Minimizing frills: how the semi-finalists of the World Cup were determined

The quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico were without sensations. Now, only the top teams continue to fight for the trophy — the current winner of the world championship, Argentina, the finalist of the last two world cups, France, the current European champion, Spain, and England, which traditionally claims to be the strongest team. Some teams at a lower level resisted them, but they could not bring the matter to victory.

France – Morocco

The French have dominated the World Championships for the third tournament in a row. In 2018, they unconditionally won the world championship in Russia, leaving no chance for any of their rivals, including the finalist of the Croatian national team (4:2). In Qatar in 2022, they fell just short of their second triumph in a row, losing in the final to Argentina in a penalty shootout (2:4).

Even then, Didier Deschamps' wards gave the impression of a team playing very tough schematic football with superstars led by Kylian Mbappe, which gave rise to criticism from the local media against the head coach of the national team, who has held this post since 2012. After the current World Cup, Deschamps will leave the national team. And finally, the 58-year-old specialist managed to build an extremely attacking game that pleases the audience not only with the result.

The French passed the group stage and the first round of the playoffs confidently. The most serious problems arose only in the 1/8 finals match against Paraguay. The South Americans successfully defended for almost the entire match and at times acted on the verge of a foul, but eventually lost after Mbappe's penalty.

In the quarterfinals, the tricolours faced Morocco, who became the first African team to reach the semifinals at the last World Cup. Over the years, the team has not lost its strengths and has once again confirmed that it is one of the strongest representatives of the continent.

Even in the match against an almost invincible France, they resisted as best they could. But the opponent's class and Mbappe personally did their job. Although things weren't going well for the planet's strongest striker at the moment. In the middle of the first half, he missed a penalty. As a result, it was only in the middle of the second half that the French put the squeeze on the Moroccans — Mbappe opened the scoring in the 60th minute, and six minutes later Ousmane Dembele scored from his pass. In the remaining time, Deschamps' team calmly held the score 2-0 and moved on.

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Spain – Belgium

Two years ago, the Spaniards won the European Championship and are now trying to repeat their success at the world Championship. They started the current World Cup unsuccessfully, sensationally losing points in the game against the debutant of the tournament Cape Verde (0:0). But then we picked up the pace and confidently went the distance.

Belgium took the third place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. It was the peak of the star generation of this national team, which in the 2010s had more than a dozen players who played for top European clubs. However, since then, many of them have either ended their careers or seriously aged. Therefore, in the next three major tournaments, the Belgians did not look very bright and did not go beyond the first rounds of the playoffs.

With the arrival of Rudy Garcia, the team began to look competitive again. The Belgians left a particularly vivid impression after defeating the hosts of the tournament, the US national team (4:1) in the 1/8 finals. However, that match was remembered not only for football.

On the eve of the meeting, FIFA's decision to postpone the disqualification of American striker Folarin Balogun, who was eliminated in the previous round of the playoffs, caused a wide response. This decision provoked a wave of criticism, and an additional scandal broke out after a statement by US President Donald Trump, who claimed that he had personally influenced the situation by contacting FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The story became one of the most discussed topics of the tournament, but it had almost no effect on the game of the Belgians.

Despite the generational change, the core of the team was still made up of players who had played at the 2018 World Cup. Among them are Thibaut Courtois, Thomas Meunier, Kevin De Bruyne, Yuri Thielemans, Axel Witzel and Romelu Lukaku. Of these, only the 29-year-old captain of the current team, Thielemans, is less than 30 years old. The rest of them are already very much in favor, and this World Cup may have become their last major tournament.

Courtois worked the hardest to make him even more successful. It was his rescue that led to the fact that Spain could not resolve the issue of reaching the semifinals for a long time. She opened the scoring in the 30th minute thanks to a goal from Fabian Ruiz. But in the 41st minute, Charles de Ketelare equalized. In the second half, the Belgian goalkeeper had to work even harder to keep his team in the game.

As a result, Courtois' injury in the 71st minute was the key moment. He had to be replaced by Senna Lammens, who has been playing at the top level for Manchester United since last year, but this does not compare with the experience of Thibaut, who played for eight years for Real Madrid, and before that spent several successful seasons at Chelsea in London and Atletico Madrid.

As a result, it tore where it was thin. In the 88th minute, after Lammens' mistake, Mikel Merino scored the winning goal, 2-1, and the Spaniards move on.

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Norway – England

Norway created one of the main sensations of the tournament in the 1/8 finals, knocking out Brazil (2:1). It has such a superstar as Erling Holann, the multiple top scorer of the English Premier League and the Champions League, the winner of both tournaments with Manchester City. It was largely due to him and the organized game as a whole that the Scandinavian national team reached the quarterfinals, where they could easily beat England.

In the first half, Solbakken's players played better than their opponents and deservedly took the lead in the 36th minute thanks to Andreas Schjelderup's goal. But they couldn't hold the advantage until the break — Jude Bellingham's unexpected goal at the very end of the half allowed the British to feel confident.

As a result, they dominated the second half. Norway held on as best it could. And she brought it to extra time, but at the beginning of it Bellingham scored a double and took Thomas Tuchel's team to the semifinals (2:1).

Argentina – Switzerland

The Swiss did their best to create a unique sensation in the quarterfinals. They played as tightly as possible in defense and in the middle of the field, which allowed them to close Lionel Messi, who scored only an assist on Alexis McAllister at the beginning of the meeting. Argentina, no matter how hard they tried to increase the advantage, could not do it, and in the 67th minute Dan Ndoi equalized the score.

However, five minutes later, Switzerland remained in the minority due to the removal of the Embolus. That didn't stop her from holding out until extra time, where Murat Yakin's men were 10 minutes away from a penalty shootout. But at the very end, the Argentines still put the squeeze on the opponent — Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez scored a goal each (3:1).

France will face Spain in the semifinals on July 14. A day later, England will take the field against Argentina. The match for the third place will be held on the night of July 19, Moscow time, with the final scheduled for the evening of the same day.