2022 World Cup Qatar - the football

Notes from Thursday.

Romelu Lukaku failed to score for Belgium against Croatia despite a very high personal expected goals figure (1.7).

Morocco is the first African team to win in a World Cup group since 1998 (when Nigeria finished ahead of Paraguay, Spain and Bulgaria).

Japan set a World Cup record in their win against Spain with the lowest amount of possession ever recorded (17.7%).

(01-12-2022 21:53 )7 stars of the orient Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 21:03 )HannahsPet Wrote:  can anyone explain why the Japanese winner was controversial

The lack of Evidence from fifa to show it didnt cross the line is a bit suspect would put an end to the speculation once and for all

Chelsea have 5 players who have scored at the World Cup, the joint highest for any club alongside Barcelona.

shame they all cant score with a chelsea shirt on

Spurs and Wolves combine to Beat Portugal and send Uruguay out

this world cup is nuts

Sons assist was world class had 6 around him and still got an inch perfect pass off

(02-12-2022 08:22 )HannahsPet Wrote:  The lack of Evidence from fifa to show it didnt cross the line is a bit suspect would put an end to the speculation once and for all

So England were one of only 3 teams to top their groups with 7 points. They are the tournament joint top scorers and had the best goal difference of all teams.

VAR stats.

Matches in the group stage: 48
Decisions changed by VAR: 22

Offside given: 9
Offside rescinded: 2
Foul given: 6
Handball given: 3
Red card given: 1
Ball ruled in play: 1

The first of the knock out matches has seen the USA depart the tournament, which now means no teams are left from North and Central America. Even South America only has Argentina and Brazil still in. Asia on the other hand has 3 teams in the knock stages of a World Cup for the first time ever (since Australia counts as Asia for football purposes).

I thought the USA played really well against the Netherlands and a 3-1 defeat was really harsh on them. The Netherlands will play Argentina next, who have been one of the favourites all along, but despite Messi still going strong there wasn't anything in after their 2-1 win over Australia that made me feel very convinced by this Argentina team.