Fernando Santos is set to quit his job as Portugal coach after their World Cup quarter-final loss to Morocco, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The Portuguese lost 1-0 to Morocco in Qatar on Saturday as Santos started alongside the country’s all-time record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo on the substitutes’ bench. Santos, […]
Croatia is hoping that Argentina’s bad-tempered World Cup quarter-final win over the Netherlands with 16 yellow cards and one red card will not end qualification in Tuesday’s semi-final, coach Zlatko Dalic said on Monday. Argentina eventually won on penalties after losing a two-goal lead, but the match was marred by disciplinary breaches from both sides […]
Youssef En-Nesri’s header late in the first half gave Morocco, who reached the quarter-finals for the first time, a 1-0 lead over Portugal at halftime on Saturday. En-Nesri, who had earlier hit the crossbar twice, lofted past both Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa and defender Ruben Dias to put Morocco ahead in the 42nd minute. Portugal […]
“We know we’ll give it our all on the pitch. We know football can sometimes be beautiful and sometimes it can be brutal.” Scaloni would also not draw on whether he would prefer to play arch-rivals Brazil or Croatia in the semi-finals if Argentina win, and said he still thinks the tournament is wide open. […]
This was certainly the case at the 2014 World Cup when Dutch coach Louis van Gaal had to prepare for the threat of Messi in the semi-finals in Brazil, although they still lost. What he did learn, however, was that defending against Messi is a collective act. Messi then had more of a playmaker role, […]
