Quarter Final 1: France vs Morocco at Boston Stadium at 9pm BST, Thursday 9 July

Quality control
Red Pumpkin said:
I have not seen anything from Yamal to suggest he is a Mbappé talent. He is very good but Mbappé is what Ronaldo R9 should have been if injury free. Yamal has yet to reach Neymar levels and I'm not even sure he ever will, anyhow its a level below R9 and Mbappé.

I agree about Pelé sitting there with Messi and Maradona. But I also believe Mbappé deserves a place at the same table. In France they have finally, after much discussion, started to put Mbappé above Platini and Zidane in their all time rankings. No one even debates Mbappé vs Henry, Cantona, Papin, Griezmann, Trezeguet, Ribéry or whoever you can think of. To be above Zidane you have to be at that Pelé, Maradona, Messi table level.
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That is some take, wow. Probably the dumbest thing I've ever read on these forums, and there have been some gems. Congrats.
 
BTW, Kane should take notes. The way Mbappe created that penalty was top notch. And I'm not dissing it, for real that was a perfect.
 
Fortitude said:
No Saibari, no party.

Unfortunately for Morocco their attack is nonexistent without him.
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Not sure he would have been able to do much as the ball wasn't reaching the area he would have occupied.
 
pogoss said:
Not sure he would have been able to do much as the ball wasn't reaching the area he would have occupied.
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He was a major component in their whole attack getting forward; ball up to him; him occupying defenders; cavalry arrives.

They also had less hesitancy with the early release when he was there. Without him, they kept turning back on themselves and killing their own advantageous positions.

They needed him more than ever for this game, unfortunately.
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Not that it made a difference to outcome



“I don't recall Mbappé often diving, but that fall was shamelessly staged. He tucked his left leg in beforehand, didn't even try to take a step. Bent his right leg right after and flew toward the contact. No intention whatsoever of running for the ball.
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Wouldn’t call it shamelessly staged, as he’s not seeking the initial contact. The situation with Kane was a perfect example of shamelessly staged, imo. Moroccan defender connects early with his boot high up Mbappe’s leg, then he catches him again further down, all while he’s sliding in and completely misses the ball, Mbappe obliges and obviously prefers the penalty rather than attempting to stay on his feet and potentially getting a shot of from a difficult angle.
 
NotChatGPT said:
Wouldn’t call it shamelessly staged, as he’s not seeking the initial contact. The situation with Kane was a perfect example of shamelessly staged, imo. Moroccan defender connects early with his boot high up Mbappe’s leg, then he catches him again further down, all while he’s sliding in and completely misses the ball, Mbappe obliges and obviously prefers the penalty rather than attempting to stay on his feet and potentially getting a shot of from a difficult angle.
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Only after Mbappé has already thrown himself to the ground. It was likely a pen anyway, and it didn't matter overall, but Mbappé dived for it (which I don't think he does in general).
 
BeforeKeanetherewasRobson said:
Not that it made a difference to outcome



“I don't recall Mbappé often diving, but that fall was shamelessly staged. He tucked his left leg in beforehand, didn't even try to take a step. Bent his right leg right after and flew toward the contact. No intention whatsoever of running for the ball.
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Mbappé is both a diver and an embellisher, he is also bad at both.
 
I do personally think Mbappe is the best player I've seen since Messi/CR. He's not as flashy as an Olise or Yamal, he doesn't have as much to his overall game as maybe Kane and he's not as much of an all-rounder striker as Haaland, so I don't think he's the best to watch (in the same way I enjoyed watching Ronaldinho more than Messi, for example, it's the same with Olise/Yamal), and obviously Yamal is only 18 (which is nuts, when you consider how good he already is), but his consistency and ability to deliver in the big games is insane. His pace and finishing are just out of this world. You can't give him an inch.

He obviously needs to win a few leagues and CLs with Real though, or else he won't be looked upon in that way. Because for all his goals at PSG they did fail pretty miserably overall.
 
I don't know how anyone can say that wasn't a dive from Mbappe. He was going down before any contact and I'm not remotely convinced that there would have been any contact had he just continued his stride. The only reason there was contact was because he chose to dive and therefore dragged his foot.

It was a rash tackle that often results in a penalty but that doesn't mean it should be a penalty when the attacker clearly dives. As is the case with tackles, you punish what did happen, not what is likely to happen.

Then again I am clearly in the minority because a huge number of comments, even ones that seem to acknowledge that he was diving before any contact think its still a penalty. I don't see how its a penalty if you initiate the contact and are falling to the ground before contact.
 
NotChatGPT said:
Wouldn’t call it shamelessly staged, as he’s not seeking the initial contact. The situation with Kane was a perfect example of shamelessly staged, imo. Moroccan defender connects early with his boot high up Mbappe’s leg, then he catches him again further down, all while he’s sliding in and completely misses the ball, Mbappe obliges and obviously prefers the penalty rather than attempting to stay on his feet and potentially getting a shot of from a difficult angle.
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Not got a dog in this race but don’t see contact pre falling
 
Poor that from Morocco. Came into the game playing for pens or banking on one chance one goal.

If it works I suppose it's somewhat justified(Norway had the same approach to the Brazil game) but if it doesn't, it looks poor.

I'd be hugely frustrated as a Morocoo fan. At least have a go.
 
Game was barely a contest. France have so much quality, big favourites and why no one else should be excited as even if get to the final likely to be crushed by this lot.
 
T00lsh3d said:
Yeah, he’s looked really good at the WC, but he is playing in a team that’s been far superior to their opposition in every game they’ve played.

He dominates the Spanish midfield then we might have an argument
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He might also have been good in the league, I remember Viera giving him a lot of praise, I just haven't watched him. No doubt if we are linked, hundreds will suddenly be intimately familiar with his game and produce a plethora of stats wheels.
 
Mb194dc said:
Game was barely a contest. France have so much quality, big favourites and why no one else should be excited as even if get to the final likely to be crushed by this lot.
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A final can play out in many ways.

Look at UCL. All the talk was how many goals PSG aer gonna beat Arsenal by and whilst the match was totally one-sided, it went down to PKs, where anyone can win.

Until the final though, yeah, France aren't losing.

Morocco felt like a team that accepted defeat after 10 minutes yesterday.
 
Fortitude said:
He was a major component in their whole attack getting forward; ball up to him; him occupying defenders; cavalry arrives.

They also had less hesitancy with the early release when he was there. Without him, they kept turning back on themselves and killing their own advantageous positions.

They needed him more than ever for this game, unfortunately.
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Yes but he played in functionning version of Morocco were the transitions were good. Against France there was not much link so I think he would have struggled.
But of course better have him than not.
 
Marwood said:
Poor that from Morocco. Came into the game playing for pens or banking on one chance one goal.

If it works I suppose it's somewhat justified(Norway had the same approach to the Brazil game) but if it doesn't, it looks poor.

I'd be hugely frustrated as a Morocoo fan. At least have a go.
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According to the coach in the press conference he didn't ask his players to sit back but France forced them to. It was a little better in the 2nd half but overall France was one class above so I'm not frustrated. You just gotta admit it when you face someone better, hopefully we improve and there is margin for improvement.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
He might also have been good in the league, I remember Viera giving him a lot of praise, I just haven't watched him. No doubt if we are linked, hundreds will suddenly be intimately familiar with his game and produce a plethora of stats wheels.
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It is the way
 
pogoss said:
it worked because Mbappe is fast ...
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Not just that, he floped with style, without exagerating, once VAR saw it they had no chance to avoid an scandal. Kane had Micah Richard as a teacher.
 
pogoss said:
According to the coach in the press conference he didn't ask his players to sit back but France forced them to. It was a little better in the 2nd half but overall France was one class above so I'm not frustrated. You just gotta admit it when you face someone better, hopefully we improve and there is margin for improvement.
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I'm sure that played a role but also I thought it was visible they had a gameplan which was to sit deep, move the ball slowly and negatively. As I said Norway did the same, that eas almost walking football at times with them.

But against France you're banking on luck for that approach to work.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
There has to come a point before you respond, that you actually bother to read the post you are replying to. I’m referring to the absolute greatest 2/3 other dimensional geniuses that have ever played the game. Like Messi, Pele or whoever one considers part of that tier (use Messi as a point of reference if you will). There’s a difference between them and Henry who would also make the top 100 and hence by your definition were among the all time greats. That’s not what the discussion was about.
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Well, you didn't say that.

You said absolute greats. Mbappe is an absolute great of football.
Henry is an all time great of football too.

You've now introduced top 2/3. Which is a totally different discussion to the one you first introduced.
 
Only said:
Well, you didn't say that.

You said absolute greats. Mbappe is an absolute great of football.
Henry is an all time great of football too.

You've now introduced top 2/3. Which is a totally different discussion to the one you first introduced.
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Wrong. You dove into a discussion without comprehending it. Obviously there are plenty of all timers over any 20 year period. It would be odd if there weren’t. I was referring to putting him into the same category as Messi, Pele, Mardonan or whoever one considers among the greatest ever as someone suggested. He’s not good enough for that. A great record for the best NT by a distance doesn’t change that.
 
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