Balanced World Cup breakout will pay off with two fabulous Friday quarterfinal matches

This article was published on Thursday in the World Cup news bulletin. Register to receive intelligent badysis, opinions, guides and more every game day until the final on July 15th.

This is the longest gap between games since the start of the World Cup. I'm fine, really, and hope you are too. The sun was a shock at the beginning but I adjusted after a few hours

I'm back inside now and ready for an extensible race that promises to be a good thing. be thrilling from the first game

Of the remaining eight teams, four won the World Cup before . But only two have won in my life, and I am 51 years old. There have been only three top champions in the last 40 years.

The top four teams are all stuck on one side of the rack. They play Friday in what, on paper, looks like the best day of the tournament matches up to now. The games will feature some of the best attacking players on the planet – allowing injury – and the best defense of the tournament.

Here we go.

FRIDAY CALENDAR

All Time Eastern

Quarter-Finals: France vs. France Uruguay

10 hours | Nizhny Novgorod | FS1, Telemundo

Quarter-finals: Brazil vs. Belgium

14:00 | Kazan | FS1, Telemundo

THE OVERVIEW: FRANCE AGAINST URUGUAY

Uruguay was solid from the start, and the French came out well. Both are former champions – France much more recently – and have both balance, depth and an alchemical mix of young and old.

Uruguay has conceded only one goal in four matches. He has the best couple remaining in the center of the tournament – the teammates of Atletico Madrid Diego Godin and José María Giménez – who can both smother and score.

particularly the injury status of Edinson Cavani's world-clbad strike partnership (who plays with and against many French players in the club competition for Paris Saint-Germain) and Luis Suárez, who will face FC Barcelona team-mate Samuel Umtiti, a French center back

After scoring twice against Portugal, Cavani left the field and had to be replaced late in the game. Suarez fired out of practice this week. It's hard to know if one or the other will play, but Suarez is most likely to do it.

This Uruguayan team proved to be much more than star attackers and strong defense . Manager Óscar Tabárez rebuilt the team after a bad qualifying start, which led several young midfielders to a failed attack.

Rodrigo Bentancur is 21 years old and already an outstanding midfielder for Juventus. Celestial. Lucas Torreira is 22 years old, played last season for Sampdoria in Italy and could be on his way to Arsenal. He tore the Portuguese midfielder, winning tackles and creating opportunities.

This competition in the middle of the pack should be among the best of the tournament (with the match Belgium-Brazil a few hours later). Bentancur will face Frenchman Paul Pogba both to a yellow card from a suspension of a match (which would be the case for the semi-finals if Friday).

Pogba, a mercurial if sometimes breathtaking talent helped stretch Argentina's midfielder in the previous game, allowing the French space to use their formidable speed . , which is the key to the French attack. The extraordinary amount of land that it covers allows Pogba and others to progress without fear of being caught too far in defense. Kanté is there – he is still there, where he is

The defense of Uruguay will have to account for the speed of Kylian Mbappé and the cunning of Antoine Griezmann who can also pbad most defenses. If the goals come, the celebrations will follow. And in the national cradle of the mime, they will be choreographed

Manager Didier Deschamps winner of the World Cup in 1998, also uses Olivier Giroud slow foot but huge head , as a target in the middle, in case the defense decides to pack it against an otherwise fast front line

This could constitute an interesting and open contest and goals at both ends.

BRAZIL against BELGIUM

There will be no other match in this tournament with more talent on the field.

Philippe Coutinho from Brazil and Eden Hazard from Belgium are two of the top five offensive midfielders on the field. planet. Belgium Kevin De Bruyne also belongs to this list

And then there is Neymar and Romelu Lukaku in front of very different fabrics.

One is a finalist of "best player in the world", recent and fast, which unfortunately sometimes seems made of sugar.

Lukaku is a giant competing for the Golden Boot Tournament who can score on the ground with speed, in the air with his head and distance with a lethal left foot.

At 33, center back Brazil has a tough day ahead of Thiago Silva given the speed and spirit of the Belgian offense. It will be made much more difficult without Casemiro, the destructive midfielder who gives a more difficult backbone to a sometimes delicate Brazilian team. He came out for the accumulation of yellow cards no surprise for anyone who watched him play for Real Madrid.

Brazil has an excellent safeguard, although less physical, Fernandinho . He is also 33 years old (and seven years older than Casemiro). But he knows how De Bruyne, in particular, plays: Both share the midfielder in Manchester City the Premier League champion.

Will all this talent cancel in the middle of the pack? Or will it be a festival of goals?

Who knows? But these two offensive powers are supported by excellent guardians: Thibaut Courtois and Alisson .

• 19659038] Romelu Lukaku Belgium: 4
• Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal: 4
• Edinson Cavani Uruguay: 3
• Denis Cheryshev, Russia: 3
• Diego Costa Spain: 3
• Artem Dzyuba Russia: 3
• Kylian Mbappe France: 3
• Yerry Mina Colombia: 3

FOR THE GOODBYES BITTERSWEET

] Three-quarters of teams arriving in Russia are eliminated from the tournament. They leave behind pride and disappointment, confusion and frustration.

It is now time for farewells – some forever, others for another four years.

So ciao. .

To the managers. .

From a team to his remarkable fans. .

To the senior retirees. .

For longtime fans of a favorite longtime fans. .

And from one continent to one team, one of the most popular of the tournament. . Read more about the World Cup:

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