Brazil, France and other World Cup heavyweights started the build-up to their quarter-final matches in earnest on Wednesday after Portugal made a huge statement of intent against Switzerland.

Five-time winners Brazil, defending champions France, Lionel Messi’s Argentina and England are all still in the mix as the tournament in Qatar paused for a first rest day.

But 2010 winners Spain were licking their wounds after crashing out to Morocco, ruminating on an identity crisis as they jetted home.

Portugal added their name to the list of favourites with a 6-1 hammering of Switzerland on Tuesday, with young gun Goncalo Ramos smashing in a hat-trick after replacing Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ramos was only two years old when Ronaldo made his debut for Portugal and has often spoken of his admiration for the 37-year-old, who came on as a late substitute to a raucous reception.

“Not even in my wildest dreams did I think of making my first start in a World Cup knockout game and scoring three goals,” said the 21-year-old.

“But we have to think game by game and prepare for the game (quarter-final with Morocco). This result doesn’t matter now. We’re going to go all out in the next game.”

Spain were sent packing, knocked out by Morocco on penalties after a match they totally dominated — a familiar story for their long-suffering fans.

They attempted over 1,000 passes but ended up with nothing to show for it, forcing Yassine Bounou into only one save before an embarrassing penalty shootout, which they lost 3-0.

Spain’s exit means they have not lifted a major trophy since Euro 2012, while they have not won a single knockout game at the World Cup since triumphing in South Africa in 2010.

“We dominated the game but we lacked a goal,” lamented Luis Enrique.

“We could have been more effective in the final third, but I am more than satisfied with what my players did.

“They represented perfectly what my idea of football is.”

But there was joy for Morocco, who qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in their history.

“We had agreed not to take possession — not out of fear,” Regragui said. “We are humble enough to say that we are not yet France, Germany or England, to compete with them in terms of possession.

“Nobody managed to steal the ball from them, so I accepted not having the ball. I’m not a magician.”

‘Best ever’

FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Wednesday hailed the World Cup group stage in Qatar as the “best ever”.

The opening phase featured some eye-catching shocks, with Saudi Arabia’s win over Argentina the first major upset.

Japan also beat Germany and Spain to finish top of their group, while Morocco saw off Belgium and drew with Croatia to finish top of their pool.

“I have seen all the matches, indeed, and put very simply and very clearly, this has been the best group stage of a FIFA World Cup ever. So, it’s very promising for the remainder of the FIFA World Cup,” said Infantino.

“The matches have been of great, great quality in beautiful stadiums — we knew that already. However, as well, the public who was there was incredible. Over 51,000 on average.”

Brazil, who face beaten 2018 finalists Croatia in the first of the quarter-finals on Friday, remain favourites to lift a sixth World Cup in Qatar after their 4-1 mauling of South Korea.

Argentina, who have hit their stride since their shock defeat against Saudi Arabia, will come up against an in-form Netherlands team, who remain unbeaten.

On Saturday, Morocco take on Portugal before focus shifts to the late kick-off between England and France.

England midfielder Declan Rice missed training on Wednesday due to an unspecified illness.

Source: AFP

Goncalo Ramos justified the shock decision to drop Cristiano Ronaldo by scoring a hat-trick on his full debut as Portugal demolished Switzerland 6-1 on Tuesday to power into the World Cup quarter-finals.

The 21-year-old Ramos, who started instead of Ronaldo, became the youngest player to strike three times in a World Cup knockout match since Pele in 1958.

Pepe, Raphael Guerreiro and Rafael Leao were also on target for a rampant Portugal, who booked a showdown with Morocco on Saturday for a place in the last four in Qatar.

Ronaldo, 37 and now without a club after his departure from Manchester United, has hogged the headlines during the tournament while looking a shadow of his former self.

The only man to score at five World Cups, Ronaldo was left out by coach Fernando Santos against the Swiss following his angry response to being substituted in the last group game.

It was a bold call to omit a player with a record 118 international goals in favour of giving a full debut to Ramos, the Benfica striker who had played just 33 minutes across three previous appearances.

But it took just 17 minutes for Ramos to reward Santos’ faith, and to achieve something Ronaldo has never done — score in a World Cup knockout game.

Joao Felix clipped delicately into the feet of Ramos, who quickly swivelled past Fabian Schaer and rifled into the roof of the net past a stunned Yann Sommer.

Otavio, who returned to the Portugal midfield after injury in their opening match, shot straight at Sommer before Ramos did likewise moments later.

Xherdan Shaqiri drew a fingertip stop from Diogo Costa with a dipping free-kick from distance, but Portugal soon had their second.

Bruno Fernandes whipped in a corner and the 39-year-old Pepe towered above the Swiss defence to powerfully head home.

Diogo Dalot hacked Remo Freuler’s header off the line after Diogo Costa failed to properly deal with a cross, but the Swiss simply had no answers against an irresistible Portugal.

Ramos turned in his second from close range six minutes into the second half from Dalot’s cross down the right.

He then turned provider by playing in Guerreiro to lash in another just four minutes later as the Swiss defence was ruthlessly ripped apart.

It was also Ramos who inadvertently glanced a corner towards Manuel Akanji at the far post as the Manchester City centre-back pulled one back for Switzerland.

Ramos completed his treble after more outstanding work from Felix, nonchalantly dinking over Sommer with one of his final touches before making way for Ronaldo.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s introduced elicited the biggest roar of the night. Ronaldo did have the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled out for a clear offside.

Leao capped off a sensational Portugal performance with a terrific curling strike in stoppage time.

Source: AFP

With shouts, songs, cries and tears, Moroccans exploded with joy Tuesday as their football team beat Spain to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time.

“There were millions behind Morocco — this team represents a spirit, a union,” said Imad Ait Ounejjar, from a noisy, crowded restaurant in the coastal city of Casablanca.

“This victory is for Morocco, Africa, the Arab world and all the nations that believed in us. We are proud to be Moroccans,” added the young man, who works as a project manager.

Morocco is the last remaining team from Africa and the only Arab team left in Qatar, and will face either Portugal or Switzerland in a quarter-final on Saturday.

“I can’t believe it, this team is performing miracles! It’s so beautiful!” said Lamia Afria, 24. “I feel proud, we did the unthinkable.”

For the loyal supporters of the Morocco’s team — dubbed the “Atlas Lions” — it was a dream come true after long years of waiting and frustration.

Supporters, both men and women, wrapped in red national flags or wearing the team strip, kept up a solid chant of support for their sporting heroes.

After the victory, the crowd chanted as one: “Next!” and then “Always with Morocco.”

Morocco are just the fourth African team to reach the last eight of the World Cup — after Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.

Before Tuesday’s game, Morocco’s best result at the football World Cup had been in 1986, when they reached the last 16.

Neighbouring derby

The epic duel took on the appearance of a derby: mainland Spain is only some 14 kilometres (nine miles) from Morocco, visible across the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea.

But beyond the sporting clash, Rabat and Madrid share common interests, including economic, as well as the fight against irregular immigration.

After a diplomatic quarrel lasting almost a year over the issue of the disputed territory of Western Sahara, Spain and Morocco drew a line under the spat in mid-March.

Several Moroccan internationals play in the Spanish league, including striker Youssef En-Nesyri and goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, for Sevilla, forward Ez Abde at Osasuna, and defender Jawad El Yamiq at Real Valladolid.

National team star Achraf Hakimi, whose chipped kick settled the penalty shootout for Morocco, was born in Madrid and has played for Real Madrid.

But the Atlas Lions have also won hearts outside Morocco, with scenes of jubilation erupting in Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian enclave of Gaza after the kingdom’s group matches.

Palestinian supporters even improvised a song in honour of the Moroccan team.

Morocco’s players unfurled a Palestinian flag during their on-pitch celebrations after their stunning World Cup victory.

Even in a context of acute tension between Morocco and neighbouring North African nation Algeria, football has managed to bridge a gap.

“Your brothers and neighbours are with you,” wrote Algeria’s DZfoot Twitter account, which has more than one million followers.

Several Algerian internationals also praised the Moroccan feat on social media.

“Far from all the hateful and malicious trolls of social networks, the Algerian people are behind the Moroccan people”, DZfoot added.

Source: AFP

Neymar returned from injury to help inspire Brazil to a 4-1 victory over South Korea on Monday as the favourites cruised through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

The world’s most expensive player had sat out his team’s last two matches with a sprained ankle suffered in their first game in Qatar, a 2-0 win over Serbia.

But he came back for this last-16 tie as Tite’s team clicked into gear and delivered an ominous message to their rivals, at least before easing off in the second half.

Vinicius Junior opened the scoring inside seven minutes before Neymar added another from the penalty spot to move to 76 goals for his country, leaving him just one away from equalling Pele’s all-time record tally.

Richarlison’s brilliant goal made it 3-0 and Lucas Paqueta added another before half-time to leave South Korea shellshocked.

Paik Seung-ho pulled one back but by then Brazil were thinking about Friday’s quarter-final clash with 2018 runners-up Croatia.

The five-time World Cup winners had not scored four goals in a knockout game at the tournament since 1998.

Here they played at times with the joy associated with the Brazilian national team, the players coming together to celebrate each goal by showing off their dance moves and their coach even joining in.

If they finished playing within themselves, their first-half display was superb and a fitting tribute to the great Pele.

The Brazilian legend had said he would watch the game from the Sao Paulo hospital to where he was admitted last week amid ongoing treatment for colon cancer, and supporters in Doha’s Stadium 974 unfurled a banner with a get well soon message to him.

All of it was a chastening experience for Son Heung-min and South Korea, who have still never won a World Cup knockout match outside their own country.

Tite made 10 changes to the Brazil team after rotating his squad for the 1-0 loss to Cameroon which came after qualification for the last 16 had been secured.

Danilo also returned from injury at left-back, while Eder Militao was the only player to keep his place and shifted across to right-back.

Richarlison stars again

With Alisson Becker back in goal and Thiago Silva and Marquinhos playing too, this was Brazil’s first-choice defence but their forwards quickly put the tie to bed.

The opener came from their first shot on target in the seventh minute as Raphinha burst away from Kim Jin-su on the right and his ball across goal came to the feet of Vinicius who coolly picked his spot.

They then won a penalty as Richarlison was caught by Jung Woo-young and Neymar duly beat Kim Seung-gyu — his last six goals for Brazil have now all come from the spot.

Alisson was then called into action to tip over a vicious long-range effort from Hwang Hee-chan, but Brazil then scored their third in style just before the half-hour mark.

Richarlison juggled the ball on his head three times just outside the area before laying it off to Marquinhos and then continuing into the box to get on the end of Silva’s pass which he slotted home for his third goal at this World Cup.

Paqueta then got their fourth nine minutes before the break with a first-time finish as he connected with a Vinicius ball held up from the byline.

They could have added more in the second half had they not taken their foot off the pedal, although Raphinha was denied on more than one occasion by the goalkeeper.

Korea though deserve credit for keeping going and they were rewarded inside the final quarter-hour as substitute Paik brought down a headed clearance and sent in a ferocious shot from 25 metres that brushed off Silva to beat Alisson.

The Brazil goalkeeper was then taken off for the final 10 minutes to be replaced by Weverton, while Neymar was also withdrawn with Tite’s mind on Croatia.

Source: AFP

Forward Ritsu Doan said Japan’s historic World Cup wins over Germany and Spain counted for nothing after the Blue Samurai were eliminated by Croatia in the last 16 on Monday.

Japan missed out on a first-ever place in the quarter-finals after a 3-1 penalty shootout defeat to the Croatians, following a gruelling encounter that finished 1-1 after extra-time.

Japan beat both Germany and Spain in the goup stage in Qatar but Doan took no consolation from his team’s achievements.

“I expected someone to say that if we lost, but to be honest it doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

“No matter how well we fought today, we didn’t change history.”

Daizen Maeda gave Japan the lead late in the first half before Ivan Perisic levelled for Croatia 10 minutes after the break.

Japan struggled to create more chances but held for penalties, only for Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic to save their first two spot kicks.

Croatia’s Marko Livaja hit the post to give Japan a reprieve but Livakovic saved Maya Yoshida’s kick to give Mario Pasalic match point for the Europeans.

Pasalic buried his penalty to send Croatia through, leaving Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu to lament his players’ failure to convert their spot-kicks.

“Penalties are a mix of luck and training,” he said.

“Their goalkeeper was excellent but the Japanese players should have done better and that’s something we need to work on in the future.”

Japan were aiming to reach the quarter-finals for the first time, having lost in the last 16 at three previous World Cups.

The team arrived in Qatar with 19 Europe-based players in their squad and midfielder Wataru Endo said they would need more overseas experience to take the next step.

“We need to have more players playing with European clubs — we need 20 or 30,” he said.

“We can improve our quality and become a better team. We are improving but we weren’t good enough to get to the quarter-finals.”

Moriyasu is also confident that Japan will return stronger.

“This result doesn’t cancel out everything the players have done here,” he said.

“They have shown they have the confidence to play at the world level and have shown how good they can be.

“Japanese football can continue to grow.”

Source:  AFP

World Cup fans in Qatar say the atmosphere is different without alcohol — but they are divided over whether that is good or not.

Some say the absence of booze in stadiums and its limited availability elsewhere in the Arab nation has detracted from the atmosphere inside and outside stadiums.

Others say it has made no difference or even improved it, making it more family-friendly and less aggressive, and want it replicated at future World Cups.

The sale of alcohol at World Cup stadiums in Qatar was banned two days before the tournament in a policy U-turn, although it is available at fan zones and most international hotels.

“It has brought some positivity to the World Cup,” said Ghana fan Assenso Ata Peter ahead of the Black Stars’ tournament-ending defeat to Uruguay on Friday.

“The conduct of the supporters has been so very good, so nice because they are not drinking alcohol,” added the 40-year-old.

“If we continue with this, the tournament can continue to be successful every time.”

Mike and Luke, in Qatar to watch Australia’s surprise run into the knockout stage, were clutching water and soft drinks as they caught the game between South Korea and Portugal at Education City Stadium.

“It’s hard, it’s hard (without alcohol), it definitely takes the edge off the atmosphere, it’s not as… it’s different,” said Luke, 39.

“It’s more like a family atmosphere as opposed to a party atmosphere — you’ve got families, kids, they’re the ones that are doing the cheering,” added 36-year-old Mike.

Kang Yong-ki, who was at the same game, said no alcohol was allowed at matches at home so he could live without it.

“I suspect some of the atmosphere would be higher (more intense) if alcohol existed but generally it’s not very different with alcohol or not,” said the 45-year-old from Seoul.

“But of course it’s good for families,” he added.

For the majority of men and women supporters AFP spoke to, they said it made no difference to them, either because they do not drink alcohol or it is never allowed at football in their country anyway.

And matches particularly involving teams from South America and North Africa have still played out in front of electric atmospheres.

“I really don’t care, I’m just here to watch Cristiano Ronaldo,” said “Amanda” from Lebanon, who preferred not to give her real name.

“I don’t know why the world is making such a big deal of it.”

‘Most diverse tournament’

England fans have long been associated with alcohol-fuelled disorder and the final of the European Championship at Wembley in the summer of 2021 between the home side and Italy was marred by hooliganism.

There was heavy drinking, and also drug-taking, among some England supporters.

Kevin Fulcher and Kevin Hall, who have travelled across the globe to watch England, said they had no problem with the lack of alcohol.

“I think in some ways, when people have had a drink, the edges can get a bit blurred and it might create issues among football fans,” said Hall, 63.

“Whereas if you’re sober, you’re less inclined to have confrontation.

“We’ve not seen any confrontation whatsoever — you’re all mixing coming out of the ground.

“We’ve been to other tournaments and I think this one is more diverse than any other in terms of youngsters.”

Fulcher added: “You see families, kids, I’ve seen babies in stadiums.”

They could not pinpoint the reason for that but said it was not necessarily down to the lack of alcohol.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, head of Britain’s football policing, called the behaviour of England and Wales fans in Qatar “exemplary” and said there had been no arrests or incidents among those supporters.

He said that the atmosphere at games involving England and Wales had been “passionate but friendly”.

“It would be wrong to entirely attribute good behaviour to the restrictions on alcohol, but I do think it has helped to some degree,” he said in comments to AFP.

Source: AFP

France proved too strong for Poland on Sunday as a Kylian Mbappé brace and a record-setting goal by Olivier Giroud made for a 3-1 victory in the World Cup last 16. Giroud became France’s all-time leading scorer with 52 goals, eclipsing the mark he shared with Thierry Henry.