World Cup 2018: Top 4 forwards who played for less than 90 minutes
The FIFA World Cup has come to an end after a month. It will definitely go down as one of the best World Cup's ever played. It sprang many surprises throughout and the contenders like Brazil and Spain couldn't even make it to the semi-final. Germany was knocked out in the group stage itself due to a defeat against South Korea. It has been the hardest fought World Cup in which underdogs were a million times better than the favorites.
However, it was France who came out triumphant and made sure that they didn't become prey to the underdogs. They came into the tournament as the best team and left it as the best team.
Although France came out triumphant, the entire limelight wasn't on them. Rather, it was on teams like Croatia, England and Russia who shocked the world with their superb performances. Croatia finished runners-up to France while Belgium took home the Bronze medal. Croatia's talisman, Luka Modric took home the Golden Ball while Kylian Mbappe bagged the Best Young Player Award.
Harry Kane and Thibaut Courtois won the Golden Boot and Golden Glove respectively. Although it was these stars who ran away with the limelight, there were a few stars who didn't get the opportunity to play for a substantial amount of time as well.
In this article, we look at 4 such star forwards who played for less than 90 minutes throughout the tournament.
#1 Paulo Dybala
The star Argentine forward has made a name for himself as one of most lethal strikers on the planet. He was expected to play a pivotal role for Argentina in the World Cup but he didn't get the opportunities as Aguero, Di Maria and Higuain were preferred by Sampaoli, to support Lionel Messi.
The Juventus forward was in brilliant form coming into the tournament as he scored 22 goals in 33 appearances for Juventus and contributed with 5 assists in the Serie A 17/18. He played for only 22 minutes in the World Cup and it came in one game, against Croatia. That he warmed the bench, even though Higuain was out of form shows that the support staff lacked confidence in Dybala.
If only they had confidence in Dybala, Argentina might have had a different tournament.
All stats via Transfermarkt