Qatar World Cup 2022 ¼ finals onwards

Qatar World Cup 2022 ¼ finals onwards In our last article World Cup article written just before the tournament started, we asked if Messi could lead Argentina to glory in what is sure to be his last international tournament. In that article we also took a look at each group and attempted to predict how they would end up after all the games were completed – here’s how we got on with that: Group A

Our prediction

1.       Netherlands

2.       Senegal

 

Position of qualified teams

1.       Netherlands

2.       Senegal

We’re pleased to say that we got this group correct, with the Netherlands being too strong for the other teams and Senegal squeezing into the second qualification space. Group B

Our prediction

1.       England

2.       Wales

 

Position of qualified teams

1.       England

2.       USA

  We got the top team in Group B correct, however Wales had a pretty disastrous tournament and USA ended up qualifying in second place. Group C

Our prediction

1.       Argentina

2.       Mexico

Position of qualified teams

1.       Argentina

2.       Poland

Again, we got the top team in Group C again with Argentina topping the group as expected. Also as expected there was a close battle between Poland and Mexico with Poland eventually qualifying on goal difference!   Group D

Our prediction

1.       France

2.       Denmark

Position of qualified teams

1.       France

2.       Australia

France topped this group as we expected – the quality of their side was too much for the other teams, however they did succumb to a defeat against Tunisia. Denmark didn’t perform as well as expected and Australia managed to grab the second qualification spot. Group E

Our prediction

1.       Spain

2.       Japan

Position of qualified teams

1.       Japan

2.       Spain

We got the correct qualifiers from Group E, however in the wrong order! Japan stole the show in group E by picking up wins against Germany and Spain to top the group. Group F

Our prediction

1.       Croatia

2.       Belgium

Position of qualified teams

1.       Morocco

2.       Croatia

A dismal World Cup for Belgium saw them crash out in the group stages with the surprise package Morocco topping the group and Croatia qualifying in second place. Group G

Our prediction

1.       Brazil

2.       Cameroon

Position of qualified teams

1.       Brazil

2.       Switzerland

Brazil have shown why they are one of the tournament favourites with some excellent displays so far. Switzerland won 2/3 of their group games to take second place ahead of Cameroon who managed one win and one draw. Group H

Our prediction

1.       Portugal

2.       Uruguay

Position of qualified teams

1.       Portugal

2.       South Korea

As expected, Portugal topped Group H, however Uruguay didn’t perform as expected and lost the second qualification spot to South Korea. Group H was really interesting with all teams still able to qualify right into the last group game. Last 16 Netherlands vs USA: Netherlands came out victors against USA, who by the way played well during the tournament, however the Netherlands were too strong and progressed to the last 8. Argentina vs Australia: Argentina weren’t at their best and Australia played very well, however Messi’s magic once again helped Argentina into the last 8. France vs Poland: France dominated the game against Poland who only managed to get on the score sheet thanks to a Lewandowski penalty in the 99^th minute! France progressed to the last 8 with relevant ease. England vs Senegal: We originally had this game down for a Senegal win, and for the first 30 minutes of the match they caused England real problems. After England got their first goal they looked much more comfortable and ran out easy winners. Japan vs Croatia: the tightest of the last 16 games so far with Croatia only progressing thanks to some poor Japanese penalties. Brazil vs South Korea: Brazil blew South Korea away in the first half scoring four goals in the process, rendering the second half a non-contest. Morocco vs Spain: Who’d have thought Morocco would take Spain all the way to penalties and then knock them out – what a result for them and one that few saw coming. Portugal vs Switzerland: Portugal absolutely blew away Switzerland with Cristiano Ronaldo looking on from the bench. A few fancied them at the start of the tournament but even more will be looking at them as potential champions after that performance.   Quarter finals Here we look at the quarter final matches and try to predict who will be appearing in the World Cup semi-finals. Whilst some fixtures look easy to call, we’ve seen plenty of upsets so far in this world cup so it’d be foolish to rule out the underdogs. Croatia vs Brazil We mentioned that there’s been plenty of upsets so far in this World Cup, however there will be no upset here – Croatia have the 3^rd oldest squad at the World Cup and Brazil with all their attacking options will simply be too much for them. Although Brazil have had a couple of players drop out due to injuries, Richarlison, Casemiro, Neymar and Vinicius all look in imperious form going forward, and the whole team are playing delicious football which has excited the crowds. Croatia on the other hand have had to cope with extra time against a tough Japanese opponent and Brazil will surely be one step too far for them. Netherlands vs Argentina If we go by the Fifa world rankings this is an upset as Argentina are currently ranked 3^rd in the world and the Netherlands are 8^th. Whilst the rankings do offer an insight into how a team will perform at tournaments it’s also important to look how they’ve played during the matches – this is where we’re struggling to back Argentina, who haven’t really inspired throughout the tournament so far and relied heavily on moments of magic from their talisman, Lionel Messi. Netherlands on the other hand have played well and looked much more solid in their matches and also posed a significant attacking threat going forward. It’s going to be a close match, and whilst anything can happen on the day we’re going for a slender Netherlands win. England vs France Who would want to attempt to call this match!? England have been absolutely fantastic so far from their opening game where they blew Iran away to really grinding out and important point against the USA who made the game really physical. France have also been excellent with Kylian Mbappe leading the way as top goal-scorer, however they have shown they can be beaten after picking up a surprising loss against Tunisia in the group stages. Is there too much of a reliance on Mbappe to drag the French team through this game? Are England defensively solid enough to keep the French out? Which team will go for it on the night? There are so many questions to be answered, but one thing’s for sure this is the tie of the round and we’re fairly certain there will be goals. We’re going for a slender French win which will see the reigning world champions progress into the semi-finals. Morocco vs Portugal Almost no one would have predicted Morocco reaching the quarter finals of the World Cup, but after some impressive results throughout the tournament, which include wins against Belgium, Canada and Spain, and a draw against Croatia, they absolutely deserve to be there. Portugal on the other hand always feature in the latter stages of major tournaments and again have demonstrated why they deserve to be there with a breath-taking 6-1 destruction of Switzerland in the last 16. Up until that point they’d also recorded wins against Uruguay and Ghana and only suffered a narrow loss to South Korea. The big question at the forefronts of everyone’s minds for this game is what the Portuguese manager will do with Cristiano Ronaldo – surely he can’t start after Ramos’ hat-trick against Switzerland? With or without Ronaldo, Portugal are sure to have too much firepower for Morocco in this one and they look odds on to make it into the semi-finals. If these games go as we predict then there are some mouth-watering semi-finals coming up and we look forward to the footballing heavyweights battling it out for the World Cup crown.