Four teams remain at the Qatar World Cup 2022, four teams each with a dream of becoming kings of football across the globe.
It’s a time for winners and a time for the biggest characters to step forward and lead their teams to glory. The pre-tournament World Cup 2022 betting odds backed Brazil to win their first title in two decades but Croatia put paid to that in a dramatic penalty shootout on Friday. So the door has been opened for one of Argentina, France, Morocco and Croatia to win the 2022 crown…this is a moment for heroes.
Here at SBOTOP we’ll be previewing and reporting on the two semi-finals but, after a breath-taking weekend of football, let’s take a breath now and look at four players who could write the World Cup 2022 news headlines over the next week.
Lionel Messi: Argentina
Who else but Messi can we choose from the Argentina title hopefuls? The PSG star is now just two steps away from what many Argentines believe is his destiny and he has led his team superbly in this tournament. They were pushed all the way to a penalty shootout against a stubborn Netherlands team and Messi stood up at the crucial time to see the job through. After Emi Martinez saved the Netherlands’ opening penalty Messi calmed his team’s nerves by slotting home and they didn’t look back.
He’s in the hunt for the Golden Boot with four goals but Messi won’t be happy unless he lifts the World Cup in a week’s time. With seven Ballon d’Ors, four Champions League medals and ten Ls Liga medals there’s not much left for Leo to win.
Olivier Giroud: France
Kylian Mbappe is still in the front of the race for the Golden Boot and he will certainly be the player Morocco will be most aware of. But the Atlas Lions are nothing if not resilient and they will have noticed how well England managed to keep the PSG man quiet with a well organised plan to double mark him, and give the quick footed Kyle Walker the main job of shadowing Mbappe.
What the Three Lions failed to do was cut out a brilliant cross from Antoine Griezmann, headed home by Olivier Giroud, and that moments after the AC Milan striker had been denied by a brilliant Jordan Pickford save. Giroud is Les Bleus top scorer of all time and the attention of Mbappe is doing him no harm at all. He has a knack of scoring the crucial goals in the big games and he’ll be relishing a chance to go up against the Morocco defence.
Sofyan Amrabat: Morocco
There is no denying that the Atlas Lions deserve to be the first nation from Africa to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, accomplishing what Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana narrowly failed to do. Ranked 22nd in the world Walid Regragui’s group of fighting superstars have dumped Belgium, Spain and Portugal out of the tournament and they have conceded just one goal so far, so anyone who thinks their Qatari adventure is nearly over might just be in for a surprise.
They are defensively brilliant though the Atlas Lions have some highly skilful operators in Hakim Ziyech, Achraf Hakimi and Sofiane Boufal, as well as a brilliant keeper in Sevilla’s Bono. But the key man in Morocco’s team is 26 year old Fiorentina midfielder Sofyan Amrabat who has been a rock of dependency in front of his team’s defence, breaking up play and linking brilliantly with team’s more creative players. Amrabat was the dominant figure against Spain, keeping close control of the ball in dangerous positions and making some crucial tackles.
If Morocco can keep on earning clean sheets they won’t be beaten. It’s a big ‘if’ of course, but Amrabat is a man who knows how to protect a defence.
Dominik Livakovik: Croatia
Zlatco Dalic’s Croatia are penalty shootout specialists, winning their last four in World Cups, including two already in the 2022 competition. 27 year old Dynamo Zagreb keeper Dominik Livakovic has been in outstanding form, saving three penalties in the shootout with Japan and then putting in a man-of-the-match performance to keep Brazil at bay. He made ten saves against the Selecao, keeping out fine efforts from Richarlison and Lucas Paqueta and was only beaten by a world class Neymar goal.
It was no surprise when Livakovic kept out Rodrgyo’s penalty at the start of the shootout and if Croatia find themselves in another penalties drama…don’t bet against them.
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