Sixty four games. 29 days. Eight stadiums. Five cities. The FIFAWorldCup in Qatar was memorable, both on and off the pitch. TheAthleticFC writers pick their tournament moments and standouts.
Exactly as expected. When you stick a bunch of talented footballers and excited fans in the same place, you tend to get a pretty good show. I didn’t believe FIFA orwhen they said LGBT+ people would be welcomed at the tournament, and so it proved. And an iconic photo of Messi does not change the fact thousands of migrant workers have been poorly paid and poorly treated and we still lack clarity over the true death toll.
It was an incredibly fun, but equally strange tournament. There were outstanding matches and huge shocks, yet a lot of the time the stadiums weren’t full and the atmosphere was underwhelming. It has been more pleasant than I expected in Doha, too, but will that stay the same now the football is over?From a purely football point of view, it will be remembered as the World Cup when Messi completed his trophy collection and confirmed his status as one of the greatest footballers we have ever seen.
It was entertaining. It was also exhausting. It was a sugar high and a horrible sugar comedown, often on the same matchday.It will probably be remembered for the glory of its final, an occasion that defied belief at times and was driven by the stunning subplot that was the head-to-head between Messi and Mbappe — a Qatari Sports Investment employees’ derby for the ages. The tournament will always mark a first appearance in a semi-final by an African nation, too.
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