The biggest football moments in 2022

2022 was a great year for world Football. From Wales qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2022 to Argentina winning the title for Lionel Messi, here are the few biggest football moments in the year 2022.

1. Wales has qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Wales narrowly beat Ukraine to confirm their place in Qatar after a deflected Gareth Bale free kick edged them ahead. Wayne Hennessey turned into Superman and somehow kept a clean sheet; Cymru held on, and Cardiff went mad.

2. West Ham has advanced to the Europa League semi-finals.

West Ham were the dark horses looking to make the top six on the European stage.

Sevilla was swatted aside in the thunderous London stadium, and it was one of the club’s greatest games ever. The winning goal was scored by Andriy Yarmolenko as 60,000+ showed their solidarity and support for Ukraine.

3. The women of England win Euro 2022.

Chloe Kelly's winner against Germany, the Three Lions blaring out, and this outpouring of emotion as Wembley erupted on the final whistle, Jill Scott's spectacular swearing

Georgia Stanway's stunning win against Spain made her the favorite. The scene was set in Brighton: Sarina Wiegman had only returned a negative COVID-19 test hours before kickoff, and the Lionesses were 1-0 down and six minutes away from being eliminated at the quarter final stage.

Ella Toone scored a dramatic late equalizer. Sheer relief. Then Stanway appeared, the space in front of her just opening up, the Spanish backline retreating. She seemed to hesitate before the shooting, but once it left her foot, it was only ever going to arc into the back of the net. Sheer, unadulterated joy

4. Alessia Russo

Alessia Russo had already scored three times for England at Euro 2022, but that backheel in the semi-final against Sweden properly announced her to the nation as wider interest in the Lionesses increased throughout the rounds.

Aside from being a brilliant moment of improvisation that completely caught the Swedish defenders and goalkeeper off guard, it also came at a critical time to end the game—England's third goal of a commanding 4-0 win—en route to their first senior international final in 13 years.

She missed most of the 2020/21 campaign because of injury and was initially reintroduced slowly at the start of 2021/22, but it was clear even months before Euro 2022 that she had the star quality to make a difference for England come summer. And she absolutely smashed it.

Russo didn’t actually start any games at the Euros but came off the bench every time to bulldoze tiring defenses, and the reaction from the crowd to her introduction got louder with each appearance.

5. Argentina winning the World Cup for Lionel Messi

Argentina missed out on the 2014 World Cup when Mario Gotze scored the winning goal. It resulted in Messi missing out on the World Cup. In 2018, they were beaten by the French. In 2022, they began their match on an ominous note when they were beaten by Saudi Arabia 2-1. Since then, Argentina continued its winning run to the World Cup, where they faced France. It was a tense final as, despite Argentina leading 2-0, France bounced back through Kylian Mbappe. Despite Messi scoring in the extra time, Mbappe scored at the death to make the score 3-3. Argentina beat France on penalties, and it saw Messi lift the World Cup, which eluded him for so long. Mbappe won the golden shoe, while Messi won the golden ball award, and he is in contention to win the eighth Balon d'Or.

Cover Credit - India Today