The quarter final stage of the World Cup 2022 begins today of which I made I preview in my post here.
For this post I’m making a preview of the remaining 2 games.
Morocco take on Portugal and England take on France tomorrow at 15:00 and 19:00. Will we get more surprises?
Morocco could make history by being the first African Nation to make it to the Semi final stage of the World Cup. Ghana got very close in 2010 but we all know that story ended. Everyone from Africa will or should be rooting for Morocco to beat Portugal.
Morocco continue their fairy tale tomorrow against Portugal who will be looking to progress further. We wait to see if Fernando Torres decides to bench Ronaldo again and continue with the winning team or field Ronaldo into the starting eleven.
Achraf Hakimi and Hakeem Ziyech are the biggest names in the Moroccan squad and they haven’t disappointed so far. They showed their class again in their victory over Spain.
Portugal on the other hand have a number of big names in their team including the biggest of course, Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Jao Felix and the Milan star Leao. Grandfather Pepe isn’t one to be forgotten.
Romain Saiss is the heart of the Moroccan defense alongside Mazraoui. Youssef En-Nesyri is the man up front but hasn’t managed to bag a lot of goals. Maybe it’s because of how Morocco play which doesn’t allow him get enough chances.
Since the beginning of last season, the big question has been “does Ronaldo make teams worse?” and “do teams play better without Ronaldo?”” But those questions only intensified this season after Ten Hang refused to use him a lot.
For the first time Portugal played without him and performed so well scoring 6. The team performing this well only adds more questions.
Now does Fernando Santos leave Ronaldo and continue with Ramos who scored a hat trick or find a way to play Ronaldo again. Whatever happens it’s going to be a headline yet again.
Morocco will look to allow Portugal have the ball and do exactly what they did against Spain. They’re very good tactically and can counter brilliantly. I don’t expect them to win but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.
France will continue their title defense tomorrow at 19:00 but this time against the Three Lions of England.
England put on a very nice display against Senegal and have got people believing they stand a chance against France. They’re a very good team with so many talents but I’ve always been surprised they don’t blow teams away. But they had no creative problems against the African champions.
France unlike England are not scared to show off their creative side and with Kylian Mbappe and Giroud upfront, England should be scared.
It’s not going to be an easy game for France because England aren’t a bad side. The only downside I see that squad has is their lack of conviction up front. They sometimes don’t even create anything.
I think we all know who France will go with but with England it’s not so easy. Harry Kane will lead the line but will Southgate flank the wings with Rashford and Foden or Jack Grealish and Saka or Saka and someone else?It looks like he favours Saka for now over the others.
It’s a game I urge everyone to look forward to.
I urge everyone to watch both games actually. It’s going to be amazing to see who makes it into the semi final stage.
Please let me know what your expectations and predictions are for these games.
Thank you.
