Didier Deschamps Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Kyle Walker Wojciech Szczesny Dayot Upamecano Manchester Qatar France Doha Poland county Walker Football Manchester City Champions League Newcastle Didier Deschamps Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo Kyle Walker Wojciech Szczesny Dayot Upamecano Manchester Qatar France Doha Poland county Walker

England out to stop World Cup’s ‘irresistible force’ Mbappé

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DOHA: England’s players have been asked one question on repeat as they prepare to face France in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.

How do you stop Kylian Mbappé?Hardly surprising, given Mbappé is the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals and is widely considered the man to succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as soccer’s biggest star.“I’m sure England will have prepared to face Kylian,” France coach Didier Deschamps said at a news conference Friday. “But Kylian is in the position to make a difference.“Kylian is Kylian and he always will be.”There is no sense of France trying manage expectations of their star player, even as the hype surrounding him grows with each stellar performance in Qatar.He has already scored one more goal than the four he managed as his country won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.In the round of 16, he struck twice as the defending champions beat Poland 3-1, with two thunderous shots past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.“He cannot be compared to other players,” said teammate Dayot Upamecano.“We all believe in Kylian,” added Youssouf Fofana.Mbappé is being depicted as an unstoppable force in Qatar — something England defender Kyle Walker pushed back against this week.“I don’t know how to say it even more: I feel he is a top player.

I’m not underestimating that one bit, but we are not playing tennis, it’s not a solo sport,” he said after being faced with a series of questions about the Paris Saint-Germain striker.But France’s players seem happy to feed the narrative that Mbappé is simply unstoppable.“If he (Walker) can stop Kylian Mbappé, good for him,” added Fofana. “But 19 other teams in Ligue 1 have been waiting for the solution.

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DOHA: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have dazzled at the World Cup in Qatar, while Morocco caught the imagination of a continent on their run to the semifinals. But the host nation flopped badly, Germany made a swift exit and Cristiano Ronaldo discovered he was no longer an automatic pick for Portugal. AFP Sport looks at the hits and misses from a month-long festival of football. Overachievers Morocco became the first African side and the first Arab team to reach the semifinals of a World Cup. And it was no fluke. Walid Regragui’s men, ranked 22nd in the world, beat Belgium and drew with Croatia on the way to topping their group before dumping 2010 champions Spain and Portugal out of the tournament. Roared on by tens of thousands of fans and supported across Africa and the Arab world, they came up short in the semifinals, losing 2-0 to France, but they have broken new ground. Japan shocked Germany and Spain to top their group before losing on penalties to Croatia in the round of 16. South Korea underlined the progress Asian football is making by beating Portugal to qualify from their group but came unstuck against Brazil in the first knockout round.

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