Wow. What a World Cup. What a World Cup last. After all the speak and controversy off the pitch, this World Cup wanted to ship on the pitch. And that it most definitely did.
Saudi Arabia’s shock win over the Argentines will dwell lengthy within the reminiscence and go down in soccer folklore as one of many largest upsets in World Cup historical past. It helped set a development too, with loads of different shocks together with Tunisia beating eventual finalists France, Australia sinking Denmark, and Japan edging out European heavyweights Germany and Spain. However Morocco, who noticed off Belgium, Canada, Spain and Portugal on their solution to changing into the first-ever African nation to make it to the semi-finals, deserve a lot of the plaudits. Their historic achievement is a recreation changer for Africa.
When it got here to the crunch, the cream predictably rose to the highest, culminating in a last between Argentina and France; a showdown between Lionel Messi and the inheritor to his throne, Kylian Mbappe.
The World Cup last couldn’t have been scripted any higher: Mbappe changing into solely the second participant to attain a World Cup last hat-trick and profitable the Golden Boot within the course of – however Messi finally lifting the trophy – appeared like the right conclusion. It was a privilege to observe, and this memento difficulty hopes to seize all the magic of the most recent version of the best soccer present on Earth. Get pleasure from.
Stephen Fishlock, Group Editor
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CONTENTS
WORLD CUP 2022 REVIEW
14 Objectives we’d prefer to see once more
16 Match overview
20 Morocco Opening the door for Africa
24 A to Z
26 Gamers of the Match
28 Workforce-by-team evaluation
62 6 of the Finest World Cup Breakout Stars
64 EyeWitness Jonathan Wilson reviews on hosts Qatar
92 Squads
WORLD CUP 2022: THE COMPLETE RECORD
38 Ultimate & Third place play-off
39 Semi-finals
40 Quarter-finals
42 Spherical of 16
46-60 Group stage
PLUS…
70 Soccer’s Most Wished January switch targets
78 Brazil Palmeiras cruise to the title
80 South America Home round-up
82 Europe Summer time leagues round-up
84 Africa CHAN 2022 preview
86 Iraq Arabian Gulf Cup preview
88 Southeast Asia AFF Championship
90 Laos Rebuilding the nationwide workforce
91 World diary
96 Outcomes part
98 ESM XI
