SUN. 11 DEC, 2022-theGBJournal| It will be Argentina v Croatia on Tuesday, 13 December and France v Morocco on Wednesday, 14 December 2022 in the Semi Finals.
France beat England 2-1 to set its semi final clash up Morocco-who beat Portugal 1-0 in what is now the greatest moment in Africa’s World Cup storyline.
Croatia on the other hand defied the odds to send Brazil home while Argentina defeated the Netherlands 4-3 on penalty kicks to advance.
The question now on the lips of global football fans and followers is, who will be the finalists.
Morocco, the Atlas Lions, at the quarter final stage, set the latest of the numerous records so far at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. They became the first African/Arab nation to reach the semi finals of the FIFA World Cup.
En-Nesyri’s header 3 minutes to half time proved to be the pivotal moment for the injury-decimated Moroccan players and fans globally.
They had built and preserved one of the stingiest defense line in World Cup history.
Their incredible goalkeeper, Bounou, earning his 50th cap for his country-currently the best goalkeeper in Spain-has allowed just one goal past his post-a deflection from team mate at the early stage of the World Cup.
The pictures of their celebrations with mother, children and loved after the game left an indelible mark, a memory that will remain unforgettable for generations to come.
The purest of such moments was when the world saw Morocco’s attacking midfielder Sofiane Boufal and his mother dance on the field, Boufal’s mother breaking down in tears while celebrating the hard work and success of her son and the team.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo stamped Portugal’s place on the world map. In the match against Morocco, he came off the bench in the 50th minute to equal the men’s global all-time appearance record of 196 in international matches.
But it was his emotional breakdown after the match that drew international sympathy. He was in tears as he walked down the tunnel in what is undoubtable his last world cup appearance ever in the World Cup.
”I’m going to say one word to you, Ronaldo, your history, you are the legend. You have the beautiful past and the amazing present. You are the best in Portugal and the best in world,” that was the word of respect heaped on the legend after the game against Morocco.
Harry Kane
Harry Kane struck two penalties Saturday against France. The last one, sent well over the bar, has become a global meme.
The first one saw him equal Wayne Rooney’s England record of 53 goals from the penalty spot.
The miss was akin to the miss from the spot in their 2-1 defeat in Euro 2004 where David Beckham missed a penalty too.
France-Kylian Mbappe
France-The Les Blues have won all 10 games at the World Cup whenever Mbappe Started.
Earlier on Friday, Croatia the beaten finalist four year ago pulled off one of the greatest shocks of the tournament, scoring all four of their spot-kicks to deny Brazil, the tournament favourite.
Croatia sent the match into extra-time and eventually penalties when substitute Bruno Petkovic pulled a great goal heist, one of the best in World Cup history 117 minutes into the game. It wasn’t suppose to happen, it wasn’t in script. Brazil was suppose to dance through the rest of the pack-at least that was what is expected.
But the loss was one of the cruelest loss they have ever suffered given when Croatia conjured the equalizer.
The nerve shredding penalty shoot-out was akin to their gritty win over Japan in the last 16 stage.
Neymar, the Brazil talisman, scored his 77th international goal to equal Pele’s official record. He now shares the number recognized by FIFA.
In the other game of the day, Lionel Messi, Argentine ‘little wizard’ and his uncompromising Argentine squad kept their world cup dream alive after defender Nahuel Molina’s goal 10 minutes before the half time set them on course.
Argentina escaped in the end 4-3 on penalties after the Netherland squeezed and clawed their way back into the game.
Substitute Wout Weghorst led the Dutch sensational come back, scoring two amazing goals. The second goal is an audacious steal from a free-kick 11 minutes into stoppage time, when he drove the ball low and forcefully into the left hand corner of the goal to send the Dutch fans into wild frenzy.
The highlight of the game was underscored by the 17 yellow cards plus a red for Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries towards the end of the game.
Leo Messi tucked in his penalty in the 72nd minute of the game to reach yet another milestone in his career. He now shares top spot as his country’s highest goal scorer at the World with legendary Gabriel Batistutua with 10 goals each.
He is currently Argentina’s top goal scorer of all-time.
Meanwhile, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is gearing up to deliver yet another record in terms of consumer spend.
Visa, the official payment technology partner of FIFA has released data on spending from Visa cards across all official FIFA World Cup venues.
The data covers Qatar’s opening game loss to Ecuador on 20 November until the the conclusion of the final set of group stage games on 2 December 2022.
The data suggests that total spending is close to surpassing the total spending across the the entire 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Date shows that as of 2 December, 89% of the value spent across the entire tournament in Russia had already been spent before a single 2022 knockout game had kick off. It has already surpassed the spend at the 2014 FIFA World Cup (192%).
88% of spending at official Qatar 2022 venues have been contactless, the data shows. Al Janoub stadium has recorded the highest proportion of contactless payments, as 91% of all transactions were contactless. The single match with the highest proportion of contactless payments was between Poland the Saudi Arabia (96%).
According to the data, Stadium 974 had the highest average transaction amount during the group stages with a average $25. Stadium 974 also saw an average of $80 spent on merchandise. $15 on average was spent on food and beverage purchases.
Lusail Stadium led the group topped the group stage on total number of payment transactions with 22 of its payment volume coming from Qatar-issued visa cards, and 78% of that originating from international visa cards.
Overall, the average in-stadium transaction amount for matches at the group stage was $23- spent on merchandise (47%), food and beverages (36%) and FIFA ticketing (11%).
”For Qatar 2022, Visa enabled more payment terminals in official venues than ever before. It is trailling some innovative new ways to pay around Qatar, so
Paying for things can be less cumbersome and fans can stay in the moment and focus on the beautiful game,” says Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, SVP and Group Country Manager in the Gulf Cooperation Council of Visa, while explaining why spending has continued to rise.-By Charles Ike-Okoh
Twitter-@theGBJournal|Facebook-The Government and Business Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.ng|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
