Let's not forget that Messi will not be in an airless space and he will be opposed by a fairly powerful team, the reigning world champion and, perhaps, something inferior to Messi in terms of individuality and merit, but at least still stronger as a team.

I am not sure that even winning La Liga will help Barcelona cope with the financial problems that have fallen on it, because these problems did not arise yesterday and therefore it will be difficult to fix them in one day. The best option was to reduce their ambitions financially for at least a year, but the club's management took a different path and got into debt, and also refused part of the profits that the club would have in the future. Therefore, yes, you need at least a second place to at least keep the interest of advertisers and potential investors at the same level.

Despite not the most impressive match with the national team of Morocco, when the French national team for the absolute majority of the time just stupidly defended the minimum advantage, it is still worth recognizing that France is the favorite in this match, at least purely by the strength and potential of its composition. But in any case, that the French national team, that the Argentine national team at this World Cup relied on pragmatic football and this bet fully justified itself by bringing both teams to the final match, although Argentina was on the verge of failure in the match with the Netherlands when it brought the match to a penalty shootout. Well, now it will be interesting to see what tactics the teams will choose for the finals.

Oh, don't rush to send the Moroccan national team home. They still have a match for third place with the Croatian national team and yet there is some difference to take third place and get bronze medals or lose in this match as well. At least, the head coach of the Moroccan national team, Walid Regragui, said after the match that they would try to win in the bronze medal match, but he would give a chance to prove himself to those players who played little here. I would not say that Morocco had one or two chances to win the match, because they immediately conceded a goal in the 5th minute and therefore tried to at least equalize the score until the 79th minute of the match. But in any case, the Moroccan national team can only be praised for the second half and the French national team had a very difficult time, although France could have decided everything already in the first half if Giroud and Mbappe had scored their goals.

Everyone has different ways, many are probably puzzled how, after the terrible first two rounds of the group stage, the Argentine national team managed to get all the way to the final Each team may not have its own day and it is obvious that Croatia had exactly this case today. 2-0 after the first half in favor of the Argentina national team broke all the scenarios that the Croatian national team probably counted on. Also, I would not rush to talk about knockouts, because Morocco is a strong team that has not just yet lost a single match at the tournament, unlike France, but also conceded only one goal during the entire tournament, which is an autogall. Therefore, if Croatia failed to beat the favorite, then why couldn't Morocco have done it?

I would not say that Croatia was weak in this match and controlled the ball for quite a long time, and as far as I know the final figures on possession of the ball in favor of Croatia. Another question is that, nevertheless, Argentina was lucky to score its goal first after a penalty kick, which still would not have been put by every referee and, accordingly, thanks to this, it is relatively comfortable to control the course of the meeting and arrange quick striking counterattacks. It is also worth noting Messi, who scored a penalty and made an excellent assist, and Alvarez scored a double, especially his first goal when he rammed through half of the football field.

Well, I'm not sure that Barcelona will put all its resources into winning the title of the winner of the Europa League and I don't think it will be a great tragedy for the club's management to fail in this matter. Still, I think that the main priority for Barcelona is to win La Liga and if that happens, Xavi will be forgiven for all the other failures.

Croatia may well present a surprise, because Argentina does not look so invincible and its success is based on the efforts of only two players, Messi and goalkeeper Martinez. But Messi's contribution to the team's success at this World Cup is still much greater. It's hard to imagine what the Argentine national team will be able to do if this day is not Messi's day. Therefore, Croatia has a fairly real chance to reach the final of the tournament again.

It all depends on how much worse Chelsea will be under Potter than under Tuchel. It is quite obvious that if the club languishes in the middle of the standings, the club's management is unlikely to look at it calmly and it is obvious that the minimum goal for Potter will be to get into the Champions League zone and failure to fulfill this task may result in the resignation of the head coach. It is also obvious that the club is unlikely to arrange a personnel revolution for Potter, although of course there will be certain personnel reinforcements, but it is unlikely that he will have the last word and the head coach will need to be content with those players who will be available and also those who will be able to sign.

The crushing victory in the quarterfinals over the Swiss national team with a score of 6-1 played a cruel joke and excessive self-confidence with the head coach of the Portuguese national team, Fernando Santos. He thought that all the reasons for the problems of the team's game lie in one person and this person is Ronaldo, and therefore again decided to repeat the trick and not release Cristiano from the very beginning of the game. But the harsh reality refuted his plan and the team, on the contrary, began the second half losing with a score of 1-0 and only then was Ronaldo released on the field. It is quite possible that if Ronaldo had entered the field from the very beginning, the final result would have been much more favorable for Portugal, and Ronaldo was not used to solving problems during his entire career by coming on as a substitute. In contrast, in the Argentine national team, Lionel Scaloni patiently keeps Messi on the field for the entire match, in which he absolutely can walk around the field most of the time, completely not participating in team actions, but with his several actions he can decide the outcome of the match.

It's just that the Brazilian national team, instead of simplifying the result, for some reason slowed down and tried to defend this result. And 1-0 is a very slippery score and any mistake in defense can lead to disastrous results, which happened in the end. The Brazilian national team spent the entire World Cup in economy mode, excluding the first half with the Korean national team and paid for it in the end.

Playing in extra time at the World Cup playoff stage has already become a trademark of the Croatian national team, and most importantly, if at the last World Cup such tactics brought the final, then this year the team is already in the semifinals. The Brazilian national team, instead of learning a variety of dances to celebrate future goals, it would be better to spend this time learning the correct penetration of post-match eleven-meter strikes, but is it possible to talk about this when the head coach himself dances with the players Cats all over the world breathed a sigh of relief and themselves staged joyful dances about the victory of the Croatian national team

There is no doubt that Juventus is in a rather difficult position because of the whole situation with the resignation of the board of directors and this can really leave its mark on the results and the team's performance. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that Juventus looked increasingly confident during the season and this trend may well continue after the resumption of the championship, especially if the injured players who Massimiliano Allegri initially counted on return. Although, for example, I have some doubts about Pogba. In any case, the situation is unlikely to end with Juventus's reference to the division below, as it was last time, we can say that there is a redistribution of spheres of influence in the club and another group takes the first roles. The most important thing is that it does not affect the club itself and its game.

It all depends on how the Moroccan national team itself, its head coach and players reacted to the fact that the team reached the quarterfinals. Here the situation is twofold, that the players will calm down, that the task has already been completed and the team has already jumped over their heads. Or vice versa, the team will calm down and on the contrary will become even more confident in their abilities and will be even better. By the way, I would not be in a hurry to greatly exaggerate the success of the Moroccan national team and now declare it the favorite of the World Cup, because Spain still looked terrible and I would not say that Morocco was a head taller. Still, winning a series of post-match eleven-meter is one thing and winning in regular time is quite another thing.

A team like Spain should not bring their matches to such a stage as a penalty shootout. In my opinion, the game of the Spanish national team after the enchanting victory over the Costa Rica national team was only descending and, accordingly, the results worsened when, after the victory, a draw with the German national team followed first, and then a loss from the Japanese national team in general. You can say as much as you like that the Spanish national team was unlucky, but to be honest, its game was terrible and the only thing more terrible was the penetration of the eleven-meter in the final of the match. Watching this, reasonable questions arose, and in general whether the players practiced eleven-meter strikes or something like that did not even occur to the head coach. Although with such a toothless attack, on the contrary, it was necessary to focus on practicing penalties and hope to play to this point and get the right to do so.

Such a long break in the Premier League, which was formed as a result of the World Cup, can really have a serious impact on the tournament struggle. It is also a great chance for those clubs that had a rather unsuccessful first part of the season, and for a team like Liverpool, which has accustomed to certain results and any place that is not first or second is really unsuccessful for such a team. Therefore, even if Liverpool is not as strong as in previous seasons, but still do not discount it and Jurgen Klopp will certainly try to change the situation.

The most important problem of Ronaldo at this point in time is that despite his excellent condition, age still gives its own and this factor must be compensated in some way, but neither in the national team, nor even more so in Manchester United, it does not work, and in the case of Manchester United recently it is even and they tried to do it. Ronaldo still has ambitions as a player and expects serious titles, but at the same time he must come to a team that seriously counts on him and agrees to change its playing model for him. I'm afraid of making a mistake and, on the contrary, I wish him all the best, but with all due respect to Cristiano's talent, this is not feasible in European top teams. Therefore, Ronaldo must accept this and vice versa try to change something in his playing actions and reduce his ego and resentment about his influence on the game. Otherwise, then it is better to use the option with Saudi Arabia.

This does not negate the importance of such players not just for the national team's game, but also just for its morale. I think that the very fact that Messi is on the field reflects in the most favorable way on his partners, because they have confidence that if something does not work out for them, then Messi can tip the scales in favor of his team with just one action. In many ways, it is thanks to this that Lionel Scaloni does not replace his leader. Exactly the same things can be said about the Brazilian national team, where the presence of Neymar dramatically increases the creativity of the attacking actions of the team. And Mbappe is a sharp tip for the French national team, who also constantly keeps the opponent's defense in suspense and at least distracts the attention of the opponent's defense.

I think that the most priority option for Ronaldo would be the option with Chelsea, given that the club continues to participate in the Champions League, and everyone knows Cristiano's indifferent attitude to this tournament, so the option with Arsenal looks less likely for this reason. Moreover, I am not sure that Mikel Arteta will be very enthusiastic about this, because a lot of nerves and efforts have been spent on building intra-team relationships, and here we will have to deal with embedding such a difficult character as Ronaldo into the team, who requires special treatment and for whom not all coaches are authoritative, as he for example before I've already said that about Rangnik. Yet at Chelsea, Potter, in my opinion, has less influence to resist the owner's desire to sign Ronaldo for marketing purposes.

Oh, yes, I understand even if Newcastle would be called a strong average team, but it's impossible to call them a small team after the middle of last season. And their weight will only increase and probably they can be called a big team already at the end of this season with a good combination of circumstances, because Newcastle is already a big club in terms of money, but not always big money gives a big result. After all, the English Premier League is the richest European championship in Europe in finance, so you can't automatically pull off the same scenario as happened in France with Paris Saint Germain, whose budget is an order of magnitude higher than all its domestic competitors.