2022 World Cup Qatar - the football

I am actually quite sad Japan are out but there you go. But then again I have a soft spot for the Japanese anyway so I'm biased .

(05-12-2022 11:50 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Does England have two defenders who have the pace to keep up with Mbappe and Dembele? Because Stones and Maguire haven't and I doubt if Shaw and Walker are fast enough.

Reece James may have been the only one to handle Mbappe. With MaGuire (& to a little extent Stones), I think our defence is in danger of becoming seriously unstuck.

There is always the possibility of 2022 becoming another 1986, with a single player making the difference.

But I’m gonna guess that Southgate plays it very cautious and cagey, with Kyle Walker glued to Mbappe for 90 minutes, while Henderson and Rice stay close to the back four.

England 1-0.

(Or 1-1 and England through on penalties)

Notes on Monday.

Despite several upsets in the group stage, all 6 knockout matches played so far have seen the favourites go through. Over to Morocco and Switzerland to see if they can prevent the full set.

Dominik Livakovic became the 3rd goalkeeper to save 3 penalties in a World Cup shootout, after Danijel Subasic for Croatia against Denmark in 2018 and Ricardo for Portugal against England in 2006.

In defeating Korea, Brazil became the first country to field 26 players in a World Cup, having used every member of their squad in the 4 matches they have played in this tournament.

That was a nice touch from the Brazil manager to give 3rd choice goalie some game time.

Moroccan keepers Bono played a blinder in the penalty shootoff as he dragged them back from the edge with some great saves.
U2 can see the reply later on BBC, with or without you.

Morocco knock out Spain.

Our side of the bracket. This means that England face either Morocco, Portugal or Switzerland in the semis (…after we dispose of France, obviously).

After the amount of underdogs that have come out the group stages i am happy to see at least 1 team has reached another round.

Great first set from Portugal winning it 6-1.

Oh hang on a minute wrong game

Notes on Tuesday.

Only 3 goals were scored in the Morocco-Spain shootout which equals the World Cup record low for a shootout set by Switzerland-Ukraine in 2006.

Morocco are the 4th African team to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup after Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.

Portugal defender Pepe's goal in the 6-1 win against Switzerland makes him the oldest ever player to score in a World Cup knockout match.

EDIT to add Pepe's age - 39 years & 283 days.