A team that has been embraced as siblings by the hosts Qatar has delivered a truly great moment in World Cup historyMorocco were almost there. The whistles had intensified, if that was humanly possible, and Walid Regragui needed to convey one last point. They would play with 10 men for the final few minutes and the manager called Azzedine Ounahi, the lungs and fizzing brain of his midfield, to the touchline.A word in the ear, perhaps audible but quite possibly not, concluded with a shake of the shoulders, a slap on the back, a physical way of demanding an extra iota of focus before Portugal pass, pass, passed their way through the thirds once more. Continue reading...
The Brazil striker can still win things but his major-chord career is over in the place that made him rich but stole his valueThe morning after its seven-game World Cup lifespan was complete, Stadium 974 – the shipping container one, a kind of elite Qatari hipster project, cod-Hackney to go with the cod-Paris – was already being dismantled by men with diggers and grabbers and electric wrenches.This is the way of things here. Indeed, as the yellow-shirted travellers streamed through the night on Doha’s driverless metro, another Brazil World Cup campaign done in a haze of tears and grief, it was tempting to wonder how long before the men who dismantle things would be out with their wrecking bars, setting...
Alongside the various animal attempts to people-please before the quarter-final against France are an increasingly deranged series of stunts from the tabloidsEngland face France in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday and the dwindling band of psychic animals has spoken. In the early stages of any World Cup, of course, you cannot move for obliging creatures predicting match results. However, as the tournament progresses, several of this global menagerie will have a shocker, effectively knocking them out of further opportunities to have their random movements anthropomorphised by pushy human keepers/people who reckon there might be two hundred quid in it from a tabloid. As we near the business end of Qatar 2022, though, a psychic alpaca from Chipping Norton is...
Most key figures left in the last eight play in Europe but Lionel Messi’s side have a mindset unique to South AmericaThe quarter-finals are about to begin and the world is talking about Morocco. For the fourth time an African nation and for the first time an Arab nation is among the last eight. Geographically, this is true, but in terms of football culture Morocco is European. One of the stars, Achraf Hakimi of Paris Saint-Germain, was born in Madrid and played in Real’s youth teams. The other, Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech, grew up in the Netherlands and made his name at Ajax.Morocco, whose coast can be easily seen from Andalucía, has adapted its football to the Spanish rondo style. The...
Welcoming players back from Qatar now may provide a crucial advantage when the hectic domestic schedule restarts“If they all go out of the competition early and can train with us, that would be absolutely outstanding,” Jürgen Klopp joked of his Liverpool players before the World Cup. The German was lucky that just seven of his squad were called upon to travel to Qatar, although only Darwin Núñez has exited before the quarter-finals. The Uruguayan is one of 73 Premier League players no longer involved in the World Cup, leaving 61 in Qatar for their managers to worry about.Many clubs have enjoyed warm-weather training, and have played or are still to play friendlies to prepare for the Premier League’s Boxing Day...