France keeps the pace. They are already in Semifinals. It took them an hour to score the first goal, mainly because they had to beat one of the top three goalkeepers in the world. Bounou not only saved a penalty kick from Mbappe but also other shots from Dembelé , Doue, Digne. France could have gone 3 or 4 nil to the restrooms at halftime and it would not have been a surprise.
Morocco looked a bit disappointing but, in the end, I think is part of the merit of the French team. Congrats to the French fans that would enjoy their team up to the end of the World Cup.
Then, if we talk about top of the class goalkeepers, Courtois, Belgium GK, has the opportunity tonight to help his team to go through QFs and face France in Semifinals.
Belgium's World Cup has not been very amazing. They drew against Iran and Egypt and only beat New Zealand in the Group phase. Then in the last 32 round, they were out of the World Cup up to end of the match, where they were losing 0-2 at 85 minutes of the match. They scored twice in the last 5 minutes and in the extra time they beat Senegal. Moving to the last 16 round, they thrashed USA after the row concerning Balogun's red card.
In the other side, Spain looks improving from the first match and adding players that were injured. IN the last match against Portugal, a tactical one, they managed to beat one of the favorites to the title.
It's going to be a very exciting and, most likely, completely different match the one against Portugal, as Belgium may allow an open match.
Good luck!
Mbappe is rewriting what's a World Cup standout, maybe for Spain aura a tight loss today can avoid a semi embarrassment
I would be really happy to take the chance to beat them!
Gonna get the chance
Here we go!
Vive la France.
C’est une equipe tres impressionnante.
Hahaha I can speak very little French. I have tried a few times but I find it more difficult than English. Perhaps because I started very young with English and French has been something as an adult.
I can read French pretty well but I cannot speak French or interpret spoken French very well. Reading is easier because I can pick up 60 or 70% of words in a sentence and then infer what is being said.
France is something else. I had to go through their match stats for all rounds to see if really no one was capable of making their defense sweat even a little bit.
And while I wasn't impressed with Norway's attacking efforts against France and never considered Sweden a team to pay attention to begin with, the xG stats speak another language:
Of all challengers so far, Norway and Sweden had the highest xG against France. Norway even beat them on xG. Too bad the scoreboard couldn't disagree more.
Great analysis!