Argentina-France in the final

France defeated Morocco 2-0 in today's semifinal on goals by Theo Hernandez and Kolo Muani. Despite this France did not look as strong as expected, and Morocco should be proud of a match where they managed to put pressure on the world champions, who at times looked shaky.

Argentina surely looked on with interest.

Both sides can win: They are both teams with great players and deserve to be in the final. I do not hide my subjectivity in supporting Argentina, but beyond this also hope that the World Cup will end outside Europe for the first time since 2002. 

France and Argentina do not share a strong World Cup history. They have met three times:

• 1930: At the very first World Cup they met in the group stages with Argentina winning 1-0. Argentina eventually went on to lose the final to Uruguay.
• 1978: At home Argentina defeated France 2-1 in the Group stages. As we all know, Argentina went on to win the World Cup.
• 2018: In Russia both countries faced one another in a match that France won 4-3, and France went all the way to become World Champions.

Both teams have won the World Cup twice (Argentina 1978 and 1986, France 1998 and 2018). For Argentina though, this will be their sixth final, while France is playing their third.

The match will also be sold as a contest between two great players and teammates in Paris St. Germain: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have each scored five goals in the tournament and will be looking to become the most scoring player of the tournament.

Whichever way you turn it, it will be a match to go into history of the World Cups in the World Cup that should never have taken place.

Belgium... sigh...

Today's second semifinal of the Nations League was between France and Belgium, who were fighting to see off Spain in the final.

Belgium had plenty to fight for: their greatest generation ever have never won a title, and they were facing a French side that in 2018 beat them out of the semifinals to become World Champions. Belgium, despite being ranked #1 in the FIFA World ranking, have nevertheless shown plenty of weaknesses, and these were sadly exposed today to the disappointment of all Belgium fans (I include myself), just as they were some months ago against Italy in the European Championships.

Belgium have an awesome force in Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, and in the first half of the match they played together to a splendid goal by Lukaku which put Belgium ahead 2-0, after a splendid Yannick Carrasco had put Belgium ahead 1-0. Although Belgium had not been outright dominant (who can dominate France anyway?), they looked the more dangerous and organized team, and I think we all thought that they could carry the match home after the first half.

All credit to France, who came out to play their chance in the second half, but the Belgians also appeared like a team that stopped playing: there was no speed or ambition in their play in the second half, as they seemed solely to rely on a poor defense, a strong Courtois, and long balls up to a lonely Lukaku. In the meantime France, World Champions, do have a powerful attack that nobody should underestimate: Karim Benzema made it 1-2, Kylian Mbappe made it 2-2 on penalty (and fully redeemed himself from the infamous penalty miss against Switzerland in July), and in the end Theo Hernandez made it 2-3 for France in the 90th minute of the match after an excellent build-up by a French side that played their chance against the feeble Belgians.

Have no doubt that France-Spain will be a great final. But for Belgium's golden generation this should be one of the biggest of many disappointments, and one should consider whether it is time for Roberto Martinez to go.