The World Championships in Russia are coming to an end. We will remember them for a long time because of the fantastic matches, beautiful goals and emotions that footballers have provided us. Both positive and negative. Everyone has written about the performance of the Poles at the World Cup, but not only the players of Adam Nawalka failed at the tournament. Below you can see the eleventh biggest disappointments of the 2018 World Cup.
Goalie
David De Gea - Spain
The best Premier League goalkeeper of the 2017/18 season and the Manchester United footballer, a few weeks after the end of the league competition, became ... the worst goalkeeper of the World Cup since 1966. His statistics at the World Cup are terrible, during the 420 minutes he spent on the pitch, he defended only one shot from eight that his rivals gave him.
Defenders
Jerome Boateng - Germany
The German team is by far the biggest disappointment of the tournament. World champions were not able to leave the group, which in their case is treated as a compromise. In Joachim Löw's team, Jeroma Boateng is definitely "singled out", who with Sweden played probably one of the worst matches in his career. The performance ended with a red card.
Kalidou Koulibaly – Senegal
One of the best defenders of the Italian Serie A, praised for certainty in the back and a great head play with constant fragments under the opponent's goal (five goals last season). At the World Cup in Russia he did not show any of his strengths. According to The Guardian, the accuracy of his applications at the World Cup dropped from 91.2% to 77.9% compared to what he presented in Italy, and the precision of cross and long balls from 53.3% to 35.7%.
Nicolas Otamendi - Argentina
Defensive support of the England's champion, Manchester City, one of the most trusted coaches of Pep Guardiola. Like Koulibaly, at the World Cup he was the shadow of a footballer from the league season. Argentina lost nine goals in Russia - three of them scored Croatia, one Icelanders and Nigerians and four French. Otamendi additionally "shone" with rude and unsportsmanlike behavior towards Ivan Rakitic and Paul Pogba.
Raphaël Guerreiro - Portugal
One of the apparitions of EURO 2016, an offensive defender of the national team of Portugal, with a perfectly placed left leg. After the season of injury, he did not show much at the Championships - no goals, spectacular crosses or passes. What's worse, he was even less defensive in defense than in the attack, culminating in a match against Iran, in which he often lost duels with Alirez Jahanbakhsh.
Midfielders
Thomas Müller - Germany
The best German football player on the two previous World Championships, in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014, could not be missing in the ranking. In these tournaments Bayern München footballer scored 10 goals in 13 games. In Russia, he was colorless, as well as his team. That's not what we expected from a player with such mundial statistics.
Piotr Zieliński - Poland
All the time we are waiting for the explosion of the talent of Napoli's midfielder, who can play really good matches in the club, but in the national team he's mostly disappointing. His weak performance in Russia is so unpleasant that during the tournament he was closely watched by many scouts from the strongest European clubs.
David Silva - Spain
Another Manchester City footballer who delighted during the season, scored goals and assisted, and will probably want to forget about the World Cup as soon as possible. In the group stage he was still presenting so-so (though he was hidden in the shadow of Isco), while in the 1/8 match with Russia he was one of the worst players on the pitch. In the 67th minute he was changed by Andres Iniesta and it was probably his last match in the World Championship (the player is 32 years old).
Javier Mascherano - Argentina
One of the symbols of the weak performance of Argentina at the Championships. A footballer who puts into the game a huge commitment, which, however, has his best years behind. The match with Nigeria will be remembered for a long time - the 34-year-old did not keep up with fast opponents, he also led to a penalty shot, after which the opponents scored. After the match against France in the 1/16 finals, lost 3: 4, he ended his representative career.
Forwards
Robert Lewandowski - Poland
It was supposed to be his tournament. The fans' expectations for the performance of 'Lewy' at the World Cup were huge, and the success in Russia, which would be scoring at least a few goals, could also significantly bring him closer to the coveted transfer to Real Madrid. Lewandowski at the World Cup gave nine shots, of which only three were in the goal light. There is no need to add more.
Timo Werner - Germany
The last player in the German team in the ranking. Since Miroslav Klose, Germany have been unsuccessfully seeking an attacker who could enter his shoes and become a new, deadly "nine". Timo Werner, footballer RB Leipzig (23 goals in the season), kindled the hope of the German fans, but he played far below expectations at the World Cup. Statistics? Zero goals, zero assists.
Would you agree? Or maybe you would mark out someone else?
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