Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo wept on Saturday after Morocco defeated his fatherland 1-0 in the Quarter final game of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
The superstar who was a second half substitute was in tears after the final whistle, storming to the dressing room with the cameras on him.
It is likely to be the last World Cup appearance for the 37-year-old all-time Portuguese highest scorer.
Neymar moved into a tie with Pele as Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 77 goals on Friday.
The Brazil forward scored in the first half of extra time of his team’s World Cup quarterfinal match against Croatia.
As the Canadian national soccer teams head to their respective FIFA World Cups, Derek Van Diest is on the scene to cover all the action. Expect expert insights and analysis in your inbox daily throughout the tournaments, and weekly on Thursdays for the rest of the season.
Neymar scored with a right-footed shot after getting through the defense and dribbling past the Croatia goalkeeper to match Pele’s record. He entered the tournament two goals shy of the milestone, and scored his 76th in the round of 16 against South Korea after returning from an ankle injury.
Pele remained in a hospital in Brazil treating a respiratory infection that was aggravated by COVID-19. The latest medical report said the 82-year-old Pele, who last year had surgery to remove a colon tumor, was doing OK.
The 30-year-old Neymar scored his 77 goals in 124 matches for Brazil. Pele’s goals came in 92 appearances with the national team between 1957 and 1971.
Ronaldo, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 2002, is third on the list with 62 goals in 98 matches.
Neymar first played for Brazil as an 18-year-old in 2010. He is trying to win his first major title with the national team. Pele won three World Cups, including as a 17-year-old in the 1958 tournament. He also helped Brazil win the World Cup in 1962 and 1970.
Gareth Southgate has confirmed returning England star Raheem Sterling ‘will be involved’ against France tomorrow.
The Chelsea winger flew back to London last weekend following a burglary at his house in Cobham and missed the last 16 win over Senegal.
Sterling, contented that his family were safe, jetted back to Qatar on Thursday and took part in Friday’s training session ahead of tomorrow’s quarter-final showdown.
The 27-year-old began the tournament in Southgate’s starting XI and scored in the 6-2 thrashing of Iran but the performances of Marcus Rahsford, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka in his absence have dented his chances of featuring from the start against the defending champions.
Asked if Sterling would feature against Les Bleus, Southgate said: ‘I have spoken briefly with Raheem at training.
‘It is great he is back with us. He wanted to train today which normally we wouldn’t do after being on a long flight but it was a lighter session so there was no risk.
‘He will be involved tomorrow but what that looks like, we have to decide…it is hard to tell what his level is so we will have to assess that.
• All eyes on Mbappe
England coach Gareth Southgate would be wrestling with the biggest dilemma of his reign as he tries to plot a way to stop the “sensational” Mbappé and take the Three Lions to a third successive semi-final at major tournaments. OLUWAMAYOMIKUN OREKOYA reports.
When England step out at Doha’s Al Bayt Stadium tonight for their quarter final clash against defending champions France, they will come face to face with one of the world’s greatest footballing talents.
At the tender age of 23, Kylian Mbappé has already etched his name into the annals of world football.
He already boasts one World Cup in his trophy cabinet, having guided his country to ultimate glory in their 2018 campaign aged just 19, scoring four goals along the way.
Four years on, the young phenomenon from a small Parisian suburb has developed into a truly terrifying striker, racking up a tournament-best five goals in Qatar after just four games.
Now it is the turn of Gareth Southgate’s men to try and halt France’s golden boy, who appears to be striding confidently toward a second successive World Cup.
The England coach would be wrestling with the biggest dilemma of his reign as he tries to plot a way to stop the “sensational” Mbappé and take the Three Lions to a third successive semi-final at major tournaments.
But Just how do you subdue a player with Mbappé’s lethal combination of electric pace, balletic skill and clinical finishing?
Australia, Denmark and Poland failed to come up with an appropriate answer as Mbappé scored in his three starts en route to the quarter-finals and Poland defender Matty Cash summed up the conundrum posed by Mbappé after the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s brilliant two goals in France’s 3-1 last-16 victory last Sunday.
“I didn’t know whether to drop off or go tight,” Cash said. “When I went tight he just spun in behind. When he gets the ball, stops and moves, he is the quickest thing I have ever seen.
“He is a different level. Speed, movement, look at his finishing. He has got everything.” role in France’s World Cup triumph in Russia, Mbappé is the tournament’s most feared player.
The 23-year-old already has five goals in four games in Qatar, while his haul of nine career World Cup goals puts him level with Argentina’s Lionel Messi and one ahead of Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Now it is Southgate’s turn to sit the daunting Mbappé exam.
“Look, he is a world-class player who is always producing the moments when they are needed. That is what those top players do. That is the challenge we face,” Southgate said.
So what will Southgate do to combat Mbappé’s threat? One answer would be to switch England’s 4-3-3 formation to a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 system, which would allow Kyle Walker to move from right back to supplement the central defence.
Southgate’s concern is to avoid a situation in which the pacy Mbappé and Ousmane Dembele can run at defender Harry Maguire and exploit his lack of speed. While moving Walker would give Maguire help, it would also leave Southgate open to fresh claims he is a negative coach more concerned with stifling the opposition than letting his own stars express themselves.
Southgate was heavily criticised after his return to a 3-4-3 formation in the Euro 2020 final against Italy produced a tepid display that ended in a penalty shoot-out defeat.
Instead of changing his formation, Southgate may take inspiration from Walker’s role in Manchester City’s Champions League semi-final first-leg win over Mbappé’s PSG last year.
City boss Pep Guardiola asked Walker to muzzle Mbappé from right-back and he responded with a disciplined display that kept the star from scoring.
“I can’t think of another right-back in the world that I’d want to put up against him,” former England defender Gary Neville said of Walker’s chances of subduing Mbappé. “Kyle will go closer to him, he has more pace than the Polish defenders. That’s not to say Kyle will mark him out of the game. This is a sensational player, the new best player in the world.”
Like many sporting superstars, Mbappé is of very humble beginnings. Born to a Cameroonian father and Algerian mother, the French wonderkid is the product of immigration and grew up in the banlieues of Bondy, a small suburban commune located just six miles from the Parisian city centre.
Despite its proximity to the city centre, Bondy bears little resemblance to the grandeur and affluence of the Champs-Élysées.
It is part of the infamous Seine St Denis 93rd arrondissement – one of the France’s poorest neighbourhoods which over the years has earned a reputation for sky-high crime rates and violence. But football provides a select few talented and hardworking youngsters from the ’93’ a source of hope.
And it just so happened that Mbappé’s father Wilfried was a coach at local club AS Bondy, a team in the 10th tier of French football.
Knowing the opportunity that lay ahead of his son, Wilfried strapped a pair of football boots onto Kylian’s feet at age five and took him to his first training session.
Just four years later, Mbappé knew he was destined to be one of the world’s best and along with his family had elucidated a plan to get there, according to French football journalist Ronan Boscher.
Wilfried may have got Mbappé started on the football field, but his mother, Fayza Lamari, was a professional handball player who played for the French national team and had an intimate knowledge of the rigours of what goes on behind the scenes of top level sport.
Together, Mbappé’s parents doubled as agents and representatives for their son, helping him to negotiate deals and guide his development to the top flight of French football.
Under his parents’ guidance, Mbappé’s ruthless streak was not reserved for the football pitch alone.
He is a shrewd operator when it comes to backroom deals and is acutely aware of his worth in footballing terms, but also commercially.
Having already marked himself out as PSG’s star player, Mbappé early this year threatened to leave and go to Real Madrid.
His brutal negotiation tactics forced PSG’s hand, and the club put together a staggering wage packet to convince their beloved striker to stay.
Mbappé will earn over £547million in gross salary over three years, which will make him the highest-paid sportsperson ever.
Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved two penalties to help Argentina beat the Netherlands in a World Cup shootout and set up a semi-final against Croatia.
Aston Villa’s Martinez brilliantly denied Dutch pair Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, laying the platform for Argentina to win 4-2 in the spot-kicks.
The shootout came after a 2-2 draw which saw the Dutch fight back from 2-0 down.
Nahuel Molina put the South Americans in front following an incredible threaded pass by Lionel Messi, before the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner added a second from the penalty spot.
Argentina seemed to be coasting towards the last four until Dutch substitute Wout Weghorst reduced the deficit to set up a tense finish.
Weghorst, who is on the books at Burnley but on loan at Besiktas, equalised with virtually the final kick of the game in the 11th minute of added time as he converted a slick free-kick routine. (BBC)
Tite has resigned as the head coach of the Seleçao after Brazil lost to Croatia in the Quarter finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup via penalties.
Tite has been the head coach of Brazil since 2016 and won the Copa America in 2019 on home soil for the Selecao, their first Copa America trophy in 12years, and their first trophy in 6 years.
The 61-year-old has earlier stated he would resign as the coach of the Brazilian National team after the World Cup, winning 61games in 81matches.
Tournament favourites Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup on penalties as Croatia kept their nerve to edge through to the semi-finals.
Croatia, beaten finalists four years ago, scored with all four of their spot-kicks as Rodrygo – taking his team’s first kick – was denied by the brilliant Dominik Livakovic and Marquinhos’ crucial fourth effort struck the post.
As the ball hit the foot of the woodwork and bounced away, Croatia’s players sprinted to celebrate with their goalkeeper, while the Brazil team hit the turf, knowing their dream of a sixth crown had come to an end.
After an engrossing 90 minutes, Tite’s men thought they have won it in extra time when Neymar scored a thumping effort to equal Brazil’s ‘official’ men’s goalscoring record.
But substitute Bruno Petkovic had other ideas, stroking in a 116th-minute equaliser with Croatia’s first shot on target in the match to take the game to the nerve-shredding shootout.
And it was the European side who emerged victorious once more, having done so by the same method against Japan in the last 16, to set up a semi-final meeting with the Netherlands or Argentina on Tuesday.
FIFA on Wednesday sanctioned World Cup quarter-finalists Croatia following abuse by their fans targeting Canada’s goalkeeper Milan Borjan.
A disciplinary inquiry fined the Croatian federation 50,000 Swiss francs (50,674 euros, $53,000) “in relation to the behaviour of Croatian supporters during the Croatia v. Canada FIFA World Cup match on 27 November,” a statement announced.
During the match in Doha, Croatia fans verbally insulted Borjan, an ethnic Serb, who was born in Croatia but fled the country as a child.
They also brandished banners, including one which referred to a 1995 military operation that ended Croatia’s independence war.
During and after the operation more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs fled the country, including Borjan’s family.
Croatia’s punishment comes 48 hours before they take on Brazil in the last-eight tomorrow.
The Serbian federation were also in the FIFA dock, receiving a 20,000 Swiss franc fine over a controversial flag depicting Kosovo hung up in the team’s dressing room during their group game against Brazil.
The Kosovo football federation (FFK) filed a complaint with the governing body after photos showed a version of the Serbian flag with a map including Kosovo as part of the country and stamped with the slogan “there will be no surrender”.
Kosovo, a former Yugoslav province with an Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade refuses to recognise.
In a third case before FIFA’s disciplinary committee six bookings for the Saudi Arabian team in their games against Argentina and Mexico cost their federation two fines of 15,000 Swiss francs each.
Portugal have progressed to the quarter-finals of the World Cup 2022 after thrashing Switzerland 6-1 in the last 16 at Lusail Stadium on Tuesday night.
Goncalo Ramos scored the first hat-trick of this year’s tournament in Qatar, while Pepe, Raphael Guerreiro and Rafael Leao were also on the scoresheet as Portugal swept aside a lacklustre Swiss outfit, whose only goal of the night came from Manuel Akanji midway through the second half.
Fernando Santos’s side have advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for just the third time in their history and for the first time since 2006, and they have now set up a last-eight clash with surprise package Morocco, who stunned Spain to win 3-0 on penalties earlier in the day.
Read Also: South Korea qualify after dramatic 2-1 win against Portugal
The opening was scrappy, but then, on 18 minutes and out of nothing, Ramos lashed in a sensational opener from an acute angle – his first goal for his country.
Portugal maintained momentum after the break, scoring two brilliant goals between the 51st and 55th minutes, Ramos and Raphael Guerreiro scoring them. Switzerland did get one back shortly afterwards, through Manuel Akanji, but then on 67 minutes, Ramos applied a third lovely finish to complete one of the wildest daydreams the World Cup has ever turned into reality.
Rafael Leao added a sixth after coming on as a late substitute.
Kylian Mbappe did not come out with his France team-mates for training yesterday just four days before their crunch World Cup quarter-final with England.
The Paris Saint-Germain star is seen as England’s biggest threat going into Saturday’s match, as he tops the scoring charts with five goals in four games.
Mbappe had complained of an ankle injury going into the tournament but that has not affected his performances as he has arguably been the star player in Qatar.
However, it has been two days since Mbappe helped France into the quarter-finals following their 3-1 victory over Poland.
Read Also: Mbappe scores brace as France beat Poland 3-1
Les Bleus staff though have played down any concerns insisting that Mbappe is doing some classic indoor recovery work following the clash with Poland.
His absence will have certainly been the biggest news among the truckload of English and Brazilian journalists who attended France’s open training session today.
However, they will have been disappointed as there was only about an hour of light exercise planned for key players.
Mbappe still has plenty of time to return to full fitness ahead of the clash with the Three Lions, with the two sides not playing until Saturday.