The surprising Morocco against the world champion Spain and the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo against Switzerland define the last two places for the quarterfinals of Qatar 2022.
Spain faces Morocco andThis Tuesday (10:00 am Colombian time) in a match with a taste of revenge for the North Africans.
In Russia-2018, Morocco saw La Roja draw 2-2 in the last game of the group stage, to which the Moroccans arrived already eliminated.
Four years later the two teams meet again in Qatar, where the then young Bono, Achraf Hakimi, Hakim Ziyech o Youssef En-Nesyri they are now mainstays of the ‘Lions of the Atlas’. Players like the captain also survive in La Roja from that match Sergio Busquets, César Azpilicueta or Jordi Alba.
“We have a new generation, it is a new mentality, it is not the same team of 2018 and it is not the Spain of 2018 either,” said the Moroccan coachí, from the Reign of Walid.
spain faces the game still with the scare in her body after the defeat against Japan 2-1 in the last match of the group stage, which for a few minutes left her out of the competition.
Focused on the opponent
Spain predicts a Morocco that waits behind, to try to surprise in speed. “We will have to try to play a game of wear, to move the ball quickly from side to side and perhaps be a little more vertical,” said the midfielder. Carlos Soler.
Against Morocco, the coach Luis Enrique will have to trust again in his core line, commanded by Busquets, accompanied by the youngsters Gavi y Pedri. In front, Alvaro Moratascorer in the three games that the Red leads in the World Cup in Qatar, will have the mission of perforating the goal defended by Bono, who in three games has only conceded one goal.
The Moroccan team comes to the duel after going to the round of 16 as leader of group F, where they drew with Croatia and beat Belgium 2-0. “We can go down in history and be the first to reach the quarterfinals,” he said. Regragui.
Morocco had only reached the round of 16 in Mexico-1986when they lost 1-0 to West Germany with a goal from Lothar Matthaus in the 88th minute.
The Portuguese challenge
Every time Portugal passed the group stage in first position, in England 1966 and Germany 2006, reached at least the semifinals of the World Cup. In 2022 he still has a way to reach the maximum levels that he proposes; the first, Switzerland (2:00 pm), to whichand Cristiano Ronaldo He has tormented in his last two matches against her with 5 goals, although he has never, at the same time, scored in the playoffs for this tournament.
Although Switzerland was the last to win a duel between the two, 1-0 on June 12 in the League of Nations, Cristiano did not play that day, who thrashed the Swiss team a week earlier, with two of the four goals with which his team overwhelmed the opponent (4-0), and in his previous precedent, on June 5, 2019, when he further increased his records, with the three goals with which Portugal also won 3-1 against his rival this Tuesday.
The only player who has scored goals andn five successive World CupsFar from its most imposing version, it is still the center of everything in Portugal, although it now leads a new generation.
And it is that Portugal is not only Christian. Is much more. It’s Diogo Costa, a phenomenal goalkeeper; Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix… Not even their defeat on the last day against South Korea (2-1) alters the conviction of the Portuguese team, whose aspirations remain intact.
The quarterfinals are the limit so far in the World Cups for Switzerlandbut they belong to an imperceptible past, to another era, to 1934, 1938 and 1954. He has not reached that point again in the World Cup, eliminated in the round of 16 in 1994, 2006, 2014 and 2018, which represent four of his last five participations, not counting the current one, and which represent a challenge for the group led by Murat Yakin and for a block that has been well established for years.
The match between Morocco and Spain can be seen on Caracol, RCN and DirecTV, while the match between Portugal and Switzerland will only go on DirecTV
