The fans would not forgive failure to defeat South Korea in the last 16 of the World Cup but Tite’s squad will not be afraidFootball is a whole world in itself, a democratic sport that brings some feelings that are impossible to describe to people who do not follow it. Within football there are also things that are passed down from generation to generation, just like in a country in the real world.Each great football country has its own characteristic, its own way of seeing football and that, in turn, forms how football is being played in that country, how a national team relate to their supporters, how the media analyses the games and much, much more. But one thing...
England’s midfield sensation was magnificent in difficult moments, a source of control when it was close to the edgeEngland’s second goal just before half-time at Al Bayt Stadium, the goal that killed this World Cup last-16 tie, was a pure Jude Bellingham moment. Watching the three white England shirts surge and veer like an aerial display team across that wide-open lozenge of green, it almost felt like a moment of show-Bellingham, a gloss to go with all the close-quarter moments in between, the moments of graft that had kept England in this game in its early stages.This, though, was pure cinema. England had been flat at times in the first half against Senegal, had seemed to be playing with a...
Giroud scored his 52nd goal for his country and deserved the ovation but Mbappé scored twice to ensure win against PolandA couple of days ago the France squad posed for a photo in which each player returned to their roots by donning the shirt of their first amateur team. For Olivier Giroud, now France’s all-time male record goalscorer, it was the red of Olympique Club de Froges, whose clubhouse 20km from Grenoble in south-east France is appropriately decorated for the World Cup. For Kylian Mbappé, the man who will surely overtake him, it was the green of AS Bondy, a team in a northern suburb of Paris. Even on Giroud’s big night, the masterful and electric Mbappé was able to...
With a free role, the No 10 has been the floating brain of his country’s side at this year’s World CupThe thing that made the goal was the touch; one of those touches where Lionel Messi doesn’t so much trap the ball or kill it but lets it come and nestle, falling asleep on his toe like a fond old cat.There were still six more touches to go before the ball would be left spinning, with a kind of purr, in the back of Mat Ryan’s net. But it was the touch that set the clock running, as the ball was looped back out to Messi on the touchline from his own free-kick. Continue reading...
Cissé and his England counterpart have proved adept at blocking out critics back home during the World Cup campaignTake the handbrake off! Unleash this golden generation of attacking players! In a World Cup that has felt at times one tedious Twitter spat about differences of perspective and who has the right to criticise whom, it’s heartening to find some things are reassuringly the same wherever you are.The clamour for Iliman Ndiaye has perhaps not quite been as vociferous as that for James Maddison but Aliou Cissé has been, as the Senegalese newspaper Le Quotidien put it, “heckled daily for his tactical choices, caricatured for his conservatism”. Continue reading...