A bit late for it but here a thread to discuss whats going on in the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

What already happened as of making this thread:

• Qatar historical defeat as a WC host vs Ecuador
• Senegal brave effort vs Netherland despite their 2-0 defeat
• England 6-2 trashing or Iran
• 1-1 game of two halve between USA and Wales
• Argentina unpredictable defeat at the hand of Saudi Arabia

If you wanna discuss any of those match, or any of the upcoming games, this is the thread for it.

@Kirsi16 It reminds me of how Greece won the Euros 2004... that was the ultimate "park the bus" tournament from a team.

Morocco was fun to watch as they were very disciplined, yet played with a willingness to open it up. Like Kirsi16 said, they are daring and dont care if it backfires. Why not go for it, right?

The surprise for me, and not saying Portugal is not a good team, but I expected a much closer match vs the Swiss. In fact, I was calling for an upset. Portugal just came out and finished it early. I am so glad I don't put money on games. hahaha

Ronaldo was benched... and will probably be benched next game too seeing how good G Ramos was.

Yh u wouldn't have played Ronaldo in the earlier games if I was the manager. He needs to change or up his game.

Regarding Morocco, I kinda agree with most of you guys and I also thought they might cause an offset. They certainly had the best chance in regular time, if Walid Cheddira, their number 21 was a bit more lethal, they could have ended it without needing penalty. What a great stopper Bono is though. Fun fact about Bono, he has both the Moroccan and the Canadian nationality so even if we are out, a tiny part of us is still there in this Moroccan team. :D

Now for Ronaldo, its propably a direct results of his performance against South Korea, the coach propably wanted to rest him against a weaker side in order for him to be in form against Spain or Morocco. Now the problem is... his replacement, Gonçalo Ramos was so good (the fact he was rested before that game propably helped though) that he made a strong case for being the first name on the sheet as striker. I honestly think Portugal might be better off starting Ramos and bringing Ronaldo later on as a super sub but we'll see.

This is to say how much Spain hasn't evolved from 2018. What happened there is the same than vs Russia verbatim.

They were even less agressive than in 2018, imagine. Morocco could have killed the game earlier if Boufal and Ziyech were a little bit more precise in front of goal.

This actually may cause their undoing against Portugal, who plays a more direct game and not afraid to shoot. Morocco will want to have the ball more than the previous game and expose themselves to counterattacks. I think a good choice is to have CR7 on the bench until the 60th minute, especially if it is a 0-0

So happy for Croatia

Daaamn, everybody already were calling a Argentina-Brazil semi, what an upset. Great team spirit for Croatia, the better team did not win but the team that played better together managed to get through in the end.

Sad for Brazil though, I thought they were the better team but if you don't manage to win it in 90 against Croatia, then its very dangerous. Everyone, me included propably thought they win it with Neymar goal but what a fighting spirit by Croatia.

No matter how you feel about Croatia, you gotta agreed those guy are incredible. Still not convinced they can win it but if they do, I'll be super happy for them, that be an incredible story, to be able to reach the final two time in a row would already be crazy if they won it on their second try... That be incredible.

I don’t like the amount of 0-0 games we’ve had this WC😡

Still congrats to Croatia🥳🥳

Didn't deserve to go through for not scoring against them in 90min. I was expecting rodrygo to miss it, martinelli shouldve been on instead of him and he would've scored his penalty easily. I never liked Tite.

But to be honest… if you compare the size of the countries populations. It’s pretty remarkable that a country of 4 million people manage to reach world cup semifinals two times in a row.

In this Croatia is the best football nation in the world.

One of my favorite moments in this WC-Neymar comforted by Perisics son.

@Pelle Yeah, great moment, child are often said to be little monster but they are capable of extreme kindness as well. Very good reaction of Neymar as well, it must have been a terrible moment for him.

I'm pretty sure we can say Brazil underestimated Croatia in this game. I know I saw some former player talking as if they were already in the semi for one.

Netherland vs Argentina was pretty good, Netherland nearly getting away with a similar performance to that of Croatia honestly, I mean, their comeback was epic but their production before the 2-0 was kinda pathetic.

The referee was really bad though and while I missed the last part of the game, it seem like he went really crazy with the cards and failed to control the game correctly.

Now, Argentina vs Croatia is going to be very good and whoever win will propably be the underdog of the final *unless Morocco somehow make it). If Argentina doesn't manage to end it by the 90 minute, I'm going to put my money on Croatia tbf.

Really hyped for France vs England now.

I'm going to predict the final to be a rematch of 2018 with the same winner. As long as Argentina don't win it, I will be quite happy.

@Footy Well for sure, it will be very hard for both Croatia and Argentina because from what we seen until now, I think its fair to say that England, France and Portugal has shown better individual quality and more depth than both of those team.

Crual for Brazil, but as per usual, South American teams can't defend, had they taken off Neymar and when for a defense at 5, they could have their lead. Instead they messed up with the ball and gave croats exactly what they wanted.

After that, there is no stopping them in the penalties. Livakovic is the best GK of the world cup by far and croatian strikers are more accurate and clinical.

Brazil football is amazing when they actually want to play football, but few reasons why I'm happy they are out:

1. Danilo should have seen red card, his first yellow was already pretty dangerous, after which he made another dangerous tackle but somehow Oliver decided not to show him 2nd yellow card.
2. Neymar should have seen red card after kicking Brozovic from behind, without any intention of playing the ball, you switch the roles and if that tackle is on Neymar it's a red.
3. Antony diving, probably the most pathetic dive on this world cup and the audacity to even complain and scream towards linesman afterwards, doesn't deserve anything more. This diving will never stop if you don't punish those divers.

Antony diving, probably the most pathetic dive on this world cup and the audacity to even complain and scream towards linesman afterwards, doesn't deserve anything more. This diving will never stop if you don't punish those divers.

I mean, if you are gonna dive, at least do it in the penality box. XD

After that, there is no stopping them in the penalties. Livakovic is the best GK of the world cup by far and croatian strikers are more accurate and clinical.

Well to be fair, that shot were their first shot on target (their only one not taking penality in context) and it was deflected heavily off Marquinhos leg, so I disagree as to say Croatia strikers are clinical, if anything, they were a bit fortunate but still, credit for not giving up and pulling something like that in the end.

As for Livakovic, he's great at stopping penality and this in turn give him great confidence which we all know help a keeper perform even better. Sadly, as far keeper are concerned, its the consistency that really make them special.

I mean, there a reason Ochoa alway showed up for Mexico in past world cups yet never succeeded that much at club level. Having a run of good game is good enough for tournaments like World Cup but if you make some huge blunder every 10 games of so, some bigger club are not gonna want you.

Also, as good Livakovic seemed in that game, we need to credit Croatia defense as well in stopping Brazil from having at lof of good chance. Gvardiol in particular is really impressive.

Once again i expected Morocco to get past portugal, they shouldve scored at least 2 more goals on the counter attack. They can actually win the world cup, they've only conceded only one goal. A strong Defence wins you titles.

So the first african country has made it to the semifinals.

Morocco is on a remarkable journey. History is being written.🥳

This also actually shows that Africa deserves more teams in the WC.