The main event
Four teams remain in the hunt for the 2022 World Cup. Only three players are likely to be in contention for the Golden Boot: Kylian Mbappé (five goals) and Olivier Giroud (four) of France, along with some guy called Lionel Messi (also four). No other players left in the tournament have more than two goals.
Mbappé tops the scoring charts before the semi-finals. He may not have found the net in Les Bleus’ quarter-final victory against England but he was always a threat, often drawing two or three defenders towards him when taking possession, creating space for his teammates to hurt England. Mbappé has demonstrated he can score both scruffy close-range goals, such as his second against Denmark, to pearlers like his two powerful strikes against Poland. His first goal of the World Cup, a crafty glancing header against Australia, was somewhere in between.
It will be fascinating to see how Morocco attempt to deal with Mbappé in their semi-final. The Atlas Lions have only conceded one goal across five matches and even managed to keep Spain scoreless in a memorable penalty shootout. Their defensive record is far superior to France, who have let in five. “See you soon my friend,” wrote Achraf Hakimi wrote on Twitter after his PSG teammate booked a place in the last four. Morocco’s problem will be the same as England’s: if Mbappé doesn’t get you, Giroud probably will.
By keeping himself supremely fit and willing to learn, the former Arsenal and Chelsea forward Giroud is enjoying a remarkable late-career surge towards outright greatness. A sort of Gallic Teddy Sheringham, the 36-year-old never possessed the kind of pace that terrifies opponents, relying instead on perceptive movement and a deadly finishing ability. His winner against England came from a magnificent cross by Antoine Griezmann and a slice of luck, too, with the ball deflecting off the sizeable frame of Harry Maguire and into the top corner. Giroud, as so often, was in the right place at the right time.
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Giroud has scored four, one fewer than Mbappé, but the same number as Messi. How will Croatia look to contain the little master in their semi-final against Argentina, with Messi aiming to haul his country to a first World Cup title since 1986? “We don’t have a specific plan yet for stopping Messi and usually we don’t concentrate on stopping one player,” the Croatia forward Bruno Petkovic said on Sunday. “We will try to stop them as a team and not with man-marking. Argentina are not only Messi.”
In breaking the deadlock for the Albiceleste against Australia in the last 16, and scoring from the penalty spot in the epic quarter-final victory against the Netherlands, Messi has delivered when it counts in the knockout rounds. A golden boot and a World Cup for arguably the greatest player football has seen? Don’t bet against it. LMc
Talking points
The great Southgate debate
As England continues to lament their quarter-final defeat by France, Gareth Southgate’s future is on the agenda. “I think whenever I’ve finished these tournaments I’ve needed time to make correct decisions because, emotionally, you go through so many different feelings,” he said after the game. “I want to make the right decision, whenever that is, for the team, for England, for the FA, and I’ve got to be sure whatever the decision I take is the right one.” England were a missed penalty away from taking the reigning champions to extra time and, as such, pointing the finger of blame at Southgate seems futile. Having proved himself adept at refreshing the team and making young players integral to his plans – see Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden – he has stamped his mark on international management like few others. Those instinctively calling for his head should recall the Roy Hodgson and Fabio Capello eras, then consider whether a World Cup quarter-final following a World Cup semi-final and a European Championship final really represent a poor return. WM
End of the Ronaldo show
While Morocco celebrate their shock win against Portugal, the World Cup’s press photographers must be crestfallen. What will they do before matches now without Cristiano Ronaldo to photograph from 15 different angles as he sits on the bench? Most will feel that Ronaldo’s departure is a mercy. “Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career,” said CR7 in an Instagram post. “Sadly yesterday the dream ended. It’s not worth reacting to heat.” From his controversial penalty against Ghana to his goal that wasn’t against Uruguay, his histrionics against South Korea to the sideshow over him being dropped, Ronaldo will be remembered as one of the protagonists of the tournament despite doing almost nothing of note. WM
Beyond the football
Another tragic incident for a worker in Qatar. A security guard at the Lusail Stadium is in intensive care after suffered a serious fall from a “significant height” while on duty after Argentina’s victory over the Netherlands. The precise circumstances surrounding the fall are unclear, but one fan told the Guardian that the guard had dropped from the top outside concourse on to the ground. The person involved, believed to be a migrant worker, was rushed to Hamad hospital where he is said to be in a stable but critical condition. One small glimmer of hope in another terrible situation is the slightly more humane way Qatar’s supreme committee announced the news. Earlier this week, the chief executive of the Qatar World Cup, Nasser al-Khater, had sparked controversy by saying “death is a natural part of life – whether it’s at work, whether it’s in your sleep”, when asked about the death of a migrant worker at the training site for the Saudi Arabia national team. Here at least, the supreme committee confirmed there would be a full investigation into the guard’s fall and that the worker would continue to receive his salary in full while receiving medical care. It is a shame that these most basic of measures were not applied to many of the other workers who have died in Qatar of late. MB
Global media-watch
L’Equipe’s famously harsh player ratings are always worth a look. For Bukayo Saka to get 7/10 is the tiniest of wins in defeat, with the Arsenal man described by the French newspaper as “the most dangerous forward” in a “complete performance from the Gunner”. Compare this to the player ratings in the Daily Mail, who somehow came to the conclusion that Harry Kane (7/10) and Phil Foden (7/10) had a better evening than Saka (6.5/10). L‘Équipe and the Mail did at least agree on one thing: a 4/10 rating for Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio.
The Daily Mail v L’équipe match ratings shows why England must never succeed. The French say Saka was the best player on the pitch but the English say he had a bad 1st half and Kane and Foden(😂) were better. pic.twitter.com/tOPwEA4fOX
— 👑KDG👑 (@DavidAttaka) December 11, 2022
The internet reacts
The internet never forgets. This entry comes straight out of the 2015 archives, with Jonny Wilkinson advising Harry Kane that the way to win a World Cup is to boot the ball over the bar …
Salutary lesson for all here …. Be very careful what you do in jest , you never know when it may come back to bite you 🙁 pic.twitter.com/9VhiLfRq7D
— Mark Nelson (@NellieArts) December 11, 2022
And finally …
“If we win the World Cup, I’ll adopt the cat, if I can take him back.” So said Kyle Walker after England had progressed into the knockout stages in Qatar. Two matches later and England are going home, but Walker and his defensive colleague John Stones could not bear to part with ‘Dave’, the stray cat they had been feeding at the team’s base in Al Wakrah.
As a result, Dave was transferred to a vet in Doha on Sunday and after four months of quarantine will be reunited with the Manchester City teammates. “I don’t mind cats, obviously, but I don’t like to touch ‘em,” Walker said. “He’s getting big,” John Stones chipped in. “Every night he’s sat there waiting for his food.” At a stroke, there is a good-news story amid the gloom of another deflating major-tournament defeat. LMc
