Who played with whom?. France – Morocco 2:0: Quiet and fairly confident win for the favorite. The goals of the second half were scored by Mbappe and Dembélé, and Mbappe also missed a penalty kick. France reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the third time in a row – previously only Brazilians and Germans could do this (from 2002 to 2014, they managed to do it four times).
A separate fact from the fans. Mbappe’s goal was his eighth in this World Cup – and he is now the first player in history to score eight goals at once in two World Cups (he had the same number in Qatar 2022). Just so you understand how amazing this is: even in a single World Cup, only two have managed to score eight goals over the past half-century – Brazil’s Ronaldo in 2002 and Messi now.
What are they talking about?. Before the tournament started, everyone was sure that it would be the last major tournament for many of the big stars of the 2000s: in addition to 41-year-old Ronaldo and 39-year-old Messi, 40-year-old Luka Modric, 34-year-old Neymar and Mo Salah were supposed to finish their careers with the national team.
But it now turns out that not all veterans will leave: Croatian media yesterday booksModric has decided to play for the national team for at least one more season, and is also expected to stay at Milan (although he planned to end his club career before the World Cup). Cristiano, who recently hugged Modric as if it was the last time, has also not announced his retirement from the national team – yes, he confirmed that he will not play in the 2030 World Cup at the age of 45, but before that there will still be the Nations League and Euro 2028.
Picture of the day. French fans in Paris having fun before their national team’s match against Morocco.
Next in the program. Today is another very interesting quarter-final match: Spain – Belgium. The Spaniards, who after a lackluster start in each match look more and more like Euro 2024 champions, are the clear favorites, but you can expect anything from Belgium in these qualifiers: they have already had a miraculous save in the 1/16 with Senegal and a brilliant victory in the scandalous 1/8 final with the USA. Starts at 22:00 Moscow time.