FIFA World Cup 2022 Day 26 Live Updates: Croatia face Morocco in the third place play off

For Kylian Mbappe, it was never Lionel Messi. The group that fired up his imagination, as a restless teenager growing up in the banlieue of Bondy where blares a mural of the French forward with the line “a place of possibilities”, were always the galacticos. In his comic-strip autobiography Je M’Appelle Kylian, Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo visit him in a dream, and Zidane hands him out a sparkling- white kit of Real Madrid. He plays keepie-uppie in it.

In school, when a teacher asks him about his best friends, Mbappe lists out the names Ronaldo, Zidane and Sergio Ramos. Later, in interviews, when probed on who he wants to be, it has always been Ronaldo and Zidane. (READ MORE)

Ossie Ardiles, the 1978 World Cup winner has said that even if Lionel Messi will win the World Cup, he will never be better than Diego Maradona.

Ardiles insisted Maradona will always be the one-true GOAT.

“I wouldn’t say ahead of Diego, I will say maybe on level terms,” said the former Argentina international.

“Messi is an absolutely wonderful, wonderful player.

“I have no doubt, by far, that he’s the best player of his generation, and of course, he’s one of the very best in the history of football. (READ MORE)

El Obelisco, the Obelisk, juts out of the belly of Buenos Aires, tall upright (67.5 meters), the unofficial centre of the city and the rallying point for joy, sorrow, protests, celebrations. Unsurprisingly, it’s where the football fans also have gathered right through this world cup, with pictures and videos captured by drone cameras going viral all around the world. The Indian Express even had a front-page aerial picture of the thousands of people celebrating Argentina’s entry to the final. (READ MORE)

Before the World Cup heads for the Lusail Iconic Stadium, a shimmering bowl amidst gleaming sky-risers on the outskirts of Doha, it stops at the Khalifa Stadium, the oldest stadium in the country refurbished with a dramatically swooping upper rim, nestled in the heart of the ambitious city. The world waits breathlessly for Sunday’s final between Argentina and France at the Lusail; the third-place playoff between Morocco and Croatia remains largely an afterthought, but not without stakes, context, or thrill.

By its sheer design, it’s a strange contest. Two teams with their title ambitions quashed, the semi-finals defeat still haunting and tormenting, the ifs and buts swirling in their mind, their dreams shattered, their tired bodies, still recovering, have to bury all those, the drain of both mind and body, to fight for a bronze medal, which could barely be a consolation when weighed with the immediacy of the semi-finals heartbreak. (READ)

For an 11-year-long period up until 2017, the Ballon d’Or award – widely recognised as the highest individual honour in football – was shared between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. As modern football’s obsession with the duo – their rivalry, their fandom, their clubs, their brand of football – reached its peak, their hegemony over the coveted award was broken by Luka Modric.

Like much of the talented generation of players of his era, Modric was overshadowed by Ronaldo and Messi. But in 2018, even the starry duo’s most ardent supporters could not deny him his moment after playing a crucial role in Real Madrid’s third consecutive Champions League triumph, and leading Croatia to a surprise run to the final of the World Cup. (READ MORE)

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the ongoing FIFA World Cup. Croatia will face Morocco in the third place play-off.