Defeat of Portugal and Brazil: The World Cup Quarter Finals 2022
With the end of the year 2022, came the end of a football era. Despite Morocco’s victory in the FIFA World Cup, fans are disheartened to see both: the loss of Portugal and that of Brazil.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, a Portuguese football player captained the team for this year’s World Cup and unfortunately, led it to defeat. He entered the game in the 51st minute as a sub and lost his one and only shot at Morocco’s goal which was saved by the goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. It had been a tumultuous few weeks for Ronaldo as he left Manchester United after he was critical of his English Premier league club in an interview. His team’s defeat in the quarterfinals seemed to reach an extent as after the game, the soccer legend was seen attempting to hide his tears on his way to the locker room.
Ronaldo has officially said goodbye to this year’s World Cup and made it evident that it was his last as he is moving onto a new stage in his life. This was made clear when he wrote a moving tribute certifying that this was his last opportunity to win and put Portugal’s name on top.
“Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career. Fortunately I won many titles of international dimension, including Portugal, but putting our country’s name on the highest foot in the World was my biggest dream. I fought for it. fought hard for this dream. In the 5 appearances scored in World Cups over 16 years, always by the side of great players and supported by millions of Portuguese, I gave my all. Leave it all out on the field. I never turned my face to the fight and never gave up on that dream. Sadly, yesterday, the dream ended.”
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, a 30 year old Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward in
the Brazil National team, lost against Croatia on a penalty shoot-out 4-2 in this year’s World Cup and now
will not make it to the semi finals.
On Friday, the 9th of December, Neymar expressed his uncertainty in playing again for Brazil after the
team’s heartbreaking defeat. He said to the reporters “I want to take this time to think about it, think about what I want for myself. I will not close the door to playing with Brazil, nor do I say 100% that I’ll come back.”
Neymar Jr. was inconsolable and cried relentlessly after Brazil’s exit from the World Cup. It can be said
that this defeat was felt globally as Neymar’s tears brought all of social media together and fans were seen
sympathizing with him.
“No football player has went through what you have the injuries every year, the absurd amount of defeats where you did everything right. When you lose it’s not a Brazil loss or Psg loss it’s a “Neymar loss” the
media never gives you a break for the past few years it’s all lies”
“One thing about Neymar and Brazil, they are not afraid to express their pain as well inject hope to one
another. Haven’t seen one of them blame the referee, or Croatia’s style of play for the loss. Much respect
to this team!”
This year was certainly memorable for all football fans out there. The victory of Morocco was
commendable and the loss of both Ronaldo and Neymar was a loss felt globally.
