Brazilian and Argentine footballers Neymar and Lionel Messi will play on Friday, December 9, in the quarterfinal matches of their respective teams.
In the quarterfinals, Neymar’s Brazil will play Croatia, while Messi’s Argentina will play the Netherlands.
Both Neymar and Messi will hope to become the overwhelming focus in these two high power games and set new goalscoring standards.
The current FIFA World Cup in Qatar has come to an end, with only eight matches remaining.
The action will resume on Friday, December 9 after a two-day break.
Two former winners, Brazil and Argentina, will take the field against Croatia and the Netherlands, two former World Cup finalists who lost.
Both of these quarterfinal matches between these four teams are anticipated to be fantastic affairs.
Argentina and Brazil are favorites to win the match due to the presence of Lionel Messi and Neymar.
But they can’t afford to take the Netherlands and Croatia lightly because they are the only two of the tournament’s remaining four teams that haven’t lost a game.
The Dutch team is going into their quarterfinal match against Messi’s Argentina on the back of three wins and one draw, while Croatia has managed to play two draws and win the other two.
Neymar and Messi
Neymar and Messi have both scored at least one goal in this year’s edition of football’s biggest megaevent, and on Friday (December 9).
When their teams play in the quarterfinals, they want to put their names on the scoresheet once more and reach major international football milestones.
Neymar, who converted a penalty against South Korea to double Brazil’s advantage and became the third Brazilian footballer after Pele and Ronaldo to score in three World Cups for Brazil.n
Needs two more goals to break Pele’s record of scoring in three World Cups and become the Selecao’s leading goal scorer in international matches.
The forward for Paris Saint-Germain, who is 30 years old, has scored 76 goals in 123 games.
If he scores twice against Croatia, he will surpass Pele’s record of 77 goals in 92 games and become the leading goal scorer for his country.
While Messi, who has scored three goals in Qatar and is already Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer.
Needs to score twice against the Netherlands to become Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer in FIFA World Cup matches.
The 35-year-old player, who won the golden ball at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, has scored nine goals in 23 matches.
If he scores two more goals on Friday (Saturday IST), he will surpass Gabriel Batistuta’s total, who was a former striker. In 12 games, Batistuta scored 10 goals for Argentina in three World Cups.
On Wednesday, December 14, at the Lusail Iconic Stadium, Brazil and Argentina will face off in the first semifinal if both teams win their quarterfinal matches on December 9.