Centre-forward whose goal knocked England out of the World Cup is often overlooked while all eyes are on Kylian MbappéI heard someone say recently that the France forward Olivier Giroud, their new record goalscorer, “deserves his flowers”. He does. Before each game for France at this World Cup, all eyes are on Kylian Mbappé, the star who has scored five goals in five games, but the impact of Giroud, who has four in four, flies under the radar. In the buildup to England’s 2-1 loss to France the story was the same: will Kyle Walker be the player to stop Mbappé? How effective is Mbappé going to be able to be?This matches a narrative that has stuck with Giroud throughout...
Our country is on the world map again thanks to 26 players and a manager who will be an inspiration for generations to comeBack in 1984, when Saïd Aouita and Nawal El Moutawakel returned to Morocco having won gold at the Los Angeles Olympics, King Hassan II is said to have told both athletes they had put Morocco on the world map. The King, in fact, was so proud of their achievements that he recommended that all girls born in the remainder of that year be called “Nawal” in homage of the then 22-year-old 400m hurdler who became a hero for every female athlete in Morocco and in the Arab region.I was only two years old at the time and...
England were brave and rose to the occasion but France had no need to – when they had five good minutes, they scoredMidnight strikes and the party is over. England crumple to the turf in fragments: one here, a couple over there, one more over by the centre circle. The Al Bayt pitch is a field of broken dreams, of hope and despair, and hope again, and despair again. In the VVIP seats, David Beckham is holding his head in his hands, although for only one of the reasons he should be. Afterwards Gareth Southgate will talk about how close they came, how much these players can still achieve. England are proud. England are defiant. But England are done.It is...
You could achieve the greater spread and interest that 48 teams is supposed to deliver with a rankings-based qualifying finaleThese, Gianni Infantino said earlier this week, have been the greatest group stages of all time. Unusually, he might be right (although his claim this was the most diverse last 16 is debatable at best). The football is only a small part of this World Cup but it has been largely excellent.There have been some shocks, some favourites went home early, some played up to their pre-tournament billing and every group produced tension and intrigue. Infantino was conducting an in-house interview, hiding from journalists and accountability as he has since his bizarre address the day before the tournament began, which meant...
Captain’s miss will haunt him but the reality is France were winning this game before they even started winning itFor a while, in those endless, scrolling micro-moments of gape, shock, acceptance and slowly gathering grief, the ball didn’t look like it was actually going to come down. There was always something weird about its angle, something anti-gravitational.The night was suddenly quiet, the ball a lovely white thing out there all alone in all that space. Maybe it could just stay there. Maybe this thing could just stretch out and not actually happen, or not happen enough to matter. Continue reading...