By: Carlos Salinas, Special Representative
The World Cup entered the decisive phase with great candidates and a surprise. Two South Americans, five Europeans and one African. The Qatar 2022 World Cup has already qualified their eight for the quarterfinals, a group of teams including Argentina, Brazil, France, England, Croatia, the Netherlands, Portugal and Morocco set to fight for the long-awaited title.
Last Sunday France beat Poland and England beat Senegal so now they will face each other in the battle to reach the semi-finals. England and France meet three times at the FIFA World Cup. Faces have been seen twice at World Cups, which England always won. They first won 2-0 as hosts in 1966 with a brace from Roger Hunt. It was on July 20th of that year to finish the first half of the season at the old Wembley Stadium in order to later establish themselves as world champions.
The last duel at a World Cup was on June 16, 1982 at the Football World Cup in Spain with another 3-1 victory of the “Three Lions” against the Gauls (Bruan Robson x2 and Paul Mariner; Gérard Soler) in old San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao.
Croatia, for their part, defeated Japan in an agonizing series of penalties after a 1-1 draw in 120 minutes. This was the first game in Qatar to have a 12-level finish. And in the second round, Brazil shone with a 4-1 win over South Korea, which meant Neymar’s return from injury.
Looking back, Brazil and Croatia met twice at the World Cup and both held celebrations for the five-time champions of that event. Both games were played in the group stage, first in Germany 2006 and then in Brazil 2014. Will there be a revenge for the Europeans?
unexpected result
The surprise of the round of 16 was undoubtedly Morocco as they beat Spain on penalties after a thrilling 0-0 win which, despite not scoring, had all the spice. In the second round and with Cristiano Ronaldo as a substitute, Portugal beat Switzerland and got the last ticket. The hero of the night was Goncalo Ramos, who scored a hat trick.
Both teams met twice at World Championships. On 11 June 1986 in the first round of Group F with a victory (3-1) for Morocco over Portugal. Later, on June 20, 2018, they met again in the first round of Group B and it was a victory for Portugal.
The football doesn’t stop, the quarter-finals will start on December 9th and will continue on December 10th with matches that will bring us high-level duels, lots of football and emotions.
Morocco, the revelation of Qatar 2022
Morocco has become the great revelation of Qatar 2022. And the fact is that before the start of the championship, almost nobody gave the “Lions of the Atlas” an opportunity to reach the decisive instances. But only Morocco itself had managed to get through the group stage once (Mexico 1986).
Of the 26 players, 14 were born outside Moroccan soil: Bounou, El Kajoui, Hakimi, Mazraoul, Saiss, Amrabat, Ziyech, Zorouy, Chair, Aboukhlal, Amallah, Boufai, El Khannous and Chedira. Four of them were born in the Netherlands, four in Belgium, two in France, two in Spain, one in Italy and one in Canada. Achraf Hakimi, the author of the goal that condemned the penalty shoot-out clash against Spain, was born in Madrid.
Infographic – The Republic