World Cup 2022: Semi-finals buildup and latest reaction to England’s exit – live | World Cup 2022

Don’t forget there is another World Cup next year, as the women’s tournament takes place in Australia and New Zealand. PA Sport is reporting that England have announced they will be based in New South Wales for the tournament.

Sarina Wiegman’s squad will stay in Terrigal north of Sydney and train at Central Coast Stadium, as for the first time at the Women’s World Cup competing countries will use dedicated team base camps.

The Lionesses have been drawn in Group D along with Denmark and China, with a fourth team to be decided via the play-offs. The tournament begins on 20 July, with the first England game against the play-off winners on 22 July.

Lovro Peraić writes to me to complain that Croatia are getting a bit of a rum do of it, and not being treated with the respect their record deserves.

Why is it that the still ‘reigning’ silver-medalists and next summer’s Nations League final four participants (via taking 6 points from Denmark and 4 points from France) are regarded so poorly by everyone? This is a team led by one of the best midfield trios the game has ever seen (Brozović was last season’s best midfielder in Serie A, Kovačić is a multiple Champions League winner with Real Madrid and Chelsea, and Luka Modrić is … well, Luka Modrić) which is complemented by the perhaps most promising young centre back in the world. And then there is Ivan Perišić, yet another Champions League winner who has scored in a World Cup semi-final and final. Yes, this team does have its flaws, but so does every team in this World Cup. This tiny and young nation has already won two medals in the five of the six possible World Cups [since they first appeared], and with this semi-final Croatia are on course to become one of the most successful teams of the 21st century. Yet eliminating (a not so special) Brazil was seen as a miracle and, again, this team are viewed as big underdogs against Argentina.

Personally I do think one of the joys of this World Cup final four is I honestly cannot tell you what I expect the final to be. You can make a case for every possible permutation of semi-final winners.

Here is a lovely cartoon view of that winning goal from Olivier Giroud on Saturday night. Deflection off Harry Maguire’s shoulder not depicted.

Argentina are out on media duties today. It looks like it is coach Lionel Scaloni and Lyon defender Nicolás Tagliafico who have had microphones shoved in front of them today. I’ll have some quotes in due course.

I get to do Harry & Meghan. Meanwhile, Hannah Jane Parkinson has landed the absolute dream gig of a review of the best World Cup predicting animals:

It was a sure thing. Unanimous. England would beat France and reach their second successive World Cup semi-final. The meerkats at a Sussex zoo declared it, via the medium of clambering into an England flag-decorated bucket of whatever it is meerkats eat. Not a single meerkat put his faith in Olivier Giroud, there was no meerkat foresight when it came to Aurélien Tchouaméni firing a low, long-distance shot into the corner of Jordan Pickford’s goal. We should have known. World Cup psychic animals have burnt us before, their competence often hovering somewhere around the level of Derek Acorah.

Read more about Mani the parakeet, Achilles the cat and Taiyo the otter here: The World Cup’s psychic animals

Morocco’s social media manager is confident of adding to their World Cup scrapbook. And why shouldn’t they be? They’ve played Croatia, Belgium, Spain and Portugal for over six-and-a-half hours of football without conceding a goal yet to a European side in Qatar.

While he was up in front of the media this morning in Qatar, Jürgen Klinsmann was being very complimentary about England. PA Media reports he told the press:

I think overall it was a very positive presentation from the English side in this entire tournament. This game, France v England, came just too early. It should have been a semi-final or the final.

But one team has to go home and unfortunately it was England, from an English perspective – but I think overall they played a very good tournament.

It’s still a team in growth. I think with this team it is still able to get better over the next few years. They are age-wise not kind of on the limit now by no means.

So they have a lot, a lot of talent coming through, getting better, getting more experienced. So they have had now three very positive tournaments with the one in Russia, obviously the Euros where they went to the final.

Now I think this was a very positive tournament, even if it’s already ended in the quarter-finals. So there’s more to come from this England side, in my opinion.

Klinsmann also had some thoughts on Harry Kane’s missed penalty, saying:

I was arguing the last couple of days and saying, ‘you know what, from the time that he whistles for the penalty until the time he gets a chance to actually execute the penalty there’s far, far too much time passing by’ and it works into your brain

I’m obviously a big Harry Kane fan and if Harry had the chance, maybe just put the ball down and shoot it, no big deal but the whole VAR situation, double-checking was it a penalty?

Time goes by and by and by and then obviously, you start thinking – overthinking – and you get to a point where you don’t execute the penalty any more the way you would have done it may be right after the whistle.

Away from the World Cup for a minute, and Suzanne Wrack, Sophie Downey and Sarah Rendell have got all the talking points from this weekend’s domestic Women’s Super League action in England.

Moving the World Cup into the European winter has disrupted not just domestic club football, but also slightly weirded out the international calendar. The European teams that failed at the quarter-finals stage have got the best part of three months now to dwell on that before they are thrust straight into qualifying for Euro 2024. Matchday one runs from the 23 March to 25 March 2023. Will coaches be staying? Will senior figures be quitting international football?

Two of the teams that got knocked out at the weekend face daunting tasks. The Netherlands open their Group A campaign away to France at the Stade de France on 24 March. The day before that, England’s next competitive fixture is away to Italy in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples. Portugal at least have a relatively easy fixture to get them going, home to Liechtenstein on the same night.

Jürgen Klinsmann has been discussing the contrast between Brazil and Argentina’s penalty shootout strategies at the technical study group briefing in Al Rayyan that I was being a little bit disparaging about earlier. Reuters quotes him saying:

We were freaking out, it was real drama. We tried to discuss the difference between the drama from the Brazil game compared to the Argentina v Netherlands game and we came up with some ideas.

After conceding the equaliser in the 117th minute, Brazil had no time to switch gears. From the disappointment of conceding a last minute goal to the penalty shootout, there was no time to settle and approach the shootout positively.

For Brazil, they should have maybe put their best shooter first, set the tone with the best penalty taker you have and then go down the rankings.

Klinsmann went on to say:

With Argentina, they had extra time to play, even with the shock of the Weghorst equaliser in the last minute. They had 30 minutes more to play. At the end of the game they were far more clearer going into the penalty shootout.

It was notable that talisman Lionel Messi stepped up and scored Argentina’s first penalty, whereas Brazil had already been eliminated before it was Neymar’s turn to take one.

Tom White over at the PA Sport data journalism unit has been crunching the numbers on Harry Kane and his penalty misses, to show that Saturday’s aberration was pretty much a once-in-a-blue-moon event.

It is the fourth time Kane has taken two penalties in the same England game and his first miss in those matches. Three times on the way to his record-equalling 53 England goals Kane has scored two penalties in a match as part of a hat-trick.

The first of those, against Panama, helped him to the Golden Boot at the last World Cup as he scored six times in total on England’s run to the semi-finals.

He repeated the feat in a 4-0 European Championship qualifying win over Bulgaria the following year and again, scoring four goals in all, as England beat San Marino 10-0 last November in the qualifying campaign for the current World Cup.

Kane is the only player to take two penalties in an England international on more than one occasion, excluding shootouts.

Some observers suggested Kane should have let somebody else take the second penalty but such a move has not helped England in the past.

Only twice have England had two penalties in a game taken by different players, in friendlies against Brazil in 1956 and Romania last year. Marcus Rashford scored the first against Romania but Jordan Henderson missed the second, while John Atyeo and Roger Byrne both missed in the 4-2 win over Brazil.

Kane is the third England player to both score and miss a penalty in the same game, following Sir Bobby Charlton in 1960 and Allan Clarke in 1971.

Only Kane himself knows, of course, but I personally can’t help feeling that the fact that he was facing his own club captain in goal in the shape of Hugo Lloris – who must have seen him take a lot of penalties – was playing on his mind.

I’ve just been having a quick watch of the highlights package of the opening game in Group F back on 23 November – Morocco and Croatia’s nil-nil draw. I’m not sure a single person in the world at the end of that game said “There you go, there’s two of your semi-finalists for sure”, but there are some cracking saves in it. You can refresh your memory here.

This technical study group meeting looks a little bit like “death by PowerPoint” from a distance.

The EU’s foreign policy chief said on Monday that allegations of bribery by World Cup host Qatar to burnish its image at the European Parliament were “worrisome”, after Belgian prosecutors charged four suspects with corruption.

Agence France-Presse reports this morning that the bribery claims have rocked the EU’s legislature and sparked calls for the bloc’s institutions to be put under the microscope to root out foreign influence.

“There is a process ongoing. Certainly the news is very worrisome – very, very worrisome,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Borrell said no officials from the bloc’s diplomatic service or overseas missions were implicated in the allegations.

“There is a police and judiciary actions. We have to follow these actions,” Borrell said, adding he could not go beyond the “judiciary statements”.

“This is very, very, very grave accusations,” he said.

AFP also reports that Greek authorities have frozen the assets of European Parliament vice president Eva Kaili on Monday, after the Greek MEP was arrested on corruption charges over her alleged involvement in a graft scandal linked to Qatar.

The measure, which also applies to her relatives, includes “bank accounts, safes, companies and other financial assets”, said the Greek anti-money laundering authority president Haralambos Vourliotis.

Greek banks and state services have already been informed of the decision, the authority said. The 44-year-old former television presenter was charged with corruption on Sunday in Brussels.

That technical study group media briefing has started in Doha – on the panel are Jürgen Klinsmann, Pascal Zuberbuehler, Faryd Mondragon, Sunday Oliseh, Alberto Zaccheroni and Du-Ri Cha. I’ll bring you any significant quotes.

Do you know what this World Cup needs? A different ball. Well, that is at least what Fifa and Adidas think, as they have unveiled the Al Hilm, which will be the official match ball of the semi-finals and final. Kaka and Iker Casillas were pressed into duty to stand around with it at the launch in Doha.

The exciting announcement tells us that:

Al Hilm translates as “The Dream” in Arabic and features a unique graphic design, setting it apart from the Al Rihla used throughout the tournament so far. Al Hilm will be the official ball for the semi-finals and final. Just like Al Rihla, Al Hilm will feature the “Connected Ball” technology, which has proved a huge success in making semi-automated offside decisions faster and more accurate.

The press release doesn’t specify which ball will be in use for the third-place playoff, presumably because nobody cares.

Omar Momani has been drawing his favourite bits of the World Cup – including England going home – and today he has a very serene looking CR7.

I am not saying it is a slow news day in Qatar today, but the latest pictures coming across the newswires are some empty chairs. We are expecting a technical study group media briefing later. I’d put a small wager on them saying it has been the most skilful and excellent tournament ever.

I did mention that a bit of club football news might start seeping in. Chelsea forward Armando Broja picked up a knee injury in the London club’s 1-0 friendly defeat by Aston Villa at the weekend, adding to manager Graham Potter’s problems in attack ahead of the Premier League restart.

Reuters reports that Potter told the club’s website “It doesn’t look positive at the moment but it’s too early to say. Fingers crossed but it is an awkward one.”

Chelsea face Bournemouth on 27 December when the Premier League restarts.

I promise not to keep harking on about the England game at the weekend^* but one of the weirdest bits of commentary on ITV in the UK was surely when Sam Whatshisface said something along the lines of “England face an exit at an earlier stage than expected” having already pointed out that England had only ever won three of their nine previous World Cup quarter-finals. Surely that means the quarter-final stage is exactly when they are expected to exit? But you can prove anything with facts these days, I guess …

[^*I will, sorry]

It isn’t just the Morocco team who have been one of the stories of this tournament like no other in Qatar, but also their fans. Overnight Reuters has reported that Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc will operate 30 special flights to carry even more fans from Casablanca to Doha for the country’s Wednesday World Cup semi-final game against France.

Passengers on the promotionally priced round trips will add to thousands of Moroccans who are already attending the competition, and the flights would depart on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Amine El Amri is a sports journalist working for Le Matin in Morocco. Today he writes for the Guardian that Morocco’s Atlas Lions are roaring again and an entire nation roars with them:

For me the Moroccan journey in Qatar is renewing the feeling of pride among the people of my country. When the referee Facundo Tello blew the final whistle that ensured Morocco had beaten Portugal in the quarter-final there were eight players on the pitch who grew up in Morocco and learned their football in the country’s academies and clubs.

It showed that the talk about there being a difference between those born and trained abroad and those not was simply not true. The players have all been as one and they have all been legendary. This also sends a strong message to everybody in the kingdom, that no matter what hurdles and difficulties you face, if you put your heart and soul in your dreams, they might just come true.

And that message, of course, is far more important than any sporting achievement, including a World Cup semi‑final. When I first started as a journalist, a little over 10 years ago, my aim was to share my passion with a wider public to show just how much football, and sports in general, can transform the lives of not only the active stakeholders but literally everyone.

Read more here: Amine El Amri – Morocco’s Atlas Lions are roaring again and an entire nation roars with them

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