.

Maroco managed to bury Portugal's dream of advancing to the semifinals, the players owned by Maroco were really strong in defense, they were never hooked by Portugal's style of play, so they managed to concentrate on breaking the attacks that Portugal was trying to do.

Maroco made two counter-attacks and Bono also made three perfect saves in the game, thus managing to frustrate the Portuguese players and could do nothing to score, not bringing on Cristian Ronaldo in the first half seems to have worked in Maroco's favor. So there is no need to guard this sector and leave no empty positions to try to put pressure on Cristian Ronaldo.

Since the beginning of the group phase, Maroco were not favored, but they played consistently enough to reach the semifinals, even though it was not easy to get through this phase. When they beat Spain on penalties, it opened up opportunities for Maroco to beat Portugal, because of the positive results they got when they won on penalties with Spain.

This was the last World Cup for Cristian Ronaldo, even the player left the field with very moving tears, I think the Portuguese coach was not quite right to include Cristian Ronaldo in the second half, consciously or not Seleccao das Quinas quite needed Cristian Ronaldo's presence on the field, because it has the potential to make opposing players will make a double defense to guard it.

It is true that football is a sport that is difficult to predict. Beginning before Morocco qualified for the Semifinals because they beat Portugal, I am very sure that the performance of the Moroccan team will stop against Portugal. Likewise with the England vs France match which made me feel confident that my support team England would beat France as the defending champion.

Morocco's appearance, which was able to make new history at the 2022 World Cup, was not 100% lucky. If you are able to win in 1 or 2 matches against your favorite team you can still consider it lucky, but Morocco has proven it in 5 matches. That's hard work.

Congratulations to Morocco.

Exactly, Croatia's midfield played extremely well and Modric led the team
Brazil played with a lot of pressure, having the obligation to beat Croatia, because it is not a "world reference" in football nowadays.
When Croatia scored the goal that led to penalties, Brazil collapsed, it was at that moment that the Brazilian team "lost" the game, they had everything to win, but they failed to take advantage of this opportunity.

Not to belittle Croatia, but Brazil could be in a much worse situation, because Croatians are not good technically, if Croatia had the skill and technique of Brazil, they could easily win that game.

With regard to finalizations, Croatia had a measly 11.11% of accuracy towards the goal, but Brazil 52.3%, and also the precision of the passes of Brazil was superior compared to Croatia.
But with all these events, Croatia knew how to take advantage of this opportunity and managed to eliminate Brazil

Portugal was not alone to win here in this event all teams which qualify for the event were here for the win of title but sadly now we have only four teams left those are capable of carry for the title race with many big names are already out of the competition even they were good and full of skilled players Ronaldo done amazing stuff for his country for many years, but sadly this was not enough to win the world cup for his country, and now he is already out of the competition with lost in quarterfinal against Morocco most chances he will take retirement from the national team and give some better performance for the next club.

Few Portuguese players were really at the top of their game but sadly fail to convert their chances and lost against a DARK HORSE side in quarterfinal now Morocco is going to face France which is defending his title and have good chance to win the world cup again third time in last 24 years.

There's no proof if Ronaldo have said this is his last World Cup, although he's currently at 37 years old and the next world cup he will turn be 41 years old, don't forget Ibrahimovic is still playing for AC Milan while he's currently 41 years old. Ronaldo has a strict lifestyle and he's trying to make his body strong everytime, actually he could join the next world cup since it's still possible.

Morocco is still from zero to master, I will say they become a hero if they're a champion in this world cup. Morocco's luck won't last long, it's similar like Saudi Arabia who can beat Argentina in the group phase. France will definitely win this match.

Antoine Griezmann was the best player after the match was over and actually in terms of ball possession I saw not much difference between these two teams, but France was able to make a very extraordinary surprise by continuing to mess up the English defense so that in the first half France was immediately one goal ahead of England

One of the great chances and opportunities for the England national team that didn't work out and that's very unfortunate was the missed penalty in the second half through Harry Kane whose shot was saved by the French goalkeeper in the 84th minute. Even though it was an opportunity for England to equalize before the game was over.

Well, the Marocans turned out to be stronger and they won this match with Portugal, showing, in my opinion, a reliable game leading the team to victory and it was their fifth winless game in this championship, I think they deserved to go further.

Rabiot has been under estimated severally but he has been up and going
England didn't operate more from the middle but from the wing
One good thing England did was to keep Mbappe silent.

It is so sad that star boy Saka was not on the winning side in today's match after all his effort and all that he contributed for the team to win France.Harry kane was the jinx for England today as he missed a penalty in the 84th minute of the game,where if he had scored that goal,the game would have ended in a 2-2 draw,and maybe who knows,whether England would have qualified.
Now it's Argentina vs Croatia and France vs Morocco.Uptill now,Morocco qualifying from group stage to semi final stage  seems like a joke to me, nevertheless,I still wish them well.