Messi and Ronaldo take centrestage while the World Cup goes into KO



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MOSCOW: The top two players in the world will face the knockout stages of the World Cup on Saturday. Argentina's Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal will attempt to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Argentina, a finalist beaten four years ago, escaped through the skin of his teeth after an irregular group phase and will mbadively rely on Messi when his aging team will face France in Kazan at 1400 GMT.

The French, armed with Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe, have not yet succeeded in imaginating themselves and must strengthen themselves to maintain their hope for the future. add a second World Cup title as they won home two decades ago.

Before the tournament, France was largely inclined for a run to the finals, but they have not managed to click until now, scoring only three times in three matches.

"Our group matches have left a mixed impression," said French coach Didier Deschamps. "Starting tomorrow, it's a new start for us.

"We have no choice, we must do everything we can to make sure everything is fine for us."

Messi spent the tournament trying to keep his team unbalanced and hardworking, even apparently avoiding coach Jorge Sampaoli to give coaching instructions in the 2-1 win against Nigeria that saved South Americans from a humiliating group outing.

It only marked one time and the campaign of Argentina up to here was defined as much by Diego Maradona's more and more erratic and emotional outbursts than by all the signs that the two winners can reach the final again.

Sampaoli warned his players that Messi can not do it alone.

"Leo has such a clear vision when it comes to football that he allows us to see things that sometimes only a true genius sees," Sampaoli said.

"It is often difficult to be at the level of such a great player, he is a brilliant light for all of us, and we must do our best to try to be at his level . "

Ronaldo ripped the blocks in Russia, breaking a hat-trick in his first game against Spain and he added another goal in the 1-0 win over Morocco.

But Portugal's problem against a Uruguayan team with the weakest defense of the tournament could be their over-reliance on the world's five-year-old 33-year-old.

"We have to play as a team and if Ronaldo plays alone, we will lose," said Portugal coach Fernando Santos.

Uruguay won the last of its two World Cups in 1950, but it has high hopes thanks to its radical defense and two of the most prolific strikers in the world, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.

The World Cup featured 122 goals in an exciting first phase and, after the near-collapse of Argentina and the incredible failure of the German holders to take the first step in 80 years, the draw is unbalanced.

France, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil and Uruguay are all gathered in one section of the competition, with only Spain among the last winners in the other half.

This means that if, for example, England can beat Colombia on Tuesday, they will imagine their chances of reaching a possible semi-final against the winners of Spain in 2010.

FIFA said that the video badistant badistant system, introduced for the first time in the World Cup in Russia, was a success.

Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, said he was pleased with the impact of the VAR, but that did not mean that all decisions would be perfect.

FIFA stated that VAR crews carried out checks on 335 incidents during the group phase, which resulted in 99.3% of good decisions being made.

"VAR does not mean perfection," said Collina. "There could still be a misinterpretation or even errors, so it's not a perfection that can be achieved after implementing VAR."

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