<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 scored yet again, his 8th of this tournament and 20th World Cup goal overall, before Ousmane Dembel\u00e9 sealed the deal down the home stretch.<\/p>\n
France, Mbapp\u00e9, Dembel\u00e9, and Michael Olis\u00e9 are in imperious form, and they now look ahead to a semi-final against Spain or Belgium when they could make their biggest statement yet of the tournament.<\/p>\n
The quarter-finals on the other side see England face Norway on Saturday night before Argentina take on Switzerland.<\/p>\n
When Patrick Vieira began to look as far ahead as the final on ITV last night, it brought a brilliant retort from Roy Keane.<\/p>\n
Roy Keane delivers England quip<\/p>\n
This being ITV coverage, it did not take long for their post-match analysis of France v Morocco to conclude and attention to turn to Saturday’s quarter-fianl between England and Norway.<\/p>\n
“I think England are a very, very good team,” Roy Keane said of Thomas Tuchel’s side.<\/p>\n
“What we need to find out now [is] can they go on to be a great team? We’ll find out over the next 10 days.<\/p>\n
“Even the chat there, they’ve had a lot of plaudits for the Mexico game. The players are getting interviewed and getting asked about it, and they’ve got to answer the questions.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to back it up though, you’ve got to move on quickly. That’s done and dusted now, it’s all about the next challenge. There’s no doubt they have the quality…have they got the temperament and the belief to go on and have a great 10 days ahead?”<\/p>\n
If England dispatch of Norway, they will likely face Argentina in the semi-finals, a match steeped in history and rivalry.<\/p>\n
Patrick Vieira could not help himself looking even further than that game, drawing a quick reply from Roy Keane.<\/p>\n
Vieira:\u00a0“Why do we believe that England can’t do it? If there is a team, I know it’s not at the final yet, but I don’t want France to face England in the final. I would prefer them to play Argentina.”<\/p>\n
Keane:\u00a0“France aren’t in the final yet, Patrick, are they?”<\/p>\n
France look irresistible as tournament favourites, but Roy was keen to remind Vieira that they have not won the tournament yet.<\/p>\n
The pair were in bubbly form, a world apart from the fierce rivalry they shared on the pitch during their spells at Manchester United and Arsenal.<\/p>\n
If England are to win the World Cup (we know, it’s not fun to imagine), we would likely see a back-to-back-to-back of Harry Kane taking on Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The first of those three tests is a frightening prospect to Roy Keane.<\/p>\n
Roy Keane issues Haaland warning<\/p>\n
Roy Keane issued a sobering warning to England fans about how their team might deal with the constant goal threat of Erling Haaland in their quarter-final on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“You won’t be able to stop him,” Keane said.<\/p>\n
It’s the service, you have to try and dominate midfield, you’ve got to try and get to Odegaard, close people down. Haaland has proven over a number of years it is impossible to stop him.<\/p>\n
But you can do something about the service. When he takes touches…you have to get close to him. That’s why he’s a great player.<\/p>\n
Forget about touches or what he does in general play, the hardest part of football is putting the ball in the back of the net, and he’s one of the best at doing it.<\/p>\n
You won’t be able to stop him. But do something about the service.<\/p>\n
No team has been able to stop Haaland yet, and England will be fearing what the Manchester City man could do to an unfamiliar backline on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
It’s set to be a cracker. 10pm Saturday – England v Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira were reunited on Thursday evening, with the old rivals on punditry duty for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,271,112],"class_list":["post-543919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-roy-keane","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}