World Cup 2022

Liviforever wrote:Aw FFS the Dutch score from a free kick right on 10 mins added time, another 30 mins now.

Have to admit it was a very clever free kick, not one person outside the Dutch team/squad/mgmt anticipated that.

Argentina made the mistake of retreating at 2-1 when they should have just kept hold of the ball.

I agree with you that France look strong but I honestly don’t think they have played great stuff. I think England will cause them problems and wouldn’t be surprised to see our noisy neighbours go through.

I think there are only 2 unbeaten sides left in it… England & Morocco (I think Uruguay emulated out 1974 side… unbeaten but out at the group stage).

Liviforever wrote:No upset this time, Argentina winning the pen shoot out.

Quite dramatic though, Netherlands missing their first 2 pens then taking it right to the death with Argentina needing to score their final one.

About 15 yellow cards handed out too.

The ref was a joke in this one, he’s well known but the BBC commentary team didn’t seem to recognise him… they were poor as well, Jonathan Pearce (I think) kept getting names wrong and described the winning pen as “straight down the middle” - back to the ref, he was way too fussy and was awarding fouls for nothing. One Dutch lad appeared to be telling him “it’s not supposed to be all about you” or word to that effect… and he was right, it was like the ref wanted to be centre stage.

Even the free kick that led to the equaliser… in the same incident the Dutch lad that won the foul had just fouled an Argentinian defender in exactly the same way, he touched his back and then had his back touched and all three players tumbled… he should have just waved play on.

I genuinely thought pre tournament that France were the only team capable of beating Brazil.How wrong was I.As I've said Brazils niaevity cost them big style.I honestly can't call this now,though I feel if England can somehow overcome the French theve a great chance of winning the whole damn thing,God forbid of course.

FFS.As if it couldn't get any more surreal. Morocco 1 Portugal 0 HT.This World Cup continues to defy logic.Surely a response from Portugal 2nd half.Yeh I know,just waiting for Ronaldo to come on and turn this around.Surely not.‍�.

Absolute shocker from Portugal.But congrats to Morocco . As I said this tournament is defying logic.Still can't call it.Christ what a chance for the auld enemy to get to the final.Cant get my head round it.Any way Mon the French..

They’re going home, they’re going home, England’s going home

In all honesty I thought they were the better side tonight, Lloris was the busier of the two keepers, the French defence kept making rash decisions, they should have had a pen in the first half. They kept M’Bappe quiet but Griezman stepped up for France, he was the best player in the first half and came strong just when France needed him with a superb cross for the winner.

Yeh agree Nick.For 2 3rds of that game England were the better team.But let's get it right here.From the beginning England have had a relatively easy ride before this game,no argument there.As I said before once they came up against quality they would be found out,albeit Kane had the chance to get them back in it and literally blew it.I said weeks ago France would be the only team capable of stopping Brazil winning this.And I stand by that.France imo had a poor night,but were good enough to see off England.Only downer for me .We'll need to suffer 4 more years of 66 and what might have been..

Morocco have been solid in defence, think Canada are the only team to have scored a goal against them, not an exciting team to watch but by feck they've been incredible beating Portugal, Spain, & Belgium, also drawing 0-0 with Croatia. It's going to be a tough game for France, tough team to score a goal against.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief now and enjoy the rest of the tournament.

England players, pundits and fans greetin about the ref no giving them the big decisions, haha brilliant.

Couldn't score a goal in open play, and couldn't even score from their 2nd penalty, but lets just blame it all on the ref.

Ref was dodgy tho… could easily have awarded a free kick as France “won the ball” for the first goal and a first half pen (although replays later showed it was outside the box) but it makes a change that the team I don’t want to win gets decisions against them & Kane’s second pen attempt was a shocker.

Some cracking young players in the England team too, Saka, Foden & Bellingham to name but 3.

Course they didn't get a couple of decisions, but to say they got no big decisions when they got 2 pens is just ridiculously stupid and reeks of sour grapes. Giroud was also barged in the box and got nothing, but lets not mention France being on the end of a refereeing decision not going their way. England are just bad losers.

Yeah they've some very good young players in their team, they need mental strength and the ability to grind out wins against the big teams though.

Carragher joining in with more deluded pish about England.

Jamie Carragher
@Carra23
·
Dec 11
I don’t think any team at #Qatar2022 has performed better than England over the 5 games.

Morocco drew with Croatia, and beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal, yeah England has had tougher teams than that with a draw Against USA, and beating Iran, Wales and Senegal, the pillock.
I have my doubts if England would manage to beat any of those four teams, let alone progress past 3 of them.

Morocco have also only conceded one goal in the tournament, and that was one they stuck in their own net.

Oh and there is the actual fact that Morocco are in the semi final, along with France, Argentina and Croatia, something England haven't managed.

I don’t think any team has really shone at this tournament, not consistently anyway. Morocco have amazed us but more by their resilience than their brilliance and all the teams that racked up big wins (England, Spain & Portugal) have fallen by the wayside. Brazil were more functional & efficient than Brazilian, they only really showed any style against South Korea who probably produced their poorest performance in that game.

France haven’t exactly set the sand dunes ablaze but are proving to be solid and capable of grinding out results when under pressure. Croatia are similar but less entertaining and Argentina haven’t really got going with Messi producing the odd moment of magic to get them through.

I’d love to see an Argentina v France final but suspect we might get a repeat of 2018’s final.

2-0 Argentina HT, looking good for the final. Hopefully an Argentina v France final.

Brilliant 3rd goal. Really hope they win it so Messi can add the one missing trophy.

Yeh,reasonably comfortable night for Messi and co.Tough on the Croats who knocked out my Brazil.But aye,really hope France do the business tomorrow night and set us up for a cracker on Sunday..

Argentina work like buggery closing players down and winning the ball back, and Messi just adds that touch of class for them. Hats off to Morocco for beating the teams they have and reaching the semi's, but France would give us a much more entertaining final against Argentina. Plus France has been my team from the first time i saw them playing in the tourney, mon the frogs.

So Argentina v France it is.Was the final i hoped for after Brazil got knocked out.Morrocans ran out of steam with no finishing product,decent effort though.Hard to call the final.Should be a belter.After Saturday of course 🥶.

Yay les grenouilles, early goal made it an entertaining game, Morocco were forced to go into an attacking game plan and be more adventurous. Unlucky with their overhead kick effort being saved onto the post, but i think France deserved their win.

Final should be a cracker, still backing France to lift the World cup.

I thought France got lucky yesterday, two blocked efforts fell for them to score twice and for most of the rest of the match Morocco attacked more and didn’t get the same fortunate bounces in the French box.

France have been grinding out the results though and that makes them hard to beat. I want Argentina to win but my head says France will do it.

First goal was a great through ball and after a stramash in the centre of the box with Moroccan players throwing themselves in front of the shot, it wasn't an easy finish for the goal, fantastic technical ability to get his leg up so high and kick the ball down into the ground and evade the players running onto the goal line, as well as beating the keeper.

That early goal opened up the game into a good watch, Morocco forced to attack more and go for it. Morocco had a great overhead kick just touched onto the post before HT, was glad it didn't go in though as they may have gone back to plan A, and sit in more. Giroud was close with a couple too, thought he'd scored when he got a shot off inside the box but it had gone past the post, and hitting the post with another effort too. Very entertaining game and i think the best team won to make it an equally entertaining final.

For all the talk about Mbappe, and he is a great player, it has been Griezmann that's made the difference in their last 2 wins. Mbappe came to life more in the 2nd half though and set up their 2nd goal.

Mbappe and Messi are on equal goals for the golden boot, 5 a piece which adds another wee battle for the final. Giroud and Alvarez are on 4 a piece too, which makes it an interesting contest for the golden boot going into the final.

Griezy has been their best player, M’Bappe is all about himself, he wasn’t a factor at all against England and while he took the initial attempts at goal against Morocco, they both broke kindly for them.

I agree with your description of the first goal but it was still a fortunate bounce for it to fall to Hernandez, after all it could have gone anywhere but it fell for the French, same with the second but to suggest M’Bappe ‘set it up’ is stretching further than Stretch Armstrong at his most pliable.


Interestingly in the first 10 World Cups not one top scorer finished with 6 goals. The lowest top scorer was 4 in 1962 shared by 5 players. The highest was 13 in 1958. Nobody has been in double figures since Gerd Müller in 1970. Only two players have scored more than 6 since 1974, Lato with 7 in 74 & the real Ronaldo with 8 in 2002, the top scorers between those two all scored 6 and the 4 top scorers since 2002 were with 5 (2006 & 2010) and 6 in the last 2 competitions.

So from no one top scoring with 6 in the first 10 tournaments, 7 of the next 11 have all top scored with 6, and it’s a reasonable bet that 6 will be the top scorer again this year.