David Hytner was at the Lusail Stadium tonight. His report has landed, and here it is. Congratulations to Argentina for reaching their sixth World Cup final; commiserations to Croatia for missing out on their second. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
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The race for the Golden Boot is hotting up all right. Over to you, Kylian.
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Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Kylian Mbappe (France)
4
Julian Alvarez (Argentina)
Olivier Giroud (France)
Argentina stand together as one, arms linked, leaping with joy in front of their fans. Lionel Messi leaping energetically, a broad smile playing across his face. Doesn’t look as though he’s too worried about any hamstring problem! Luka Modric looks drained and disappointed but not bitterly so. When it all comes down, this Croatia side have made one heck of a mark on the World Cup, with a semi-final appearance here to follow their final in Russia. That’s not a bad legacy when you come from a country with just four million people in it. Meanwhile Argentina continue to cavort.
This seems an awfully long time ago, doesn’t it?
FULL TIME: Argentina 3-0 Croatia
Dejan Lovren sends a decent rising shot inches over the bar from the best part of 30 yards. It’s as close as Croatia have come all evening. The whistle immediately goes, and the irrepressible Lionel Messi is heading to a career-defining final against either France or Morocco on Sunday evening!
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90 min +4: The Croatian section is unsurprisingly quiet. Here’s Kat Stolica with their perspective: “This is hard to watch. We went in already defeated. It feels like we played our final against Brazil. Argentina are not the better team in general but they are the better team on the day. We gave Messi too much respect and didn’t play our own game. Argentina capitalised on our weakness and put us to shame. It’s disappointing that we let the hype beat us before we started. My heart breaks for players like Modric that go out like this.
“I hope Argentina win the finals so we lost to the winner, but my feelings are that Morocco will take out the trophy. Finally, watching my Hrvatska always causes palpitations and today was no different. Bad luck to our boys, I wish it were a different outcome. My heart is always with you Croatia. We are on the map. Now we are left to go about our day with a heavy heart. Long live Croatia!”
Oh you’re on the map all right! Croatia have been magnificent all month; this 2018-2022 team will be remembered for years. There’s no shame in losing a World Cup semi to Lionel Messi on this form.
90 min +2: The Argentina fans are giving it plenty. They’ll do so again here on Sunday evening.
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90 min: There will be five painfully slow additional minutes for Croatia to suffer.
89 min: Majer has a speculative dig from 25 yards. Easy for Martinez, who hasn’t really been tested at any point this evening. “I distinctly remember following your Croatia vs Australia MBM all those years ago,” writes Brad McMillan, “but I’d forgotten the pithy beauty of ‘Graham Poll is a stupid bastard’. Wonderful stuff!” I never did get my Pulitzer.
88 min: Argentina ping it around the middle in a very pretty style. To think how worried everyone was at half-time against Mexico. An exit in the groups looked a very real possibility back then.
86 min: Mac Allister and Molina make way for Correa and Foyth. Scaloni trying to give as many people in his squad a few minutes at the finals. Here’s Tony Mason: “On the penalty, it feels wrong as it’s a no-fault collision which doesn’t deny a goal as the defender would have cleared the ball before Alvarez could get to it. But without the defender nobody would say it was not a foul and penalty as in that case the collision would have prevented him from putting it into an empty net. As you can’t write a rule which covers such nuances, the award of a pen is correct if unlucky for the keeper.”
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85 min: A corner for Croatia out on the right. Majer loops to the near post. Perisic flicks on. The ball drops to Lovren at the far post. Any contact and the consolation is in. But he can’t connect. Goal kick. “Definite echoes of Maradona at Mexico 86 in Messi’s performance here I think,” posits Simon McMahon. “Carrying a good, but not great, Argentina side to a World Cup final through a combination of outrageous ability and sheer force of personality. And maybe even more impressive as Maradona was still just approaching his peak whereas Messi is on a downward trajectory. Still another game to go though.”
83 min: Messi juggles the ball on the edge of the Croatian D before dinking through the back line for Mac Allister, who drags his shot wide right. It should have been four. It doesn’t really matter.
81 min. What an undignified last act in World Cup football for poor Modric. The ball blootered in his face. Such a shame for such an elegant player. He makes way for Majer … and everyone in the entire stadium gives the great man the warm ovation he deserves. That’s better.
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80 min: Modric shoots from distance. The ball pings off the nearby Mac Allister’s boot and straight back up into his startled grid. That just about sums it up for Croatia. Nothing’s gone their way.
78 min: Orsic cuts in from the left and makes like Perisic a couple of minutes before. Here’s Anthony Speet: “I know people like to knock Peter Walton but he knows the laws, as do the refs (apart from that Brazilian one for England vs France), whereas ex-players often seem not to. It’d be helpful if they could put the relevant law on screen to help inform the discussion. Also they could even let the ref sit with the pundits, instead of making him sit alone in what looks like a dimly lit cupboard.”
77 min: Tagliafico knocks the ball past Juranovic down the left but loses the resulting footrace. “At the ripe old age of 35, Leo Messi seems to have finally managed to shake off the shadow of Diego Maradona when playing for his national team,” begins Colum Fordham. “His dribbling has been superb and the Croatians have been unable to withstand his brilliance. This really could be his World Cup.”
75 min: Perisic flays a long-distance shot deep into the stand, and wears the hangdog expression of a man who knows the jig is up.
74 min: A double change for Argentina, as De Paul and Alvarez make way for Palacios and, making his 2022 World Cup debut, Dybala.
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72 min: Livaja comes on for Kramaric. Perisic clanks the free kick straight at Martinez.
71 min: So I gave you a bum steer early in the second half. Otamendi wasn’t booked for his challenge on Vlasic. We know this because he’s booked now for a slide on Kovacic, and referee Daniele Orsato is no Graham Poll.
70 min: Gvardiol has been one of the players of the tournament as well!
GOAL! Argentina 3-0 Croatia (Alvarez 69)
This is simply magnificent from Lionel Messi! He tears down the right wing, out on the touchline. He’s got Gvardiol stuck to his side. No matter! He drifts infield to the edge of the box, then grinds to a halt. He turns, his back to goal. He then spins Gvardiol to reach the byline, cutting back for Alvarez, who can’t miss from six yards. Assist of the World Cup, right there!
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68 min: Romero is booked for a fairly agricultural clatter through the back of Petkovic.
66 min: Lovren’s loose pass allows Alvarez to skitter down the left at speed. He should send Tagliafico free down the middle, but opts to rake a crossfield pass towards Messi. A very promising move breaks down as a result.
64 min: Juranovic runs down the left. Tagliafica crunches into a tackle. Croatia’s gallop stopped, Argentina slow it down.
62 min: The free kick’s swung into the mixer. Lovren should score from six yards, but his header is weirdly meek. Argentina hack clear. That would have suddenly changed everything.
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61 min: Paredes clatters into Modric as the Croatia genius sashays down the left. Before the free kick can be taken, Paredes makes way for Lisandro Martinez.
60 min: Argentina are pretty comfortable right now. They’re happy to sit back and wait for Croatia to ship possession, then spring forward.
58 min: Messi doesn’t look particularly hamstrung, it has to be said. He dribbles down the inside-left channel, then one-twos with Alvarez, and enters the box. He’s one on one with Livakovic, but can’t force the ball past the keeper. Croatia teetering on the brink here.
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56 min: Modric rolls a lovely ball down the right. Vlasic tries to spin into the box, but loses possession. Argentina break through Alvarez again. He reaches the corner of the box and rolls infield for Fernandez, who takes a heavy touch that allows Gvardiol to come over and block. For a nanosecond, number three, and almost certain progress to the final, looked on for Argentina there.
54 min: A bit of sterile Croatian possession. The sort of stuff that’s ideal when you’re 2-0 up.
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52 min: Petkovic and Kovacic try a cute one-two down the middle. It breaks down. Kovacic may reflect that he probably should have shot.
51 min: Petkovic replaces Brozovic. Croatia clearly going for broke, perhaps with a view to playing some of the long ball stuff that worried Argentina during the Netherlands stramash.
49 min: Paredes mistakes the Croatian goal for a Dutch dugout, and skelps a shot at it. Livakovic gets behind the ball and gathers.
48 min: Not all the ITV pundits are in lockstep about the penalty award, by the way. On co-comms, both Ally McCoist and Lee Dixon get behind the referee’s decision. Association football: a range of opinions are available.
47 min: Vlasic drives down the right and is upended by Otamendi, who will go into the book. Modric floats the free kick in, and it’s an easy claim for Martinez.
Messi, who is still feeling the back of his leg, gets the second half underway. Croatia have made two changes, replacing Sosa and Pasalic with Vlasic and Orsic.
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A bit of a brouhaha in the ITV studio. Gary Neville, Roy Keane and Ian Wright all argue that the penalty shouldn’t have been awarded. Their argument being: where could the keeper go? Peter Walton explains that it was a foul because the keeper didn’t make contact with the ball, therefore his positioning led to an obstruction. Had he played the ball, that would be a different matter. The old pros aren’t having it, and continue to rail at Walton, but the former referee stands his ground. In summary: them’s the laws.
Half-time entertainment. Another semi-final coming right up tomorrow!
HALF TIME: Argentina 2-0 Croatia
Argentina have one foot in the final. Croatia came back from the dead against Brazil; can they find a way again? It’s going to be fun finding out.
45 min +4: Messi dribbles outrageously down the right, nearly losing the ball three times. But it’s rope-a-dope stuff, and he makes it all the way to the edge of the box, where he’s clanked to the ground by Gvardiol. There’s no time to take the free kick, though. Messi’s run is described by ITV’s Ally McCoist as “officially not on”.
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45 min +3: Perisic shanks a cross into the stand. For the first time during this World Cup, a Croatian head drops.
45 min +2: Alvarez is sent scampering down the left. More danger here for Croatia. But Lovren does well to get across and close him down, then the flag goes up for offside anyway.
45 min +1: The first of four added minutes passes without too much drama.
45 min: Then again, a Croatian goal before the break would alter the mood somewhat. Modric creams a shot from 20 yards that slams into Otamendi’s startled coupon. He collects the rebound and finds Juranovic on the right. Juranovic’s low shot-cum-cross is turned around his post by Martinez. Ah, in fact it comes off the lurking Pasalic, so it’s a goal kick.
43 min: Livakovic punches the second corner clear. Croatia desperately need to hear the half-time whistle. They were the better side until the penalty, and now look!
42 min: The corner’s flashed in for Mac Allister, who surely thinks he’s scored with a downward header. But Livakovic sticks out a strong arm to make an outrageous reflex save. The ball nearly dribbles into the bottom right, deflecting off a confused Juranovic, but bounces inches wide of the post. So close to a third that would surely settle it!
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41 min: A bit of space for De Paul, 25 yard out, just to the right of centre. De Paul takes a whack. The ball deflects off Gvardiol and wide left. Corner. De Paul wants a penalty, and the ball did indeed hit Gvardiol’s arm, but it was right by his side. Just a corner.
GOAL! Argentina 2-0 Croatia (Alvarez 39)
Argentina counter, and double their lead with a wonder goal from Alvarez! Messi thinks he’s been fouled in the centre circle, but the ball breaks to Alvarez and the ref waves play on. Alvarez dribbles down the middle at three dark blue shirts. De Paul and Molina swarm around, confusing the defenders. Alvarez keeps slaloming, enters the box, gets a slightly lucky break off Juranovic, then another off Sosa, and pokes past Livakovic! It’s not quite Maradona 86 … but it isn’t half bad!
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39 min: Juranovic has been relatively quiet in attack so far – he was outstanding against Brazil – but now he shows down the right to win a corner for Croatia. They cut it back for Brozovic, who takes a heavy touch. His cross is blocked, and that’s costly, because …
37 min: Argentinian tails are up, and Messi threatens to bustle clear down the right. Sosa is over quickly to slam the door shut.
36 min: To explain why Livakovic didn’t get his marching orders: he’d made an attempt to play the ball, despite clanking into Alvarez, so it was just a yellow.
35 min: That’s Messi’s 11th goal at the World Cup, beating the all-time Argentinian finals record held by Gabriel Batistuta.
GOAL! Argentina 1-0 Croatia (Messi 34 pen)
Messi steps up and lashes the penalty into the top right! Livakovic goes the right way, but he’s never saving that! Bedlam!
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Penalty for Argentina!
32 min: Modric ships possession. Fernandez plays a simple ball down the middle, and Alvarez is clean through! He tries to chip Livakovic and round him, but is crudely bodychecked. Lovren clears off the line, but the referee points to the spot. A no-brainer. Livakovic is booked, and so is Kovacic for complaining.
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31 min: Perisic dances in from the left and attempts to chip Martinez from the edge of the box. The ball floats over the bar. Argentina launch a counter and …
29 min: That run from Kovacic was sensational … but did he have a better option to his left in Perisic, who was in acres? Seems churlish to complain given the quality of his dribble, though.
28 min: Modric’s delivery is uncharacteristically poor. Argentina break. Modric makes up for the dismal free kick by getting back to head De Paul’s right-wing cross away from the incoming Alvarez.
27 min: Brilliant play from Kovacic, who steals the ball off Messi and tears off down the middle, shrugging off a couple of challenges and bursting into space. He flicks to Kramaric on his right. Kramaric is clipped by Tagliafico, and this is a free kick 30 yards out, just to the right of centre. Modric to take.
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25 min: Tagliafico bursts down the left and loops into the centre from an unpromising spot. But there’s nobody in the middle. Argentina come again, Alvarez shooting towards the bottom right from distance. But that’s easy for Livakovic, who parries and claims without fuss.
24 min: Argentina are seeing more of the ball now. Croatia seem happy enough to sit back with their bank of five.
22 min: Yeah, he’s fine by the looks of it. He scampers down the inside-left channel and nearly releases Tagliafico. Then he spins away outrageously from Kovacic in the centre circle. Finally he chases down the left again but can’t quite get a shot away upon entering the box. Goal kick, but at least Messi’s good to continue.
20 min: Messi, on the halfway line, stops and feels the back of his left leg awhile. What an anti-climax it would be if he had to depart with a hamstring issue. Hopefully that’s nothing. Just scratching an itch maybe.
18 min: A bit of space for Sosa out on the left. His attempt at a cross is Paredesian, and sails at some pace into the stand behind. He kids on the ball took a bobble, theatrically staring at the turf and stamping down on it, but nobody’s fooled.
16 min: Modric bustles – but bustles elegantly, this is Modric, after all – down the right. He slips a pass to Juranovic on the overlap. Juranovic wins a corner. The ball’s sent long. Lovren wins a header on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, but under severe pressure, he can only clank it aimlessly out for a goal kick.
14 min: Messi tries to chase after a Fernandez pass down the inside-left channel. He bounces off Gvardiol on the edge of the box and wants a free kick, or maybe even a penalty, but the referee, quite rightly, isn’t interested.
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13 min: Croatia have enjoyed 54 percent possession so far. Argentina just 33 percent. The enigmatic In Content has made off with the rest of it.
12 min: Croatia paint some pretty triangles in the midfield. Modric, Kovacic, Brozovic, Perisic and Sosa all involved. No shortage of confidence in Croatia’s play so far.
10 min: Perisic throws in long from the left. Pasalic competes on the edge of the six-yard box, but Romero wins that battle. Here’s Yash Gupta: “Back in Russia 2018 when these two teams met, even the most optimistic Argentinian fans wouldn’t have dreamt of reaching the next two Copa America finals, winning one, and reaching a World Cup semifinal with Argentina facing Croatia as favourites. But then even Liverpool fans wouldn’t have dreamt of Lovren reaching World Cup semifinal in four years time ahead of Van Dijk. Football, eh!”
8 min: Romero comes sliding in on Kovacic at warp speed. He’s way late, and lucky the Croatia midfielder manages to get out of the way. A few Croatian subs aren’t happy about that at all. Here we go again?
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6 min: Paredes tries to release Molina down the right but absolutely blooters the ball out for a goal kick. He’s fond of that trick. Perhaps he spotted a Dutch substitute in the stand.
5 min: Modric dinks a pass down the left for Perisic, who floats a cross into the Argentina box, hoping to find Kramaric. Martinez plucks from the sky easily enough.
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4 min: De Paul pings a long pass down the inside-left channel in the hope of releasing Tagliafico. Livakovic comes off his line to claim. A fairly open start given it’s a World Cup semi.
2 min: Tagliafico is put under pressure by Perisic and pearls a backpass straight at Martinez, who shows good feet to kill the whizzing ball. Argentina counter, Molina racing down the right and getting the better of Sosa, but finding nobody with his cross.
Croatia get the first semi-final underway! They stroke it around the back for a bit. What an atmosphere! The place is bouncing.
The teams line up in the tunnel. Argentina in their albiceleste, Croatia in second-choice dark blue with light-blue chequerboard over one shoulder. Tottenham team-mates Ivan Perisic and Cristian Romero embrace, then peel off back to their respective lines. The players take to the field of play. A mighty roar and rumble that befits a World Cup semi-final. Then the anthems, sung with great gusto. Not long now!
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Pre-match postbag. “What does Scaloni have against Lisandro Martinez? He’s mostly been excellent this World Cup, having spent the first half of the season turning Manchester United’s defence from a laughing stock into a semi-competent outfit. Yet he’s still on the fringes of the Argentina team and has been dropped tonight. I think Argentina will miss him if Croatia get on top” – Jon Collins
“I wonder if, with the benefit of hindsight, the defining duopoly of the last decade wasn’t Messi and Ronaldo, but Messi and Modric. I don’t say this to disparage the Portuguese, who’s practically the archetype of a great forward. However, the legends on show tonight were the first generation to come of age on the improved pitches of today, and when most footballers could be relied on having a good first touch. These two, each in their own way, found a brand new way to be a creative maestro, pinging passes around that before them would’ve been too risky” - Kári Tulinius
“I’m starting to worry that Otamendi might win a World Cup. ‘World Cup winner, Nicolas Otamendi’ just doesn’t sound right. I mean, it might spoil Messi’s career arc, but there are bigger things at play here” - Matt Dony
There were 18 yellow cards produced during Argentina’s comical set-to with the Netherlands last weekend. That’s a record for a World Cup match, and as such, the game has been described in some quarters as the “dirtiest ever”. Well, you can see the logic, but no. May we refer you to Hungary v Brazil in 1954, as entertainingly described in this brilliant Joy of Six.
The national anthems.
As Vanesa Valenti of La Nacion wrote in our pre-tournament guide to Argentina …
The Himno Nacional Argentino was written by the clearly multi-talented politician Vicente López y Planes and the music composed by Blas Parera and approved by the general constituent assembly in 1813. Initially it included a strong anti-Spanish sentiment, which was taken out in 1924. It starts “Hear, mortals, the sacred cry: ‘Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!’ Hear the sound of broken chains. See noble equality enthroned.” But because of the anthem’s length often at sporting events only the instrumental intro is played.
As Aleksandar Holiga of Telesport wrote in our pre-tournament guide to Croatia …
Originally a mid-19th-century poem by diplomat turned poet Antun Mihanovic, and composed by Josip Runjanin, at the time a young military cadet who also dabbled in music. It gained wider popularity in the 20th century and four of the original 14 verses were adapted into the national anthem titled Lijepa Nasa Domovino (Our Beautiful Homeland). The lyrics contain no war cries and nor does the anthem they address God; it can be summarised as “Our land is so nice and we love it.” Since 1991 some politicians and all athletes have been singing it with their right hand on their hearts.
Books of condolence have been set up at the stadium for the three journalists who have passed away while covering this World Cup: ITV technical director Roger Pearce, Qatari photojournalist Khalid al-Misslam and US sportswriter Grant Wahl. Condolences to the family and friends of all.
Argentina are strong favourites with the bookies this evening. Messi et al are priced at evens, while you can get fours on Croatia. Those prices surely reflect more on Argentina having the greater number of fans lumping on – they’ll certainly have the bigger backing in Lusail tonight – than any major disparity in quality. Easy to forget that these two countries met at the last World Cup, in Nizhny Novgorod, where Modrić stood out in a 3-0 romp for Croatia. Actually, having thought twice, it’s probably not been that easy for Argentina to forget, has it.
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) December 13, 2022
Argentina make two changes to the XI named for the quarter-final win over the Netherlands. Nicolas Tagliafico and Leandro Paredes come in for Lisandro Martinez and the suspended Marcos Acuña.
Croatia boss Zlatko Dalić is in If It Ain’t Broke mode. He names an unchanged side in the wake of the quarter-final victory over Brazil.
The teams
Argentina: Damian Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, De Paul, Paredes, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi, Alvarez.
Subs: Armani, Foyth, Pezzella, Di Maria, Rulli, Palacios, Correa, Almada, Rodriguez, Dybala, Lautaro Martinez, Lisandro Martinez.
Croatia: Livakovic, Juranovic, Lovren, Gvardiol, Sosa, Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic, Pasalic, Kramaric, Perisic.
Subs: Stanisic, Barisic, Erlic, Majer, Grbic, Vlasic, Livaja, Petkovic, Budimir, Orsic, Vida, Ivusic, Sutalo, Sucic, Jakic.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy).
Another fascinating edition of PENNANT WATCH. Look at these two beauties, commensurate with a place in the final four. You’d have to go some to cock up either of these gorgeous colour schemes, and although some federations would surely manage to do so – the FA, for example, whose pennant designer hit print while midway through a yawn – both the AFA or HNS have delivered a quality product off the pitch as well as on.
PRIMATE PREDICTION CORNER with Kent the Zagreb Zoo gibbon. Kent’s got all of his predictions correct to date, and this afternoon the simian seer favoured the food box with the Croatian flag on it. Again. Some observers may question the sporting and political neutrality of this exercise, or quibble with the methodology and sample size, but we’re just presenting events as they happen, without comment or spin. So congratulations to Croatia for making it through to the final!
Preamble
A living legend will run out of road tonight. Lionel Messi wants to put those GOAT arguments to bed by single-handedly dragging Argentina, Maradona-style, to the top of the world. Luka Modrić, one of only two players to break the Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d’Or duopoly of the last 14 years, dreams of another masterclass in overachievement with four-million-strong Croatia. Both of their teams are more than capable of winning this World Cup; both are far from perfect; only one can make it to the final. Good luck calling it, but this much we do know: in a few hours, one of our 35 and 37-year-old superheroes will be smacked flush in the face with the realisation that their World Cup dream will almost certainly remain unfulfilled for eternity. Tears before bedtime are nailed on, then. It’s a promise, a certainty, a cast-iron Guardian guarantee. Kick off is at 7pm GMT, 10pm at the Lusail Iconic Stadium. يحدث! It’s on!
