World Cup 2022: Semi Final Review

4 min readDec 16, 2022

On Sunday night, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar comes to an end as Argentina faces the defending champions France in what promises to be an exciting finale. You can find a plethora of markets here, but first, let’s have a look on how the two opponents made it to the final.

Argentina vs. Croatia

This was another hugely important test for the Argentinian side, as the game would decide who got to play in the famed World Cup final! The first half saw some exciting, attacking football played against the sturdy Croatian side. In the 38th minute Alvarez found himself through on goal, courtesy of an excellent Messi pass, yet as he ran towards goal with the ball, the Croatian goalkeeper ran towards him causing him to tumble to the ground. The referee awarded a penalty to Argentina for the offence, which Messi scored in spectacular fashion by booting the ball into the top right of the net.

A mere few minutes after the first goal, a quick counterattack by Argentina resulted in Alvarez having a magnificent run at the goal, yet this time no keeper or defender were able to stop him, and he volleyed the ball for a 2nd quick-fire goal in the first half.

The 2nd half saw some even more thrilling attacking play, with a very close missed shot from the feet of Lionel Messi. The half also saw a nail-bitingly close header which was almost scored by the mighty Lovren for Croatia! However, it didn’t take long before Messi was once again running towards the goalposts, he then managed to skill himself out of being marked by a Croatian defender before launching a great assist that was scored by the trusty Alvarez!

Lionel Messi celebrates with his teammates their semi-final victory

France vs. Morocco

It was incredible enough that Morocco were able to make it to the semi-finals! As they beat Spain and Portugal to become the first African team to progress so far in the tournament. Yet it is undeniable that France looked deadly from their last few games, meaning a real challenge presented itself to the Moroccan side.

The first half began with a burst of excitement, as a dangerously placed through ball to Griezmann led to a shot on goal by Mbappe, which was deflected before being scored by French left-back Hernandez for an extremely early 4th minute goal. As the game progressed, Morocco had some more promising chances, albeit with very few shots on goal, the few of which were saved by the rapid Hugo Lloris. Giroud also hit the post in another close chance for France after becoming 1 on 1 with the goal keeper.

The 2nd half saw the Moroccans start very strongly, with some ridiculously close chances inside the French penalty area. One chance hit the woodwork with Lloris being there to clear any danger, whilst the other chances were saved or cleared brilliantly by French defenders and midfielders Konate and Griezmann. Later on in the 2nd half, the Moroccans began to grow weaker as the French confidence grew, in the 79th minute Mbappe manoeuvred himself past a total of 3 Moroccan defenders in the penalty area before assisting Kolo Muani for an easy tap-in goal to bring the French a back-to-back World Cup final!