Good evening sports lovers,
Here we are finally at the knockout stage of the World Cup of 2018.
Now the tournament becomes more exciting and we have already seen it by watching the 2 exciting matches of yesterday: France-Argentina and Uruguay-Portugal.
The results of the 2 games were surprising, confirming that this world championship has something unique and is reserving twists and turns one after the other. Let us now analyze yesterdays matches in the following paragraph, wish you a good reading!
France - Argentina 4-3
A big party of goals at the Kazan Arena: France beats Argentina 4-3 in the first eighth of the final after a bubbly match.
The goals
13' (penalty). Griezmann (F), 41' Di Maria (A), 48' Mercado (A), 57' Pavard (F), 64', 68' Mbappé (F), 93' Aguero (A)
France (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Pavard, Varane, Humtiti, L. Hernandez; Pogba, Kantè; Mbappé (89' Thauvin), Griezmann (83' Fekir), Matuidi (75' Tolisso); Giroud.
Coach: Deschamps
Argentina (4-3-3): Armani; Mercado, Otamendi, Rojo (46' Fazio), Tagliafico; E. Perez (66' Aguero), Mascherano, Banega; Pavon (75' Meza), Messi, Di Maria.
Coach: Sampaoli
Sampaoli's formation starts the game with enthusiasm and seems to have the right determination, but soon the safety of the Argentines collapses under the blows of the Transalpines. The first to make themselves really dangerous are in fact the French with Griezmann hitting the crossroads of the goal posts on a free-kick. This is just a taste of the goal that comes shortly after by his own work, but this time he kicks the ball from 11 meters. Mbappè did really good by forcing the opponent to foul inside the area after a quick relaunch.
The French continue to push and almost double, but the South Americans manage to balance the scores before going to the pause thanks to a shot from 35 meters by Di Maria. The 1-1 at the halftime is undeserved, the Albiceleste was dominated by its opponents and never managed to come near Lloris.
At the start of the second half, the Argentinians took a sensational lead with a lucky deviation by Mercado on a shot by Messi that allowed the ball to enter the goal. Not even the time to rejoice that Pavard, restores the parity. From here on, France is unleashed, but above all, Mbappè is unleashed. The 98 class jewel scores his first personal one-two in a world cup, putting the opponent's defense to fire and sword and bringing his own team to a 4-2 result. In the final Aguero shortened the distances between the two team with a goal with his head, but it was too late: the game finished 4-3.
A great test of the strength of Deschamps' men, capable of eliminating Messi and their teammates by scoring 4 goals. Much of the credit goes to Mbappè: this kid at just 20 years of age dragged his team to the quarter-finals and impressed the whole world with his plays. Maybe now is time for France to develop the defense, not really perfect against Argentina, but these are details: there are indeed solid foundations to win this world championship.
Messi didn't make it in bringing his people on the top of the world: at the age of 31, this was perhaps his last chance of winning a world championship. On the other hand, from the opening match against Iceland, the first negative signals were already felt, Sampaoli's team had not been very convincing and did not even convince in the following matches. The compactness of the French and the technique of Mbappè put a strain on the Albiceleste defense that did not withstand the pressure and collapsed. Now it's time to sew the wounds and start again for the Argentines, most likely without their beloved Leo.
Uruguay - Portugal 2-1
Uruguay will be France's challenger in the quarter-finals: in Sochi, the South American national team beat Portugal with a result of 2-1.
The goals
7' and 62' Cavani (U), 55' Pepe (P)
Uruguay (4-4-2): Muslera; Caceres, Godin, Gimenez, Laxalt; Nandez (81' Sanchez), Torreira, Vecino, Bentancur (63' C. Rodriguez); Cavani (74' Stuani), Suarez.
Coach: Tabarez
Portugal (4-4-2): Rui Patricio; Ricardo Pereira, Pepe, Source, Guerreiro; Bernando Silva, William Carvalho, Adrien Silva (65' Quaresma), Joao Mario (84' Fernandes); Guedes (74' Andrè Silva), Cristiano Ronaldo.
Coach: Santos
The game unlocked immediately, precisely after just 7 minutes: Suarez started from the left a perfect cross that Cavani intercepted and with a header of his, slipped the goal defended by Rui Patricio. For the rest, the first half didn't give many emotions, with the South Americans who continued to attack with the two terrible strikers but without creating particular problems for the extreme Portuguese defender. Portugal, on the other hand, didn't get into the game, thanks also to a Cristiano Ronaldo who was switched-off and blocked by an excellent defense. The first fraction of the game ended with a 1-0.
The second half looks like a whole other story (or at least it seems so in the first minutes), the Portuguese seem to have benefited from the recovery and are more energetic. 10 minutes pass and arrives the 1-1 goal, signed Pepe, that scored with his head on a cross from Guerreiro. This is the first goal Uruguay suffered in this competition and is the result of a sleep of Godin and Gimenez.
One would think that at this point and with these circumstances the South Americans will suffer mentally and that the Portuguese take confidence and crush their opponents in their half of the field: but football is not an exact science and what happens on the field is always unpredictable. So after just 7 minutes, Bentancur starts a rocket in a counterattack and launches for El Matador Cavani who doesn't think twice and makes another goal on Rui Patricio's back.
Santos throws Quaresma and Andrè Silva into the fight to try the shot but the wall of Uruguayans is impenetrable and the result remains firm on 2-1
Mission complete for Tabarez, the iron defense of his boys seems to be the real winning weapon of this team, which will now have to deal with France in the quarter-finals. The Uruguayan rearguard will, therefore, be put to the test against the attacks and accelerations of Mbappè and his team-mates; to be evaluated, the presence of Cavani, who seems to have injured himself on the occasion of the goal of 2-1. The possible absence of El Matador could weigh a lot for Tabarez, who would then have to send Stuani into the field from the first minute or work on a different module in training (which is less likely).
And so after Messi, also Ronaldo is out, it seems that the two are constantly chasing each other. Santos' team has never shown in this match that it really deserves the qualification in the next round: the dependency on Captain CR7 is almost total and when he is not in his best day, the flaws of this formation and the lack of quality are highlighted. Already at the debut against Spain the defense had shaken and the Portuguese had to thank their phenomenon, otherwise, at this time they would not even have played this game.
So here's the first quarter-final of this tournament: France - Uruguay.
It will be the personal challenge between Suarez and Mbappè, the strengths of the two national teams. But it will also be the challenge between the glittering attack of the Transalpines and the rock defense of the South Americans. Will the French be able to break through the wall or will they be rejected and be knocked down in counterattacks? We will discover it on Friday at 4 p.m.
My dear French friends would not have liked it, but it would have been nice to see an all-South American duel between Argentina and Uruguay, Messi against Suarez, Tabarez against Sampaoli. Also because the Europeans have always dominated the scene of the World Cup: in this preliminary phase there are 10 out of 16, against 5 South Americans (1 Asian and 0 African). I would like for once to see a final without Europeans or, why not, two purely South American semifinals. But that's okay, this is football.
Stay tuned for tomorrows post for the analysis of the other 2 games.
This is a translation of the post made by @Massimoc23 on Steemit, and he authorized me to translate and publish his post in here. This is my second collaboration with him, and more articles will follow!
Comments