After each matchday, find the recap of what the players who have passed through the Maurice Revello Tournament and are competing in the World Cup did.
THEY SHINED
They are back, twenty years later. By beating Ecuador on Tuesday in the final round of Group A (2-1), Senegal qualified for the Round of 16 of the World Cup. A first since the 2002 edition and the generation Bouba Diop and El-Hadji Diouf. Inevitably, in such a moment of history, it was the captain of the Lions of Teranga who sent his team to the next round. Kalidou Koulibaly, who has already been featured in our Matchday 2 recap, is once again present in this round-up. The defender, who played in the Tournament in 2011, scored the winning goal in the 70th minute, just seconds after Ecuador had equalised. This goal will be remembered by all of Senegal and came at the end of an almost perfect performance by the Chelsea player (10 duels won, 4 successful tackles, 2 interceptions).
Argentina were on the brink of disaster after their opening loss to Saudi Arabia, but they can now rest easy. The Albiceleste beat Poland 2-0 in Group C on Wednesday evening to book their place in the last eight and even claim top spot in the group. It was unthinkable a week ago after the Saudi defeat. The coach Lionel Scaloni made some decisive changes to his starting line-up (Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez started for the first time and both scored), and perfectly adjusted his team and re-mobilised his troops. The man who played in the 1998 Tournament as a player has responded to the critics as he should.
In the Mexican slump, he was one of the few to survive. Despite his team's early elimination, Cesar Montes did not lose out. The defender, a runner-up at the Maurice Revello Tournament in 2018, has been at his best in all three games he has played. The 25-year-old, who gave an assist in Mexico's narrow 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, was also the player who touched the most balls in the match (79), as he did in the previous game against Argentina. The 25-year-old Monterrey player should be one of the key players in the new Mexico squad we will see in the upcoming months.
Heroic. The Japanese were losing against Spain at the break, but they repeated the trick of their first match against Germany. In three minutes after the break, they turned the match around and held on to their lead until the end to qualify for the last 16 (2-1). This was quite a performance for the Japanese team, in a group where Germany and Spain were the logical favourites. After Ritsu Doan's equaliser, it was a 100% Tournament Maurice Revello duo that gave Japan the second goal: Kaoru Mitoma with the pass, Ao Tanaka with the finish. The two runners-up of the Tournament in 2019 can savour. As in 2018, they will be present in the next round and will challenge Croatia.
SOME FIGURES
89
The number of balls touched by Akram Afif (Tournament 2014) against the Netherlands, the highest total of the match for a Qatari player.
91
The average percentage of passes completed by the duo of Joe Rodon and Chris Mepham (2017 Tournament). The two Welsh defenders were the most accurate at passing against England.
1966
Axel Disasi (Tournament 2018) made his first appearance for the French national team against Tunisia (0-1). The defender is the first outfield player to make his debut in a World Cup since Gabriel De Michele against Mexico in the 1966 World Cup.
18
Japan's average possession percentage in their win over Spain. This is the lowest total for a winning team in the World Cup history.
1
Morocco have conceded just one goal in the group stage, and it came from an own goal by defender Nayef Aguerd. No team in Group F has scored a goal against the Atlas Lions.
39
Daniel Alves (Tournament 2002) became the oldest player to play a World Cup game (39 years and 210 days).
THEY ARE QUALIFIED
Argentina : German Pezzella (2009), Alejandro Gomez (2009) - Manager : Lionel Scaloni (1998)
Brazil : Alisson (2013), Ederson (2014), Daniel Alves (2002), Marquinhos (2014), Antony (2019), Pedro (2019)
England : Jordan Pickford (2015 & 2016), Aaron Ramsdale (2018), Eric Dier (2014), Conor Gallagher (2019), Jack Grealish (2016) - Manager : Gareth Southgate (2014 & 2016)
France : Hugo Lloris (2006), Steve Mandanda (2005), Axel Disasi (2018), Adrien Rabiot (2014) - Manager : Didier Deschamps (1988)
Japan : Maya Yoshida (2008), Takehiro Tomiyasu (2018), Ko Itakura (2018), Hiroki Ito (2017), Ao Tanaka (2019), Daichi Kamada (2016), Kaoru Mitoma (2019), Takumi Minamino (2016), Yuki Soma (2019), Takuma Asano (2016), Ayase Ueda (2018)
Morocco : Yassine Bono (2012), Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti (2015), Nayef Aguerd (2015), Badr Benoun (2015), Abderrazak Hamdallah (2012)
Netherlands : Steven Berghuis (2012), Vincent Janssen (2015)
Portugal : Rui Patricio (2009), José Sa (2013 & 2014), Danilo Pereira (2011), Ruben Dias (2016), João Cancelo (2014), João Mario (2013), Bruno Fernandes (2014), Vitinha (2019), Cristiano Ronaldo (2003), Ricardo Horta (2014), Gonçalo Ramos (2019)
South Korea : Kang-In Lee (2018)
USA : Kellyn Acosta (2013), Jordan Morris (2013 & 2015) - Manager : Greg Berhalter (1994)
THEY ARE ELIMINATED
Belgium : Koen Casteels (2013), Yannick Carrasco (2013)
Canada : James Pantemis (2018), Derek Cornelius (2018), Liam Millar (2018), Ike Ugbo (2017), Jonathan David (2018) - Manager : John Herdman (2018)
Costa Rica : Ronald Matarrita (2015) - Manager : Luis Fernando Suarez (1999)
Mexico : Guillermo Ochoa (2005), Nestor Araujo (2011 & 2012), Gerardo Arteaga (2018 & 2019), César Montes (2018), Hector Moreno (2006), Jorge Sanchez (2018), Roberto Alvarado (2018), Uriel Antuna (2018), Hector Herrera (2012), Raul Jimenez (2012) - Manager : Gerardo Martino (1983)
Qatar : Saad Al Sheeb (2010), Meshaal Barsham (2019), Yousef Hassan (2014), Homam Ahmed (2018), Abdulaziz Hatem (2009 & 2010), Akram Afif (2014), Ahmed Alaaeldin (2015) - Manager : Félix Sanchez Bas (2014)
Tunisia : Mouez Hassen (2014)
Wales : Joe Rodon (2017), Chris Mepham (2017, )Mark Harris (2017), Daniel James (2017) - Manager : Rob Page (2017)