World Cup enters the finale itself. There are still eight games left in the United States of America (USA). From the initial 48, the best eight are left to compete for the title of world champion.
Europe has shown that it is the dominant football continent, as six of those eight national teams are European. South American national teams fell compared to the previous World Cups, only Argentina made it to the quarterfinals. Africa is represented by Morocco. North and Central America, Asia and Oceania do not have any representatives in the World Cup finals.
The quarterfinals are scheduled from Thursday to Sunday:
09.07. (Thursday) 22.00: France - Morocco
10.07. (Friday) 21.00: Spain - Belgium
11.07. (Saturday) 23.00: Norway - England
12.07. (Sunday) 03.00: Argentina – Switzerland
Duel of older sister and younger brother
At the previous World Cup, Morocco made a surprise by reaching the semi-finals. This time he plays even better. The new coach Mohamed Ouahbi has switched from a reactive game to a slightly more active approach, so Morocco is more dangerous in attack. In addition, the playing staff is slightly better than it was in Qatar.
A potential big problem for Uahbi could be the injury to Bayern Munich's new striker Ismael Saibari, who left the field in the round of 16 due to back pain. The scorer of three goals in the previous part of the tournament may be ready to play against France, but he is expected to come off the bench. Wahbi will therefore likely decide to start with Soufani Rahimi, who replaced him against Canada and immediately became a scorer.
France looks the best. Didier Deschamps' team has an incredible attacking arsenal. Kylian Mbappe has scored seven goals so far, while Ousmane Dembele has scored four. Michael Olise, on the other hand, is the best assistant of the tournament with five assists. From the second plan, Bradley Barkola and Desiree Due were effective, scoring two and one goal, respectively.
Photo: AP Photo/Martin MeissnerKylian Mbappe scored seven goals at the World Cup
The Tricolors have not had a more serious test since the first half against Senegal in the first round. Therefore, France's weaknesses were not tested. In the game with Morocco, it will be important how Adrien Rabiot and Aurelien Choumaeni will control the middle of the field, because the African selection with the surprises of the championship, Ayoub Boadi and Neil El Aouni, has dictated the pace in all games so far.
Another segment that Morocco can attack is the left-back position. Deschamps himself is not satisfied with the options in that position, so he rotated Lucas Dino and Theo Hernandez. That side of the French defense in the quarter-finals will be attacked by Real Madrid footballer Brahim Diaz, who has a habit of entering the middle.
Ashraf Hakimi, captain of the national team and football player of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), will play the most important role for Morocco and the potential use of France's weaknesses. Hakimi, as in PSG, has a fluid role, so he often changes positions and movements on the field. Against France, if necessary, he will play on the wing and in the middle of the field.
Photo: AP Photo/David J. PhillipAshraf Hakimi, the most important player of Morocco
The rivals also met at the last World Cup in the semi-finals when the French won 2:0. They are big favorites even before this game. Bookmakers give the Tricolors an 80 percent chance of passing.
Catalonia and the Basque Country in Wallonia and Flanders
Spain showed all its strengths and weaknesses. Luis del Fuente's team struggles with low defenses and is limited when young Lamin Jamal is not on the field. On the other hand, the Spaniards are defensively stable, they have not conceded a single goal in the championship so far, and they have also shown the ability to tire the opponents who crush them at the end of the match with direct balls.
Against Portugal, the shortcomings of the Spanish team were visible. The coach of Portugal, Roberto Martinez, managed to use the defensively passive Cristiano Ronaldo, who he stuck to Spain's stopper Emeric Laporte. Thus, the distribution of the ball from the back line of the Spanish team was quite difficult because Laporte was the primary corridor for the transfer of the ball from the first line of possession in the current championship.
Another important factor was Nuno Mendes. The best left-back completely parried and stopped Jamal, around whom Spain's attacking play is based.
Photo: AP Photo/Erik S. LesserJamal was neutralized against Portugal
Della Fuente solved the problem of Portugal's compact defense with changes. He brought in Ferran Torres, Mikel Merino and Fabian Ruiz who brought directness to Spain's game. It was these changes that brought the winning goal, a series of direct passes and a final pass from Torres to Merino who did well in the penalty area and gave Spain the win.
Belgium did not look good during the group stage, as they pulled away against Senegal in the end of the game. The team of coach Rudy Garcia was reborn in the duel against the hosts USA, against whom they celebrated convincingly 4:1.
Against America, Garcia left the best scorer in the history of the national team, Romelu Lukaku, as well as captain Kevin de Bruyne on the bench. Thus, he got a more dynamic game of younger players who could match the fast game of the Americans.
In addition to the limited quality of the back line, the biggest problem for Garcia is the injury of Amadu Onana. With Onana's absence, Belgium lose their biggest strength in the game, the midfield control that Onana established with Aston Villa team-mate Yuri Tillemans.
The national teams of Spain and Belgium have met eight times. After two opening victories for Belgium at the 1980 European Championship and the 1986 World Cup, Spain made it six consecutive triumphs. And in this meeting, Spain is the favorite, the bookies give it 75 percent chances to pass.
Viking attacks the Island
England are looking very good at the World Cup. Against the toughest opponents, Mexico and Croatia, she reached the highest level of play. Tuchel has put together the entire attacking arsenal despite not calling up stars Cole Palmer and Phil Foden.
The collaboration between Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham works in the best possible way. The two complement each other. Kane often drops deep from the forward position and opens up space for Bellingham to run into, who uses every meter of free space. The best illustration for that is Bellingham's goal against Croatia when Kane drew Luka Vuskovic and Bellingham ran into the undefended area.
Coach Thomas Tuchel distributed the minutes nicely among the players, so that no winger played more than 260 minutes. This can be a very important aspect for the continuation of the tournament, because some selections enter the finals much more worn out.
England's biggest weakness is defensively. Coach Thomas Tuchel is struggling with the right-back position as Jarrell Kwansa is suspended, while Tino Livramento and Jed Spence are injured. However, Rhys James will be ready for the duel against Norway, reports the English media.
Before the start of the World Cup, there was talk of potential surprises. Ecuador, Colombia, Japan and Norway were mentioned. None of the mentioned national teams except Norway made a historic breakthrough.
Norway made a historic result by beating Brazil 2:1 and reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The Scandinavians survived Brazil's pressure. Goalkeeper Orjan Niland stood out in this, who saved a penalty and three shots on goal.
The head coach of Norwegian Stala Solbakken already saw at halftime that he had to change his approach to the game. He decided to change the wings, took Antonio Nusa and Alexander Sorlot out of the game, and introduced Oskar Bobo and Andreas Schelderup. It was the two of them who brought dynamism and sharpness to the Norwegian attacks. In the 79th minute, Norway had an attack during which Erling Haaland moved nonchalantly, at the right moment he sped up and jumped past Gabriel Magallanes and sent Schelderup's cross into the net.
After the goal, the Vikings continued to press Brazil. In the 89th minute, the ball reached Haaland again, who proved that he needed very little space, and Danilo gave him enough time and space, Haaland set himself up and hit Alison's net brilliantly. This showed the strength that Norway has in Haaland, who knows how to use even the smallest space left by his opponent. He has scored seven goals so far, which puts him second on the scoring list behind Lionel Messi who scored eight goals.
Photo: AP Photo/Pamela SmithErling Haaland's second goal against Brazil
These two teams met only twice in friendly matches in 2012 and 2014, and on both occasions England won by a minimal score. Bookmakers also favor the English for this match with a 70 percent chance of victory.
Anarchy under control
The current world champion, Argentina, showed in the USA that it has major flaws. The Gauchos had no rivals from among the top 20 world teams. However, they also struggled against Egypt, where they had to come back from a two-goal deficit (3:2) and against the Cape Verde Islands, against whom they played overtime (3:2). That's how they took advantage of the draw that brought them to the quarter-finals.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni is aware of the team's strengths and weaknesses, so he fielded a team without a single winger against Egypt. Thus, his team has the fewest crosses of all the remaining national teams, even though they scored two goals in the turnaround against Egypt from crosses.
Photo: AP Photo/Jacob KupfermanArgentina coach Lionel Scaloni
Lionel Messi is still the main driving force of this team, he scored as many as eight goals in the championship so far, although he missed two penalties. Messi rests for most of the game, but when he is involved in the game, he still poses a great threat to the opponent's goal.
The South Americans showed that they run a bad defensive transition from which Egypt scored two goals. Switzerland has several players for that aspect of the game who are capable of running counter-attacks, above all Ruben Vargas, Brel Embolo and Dan Ndoy.
In addition to the counterattack, Switzerland is a disciplined team. Murat Yakin has established a compact line that is capable of absorbing many of the opponent's attacks. This was also shown against Colombia in the round of 16 when goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saved the net.
The biggest problem of the Swiss is the lack of creativity in the last third. The injuries to Johan Manzambi, the scorer of two goals in the tournament, and Michael Ebischer, who represents the team's creative axis, have a big impact on that.
These teams met twice at the World Cup, and Argentina won both times. In England in 1966, they won 2:0, while in Brazil in 2014 it was 1:0. The world champion enters this match as the favorite with a 75 percent chance of advancing to the semi-finals.
The quarterfinals show a clear picture of this World Cup. The quality of football at the tournament is high, perhaps the highest in recent decades. Europe has maintained its dominance, while Argentina still finds a way to win. The remaining matches will not be decided only by individual quality. France, Spain, England and Argentina go in as favourites, but each has certain weaknesses that opponents can pounce on. This is precisely why the end of the tournament brings several tactically different duels in which the details will decide the semi-finalists.
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