Riding on a brilliant display from Kylian Mbappe, France reached their second consecutive World Cup final after beating Morocco 2-0 in the second semi-final. Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani were on target for Les Bleus, as an opponent finally beat Morocco’s famed defence.
With this win, France will now face Argentina, a team they eliminated in the round of 16 in the previous World Cup. Meanwhile, Morocco will now play in the third-place playoff against Croatia.
Summary: France 2-0 Morocco
Before the start of the match, Morocco had not conceded any goal from an opponent in the entire World Cup (they only conceded an own goal). However, it took France only four minutes to breach Morocco’s defence. The move started when Varane’s pass reached Antoine Griezmann after a horrendous slip by Jawad El Yamiq. Griezmann squared the ball to Mbappe, who failed to score in two attempts. Fortunately for France, the ball reached Theo Hernadez, who volleyed the ball past Yassine Bounou.
France kept the pressure on and almost scored through Giroud, who only managed to hit the post. To make matters worse, Morocco lost their captain Romain Saiss to injury in the 20th minute.
However, Morocco did have a chance of their own as El-Yamiq’s bicycle kick hit the post in the dying minutes. In between all these, Sofiane Boufal was also booked for a challenge on Theo Hernandez.
In the second half, Morocco came out all guns blazing pressing France in their half. And they had two brilliant chances within seconds to equalise in the 54th minute but failed to do as the French backline held its nerves.
On the other end, Mbappe also got a clear run to the goal, but a last-ditch tackle from Amrabat spared Morocco’s blushes.
However, after seeing his team struggle to get past the halfway line, Didier Deschamps sent Marcus Thuram on for Giroud. Meanwhile, Morocco made a double substitution sending in Zakaria Aboukhlal and Abderrazak Hamdallah to replace Boufal and En-Nesyri.
Morocco still kept the pressure on and could have gotten their goal after Abderrazak Hamdallah went past two defenders but instead of shooting tried to go past a third defender who snuffed out the chance. This was the Atlas Lions’ best chance, and not scoring it had disastrous consequences for them, as they conceded soon after.
Mbappe, who had dominated the game, showed his best skills to bamboozle past two defenders before shooting. The ball hit Abde Ezzalzouli and fell into the path of…
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