World Cup Reaches knock out stages – what have we learned so far?

It seemed like the blink of an eye the 2022 Qatari World Cup has now reached the knock-out stages, with a new World Champion just weeks away. So, what have we learned so far?

To read about where to watch the World Cup in Cambodia click here.

Despite the controversy football has been the winner

To put it bluntly Qatar was not exactly a popular choice to host the World Cup. The reasons for this were myriad, with some such as the temperatures (and thus need to change dates) were football related, others were more serious.

Firstly the kafala system of Qatar, which has been considered akin to slavery is still in place within the country, but ,more importantly as many as 7000 migrant workers, most from South Asia have died during the construction of stadiums, many due to the heat. It should be bore in mind that the tournament was moved to “winter” in order to protect the health of players, not the migrant workers,

Secondly there has been the furore over the illegality of homosexuality within the country, something countries planned to protest with rainbow armbands, only to quickly back down when the threat of a yellow card arrived.

Sadly what will probably be the most controversial part of the tournament for some will be that people have far from boycotted the tournament and have in fact turned up and tuned in en-masse, much to the ire of the woke. 

The Football has been amazing

Unlike in other World Cups one can honestly say that some of the football has been amazing, with it feeling at least that there has been a lot more shocks and upsets than at most tournaments.

Standouts for this include Japan beating and ultimately knocking out Germany, while other victims have included Belgium, Mexico and Uruguay among other fancied teams, something has seemingly left the tournament wide open.

The last 16 is really diverse

And it has been these shocks that have potentially left us with one of the most divers last 16’s in the tournaments history with 8 European teams, 2 from South America, 2 from Africa, 2 from Asia and one each from Oceania and North America, basically and at least for now now every content is represented (Australia qualify via Asia). 

And as for games to look out for? There truly are some corkers, but from the Cambodia Sports Review Team, we like the look of Japan vs Croatia, as well as Morocco vs Spain as the two tightest matches of the pairing. 

Who will win the 2022 World Cup?

Well according to the bookies the red hot favourites are Brazil, followed by Argentina, France and Spain, with England and Portugal merely sneaking in at joint 5th. 

You can check the World Cup Odds here

And as for us at CSR? Personally my heart as ways says England, although my head tells me that we are destined to go out in the quarter-finals to someone, literally anyone on penalties. 

Therefore we’d also like to jump on the Argentina bandwagon quite simply because it would truly be a travesty for Messi, perhaps the greatest player to have ever lived not to add a World Cup Winners medal to his cabinet. 

And as for the legacy of Qatar 2022? Much like the World Cup that was held in Mussolini’s Italy, or the Olympics in Berlin, people will move on, all the while still guzzling up Qatari oil and gas, while supporting teams bankrolled by unsavoury billionaires.