THE FINAL WEEK, with four sides left loitering in glory’s antechamber.
Which two of Croatia, Argentina, Morocco or France will meet in Sunday’s final, and bring to a crescendo a World Cup at once malign, dispiriting, and potentially the best of modern times?
The respective twilights of Lionel Messi and Luka Modric are fittingly being played out beneath a blazing desert sun, but ultimately one of them will have to bid farewell to the global international stage in a meagre play-off for third place.
Argentine journalists wildly celebrated Brazil’s exit in the hours before their own quarter-final epic against the Netherlands, but Croatia are nightmare opponents in many ways. Where Argentina are brittle, Croatia are The Great Survivors of international football.
Incredibly, Croatia haven’t won a knockout game in normal time at any major tournament since coming third at the 1998 World Cup, and in that time have been to one World Cup final and are now one game from a second.
There has been plenty of luck involved in Croatia’s latest run – they were a trilogy of hysterical Romelu Lukaku misses from going out in the groups, and beat Japan and Brazil on penalties, drawing 1-1 against the latter via a deflection on their only shot on target – but they are dogged enough to have put themselves in a position to benefit from that good fortune.
That quality of resistance may be kryptonite to Argentina, whose brittle nature is redolent of a character in a Jane Austen novel who becomes bedridden from an “excess of feeling.”
The Argentine FA have reportedly paid for thousands of fans to be flown into Qatar to create their magnificent atmosphere, which brings a pressure Argentina have not always looked comfortable in, certainly in the frantic way in which they threw away their two-goal lead against the Dutch.
But where there is Messi, there is hope. If he can drag Argentina to glory and write the story most want written, it may eclipse Diego Maradona’s 1986 triumph for pure achievement. Leo’s supporting cast are not as good as Diego’s.
But there are other reasons for Argentina to hope. Their rookie coach Lionel Scaloni is, after the first-day wobble against Saudi Arabia, proving to be a very effective tactician. His switch to a back three against the Netherlands was the correct move, and the introduction of Angel Di Maria in extra-time provided thrust to almost win the game before needing penalties. His only major error in the quarter-final was to bring on Leandro Paredes to close out the game, the equivalent of asking an arsonist to quench a fire.
Scaloni insists that Argentina know where to hurt Croatia, though it will likely all hinge on Messi’s performance. He has been outstanding thus far, but at a World Cup defined by stars’ farewell tours, his only counterpart performance-wise has been Luka Modric.
Though the semi-final line-up is surprising, it will guarantee two fabulously intense atmospheres, particularly when the Moroccan fans set out for the Al Bayt Stadium tomorrow.
The Al Bayt is the strange, tent-shaped stadium built 30 miles into the desert, and has seen some of the most antiseptic atmospheres of the tournament thus far. That will change tomorrow. Moroccan fans are piling into Qatar, with Morocco’s national airline laying on an extra 30 flights to Doha ahead of the game.
Morocco’s journey thus far has been incredible, beating Spain and the Portugal narrowly yet comfortably. Only the greatest of begrudgers could claim they were lucky to win either game.
But can they dethrone the reigning champions and pull off one of the greatest shocks in World Cup history? Injuries will be a major issue: Achraf Hakimi may be the only one of the first-choice back four left standing, with Romain Saiss, Nayef Aguerd, and Noussair Mazraoui all struggling with injury.
France will also test them in ways Spain couldn’t and Portugal didn’t. Morocco defend brilliantly but they don’t do so very deep, preferring to push up. Kylian Mbappe’s pace may force a retreat, however, at which point Olivier Giroud’s aerial presence and Antoine Griezmann’s laser-guided crossing will pose a major threat.
France are not as defensively solid as four years ago, however, and Morocco’s counter-attacking threat is excellent and thus should cause discomfort, though perhaps not enough to deny France a second-straight final.
There hasn’t been a repeat final since Argentina and West Germany met in 1986 and 1990, but Argentina are this time out to break the trend.
In a tournament that has written so many more remarkable stories, the prospect of Lionel Messi’s farewell taking place on the grandest stage of all would be a fitting end.
