The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has been nothing short of everything a football fan could wish for. We have seen some incredible games in the tournament already with drama on and off the field. The first round of matches delivered some eyebrow raising results, from England's demolition of Iran, Japan's shocking 2-1 victory over favorites Germany as well as a Messi led Argentina falling by the same margin to Saudi Arabia who then went on to lose their remaining matches and subsequently failed to qualify for the knockout round. The games have been thoroughly enjoyable, but, if one want to nitpick then we could perhaps complain that most of the group stage games were goalless at the break with a majority of goals coming in the second half. But, as stated, that’s if one is being overly critical.
The Brazilians, Dutch, French, Moroccans and the Portuguese cruised along rather nicely heading into the last 16 of the tournament further cementing their places as one of the teams touted to lift the prestigious trophy come the 18th of December, whilst Belgium imploded with rumors of internal unrest, Cameroon decided to send home Goalkeeper Onana amidst clashes with management due to playing style. Morocco silently went about their business after having defeated the FIFA ranked 2nd placed Belgians and comfortably secured top spot in their group with 7 points, advancing to the next round as one of the undefeated teams at the tournament. There has been some remarkable games mostly involving African teams with the pick of the games being the Cameroon vs Serbia six goal thriller which ended all square as well as Senegal’s impressive victory over Ecuador. Ghana had also been impressive at the start and were unlucky to lose their first game to Portugal. They then had their victory over South Korea and all was in motion for a mouthwatering final group game against Uruguay which, they unfortunately lost and found themselves on a plane home sooner than anticipated.
To say this has been a World Cup of shocks would be an understatement as we have seen some unlikely results that led up to most groups heading into their final games with at least three of the four teams still in with a shot of going through provided they win their final games. We saw the early elimination of favourites like Germany, Mexico, Serbia and Belgium, and we also saw some fairytale results like the Japanese 2-1 victory over Spain and South Korea’s victory over Portugal by the same margin as they booked a spot in the last 16. Not a single team won all 3 of their group games in what is sure to go down as the best FIFA World Cup group stage in history as the next World Cup will see an increase in participants as well as changes to the current format.
There have been a lot of thrills already in this tournament and we have seen some amazing goals, here's to many more moment of joy and pure footballing bliss.
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