Forever Blue With Toby Camplin: City Star Books Place In World Cup Final

We’ve had another fantastic week of football in Qatar, with, as I write this, just two games of the World Cup remaining. This means not only the end of the tournament by next week’s column, but also the last column I will write in place of Ian Cheeseman. 

In the quarter final stages, Man City had 11 players representing the various countries across the tournament. Fast forward to the semi finals, only one City player made this stage. So what happened? Well as we’ve done for the past few weeks, lets start with England. The Three Lions had their toughest test of the World Cup against France on Saturday. Sadly for those across the nation, the French won the game 2-1. 

Unlike national team defeats in the past, this one felt a little different; there was a genuine belief and momentum around the squad, with the whole group giving absolutely everything. The future looks bright for England, however, with players like City’s own Phil Foden yet to have at least two World Cup’s in the future we would hope. 

Phil had an influential performance on Saturday, arguably putting in one of the best displays of the day. The much anticipated match up between Kyle Walker and Kylian Mbappe did not disappoint, if you’re an England fan that is. Kyle kept Kylian quiet all game, with John Stones  also putting in a decent performance. Five City players head for home following the defeat, also including Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips.

England’s defeat meant either Portugal, home of three City players, or Morocco would play France in the semi final. In potentially one of the greatest shocks of World Cup history, the Moroccans beat the Portuguese 1-0, knocking out the likes of Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva. These players won’t get long before returning to football for City though, with our first game back against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup just over a week away. The big question is, will Joao, Bernardo and Ruben be able to feature in this game at all due to their fitness?

The remaining two players to return home from Qatar are Ederson of Brazil and Nathan Ake of the Netherlands. Brazil were the victims of another underdog story, with Croatia taking all 90 minutes plus added time and penalties to defeat Ederson’s home nation. The Dutch also suffered a penalty shootout defeat to tournament favourites, Argentina, who hold the only remaining City player in the World Cup, Julian Alvarez.

As I write this, Argentina not only beat the Netherlands, but have now also won their semi final against Croatia by a scoreline of 3-0. To make it even sweeter for City fans, our very own Alverez scored two goals in the semi, one fabulous run from inside his own half and one put on a plate by Lionel Messi. The game highlighted what a fabulous tournament Julian is having, and hopefully, win or lose in the final against France or Croatia, he can continue this brilliant run of form he is having after returning back to Manchester.

So as the World Cup comes to a close, we aren’t far away from being back in the Etihad Stadium cheering on City once again. The blues play Girona in a mid season friendly on Saturday before returning to competitive action on Thursday next week against Liverpool. Before all that though, I wish Julian Alvarez the best of luck in the final.