Morocco vs France: Can the Moroccans deliver one more giant killing?
The second semi-final sees surprise package of the tournament Morocco take on 2018 winners France.
Morocco
The Cinderella story continues for Morocco who became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals after beating Portugal 1-0. Youssef En-Nesyri ’s header just before halftime gave the Moroccans the lead, which they managed to hold on to despite Portugal’s best efforts.
This now means that at this tournament they have beaten three countries in the top 10 FIFA rankings, including Belgium, Spain and Portugal.
The Moroccan’s World Cup run has been staged on a rock-solid defence. The partnership between Nayef Aguerd and Romain Saiss has been one of the keys to their success.
Despite this, their partnership will not continue. Aguerd suffered a ‘grade one’ thigh tear against Spain and is likely to miss the rest of the tournament. As for his partner in crime Saiss, he was stretchered off against Portugal having soldiered on courageously against Spain while his hamstring was heavily strapped up.
This could be crucial as to whether they progress to the final as the North African side has only conceded one goal so far this tournament – back in the Group stages against Canada. Even that was an own goal.
France
As for defending champions France, they are looking to reach their fourth World Cup final having participated in three already, winning the tournament on two occasions.
In their quarter-final match, France managed to scrape past England who they defeated 2-1. Every time they took the lead, they were happy to let England have the ball – England were just a penalty kick away from taking it to extra time.
Having said that, offensively they have been excellent so far in the tournament having scored 11 goals and Kylian Mbappe leads the golden boot race with five to his name.
Defensively there are causes for concern, having yet to keep a clean sheet at all in Qatar. The fact that Morocco have been so defensively secure would suggest if the North African side does take the lead, it will be difficult for the French to find the back of the net as quickly as they have in other games.
France will go into this game as favourites and rightly so due to the array of talent they have on the pitch. But as this tournament has told us, write the underdog off at your peril.
