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France beats Poland and more in today’s World Cup Daily Diary


Kylian Mbappé of France (left) and Robert Lewandowski of Poland

Kylian Mbappé of France (left) and Robert Lewandowski of Poland
image: beautiful pictures

Today is the match between England and France to pit each other against each other, with the only drama being whether they are caught looking too far ahead. They certainly weren’t, engaging in the “Anything You Can Do..” dance that helped prepare them for a flashy quarter-final on Friday. Let’s get into the nuts and bolts.

Match of the day – France 3 – 1 Poland

Both choices are acceptable, if I may give a reason or a reason, since both games follow the same pattern. The conversation over the past few days has revolved around what to do against a team that is sitting outside you and trying to neutralize your space in midfield, thanks to the United States’ struggles against such a team. One answer was, “yes Kylian Mbappé.” Sadly, that’s only available for one team in this tournament.

It’s obviously more complicated than that, but not by much. Poland have done what is familiar to Poland, which is to place five in midfield and hope to limit Antoine Griezmann’s access to the ball while keeping both Mbappé and Dembele active. The Poles actually seemed a bit more aggressive, admittedly a low for them, on the rare occasions they had the ball and possibly had the best chances in the first half. Hugo Lloris had to make a superb save to avoid falling behind, and Raphael Varane saved it.

But it’s about the threat of Poland, because they are Poles. And you can plan to keep Mbappé wide open or burden him with extra defenders, and he’ll still open up your chances. To open the scoring for France, he just had to pull the defenders towards him just enough to find an alley to pass the ball to Olivier Giroud, which was an unannounced part of his game:

Again, it’s too easy and cliché to say the goal is to change the game, but when the favorites and have faced an all-night low to score first, everything turns upside down. . Poland cannot simply hold out and hope anymore. That means more space for France, which means Mbappé has more space, which means…

The second target, unfair and rude, gets most of the praise but the first one is also high on the level of stupidity. You are not allowed to beat a goalkeeper, especially someone with a league like Szczesny up to this point, easily at close range. Poland probably thought they had solved the problem, just for a moment, as it seemed that Mbappé had waited too long and his options were narrow. Except he always has a way out, he always has a choice. I guess any player always has an option if “Toss a Hadoken with minimal backlash” is in their holster.

If France are worried, and it’s hard to tell if they are, it’s Poland that can occasionally attack them on the right, where Jules Kounde looks a bit out of place at right-back. England certainly have no shortage of options on the left side of their attack. But then, when you have a 10 in attack, do you ever get so nervous?

Other results: England 3 – 0 Senegal

It would have been washed away after the final score, but England didn’t play well before they took the lead, and like Poland, Senegal had the best chance at 0-0. Both teams will spend some time wondering what would happen if they could finish. On such margins…

Like France, like Argentina, even like the US, England faced a disciplined opponent whose first, second and third goals were to defend and cut space. But while France and Argentina call for individual excellence in another world, England have followed the path of otherworldly team excellence for their first goal:

This is something America can’t do, but America doesn’t have Harry Kane or Jude Bellingham. Bellingham moved a little wider and a little deeper, Kane doing his thing as he dropped deeper but behind the opposing midfield. The English defense passed the ball across the lines to Kane, who was then able to hit a pass to the oncoming Bellingham, whose touch was so smooth your knee disappeared and he could control it at top speed and plunging into the Senegal defence. Henderson closely followed him in the middle, both sides of the midfield’s goal being tasked with keeping an eye on them and preventing them from receiving a pass from the English defence. Kane completely reversed their play. .

Like France, the game changed when England took the lead, as Senegal couldn’t wait. Meanwhile, the US has Jesus Ferreira who only occasionally tries to do this, and there is also one last case of “is Jesus Ferreira” and not Harry Kane. The U.S. midfield wasn’t dedicated enough to drop deeper or wider to try to lose markers or create space for their strikers to charge in. And they simply don’t have this level of talent. That’s how you get what we got here last week (or Saturday, as it were). This is how you become British, jump to the regions and look like a real favorite for the whole thing.

Senegal did not play well when it had to take the initiative in this tournament, because England really only had to focus on Ismaila Sarr. They were eliminated quite easily on the second and third goals:

Life is easier when you have Jude Bellingham to dribble through the entire midfield.

England-France is almost too good for a quarter-final, but that’s our reward. England’s strong point, the Rice-Bellingham axis in midfield, is where France got some injuries, so it’s a bit inexperienced. Griezmann makes them dangerous but he also makes them a bit light in midfield. But they also have Mbappé, which is the answer to everything.

Goals for the day

It’s a tie between England the first is a symphony of passes and movements, and the third by Mbappé. We’ve posted both, so you can decide:

Does VAR damage anything?

Not today, Satan.

Is FIFA/Qatar okay?

No, but now feels like the right time to broadcast every game without having to see Gianni Infantino in his damn room sitting in his goddamn plush recliner all the time. It’s a reminder of how we ended this hellish tournament. Remember, FIFA initially thought they could host this in the summer in Qatar, because everyone who voted for it not only bribed millions of dollars (supposedly) but they didn’t. have to worry about the heat. They will go from air-conditioned hotel suites to air-conditioned limos, to stadium air-conditioned skyboxes and vice versa. Seeing Infantino sit in a match he attended is just the clearest picture yet of how ridiculous a tournament like this can be, because the people who make the decisions are just the people. sit in that type of seat at that part of the match. stadium, only consider those seated in that type of seat in that part of the stadium.

Did Alexi Lalas say anything stupid?

After two weeks, it became increasingly difficult to really distinguish the words Lalas said than just hearing his voice like a constant drone. What’s aggravated is that Fox’s coverage of this attempted to mimic the most annoying habit of their NFL coverage, which is asking their analysts to not just narrate broadcasts. (not their job) but also try to be funny and interesting while doing it. Lalas’ trick today was while doing post-match highlights about France’s win, trying to advertise and tease his Power Rankings to keep an eye on as if we were waiting for them at same level on the CFP leaderboard. Strength ratings are a curse on all sports news, and even more so when an idiot like Lalas authored them and justified changing them based on a game. or half, and even more as he treats them as some of the last tablets on the state of the game today. NOBODY GIVES NOONE ANYTHING.

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