- 3 weeks ago
And then there were four!
But it is not just any four, as for the first time the top four ranked teams in the world are through to the final four, and not since 1990 have all four teams been past winners.
France and Spain will get the semifinal going on Tuesday and both teams putting in the work ahead of only their second world cup meeting.
But it is not just any four, as for the first time the top four ranked teams in the world are through to the final four, and not since 1990 have all four teams been past winners.
France and Spain will get the semifinal going on Tuesday and both teams putting in the work ahead of only their second world cup meeting.
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00:14and then there were four but it's not just any four as for the first time the top four randy
00:21teams in the world are through to the final four and not since 1990 have all four teams
00:27been past the winners france and spain will get the semi-final going tomorrow and both teams putting
00:33in the work ahead of only their second world cup meeting this was the france squad arriving at their
00:39hotel they're just one win away from reaching a third straight world cup final their captain
00:45and kylian mbappe is leading the race for the golden boots alongside lino messi both have eight goals
00:50so far i'm not going to say i'm scared i think we're aware of our qualities we know that spain
00:57also has a very good squad they've also had a great adventure here we play every game to win
01:02i think all the opponents have very good players and are very good teams and we respect them
01:06our goal is to win of course so we're going to focus on that
01:11well france are up against a formidable opponent in spain they're the european champions and have
01:16only conceded one goal so far at the world cup and they've had a they have a star player to
01:22rival
01:22mbappe lamin yamal is only 19 years old and somewhat of a lucky charm spain have never lost
01:29a match when yamal starts that record stretches back 26 games to 2023 yamal has also never lost
01:36a head-to-head knockout match against mbappe at both international and club level spain haven't lost
01:41a competitive match in 90 minutes since scotland beat them in march 2023 and spain beat france in the
01:49euro 2024 semi-finals and again in the uefa nations league semis last year
01:57and when you have two super teams set to face off in a match of this magnitude the playing surface
02:03ought
02:03to be of the highest quality as the grounds team in dallas are ensuring the pitcher for tomorrow's
02:08semi-final will be fitting for the occasion well preparations are well underway at dallas stadium
02:14with groundsmen doing everything they can to get the natural grass pitch in perfect condition for
02:19kickoff this is the final world cup game at the venue before it returns to hosting the nfl dallas
02:25cowboys team and the grass will be replaced by artificial turf what we're doing here is hosting
02:32the biggest football tournament in the world these are the best players in the world so we want to
02:36provide the best surfaces for them so you know like i say there's a lot of work there's a lot
02:41of
02:42research goes into making sure you know that that we can do that it's not just about having green
02:47grass you know we have to make sure that these pitches play the way that these these elite level
02:53players are are used to well is bigger always better well fifa president gianni infantino that's a yes
03:01as the football boss says the world cup needs to be for the entire world as plans to expand the
03:08tournament to 64 teams will be examined jenny infantino says football's world governing body will look at
03:15the possibility of expanding the 2030 edition to 64 teams the proposal was put forward last year and
03:23infantino says the success of this year's 48 team tournament means fifa should explore the idea of adding
03:29another 16 nations infantino made the comments to a swiss media outlet he said that's definitely an issue that will
03:37be
03:37examined and discussed after this world cup when organizing a world cup it's important to organize
03:42it for the whole world not just europe and south america every nation should be allowed to dream
03:47of participating in the world cup it's been very exciting world cup so far we've seen a lot of great
03:53matches a lot of great comebacks but i do think at the end of the day it's a terrible idea
03:57to make it
03:58even bigger and but that obviously doesn't mean that it won't happen and on the contrary i think it's
04:03probably inevitable at this stage i think when the idea was first raised uh spontaneously at a fifa
04:10congress and the initial reaction was quite negative even within and the major footballing
04:15circles with uefa and the afc very open in their disapproval primarily because it would be a
04:20logistical nightmare and there was also talk of maybe diluting the quality of the tournament but
04:24infantino rather tellingly never ruled that out and now he's using the success
04:28of the african nations primarily at this summer's world cup to justify an expansion and i think we
04:34all know that the real reason is obviously that a 64 team world cup would solidify his power as
04:38president as more teams and more games means more money for fifa and its members and the buzz off the
04:45field continues as argentina are banking on superstition against england refereeing errors are still
04:51stinging ai has limits and uruguay and senegal make some coaching changes
05:05argentina are banking on history repeating itself against england on wednesday as the defending champs
05:11had their request to wear their dark blue kits granted by fifa despite winning the 2022 title in
05:17their traditional blue and white kits the argentines requested the dark blue kits because the blue
05:21and white kits have brought them bad luck against england in 1966 and 2002 however the dark blue kits
05:29brought success in 1986 and 1998 and the argentines are hoping it will continue to bring them luck on
05:35wednesday meanwhile the burning topic over refereeing is raging on as egypt's mustafa zico who scored in
05:41their knockout round defeat to argentina said the world cup is fixed the striker who had another goal
05:46disallowed in that match said his team faced clear and obvious injustice meanwhile now his manager
05:52stole his shoulder back and said they will talk until they are dead as he's still puzzled over
05:57england's equalizing goal on saturday he's convinced the ball struck the camera cable and fell straight
06:02down before england went on to score despite their protests fifa allowed the goal as the ball sensor did
06:08not record any evidence of it hitting the cable and while artificial intelligence has played an
06:13increasingly bigger role at this world cup technical director of china's football association chris van
06:18ofelda said ai has its limits he argued that ai tools will never replace players or referees as
06:24the human brain is the ultimate decision maker in football and former uruguay and manchester united
06:30striker diego forlan is set to become uruguay's new manager the 47 year old will replace 70 year old
06:36marcelo bielsa on an interim basis until march and he will also lead uruguay's under 20 side at the
06:43south american championship in january and senegal has sacked manager pap chao following a disappointing
06:49world cup campaign the africans threw away a two-go lead with four minutes remaining in their knockout
06:55round clash against belgium and former arsenal captain and france midfielder patrick vieira is
07:00the overwhelming favorite to replace him we took a short break and come back with more sports stay with us
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