5 Things we learned from France’s quarter-final win over Morocco
France continue to look like the best team in the tournament. From the off it was one way traffic towards the Morocco goal but it took a while for France to properly get going in the first half up against a resolute Moroccan defence, as the first half wore on Les Bleus were getting closer to that opener forcing Bono into some strong saves from the likes of Doue and Upamecano. Then in the 25th minute Mbappe found himself 1 v 1 with Mazraoui down the left with the Frenchman driving into the box and forcing Mazraoui into a tackle that brought Mbappe down leading to the referee awarding a penalty to France, after a lengthy delay the penalty was ready to be taken but to the surprise of just about everyone Mbappe rolled a terrible penalty to the right which was easily saved by Bono to keep the game at 0-0. For most of the game Morocco lacked any real threat going forward with the absence of Ismael Saibari really hurting the frontline and France did eventually take the lead in the 60th minute as Doue’s touch went into the path of Mbappe just inside the box who curled an absolute beauty past Bono to give France the lead, just six minutes later Les Bleus doubled their lead as Mbappe played the ball to Ousmane Dembele who drove towards the Morocco box and fired a shot that just squirmed underneath Bono to all but book France’s spot in the semi-finals. A comfortable win for Deschamp’s team that just look unbeatable at the moment.
More comfortable for France than I thought. Going into this game I thought this would have been France’s toughest challenge yet but they were comfortable for basically the whole match, it did take them a while to get going in the first half but all they need is one moment from any one of the attackers to open the game and that’s what happened for the penalty. As soon as Mbappe was 1 v 1 with Mazraoui there was only going to be one winner and it was a pretty clear penalty in the end, the thing I can’t understand is why it took over 3 minutes to confirm the penalty which clearly played a part in why Mbappe’s penalty was so poor. But like all the greats he bounced back in the second half to score a goal only he could score that gave Bono no chance in the Morocco goal and put France in the lead, the second goal yet again displayed Les Bleus attacking quality as all the Moroccan defenders went with Mbappe leaving Dembele with a free shot at goal which Bono probably should have saved but it was still a decent finish from Dembele. The second goal killed Morocco who only managed 0.14xG in the 90 minutes which shows how dominant France’s defenders were up against a poor Moroccan attack, is there anyone left in the tournament that can stop this France team? I’m not so sure.
Morocco out with a whimper. I don’t know if that’s too harsh but I was really disappointed with Morocco’s performance today, there was warning signs in the game against Canada in the last round where Morocco where second best for a lot of that game but I thought they might return to form today but it just didn’t happen. The injury to Ismael Saibari obviously was hugely detrimental to the way Morocco play but the false-9 approach today just didn’t work and allowed France’s defenders probably the easiest game they’ve played all tournament, you’re looking at the likes of Brahim Diaz, Hakimi etc to step up in a quarter-final and show their quality but both of them along with the rest of the team were really poor and easily could have lost by 3 or 4 on another day without Bono having such a strong game. Whilst I think Morocco have had a good tournament there are definitely things to improve on in this team which is being ruthless going forward, you think back to the first game against Brazil when they were the far superior side and a win would have put them on the other side of the draw which looks far more favourable. Morocco will undoubtedly be back here with the strength of this squad and how young a lot of the players are so I’m looking forward to the evolution of this team over the next few years.
Is Mbappe making a charge towards the Ballon D’oR? Before the tournament started I had Harry Kane as the current favourite for the award after his record breaking season with Bayern Munich but I feel we are getting to a point where Mbappe is just continually putting performance after performance in for France who do look like they are the best team in this tournament, that’s not to say that there aren’t competitors also fighting for that award like Erling Haaland who has put Norway on his back so far and if he gets Norway to a semi-final or final there is definitely a debate to be had around the Ballon D’oR for him. Then you have Lionel Messi who won the award in 2022 based purely on his World Cup campaign so I wouldn’t be surprised if he won it again if Argentina went on to win the World Cup this time around as his performances have been ridiculous once again, Harry Kane is is still there and if England went all the way I can’t see anyone else but him winning it as he’s been unbelievable for club and country this season. If Spain were to win it though I’m not too sure who would be the favourite as Yamal hasn’t really been the standout in this Spanish side this time around but you’d imagine he will appear at some point maybe starting tomorrow, overall I think whatever country does win this World Cup their star player will be favourite for the Ballon D’oR? Who’s your current favourite for the award?
Who will France be playing in the semi-final? Up next for France will be either Spain or Belgium who play tomorrow evening, you’d imagine that Spain will go through which would setup a rematch of the Euro 2024 semi-final which Spain won 2-1 after France took the lead. Yamal scored a wondergoal in that game to equalise before Olmo scored the winner so France will undoubtedly be out for revenge in that one, if Belgium go through it would setup a rematch of the semi-final back in the 2018 World Cup which France just edged 1-0 after an Umtiti header from a corner. From a neutral perspective I would love to see France vs Spain as they’ve arguably been the two best teams in the tournament so a semi-final would be tantalising matchup, I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow.