Messi and Modric, Mbappe and Amrabat – who is in the final

Konstantin Alekseev – about the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar.

Signs at the World Cup semi-final, of course, could be much brighter. For example, the battle of two South American titans Argentina – Brazil. Two-time world champion against five-time. Messi vs Neymar. The two main favorites of the tournament, according to supercomputers. If we add the historical football confrontation between the two countries, then the spectacle promised to become epic.

Yes, and a potential semi-final France – Portugal with might and main would excite the blood. With the new football king Mbappe and albeit aged, but still legendary Ronaldo, dreaming of winning world gold.

But Brazil gave way to Croatia, and Portugal to Morocco. And the main losers of the quarter-final stage can only blame themselves for this. The Pentacampeons were in the lead and, I’m sure, they could calmly bring the matter to victory. But they began to fool around, for which they paid the price, missing a smashing counterattack. The “checkers” turned out to be much more focused on the result, clinging to the ticket to the semi-finals like a watchdog. Morocco also took its toll on discipline and organization.

And this is also the beauty of football – underdogs periodically present sensations, removing favorites from the road. You just have to leave your whole soul on the field.

Messi and Modric, Mbappe and Amrabat – who is in the final

Morocco and Croatia should be given credit for writing history. And if the Balkan team, together with its leader Modric, has already reached the final at the Russian World Cup 2018, and now wants to take one more, the last step, then Morocco is generally the first African team in the semi-finals of the world championship. Her fans cannot contain their emotions – they are smashing Paris, Brussels, and Barcelona …

The performance of the Moroccans – an incredible fairy tale? On the one hand, of course. On the other hand, Stanislav Cherchesov is right, who remarked in an interview with SE: “We must look not at the name of the country, but at the clubs that its players represent.” And here – PSG, Chelsea, Bayern, and two from Sevilla. Yes, and the rest are not gathering dust in Saudi Arabia, but in Besiktas, Angers, Standard, Valladolid, etc. Opornik Amrabat is called the contender for the title of the best player in the 2022 World Cup, while in Fiorentina. But even before the trip to Qatar, a queue lined up behind him, which included Liverpool.

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