2022 World Cup, quarterfinals: Morocco vs. Portugal; England vs. France

Both games went the distance yesterday and were decided in the most dramatic way possible, on penalties. There was heartbreak from Thiago Silva but elation for Mateo Kovačić, while Argentina also moved on. Will see more joy and more crushing disappointment today? YES!

MOROCCO vs. PORTUGAL

Date / Time: Saturday, December 10, 2022, 15.00 GMT; 10am EST
Venue: Al Thumama Stadium, Doha, Qatar
Referee: Facundo Tello (Argentina)

On TV: ITV 1 (UK); Fox, Telemundo (USA); elsewhere
Streaming online: ITV Hub (UK); FOX Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA)

Chelsea interest: Morocco are the Cinderella story of the World Cup, having reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their history and already dispatched Spain and Belgium along the way. Hakim Ziyech’s having himself an excellent tournament and that’s certainly great to see. But Portugal have been quietly excellent, if we manage to peek behind the event horizon of the black hole that is Cristiano Ronaldo. His replacement, young Gonçalo Ramos notched a hat-trick against Switzerland in the Round of 16 — doing something three times in one game that CR had failed to do once in seven previous knockout round games.

Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images

ENGLAND vs. FRANCE

Date / Time: Saturday, December 10, 2022, 19.00 GMT; 2pm EST
Venue: Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, Qatar
Referee: Wilton Pereira Sampaio (Brazil)

On TV: ITV 1 (UK); Fox, Telemundo (USA); elsewhere
Streaming online: ITV Hub (UK); FOX Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA)

Chelsea interest: It doesn’t get much bigger than this for European football on the international stage, with the defending champions standing in England’s way for bringing it home. Speaking of home, Raheem Sterling’s back with the Three Lions after briefly going home to attend to a family matter; he’s managed to get a couple training sessions in, but he might have not have started either way with the likes of Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford in great form. Similarly, Mason Mount has been dropped for back-to-back games now and Jordan Henderson doesn’t look to be relinquishing his spot anytime soon. Meanwhile, Conor Gallagher’s just making up numbers. On the other side, Kylian Mbappé and Olivier Giroud continue to set various goalscoring records, and they look fairly unstoppable. But so did Brazil this time yesterday, so...