Qatar 2022 is a World Cup like no other, and the host nation performed like no other.
Theirs was the worst group-stage record of any home side at a World Cup, becoming the first to lose all three matches and conceding a landmark seven goals. Only South Africa, in 2010, had previously failed to make it out of the first round.
Controversially awarded the tournament months after Spain's Barcelona-inspired success at South Africa 2010, Qatar had plenty of time to prepare and soon put its faith in Catalan coach Felix Sanchez.
He worked first with the nation's youth teams before taking the top job five years out from the World Cup.
Although Sanchez led Qatar to Asian Cup success in 2019, he never considered a World Cup run a serious possibility – or so he said after a third straight defeat last month.
"Our country has 6,000 federation football licences, so this was a likely outcome," he explained. "We never set a goal to reach the round of 16 or quarter-finals."
While Sanchez believed this to be a "very realistic" approach, Qatar undoubtedly underwhelmed.
However, fortunately for those with a vested interest in the country boosting its reputation at the finals, its presence on the pitch extends beyond Sanchez's national team.
Lionel Messi and Neymar, like Sanchez, were poached by Qatar from Barcelona, and they are having a far greater impact.
Of course, neither are counted among the naturalised Qatari citizens who turned out in the colours of the gulf nation, but the South American superstars, along with Kylian Mbappe, represent Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain every time they step out on the field.
If disappointed by Qatar's woeful displays before his eyes, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir, could at least therefore be heartened by the influence of his club side.
PSG's takeover by Qatar Sports Investments followed hot on the heels of FIFA's vote for the 2022 hosting rights, yet it scarcely could have dreamed of the status its players would enjoy when the tournament finally came around.
Admittedly, things could have been very different had this World Cup taken place in the Northern Hemisphere's summer, as is the norm.
At the end of the 2021-22 season, Messi was coming off the worst club campaign of his career, Neymar had again spent long stretches out injured, and Mbappe appeared set to leave PSG for Real Madrid.
Six months on, all three were in form, all three were fit, and all three were still at PSG.
In Europe's top five leagues, Erling Haaland (21) alone has more goal involvements in 2022-23 than Neymar (20). Mbappe (10) leads the same metric in the Champions League. Both in Europe's top five leagues and in the Champions League, Messi sets the benchmark for assists (10 and four).
For Messi and Mbappe, that level of performance has continued in Qatar. They have carried Argentina and France respectively into the quarter-finals, with Messi scoring three and assisting one of La Albiceleste's seven goals while Mbappe has netted five and created two of the world champions' nine.
Meanwhile, Neymar was forced to watch as his club colleagues seized control of this competition, injured after a brutal Brazil opener in which he was fouled nine times by Serbia players and hobbled off with a severely swollen ankle.
But now he has come to the party – and it is always a party where Brazil are concerned.
Neymar scored one goal and assisted another in a dazzling first half against South Korea that set up a 4-1 last-16 victory. He is the first Brazil player since at least 1966 to both score and assist at three different World Cups.
The first of those Neymar World Cup goals came back in 2014 against next opponents Croatia, who have not looked capable of stopping a Selecao side in full flow, scraping past Japan only after a penalty shoot-out.
As in Sao Paulo at Brazil's home World Cup, the stands at Education City Stadium will be decked in yellow for Friday's quarter-final, although many of those present will be supporting Neymar himself as much as his team.
Travelling fans from outside the Middle East are in relatively short supply in Qatar, but there are no shortage of Neymar, Messi or Mbappe shirts at Brazil, Argentina or France matches.
It speaks to the success of the PSG project that this foothold in the world game has been established not by Qatar's investment in its national team or by its hosting of the greatest tournament of all.
While there is focus in Europe on QSI's failure to deliver Champions League glory, its thirst for star-power has been rewarded with a genuine interest in the last eight of a World Cup, Qatar's own World Cup.
And unlike in club competitions, where cohesion is key and PSG cannot blow the best teams away, superstars can single-handedly decide the day at this level.
Brazil – and QSI – have one of those; there could yet be cause for celebration for Sheikh Tamim and Qatar if Neymar again performs like the world's most expensive player over the next 10 days.
Barrow’s climb is a victory for hard work, says boss Pete Wild
Pete Wild believes his side’s hard work is paying off after Barrow moved into the Sky Bet League Two promotion places with a comfortable 2-0 win over Walsall at Holker Street.
Goals from Ben Whitfield and Niall Canavan secured all three points as the Bluebirds extended their record unbeaten league run to 10 games.
Whitfield put the home side ahead after 11 minutes, controlling Canavan’s long range pass before placing the ball perfectly into the far corner from the edge of the area.
The Bluebirds got the second they deserved with 19 minutes remaining when skipper Canavan pounced to force the ball home from close range for his second of the season, after George Ray’s initial effort was blocked.
Barrow have now registered five consecutive league wins for the first time since the 1967-68 season and moved up to third in the table.
Wild said: “Winning games breeds confidence and the more you win the more confident you get.
“I’m really pleased for the players and staff and everyone is really working hard this season and that’s paying off in terms of results.
“Good seasons are built on good runs and consistency, so the longer we can keep this run going the better for everyone at the club.”
“I thought it was a really solid front footed performance tonight. They say this is a tough place to come and I wanted it to be just that tonight.
“The way we started the game and the energy we played with was really pleasing and we got our first goal from being positive and getting at Walsall from the start of the game.
“I thought the way Walsall would play would give us space between the lines so I thought it would be an interesting one for Ben Whitfield to start and it paid off for us.”
Walsall are now six matches without a win and manager Mat Sadler said: “It was a tough watch for anyone who was at the game.
“We went into the game knowing how poor the pitch was and we highlighted how poor the pitch was and it suited the way they play as they play here every week, how they get goals, how they create chances.
“They get it in the areas and create chances from the wide areas which is what they did and we didn’t do that nearly enough for the ability we’ve got in our team.
“So we’re extremely disappointed to let them get their noses in front on a turgid pitch and we didn’t get anything near good enough going for the standards we set ourselves.
“We dropped well below the standards that we set ourselves tonight but we will put it right.”
I just want the lads to understand me better – Grant McCann after Doncaster win
Grant McCann will focus on ensuring his messages are getting through to his Doncaster players loud and clear after being left frustrated with aspects of their performance in the win over Colchester.
A Tom Smith own goal and efforts from Mo Faal and Joe Ironside saw Rovers to a 3-1 triumph.
While pleased with the result, McCann felt his side did not heed his instructions to push for more goals after each occasion when they found the net.
“We got the first goal and then we just sat back a bit again,” he said. “It’s something we need to get to the bottom of.
“I spoke to the group and said if it’s something I’ve said, I’d hold my hands up but doing that is not something that’s coming out of my mouth.
“After the first goal, we let Colchester come on to us for a five minute spell and Joe Taylor nearly scored before he actually got the equaliser.
“We made it hard for ourselves but I said to the lads at half-time that if we score the next one, we have to keep going and get more. You have to keep the foot down but we sat off again and Colchester had chances.
“It’s not too much of a dig at the lads because on the whole I thought we were good and it’s a good response to losing in the last minute at Crewe.
“But I just want the lads to understand me better. They have to push themselves up the pitch because we speak about it all the time – scoring and scoring again.”
Joe Taylor netted an equaliser for Colchester before the break but the visitors offered little in the way of real threat in the second half.
Head coach Matt Etherington was bitterly disappointed with United’s performance.
He said: “It wasn’t good enough in the second half and it was probably the worst 45 minutes of football since I’ve come into the role.
“It’s really disappointing. The players kept going until the end and had a couple of chances but we didn’t deserve to win it with that second-half performance.
“Two set-pieces again – players not picking their man up from the second phase. Ultimately those two set-pieces have cost us the game.
“You’re always facing an uphill battle when you’re conceding goals from set-pieces on a regular basis so it’s something that we’re addressing. It’s obviously still not getting addressed properly because we’re conceding goals and we’ll have to have a word about that and a look at the set-up.
“The set-up hasn’t changed throughout the season and it was good early on. Teams will notice that we’re susceptible to set-pieces and we need to do something about it.”
‘Not glamorous’ but Graham Coughlan hails fine win for Newport
Newport boss Graham Coughlan praised his side’s grit and determination as they came from behind to take the three points at Morecambe.
On what proved to be a disappointing first night for new Shrimps boss Ged Brannan, goals from Will Evans and Seb Palmer-Houlden either side of the break earned the Exiles a comeback win after Michael Mellon had given the home side an early lead.
Coughlan said: “That was a brilliant performance from our lads.
“You saw a different side to us tonight. It wasn’t glitzy or glamorous and it wasn’t tippy-tappy, it was sheer character, grit and determination and that’s what you have to do in this league.
“Against West Ham a few weeks ago we made 550 passes and didn’t win the game. We didn’t have too many passes tonight but we won the match and that is what football is all about.”
Mellon gave Morecambe the lead on 12 minutes with a fine turn and shot from the edge of the area that squeezed into the bottom right corner of Nick Townsend’s goal.
After a sluggish start the visitors hit back on 29 minutes when the home defence failed to clear a corner and Evans hammered home the rebound.
JJ McKiernan hit the crossbar with a close-range header for the home side on 44 minutes and Adam Mayor was within inches of sliding home a Tom Bloxham cross two minutes into the second half but it was the Exiles who went ahead on 57 minutes.
Morecambe keeper Adam Smith and midfielder Eli King failed to deal with a bouncing ball in the Morecambe box and Palmer-Houlden took advantage of the gift to score from close range.
Mellon forced Townsend into a late save with a shot from 12 yards but the visitors held on to make it two wins from two.
Shrimps boss Brannan said: “I’m disappointed with the result obviously but I’m not disappointed with the performance.
“I thought the first 20 minutes or so was the best I’ve seen us play in the three months I’ve been here as a coach and now manager. We passed it superbly and the move for our goal was brilliant and it’s a shame we couldn’t build on that.
“They came back into it when we didn’t defend a corner well enough and they made it hard for us from there and we then gave away another really sloppy goal and couldn’t pull it back.”
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
