Canada Dominates Qatar in First Half, Koné Suffers Serious Injury

Live updates: Canada vs Qatar

By Henry Hanson

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57' Thumbs up from Koné

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By Simon Smale

A huge cheer as Koné sits up on the stretcher and gives the crowd the thumbs up.

That's something.

His World Cup is over, let's hope it's no worse than that.

His left leg is strapped in a compression bandage and he has oxygen.

54' The sides are coming together in anger

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By Simon Smale

The Canadians are absolutely livid.

The teams are coming together on the sideline - the Canadians are devastated and that's turning into anger.

The Qatari's are not covering themselves in glory here.

Assim Madibo, meanwhile, is still off to one side with his head in his hands.

I actually feel sorry for him.

53' Assim Madibo is sent off

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By Simon Smale

He looks shocked, his hands on his head.

VAR has a look and decides it's a red card.

He doesn't even seem to register, so shocked is he by what's happened.

51' Koné is down with a serious injury

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By Simon Smale

Oh no.

This is horrible.

Assim Madibo has gone in hard on Ismaël Koné and it is immediately apparent that Koné has done something very serious.

Madibo looked shocked, instantly staring down at the leg of Koné, who was similarly stunned at the injury.

"His leg is broken man," says one of the Canadian players.

"His leg's hanging off, you've broke his leg."

Oh dear.

What a horrible thing to happen.

50' VAR penalty check

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By Simon Smale

Larin and David combine inside the penalty area after Canada camps out on the edge of the Qatar box.

It is relentless for the defenders, who just have no outlet to get rid of the ball to.

It results in a corner when Larin's shot is blocked.

VAR is going to have a look at whether this is a penalty for a handball, but it's not because there wasn't.

46' We're back underway

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By Simon Smale

Qatar has kicked off. I imagine they'd rather not if this second half goes the same way as the first.

Canada has made a halftime sub — Derek Cornelius is off, he was on a yellow card, and Moïse Bombito is on.

Qatar made a couple of changes, too.

Ahmed Fathy and Mohammad Al Manai come on for Qatar, replacing Edmílson Junior and Jassem Gaber.

Poch: USA can maintain it's level

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By Tom Wildie

Many have described the USA's 4-1 win over Paraguay as the countries best ever performance at a World Cup.

Mauricio Pochettino says as long as his side approaches the Australia game with the same level of respect it did Paraguay, he's confident they will win tomorrow.

Poch: I trust the referees

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By Tom Wildie

Australia and the USA played a fiery friendly last year, and it has been brought up to Poch.

He says it's very different in a friendly compared to a full International, which has VAR and FIFA's beady eye all over it.

Poch has actually coached a game at Seattle before — when he was the manager of Tottenham.

Poch: Australia will be hard to break down

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By Tom Wildie

Pundits here in the USA have spoken at length about Australia's five man defence, which has three centre backs paired with two wingbacks.

Mauricio Pochettino says he's excited for the challenge of breaking down that defence, which was resolute against Turkiye.

He says the Turkiye match has given him some ideas, but he won't be drawn in to revealing them.

"I don't want to give ideas to the coach still to come in here" he jokes about Tony Popovic.

The possible absence of Pulisic will make breaking down Australia's defence a harder task for the US.

Poch: Difficult to describe Lionel Messi

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By Tom Wildie

Mauricio Pochettino is Argentinian and his compatriot Lionel Messi is having a blinder at this World Cup.

He says the Argentinian side is the best side, and Messi is just the cherry on a great side.

Poch also says he sends his support to Messi, who's father is unwell.

Poch: Huge challenge to break Australia's defence

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By Tom Wildie

Pundits here in the USA have spoken at length about Australia's five-man defence, which has three centre-backs paired with two wing-backs.

Mauricio Pochettino says he's excited for the challenge of breaking down that defence, which was resolute against Turkiye.

The possible absence of Pulisic will make that a harder task for the US.

Poch: Watched Argentina v Australia at Qatar

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By Tom Wildie

Pochettino says he remembers watching the Socceroos when they lost a nailbiter in the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup four years ago.

He says he respects the Australian side following their win over Turkiye in Vancouver.

Mauricio Pochettino has taken the stand

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By Tom Wildie

The first question, unsurprisingly, is about Christian Pulisic, and his famous calf.

Poch isn't giving anything away. "He's evolving, much better than Friday. We'll see," he says.

USA coach is moments away

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By Tom Wildie

The media pack has gathered and is waiting for Mauricio Pochettino to walk in.

HT: Canada rolling forward, Qatar crumbling

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By Simon Smale

A stunning first half for the hosts.

Canada leads this 3-0 at the break and at the moment it's a blank cheque for the hosts.

They could score as many as they like here against the 10 men of Qatar, who looked pretty abject even when they had 11.

The knew they'd be up against it from the off and sat back allowing the Canadians to have all the ball and chances they'd like.

And it's costing them.

Canada could end Qatar's hopes here with more goals, as well as book themselves a spot in the last 32.

45+5' Great save!

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By Simon Smale

The red wave of Canadian forwards keeps coming forward, Johnston powering a shot from the right side of the penalty area that is saved really well by Mahmud Abunada.

45+3' CANADA HAS A THIRD!

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By Simon Smale

A fine stop first up from Mahmud Abunada, who claws away a Larin header off his line.

But Jonathan David is there once more to tap the rebound home.

Qatar are in deep trouble here, struggling on every level.

45+2' Qatar clears off the line again!

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By Simon Smale

Another deep cross to the back post, Buchanan heads the ball back across goal towards Larin, but there is a Qatar player on the line to head the ball away from under the crossbar.

Qatar hanging on for dear life here.

Buchanan has been superb.