Insight

English football has always played around a hectic schedule over the Christmas period with the Premier League traditionally taking centre stage on Boxing Day. Here, we run through the most famous and unexpected results on Boxing Day in England’s top flight.

Manchester City and Leicester City played out an instant Premier League classic back in 2021 as Pep Guardiola’s men aimed to take a six-point lead at the top of the Premier League table heading into 2022.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup gave football fans the greatest-ever final, as Argentina defeated France on penalties. France made two epic comebacks and could have won the match at the end of extra time only for it to go to spot-kicks.

The 2022 World Cup ended in dramatic fashion on Sunday, with Argentina beating France on penalties at Lusail Stadium. So, who were the standout players at this year’s tournament?

There was plenty of discussion surrounding the 2022 World Cup before the tournament started. Due to the event being staged in Qatar, the World Cup was played in winter for European countries, meaning a break in the major European leagues.

As expected, the World Cup quarter-finals dished up tons of drama. The Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal and England all bowed out of the tournament, while Morocco became the first African team to reach the semi-finals.

The biggest story to come out of the 2022 World Cup is the fact Morocco have reached the semi-final. They could still go one further and make the final if they can beat France but Morocco have already made history.

Few people, other their own fans, were talking about Croatia ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Despite reaching the final in 2018, Croatia were overlooked as potential winners of the 2022 event, with the likes of Argentina, Brazil, France, England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Belgium all ahead of them.

Spain’s Segunda Division is not the most attractive, free-flowing football division in Europe. The league is low on attacking talent and high on defensive tactics, leading to games being low scoring in 2022-23.

In keeping with the theme of the 2022 World Cup, the round of 16 did not disappoint. Australia pushed Argentina all the way, Morocco stunned Spain and Portugal hit Switzerland for six – without the help of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 2022 World Cup group stage will do down as one of the best in the history of the competition. The first few games of the tournament failed to catch the imagination but the fixture between Argentina and Saudi Arabia set the tournament alight.

The United States came into the 2022 World Cup full of promise. They started the group stage with a good performance against Wales, especially in the first half and that set the tone for the rest of the group stage.

The group stage of the 2022 World Cup will be remembered as one of the most entertaining group stages in the tournament’s history. We share our best XI from the first 13 days in Qatar.

Japan entered the 2022 World Cup knowing they faced a hugely challenging task to qualify for the round of 16.

The round of 16 is upon us at the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup where despite plenty of upsets in the group stages, most teams have comfortably made it through who were expected too.

Robert Lewandowski has scored 378 goals in 488 matches in his club football career. The Polish striker has played for some of the world’s biggest teams including Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and currently, Barcelona.

The 2022 World Cup is well underway in Qatar and we have had plenty of time to assess the tournament. One of the standout features of the 2022 World Cup has been the time added on at the end of each half.

Brazil opened the 2022 World Cup campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Serbia. Both goals were scored by Richarlison in the second half and Brazil fully deserved to win the game against a stubborn Serbia team.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup’s first round of group-stage games are complete, and there are still more questions than answers about which team will ultimately win international football’s biggest prize.

The 2022 Qatar World Cup is well underway and the tournament has already sprung up a bunch of surprises and shock results. However, there are still plenty of teams aiming to get into the knockout stages for the first time, and we’ll run through who has not yet made it to the round of 16 at the World Cup.