Morocco and Croatia Rising Stars in World Cup 2022

 Morocco made history and entered the semi-finals. Similarly, although Neymar equaled Pele's record of 77 goals, Croatia became the first team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup 2022 by defeating Brazil in a tiebreaker. Looking at their game, the World Cup 2022 title will go to Morocco or  Croatia.

Brazil has not defeated a European team in the knockout stage since winning the World Cup for a record fifth time by defeating Germany 2-0 in the 2002 final. It continued in Qatar as well. This year, Croatia was the team that made Brazil a victim in the quarterfinals.

 Croatia, the runner-up four years ago, held Brazil, who was considered the main contender for the title, to a goalless draw at the Education City Stadium on Friday. After 30 minutes of extra time ended in 1-1, Croatia ended the challenge of Brazil 4-2 in the tiebreaker and became the first team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup 2022.

 In Croatia's victory, the 27-year-old goalkeeper of the home club Dinamo Zagreb, Dominik Livakovic, once again performed excellently.

 He stopped two penalties in the last 16 win against Japan in a tiebreaker, and in the second half and extra time, he stopped the serial attacks of Neymar, Richarlison, and Casemiro in turn. He set the basis for Croatia's victory by diving to the left and stopping the ball shot by the 21-year-old forward Rodrigo of Real Madrid, who came in Brazil's first shot in the penalty shootout.

 All four players from Croatia, Nikola Vlasic, Lovro Majer, Luka Modric and Mislav Orsic, were accurate. Therefore, after Marquinhoz's ball hit the pole after Brazil's fourth strike, Croatia won 4-2 in the tiebreaker and entered the final four of the World Cup for the third time. Croatia, who lost 4-2 to France in the 2018 final, also reached the semi-finals in 1998. Croatia has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup as many times as it has passed the group stage.

 After winning the World Cup two decades ago with the best performance of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Brazil did not stop the process of exiting from the quarter-finals in all the editions (2014) that they organized themselves. He lost in the last eight in 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2022. Brazil suffered its first defeat in the World Cup against Croatia, which was established as an independent state after breaking away from Yugoslavia. Brazil won the previous two matches.

Neymar scored two goals when Brazil defeated Croatia 3-1 in the group stage eight years ago. Even in Qatar, Brazil reached the semi-finals thanks to Neymar's best goal. He made a good move on the ball given by Lucas Paqueta and beat the goalkeeper Livakovic to score an attractive goal in the injury time of the first half of extra time, giving Brazil a 1-1 lead. Along with this, Neymar also equaled Pele's record of 77 goals, who scored the most goals for Brazil.

 There were 15 minutes left before the end of the match, in which Brazil could have reached the semi-finals if they had stopped Croatia. However, Neymar's lead did not last long. After Orsic's pass, Bruno Petkovic's shot from just inside the penalty area deflected off the Brazilian defender and into the net, Croatia equalized 1-1 in the 117th minute. Goalkeeper Alison Baker didn't have any skills in that. The story of the game could have been different if Livakovic had not stopped Casemiro's ball at the last moment of extra time. Only Casemiro and Pedro could score in the penalty shootout.

 Croatia is somewhat the lucky team in the tiebreaker. In 2018, he also defeated Denmark in the last 16, the host Russia in a tiebreaker in the quarter-finals, and in the semi-finals, he defeated England 2-1 in extra time to reach the final for the first time.

 Croatia have gone to extra time in eight of their last nine matches in the main tournament. He will compete with Argentina for entry to the finals in the Qatar edition. In the other quarterfinal match that took place at night, Argentina defeated the Netherlands 4-3 in a tiebreaker.

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 Argentina under the captaincy of superstar Lionel Messi has entered the semi-finals of the World Cup 2022 by ending the challenge of the Netherlands 4-3 in a penalty shootout in a dramatic and tense match at the Lucelle Stadium on Friday.

 

South American champions Argentina won a sensational victory within four hours of losing against well-known neighboring rivals and five-time World Cup winners Brazil in a tiebreaker against Croatia. Now, Messi's team will play against Croatia, the runner-up four years ago, at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday for entering the final.

 

The 35-year-old Messi, who is playing the last World Cup of his career, gave Argentina a lead in the 35th minute with a goal by Nahuel Molina. The two-time World Cup winner advanced 2-0 after Messi himself scored an easy penalty in the 73rd minute.

Towards the end, coach Louis van Gaal's team took an aggressive form. Wot Weyhorst scored in the 83rd minute to give hope to the Dutch team. After he scored the goal as the Argentine fans began to celebrate, many of the 88,235 spectators fell silent. He scored the equalizer in the 11th minute of the injury time, which was also the last move of the game.

 

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez stopped Liverpool's defenders Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghaus in the penalty shootout and took Argentina to the last four. Only Tim Koopmaners, Vot and Luke de Jong from the Netherlands were successful.

 

Argentina could not save a 2-0 lead against their old rival, the Dutch team, and the game went to extra time and reached a tiebreaker. Argentina could not save a 2-0 lead against their old rival, the Dutch team, and the game went to extra time and reached a tiebreaker. Coming to this game, the Spanish referee Miguel Mateu Lohach gave the highest number of yellow cards in a single match of the World Cup, 17 and one more red card. A situation of tension was also created between the players.

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Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's dream of winning the World Cup title was dashed as Morocco became the first African team to reach the semi-finals in World Cup history with a 1-0 win at Al Touma Stadium on Saturday.

 

Youssef N-Nessery, the striker of the Spanish La Liga club Sevilla, scored a historic victory for Morocco against Portugal. He scored the decisive goal in the 42nd minute by deflecting Yaya Atiat Allah's cross past goalkeeper Diego Costa. Shortly afterwards, Portuguese star Bruno Fernandez had an opportunity to equalise. However, the ball hit the crossbar when he scored the best shot in a solo effort.

 

Coach Fernando Santos kept Ronaldo on the bench for the second game in a row. The 37-year-old was sent off in the 50th minute. He set the record for playing the most number of games in the 196th game. However, they could not do anything to encourage Portugal against Morocco.

 

The European Championship 2016 champion is going to be the only tournament he has not won yet. Because after four years even age will not support him to play in the World Cup.

 

Along with Ronaldo, Bruno, Joao Felix, Goncalo Ramos, who scored a hat-trick against Switzerland, and veteran defender Pepe also had opportunities to score in the second half and eight minutes of injury time. However, they failed to direct the ball to the posts in crucial situations. The performance of Sevilla's goalkeeper Yassin Bono, who handled Morocco's goal posts, was excellent.

 

At the end, he averted Morocco's crisis by making an attractive diving save from Felix's ball.

 

After defeating Spain in a tiebreaker in the last 16, the African team looked very organized. His performance as a team was good. All the players worked equally hard. A few more chances were created but the second goal was not scored. Al Thuma was dominated by supporters of the African team.

After playing goalless against Croatia in the beginning, Morocco, who won the group by defeating Belgium full of star players 2-0 and Canada 2-1, achieved unexpected results with an excellent performance and reached the knockout stage for the first time since 1986. Morocco equaled Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) who reached the quarter-finals as the biggest African achievement at the World Cup after beating Spain in a penalty shoot-out in the last 16.

 

Morocco, who participated in the World Cup for the fifth time, made a record of being the first African team to reach the semi-finals by sending home another team full of star players, Portugal, from the quarter-finals. He will play against France for a place in the final.

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Defending champion France has entered the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup after England captain Harry Kane hit the post with the second penalty. France entered the last four after winning 2-1 in the last quarter-final of the World Cup 2022 held at Al Bayat Stadium, Al Khor on Saturday.

 

Although England looked strong in the match, France took the lead 2-1 in the 78th minute with Olivier Giroud's header from Antoine Griezmann's tempting cross in the midfield. However, in the 84th minute, England had a good opportunity to equalize. England were awarded a penalty after defender Theo Hernandez fouled substitute Mason Mount in the penalty area. However, England's dream of winning the title for the first time since 1966 remained incomplete even in Qatar when the ball hit by captain Kane in the penalty shot went over the goal post.

 

Coach Gareth Southgate's England team reached the semi-finals four years ago. England, the birthplace of football, has been eliminated from the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the seventh time, which is the record for the most defeats at this level. After Brazil (1958 and 1962), France is aiming to become the first team to defend the World Cup title. With their first victory against England in the World Cup, this French team also became the first defending champion to reach the semi-finals after Brazil (1998).

 

"It has been difficult to accept me personally and as a team," Kane, the striker of the English Premier League club Tottenham Hertspur, said after the defeat, "I will not be a source of pride for the players." We did well. We created many opportunities. However, in football, even the smallest things bring you down. As a captain and a player who missed a penalty, I want to take responsibility for that (defeat)," he added, "I was not at fault in the preparation. However, he lost confidence. I could not do as I wanted.

 

Al Bayt was reported to have a capacity of 68,895 spectators, but many seats in the parapit were empty. Supporters of 'Three Lions' were rarely heard. The supporters of France were the same. England gave a good performance in the match where there was a majority of neutral spectators. Based on the performance, England deserved to win. Despite stopping the 23-year-old French forward Kylian Mbappe, who scored the most 5 goals in this World Cup, England could not stop the playmaker Griezmann and the 36-year-old striker Giroud.

 

French midfielder Urelin Choumeni opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a shot from 25 yards. After Choumeny hit the ball given by Griezmann, England's goalkeeper Jordan Pickford dived in the right direction but could not stop the ball. In the 54th minute, after this Chaumeni fouled Bukayo Saka, who was performing impressively, Kane scored a goal without giving Tottenham's colleague goalkeeper Hugo Lloris a chance, and brought England to a 1-1 draw. However, Kane failed to score in the penalty for the second time.

 

Kane, who became the player who scored the most penalty goals (4 goals) in the World Cup, also equaled Wayne Rooney's record of 53 goals for England. After missing the second penalty, he also missed the opportunity to equalize the game by making the record in his name alone. On the other hand, Giroud also scored the fourth goal in this World Cup, making his record for most goals for France 53 (goals). Captain Lloris also made a record of playing 143 games for France. This 35-year-old goalkeeper has surpassed Liliam Thuram (142 games).

 

France will play against Morocco on Wednesday to enter the final. Morocco became the first African team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup by shocking Portugal 1-0 in the first match on Saturday. In the next semi-final, Argentina led by Lionel Messi will compete against Luka Modric's team Croatia on Tuesday.