Football won’t be coming home in 2022 for England as France defeated the Three Lions 2-1 on Saturday in the World Cup quarterfinals.
England will be regretting not taking advantage of a so-so French performance. The biggest moment came in the 84th minute when Harry Kane failed epically on a penalty kick by blasting the ball over the bar to the 10th row.
The lasting memories of World Cups should be the celebrations of football — the glorious goals, the mesmerizing skills, the feel-good stories. But we also know that there's no joy without suffering and no winners without losers, and sometimes, it's those dramatic failures that really resonate because life's a snitch and then you die.
Some of this is completely unfair to players who've given us so much over the years and to young guys who've got a lot of ball left to play, but these are the 10 individuals who really let me down in Qatar.
Germany is out of the World Cup after an extremely controversial Japan goal vs Spain on Thursday. Germany defeated Costa Rica 4-2 but were eliminated due to having a lower goal difference than Spain.
Belgium, the world's second-ranked team, needed a win over Croatia on Thursday to avoid elimination and reach the World Cup round of 16. The Belgium players had promised unity and urgency in the face of rumors alleging total chaos in the squad, but the Red Devils again came out flat with Leandro Trossard and Dries Mertens leading the attack.
Mexico beat Saudi Arabia but the third goal wouldn't come. Argentina beat Poland but the third goal, which would've gotten it done for El Tri, wouldn't come. When the final whistle sounded at Lusail Stadium, bringing the insanity of World Cup Group C to a close, it confirmed Argentina as winners and Poland as runners-up on goal difference (Poland's zero vs. Mexico's negative one).
It had been even closer than that.
DOHA - Belgium captain Eden Hazard has denied there is a rift in the squad but admits frank words were exchanged between the players following their surprise 2-0 World Cup Group F loss to Morocco on Sunday.
Hazard was speaking to the media along with experienced goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on Tuesday after they replaced the players originally scheduled to talk, Yannick Carrasco and Arthur Theate.
Cameroon produced a thrilling two-goal comeback to draw Serbia 3-3 on Monday to keep its World Cup dream alive, but would the Indomitable Lions' performance have been more than enough to secure three points if starting goalkeeper André Onana hadn't been dropped by manager Rigobert Song?
Germany still has a chance to advance out of the group stage, however it will be an uphill battle as the 2014 World Cup champions tied Spain 1-1 on Sunday. German fans will be disappointed not to come away the three points as their team botched several big chances.
In the final moments of the game Leroy Sané broke free toward Spain’s goal. In the middle he had Niclas Füllkrug as an option or he could shoot. Instead, he did this.
Hirving Lozano habló antes del trascendental duelo de México ante Argentina, en el Grupo C del Mundial. El Chucky alabó la calidad del rival, valoró la posibilidad de enfrentar a Lionel Messi, pero también dejó un curioso blooper a la hora de describir la humanidad de los jugadores albicelestes.
En conferencia de prensa, Lozano expresó que le gusta desafiar a los mejores y expresó en especial su admiración por Messi.
Despite another impressive performance from Saudi Arabia, Poland defeated the World Cup underdogs 2-0 on Saturday. We also got to see the first ever Robert Lewandowski World Cup goal.
The score doesn’t accurately reflect how dominant Saudi Arabia was through most of the game. It was Poland that was able to finish some of its chances.
Lewandowski provided the assist for Piotr Zielinski in the 39th minute to help Poland score their first goal of the tournament.