What remains of the first round of the World Cup in Qatar: 41 goals, 9 penalties and a fundamental figure for what is to come

Brazil’s categorical victory against Serbia (2-0) put the final touch on the first round of the Qatar World Cup. After sixteen games, the conclusions are clear: the firm candidacies of the selected Tité, England, France and Spainthe disappointing performances by Argentina and Germanywhich fell to Saudi Arabia and Japan respectively, and the expected victories of Belgium and Portugal.

On Sunday 20 November she was already far away in a dizzying World Cup which on Tuesday gave a blow to the illusion of the Argentines and the undefeated team staggered. But that day the business started in Doha, Ecuador beat Qatar 2-0 in Group A leading with the Netherlands, who achieved the same result against Senegal.

Argentina, one of the big title candidates in the previous for his 36 match unbeaten run and the last? presence of Lionel Messi in a World Cupprotagonist of the first shock of the 2-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia, a game that started with the lead from Leo’s penalty, but in which three goals were canceled.

The other impact took place on Wednesday, in group E, when Japan returned it to Germanyanother of the strong teams in every World Cup, and achieved the most important victory in its history, as happened 24 hours earlier with the Saudis, the unthinkable leaders of zone C before the goalless draw between Mexico and Poland.

In this sense, England were the first team to be awarded a candidate plate. With a flawless victory against Iran 6-2 on Monday, the team led by Gareth Southgate Gave a superb display of his football when few listed him as favorites due to his recent international relegation League of Nations, just over a month ago. But in Group B he raised his head as the best in the area and took advantage of a 0-0 draw between the United States and Wales.

Francedespite the Ballon d’Or injury, Karim Benzemajust hours before the opener against Australia, he recovered from a trailing start to beat 4-1 with a flawless game in a Group D in which not even Denmark and Tunisia took advantage.

On the other side of the device, Spain in the reconstruction of Luis Enrique He has amply demonstrated that he doesn’t need time to be considered a candidate for the title. This is confirmed by his seven goals and the personality of his youth in the 7-0 defeat against weak Costa Rica, even more so considering that in the next game they will meet the battered Costa Rica manschaft.

In group F, on the other hand, Belgium settled after a rocky start with Canada to get a close 1-0, something like what happened at the Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in the 3-2 against Ghana in H, where Uruguay failed with South Korea inside one of the four 0-0 draws in the first round, which happened for the first time in the history of the World Cup. Finally, in zone G, in addition to Brazil’s victory, Switzerland beat Cameroon 1-0.

Without expulsions but with a lot of intervention from the VAR

While the first date went with four games without a goal (Mexico-Poland, in C; Denmark-Tunisia, in D; Morocco-Croatia, in F; and Uruguay-South Korea, in H), 41 were collected, for an average goal of 2.56 per game.

While, there have been no players sent off in the first 16 matches of the 2022 World Cup. But, as expected, the VAR played a key role. And it will undoubtedly be decisive for what is to come.

The players of the Argentina national teamwho benefited from the penalty with which Lionel Messi converted the 1-0 run against Saudi Arabia but suffered with the semi-automatic offside in a badly disallowed goal for Lautaro Martínez, in addition to the goals that did not validate La Pulga and the former Racing.

In addition to that penalty for Argentina and converted by Leo, there were seven other goals that came like this. The first of the World Cup was given to Ecuador on Sunday, which materialized Enner Valencia. Then Iran got the foot discount of Mehdi Taremi from twelve paces in the tough 2-6 defeat against England. In that same group B, Wales won the tie Gareth Bale of criminal.

German Ilkay Gundoganthe Spanish Ferran Torres and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo it was the other players who secured penalties for their teams, while the goalkeepers Guillermo Ochoa -who has reached the threshold of five World Cups together with Messi and CR7- e Thibaut Courtois they saved Mexico and Belgium, respectively, with their saves from Robert Lewandowski Y Alfonso Davis.