Football Yesterday & Today: ATWC : GROUP B

The group, the schedule, the stadiums, the squads, the games (please click on the pictures for a better view).

THE GAMES

DAY 1 :

FRANCE - COSTA RICA at Estadio Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico (capacity 48.000)

FRANCE - COSTA RICA : 2 - 0

The Costa Rician team finally showed signs of fatigue, which the French team was able to exploit thanks to their substitutes and... two Zidane's assists.

GOALS (Mbappé, Vieira) :

80' : Zidane finds his way through the left channel with the class that caracterizes him... cast a glance at his partners... Platini is ideally positionned a bit behind... and he chooses Mbappé who scores at close range. The latter had just swap positions with Henry.

88' : Vieira scores with a header from a Zidane corner-kick. Less than 5 minutes after he came in from the bench. France makes the break.

Yellow cards : Oviedo (72').

Man of the Match : for he was decisive on the two goals of the match, Zidane was presented with the little trophy. But the substitutions were also very important and the defensive unit perfectly did their job.

RATINGS :

France :

Barthez 7 - Thuram 5,5 - Blanc 5,5 - Desailly 6,5 - Amoros 6,5 - Deschamps 5,5 (Vieira 76'), Tigana 5,5 - Kopa 5 (Mbappé 65'), Platini 5, Zidane 7 - Papin 4 (Henry 65'). Tot. : 63.

Costa Rica :

Navas 6 - Martinez 5, Gonzales 5, Marin 5, Duarte 5, Oviedo 5 (Medford 90') - Ruiz 4,5 - Borges 4,5 - Centeno 4,5 (Bolaños 76') - Morera 4 (Campbell 70') - Wanchope (5,5). Tot. : 54.

Barthez (7) : he had a serious game (so to speak) and was there when he was alerted. His distribution (with the hands or with the feet) caused a sensation, like his save with the chest !

The back-four just did their job perfectly with the left part of it being particularly in view :

Amoros (6,5) : delivered a classic Amoros performance being well in view both defensively and offensively.

Desailly (6,5) : non-content of extinguishing his direct opponent, he had all freedom to exit the back, ball at the feet.

Blanc (5,5) : gave himself a little scare in front of Wanchope at some point.

Thuram (5,5) : won the majority of his duels but did not go forward very often.

The central midfield comprised of Deschamps (5,5) and Tigana (5,5) both had strict instructions that they strictly respected. As a security measure as he received a blow, Deschamps was subsituted with the tall Vieira. Good idea, since he scored with the head from a corner-kick, less than 5 minutes since his entrance to make it 2-0.

Kopa (5) : his influence was minimal, but he hardly lost any ball possession.

Platini (5) : will he hold a grudge against Zidane ?

Zidane (7) : amongst the three offensive midfielders, he mainly had to take care of the left part of the field, what he confined himself to do. It was his day though, as he was the decisive passer for the two goals of the match; once with a cross from the... left flank... and once from the left corner, with a corner-kick.

Papin (4,5) : his role was thankless : planting the first banderillas. If he has tired out the defenders, he also had a couple of misunderstandings with Kopa and... Platini for whom it really wasn't his day.

It doesn't smell good for the Ballon d'or '91.

Henry and Mbappé (subbed in together at the 65th minute) : Mbappé took the right flank of Kopa and Henry the centre forward position of Papin. They benifited from the undermined work which was done since he start and quickly started to dynamite the opponent's defense to definitively bring it down. Mbappé scored the long awaited goal after he had swapped position with Henry. It is Mbappé again who wins the corner-kick that will bring the goal number two.

Navas (6) : he won his duel with Platini from free-kicks (35', 55') but he could only postpone the deadline. He's rated with one point less than Barthez as he conceded two goals.

The whole line of of backs were given a 5 for their good performance, until the 80th minute.

The three-man midfield comprised of Ruiz, Centeno and Borges as its base were all given a 4,5. Each of them showed his abilities but the task was arduous.

In attack, Wanchope (5,5) was the most dangerous player of his team. Morera (4) shown to be a real fighter but he met someone stronger than him. He shot once on target though (remember of the above, at Barthez).

Amongst the players who wame in the from the bench, Bolaños remained almost unnoticed as France had possession more than ever in this match. Medford, who came in for the left wingback Oviedo during extra time, barely touched the ball. As for Joel Campbell (who's been welcomed on the pitch with a hard tackle from Amoros), he's been a better match to Desailly but could not find the target on the lone shot he had.

PORTUGAL - SAUDI ARABIA at Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla, Mexico (capacity 46.900)

PORTUGAL - SAUDI ARABIA : 4 - 1

GOALS (C. Ronaldo, Eusébio, Eusébio pk, Jaber, Fernandes) :

2': Eusébio exiles himself on the left wing and crosses the ball to Ronaldo who scores at close range.

11': Eusébio takes his chance at the 16 yards. It's in. This shoot allied power and precision, perfect technique !

33': The Saudis must deal with another wave from the portuguese attackers. Served by Rui Costa, Eusébio is tackled inside the penalty area... the referee onl can give the penalty. Eusébio transforms it himself and it's now 3-0 already ! The Saudis chances are arguably over in this match.

HT : 3-0.

63': superb combination between Abdullah and Al-Jaber which is reminiscent of Pelé-Tostao... Jaber is at the conclusion. Before landing in Jaber's feet, the ball was clearly deflected by Carvalho though (so it won't be recorded as an assist for Abdullah).

90': Eusébio exiles himself on the left wing and crosses the ball to new entrant Fernandes (in place of C. Ronaldo) who scores at close range. Portugal (and Eusébio) ponctuates the game the same way they started it.

Yellow Cards : Zubromawi (19'), Madani (33'), Abdulhamid (76').

Man of the Match : undeniably, Eusébio !

RATINGS :

Portugal :

Baia 4,5 - Pinto 5 - Pepe 5,5 - Carvalho 5 - Guerreiro 5,5 (Mendes) - Deco 5,5 (J. Neves) - Coluna 5,5 - R. Costa 5,5 - Figo 5,5 - Eusébio 8 - C. Ronaldo 5,5 (B. Fernandes). Tot. : 61.

Saudi Arabia :

M. Al-Deayea 3,5 - Zubromawi 3,5 - Al-Nu'elmeh 3,5 - Madani 4 - Al-Jawad 4 (Sulaimani) - Amin 4,5 - Al-Thunayan 3,5 (Abdulhamid) - Al-Oweiran 4,5 - Al-Bishi 4,5 - Abdullah 4,5 - Al-Jaber 5,5 (Al-Qahtani). Tot. : 45,5.

Cristiano Ronaldo showing incompehension when subbed out

DAY 2

COSTA-RICA - SAUDI ARABIA at Estadio Monterrey, Guadalupe, Mexico, (53.500)

COSTA RICA - SAUDI ARABIA : 2 - 1

A good little appetizer before France vs. Portugal. We remind you that the 8 best third-place teams will qualify for the Round of 32. The Costa Ricans completely changed of starting formation, abandoning the initial 5-3-2 they chose to face France to a more ambitious 4-3-3 and took an option to go through the group stage.

On the contrary, The Saudis went for a 5-3-2 starting formation in this match, instead of the 4-4-2 they used against Portugal. Not necessarily a bad idea, but the results are there. Costa Rica totalize 3 points (before their last game against Portugal) and Saudi Arabia remain at zero (before their last game against France).

GOALS (Abdullah, Wanchope, Duarte)

19' : Abdullah assaults the Costa-Rican defense... and scores ! What a shot !

35' : it's the equalizer. Medford cuts in, shoot ! Al-Deayea' save! But the ball falls to Wanchope, who scores !

63' : Ruiz at the corner-kick... Duarte ! Goal !

Yellow cards : Al-Bishi 26', Abdulhamid 57'.

Man of the Match : in spite of having the best individual rating, Abdullah was not awarded with the MotM trophy and we can easily see why. It was not another scorer either, nor Navas who preserved the 2-1 win. Joel Campbell, who did not spare his efforts and created several chances, received the trophy. Deservedly. We also liked Ramirez at midfield.

RATINGS

Costa Rica :

Navas 6 - Martinez 5 (Fuller) - Gonzales 5 - Duarte 6 - Oviedo 5 - Ruiz 5,5 - Borges 5 (Solis) - Ramirez 6 - Campbell 6 - Wanchope 6 - Medford 5,5 (Gomez). Tot. : 61.

Saudi Arabia :

M. Al-Deayea 4 - Abdulhamid 4,5 (Al-Thunayan) - Zubromawi 4 - Al-Nu'eimeh 5 - Madani 4 - Sulaimani 5,5 - Amin 5,5 - Al-Bishi 4,5 (Noor) - Al-Oweiran 5,5 - Abdullah 6,5 - Al-Jaber 5 (Al-Dawsari). Tot. : 54.

FRANCE - PORTUGAL at Estadio Azteca, Coyoacán, Mexico (capacity 83.000)

FRANCE - PORTUGAL : 2 - 2

Welcome to the mythical, mystical Estadio Azteca for the big match France vs. Portugal ! The show lived up to expectations.

GOALS (Eusébio pk, Eusébio, Mbappé, Henry)

19' : Thuram impedes C. Ronaldo... its a pen'. Eusébio transforms it into a goal ! 1-0 Portugal.

40' : Guerreiro climbs up the pitch with incedible ease... he crosses the ball to Eusébio who makes it 2-nil.

67' : Platini to Mbappé... he's onside... goal ! It's the second goal in the tournament by the one who was not a starter in the first match. We'll have to count on him. The match is back on.

77' : Platini to... Henry... it works too ! 2-2 ! Henry hit a brick wall until then but through persistence, it happened. Like Zidane in the fist match, platini completes a two-assist game. We did not expect less from him.

83'... Eusébio has a hat-trick at the tip of his shoe in order to snatch the win, but the score will remain 2-2.

Yellow cards : Thuram 19', Amoros 60', Maniche 80'.

Man of the Match : Platini delivered the magic tonight and the two black arrows, Mbappé and Henry finalized his creations.

RATINGS

France :

Barthez 5 - Thuram 5 - Blanc 5 - Desailly 5,5 - Amoros 5,5 (Lizarazu 74') - Deschamps 4 (Vieira 50') - Tigana 6 - Mbappé 7 - Platini 8 - Zidane 5,5 - Henry 6,5 (Papin 80'). Tot. : 63.

Portugal :

Baia 5 - Pinto 5,5 - Pepe 5 - Carvalho 5 - Guerreiro 6 (Mendes 70') - J. Neves 5 - Coluna 5 (Maniche 78') - R. Costa 6 - Figo 5,5 (Deco 78') - Eusébio 7 - C. Ronaldo 6. Tot. : 61.

Once again, Deschamps had to leave the pitch as he visibly was suffering from something. It may be more serious than what he said after the game against Costa Rica, and what he said at the half time of this match as well.

Eusébio continues to impress with a new brace. But tonight we also saw a great Platini, the author of two assists. It was really a great meeting between all these stars.