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Fifa’s carnival is coming to an end. France, looking to become the third nation to win back-to-back World Cup titles after Brazil and Italy, take on Argentina – two-time champions – which is quickly becoming Kylian Mbappe vs Lionel Messi.
Argentina overcame Croatia 3-0 in the first semi final but were fortunate to get off the mark when the referee awarded Argentina a dubious penalty, which Messi slotted home. Shortly after the restart, Argentina broke away with Julian Alverez slotting a second before adding a third in the second half, ending Croatia’s resistance.
France ended Africa’s dream of having a team in the final when they downed Morocco 2-0 thanks to goals from Theo Hernandez and Randal Musani. Muani’s effort in the second half occurred after Mbappe’s dance through the Moroccan defense and only 49 seconds after coming on.
Croatia and Morocco face-off in the third-place play-off, a kind of “do we really have to play” game. The teams faced off during the group stages with the match ending 0-0 but Croatia bossed the match and should be favoured to come out on top, although, Morocco’s youth will hope that the aged midfield of Croatia will not have the legs for one last match.
Tomorrow’s big game see’s an even match-up with defending Champions France banking on Mbappe’s speed to unlock the Argentine defense while the South America’s will hope that Messi’s skill can unlock France.
Both teams have conceded five goals in this tournament but Argentina have played more minutes after their quarter-final match against the Netherlands went to extra-time and penalties.
The last time these two sides played each other, France ran out 4-3 winners but Argentina have won four of the last five encounters, making them favourites to deny France a second-consecutive title.
There are those supporting Argentina because they hate the French while others are supporting Mbappe’s team because they think that Argentina have been fortunate in some of the decisions that went their way as well as the way in which they conducted themselves against the Dutch in the quarter final.
All the neutrals can hope for is an open and entertaining game – like my prediction – that goes into extra time after some goals followed by a nerve-wrenching penalty shoot out!
It seems that Woody will take the #1BallZAWorldCupCorner prediction title as he is currently 13 points ahead of me. I would need to get my prediction for the final spot on in every sense. Should this happen, I can collect 14 points while Woody gets nothing, handing me the title by a single point – but as with Woody in Fifa online, he will get the rebound with an open goal in front of him while my shot to an open net will hit the post, rebound to his players who will score off another rebound.
