Morocco fight until the end but France book final date with Argentina
CLINCHER: France's Randal Kolo Muani celebrates scoring the second goal during the FIFA World Cup semi-final match at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire
They were never going to go quietly. Nor gently either.
No, Morocco raged almost to the very end. Only when a second French goal arrived, cruelly, 79 minutes into a remarkable display of defiance from Africa’s first ever World Cup semi-finalists was their race run. Still the noise poured down from the stands of Al Bayt, filling the desert tent with adulation and respect for how far they’d come.
Didier Deschamps’ champions are back in a World Cup final. Qatar the footballing enterprise has a decider that isn’t far off dream territory, pitting Lionel Messi against Kylian Mbappé, two of the faces of its Parisian project, for the greatest prize of all. Qatar the nation, such as it is, could perhaps have done with a little more Morocco. The rest of us surely could too.
They defied so much to get here and then ignored more cruel twists of fate to take the battle to France for the 74 minutes that separated Theo Hernandez’ early opener and substitute Randal Kolo Muani’s first international goal. They lost captain Romain Saiss and two more defensive rocks to injury but swarmed a fitful French midfield where Youssouf Fofana and Aurelien Tchouameni were thankful for Antoine Griezmann. Utterly heroic, he was the most consistent spoiler in blue.
Of all the defining images of this semi-final it was perhaps Sofyan Amrabat’s unwillingness to let the scorching Mbappé win a one-sided foot race early in the second half that summed up the Atlas Lions’ indomitable spirit. Amrabat, one of the tournament’s best midfielder’s but far from its fastest, ate up the ground behind France’s livewire and took Mbappé, ball and anything else in the vicinity. All to keep his side in it until they finally weren’t. What a remarkable team.
But France, dealing with their own injury crises too it should be noted, are the ones going to the Lusail on Sunday night.
Just 24 hours after his PSG teammate had taken the first semi-final in his grasp and bent it to its will like he was back in his early 20s, Mbappé was tasked with following Messi’s lead. The PSG connections were tight in the tunnel as he and Hakimi exchanged their own personalised handshake and embraced warmly. Nothing personal. Just business.
Walid Regragui had tactically mastered the ninth, seventh and second-ranked sides in the world. But the fourth-ranked French posed more problems. The Morocco manager moved away from a back four for the first time, bringing in Jawad El Yamiq. Positive news on the injury front didn’t last long, however, as Nayef Aguerd saw his return from injury scuppered in the warm-up.
The concern had always been how the toll of their historic journey may catch up with Morocco. Their first XI brims with class and experience. The bench does not. Within five minutes it would show.
Antoine Griezmann slipped the hasty El Yamiq with ease and galloped into the kinda spaces he has made his own here. He cut across for Mbappé and the entire defence converged on him. It was Hakimi who got the decisive block but as the ball bobbled in the sea of red it was Mbappé’s left foot that connected and it looped to the left. Hernandez was most alive and acrobatically put it past both a hesitant Bono and Achraf Dari, who may have done better.
It was the first time an opposition player had scored past Morocco in the entire tournament and also the first time they’d trailed. A whole lot of red hot air and energy was sucked out of the tented dome of Al Bayt.
But they didn’t get here by dropping heads or hearts. The noise built slowly and so did the Lions, no time to lick wounds now. Azzedine Ounahi stung Hugo Lloris’s left hand with a low drive and both Hakim Ziyech and Hakimi would try from distance too. But in between times they lost Saiss, clearly not fit as he was outpaced by Olivier Giroud, who rattled Bono’s post. Regragui consoled his captain and switched to a back four.
If you were surprised by their response, you clearly hadn’t been watching enough of them. They were rabid, biting into tackles, upping the tempo and having joy in midfield particularly where Ounahi and Sofyan Amrabat refused to go gently.
Hernandez could have conceded a penalty but got just enough of the ball ahead of Sofiane Boufal, although Morocco had justified claims that there was enough there for a second look.
France almost had a second themselves when Mbappé and Giroud both could and should have scored within seconds of one another after a rapid 36th minute break. Deschamps will have been hating how free-flowing it all was but for Regragui the openness of it kept his side in it.
They were dominating possession and almost had a spectacular equaliser a minute before the break. Ziyech’s corner was headed away by Giroud but it looped to the edge of the area where El Yamiq went airborne and shinned a bicycle kick off the post. It would have been a fitting goal for a cracking half of football.
There was a third Moroccan defensive reshuffle at the break yet still no let-up. With Mbappé only interested in going forward, Hakimi and Ziyech piled the pressure on Hernandez. Morocco were needing something to fall for them but it just wasn’t doing so. Ibrahima Konate was quietly diligent and effective alongside Raphael Varane but the only help in front of them came from Griezmann.
A pair of great Moroccan chances arrived just three minutes after Amrabat’s lung-busting and game-saving run but neither Youssef En-Nesyri nor substitute Yahya Attia Allah could trouble Lloris. Boufal cut a dangerous one back just after the hour but there was Griezmann again, the best player at the tournament not named Messi.
Deschamps finally called for help and sent Marcus Thuram in to close off the left side, moving Mbappé up front. Regragui emptied his bench, those in the stands emptied their lungs and ten minutes from time, after this remarkable run, Morocco were finally empty.
Mbappé picked up the ball after a rare foray from the French midfield and turned both Hakimi and Amrabat, two giants of this Moroccan campaign. He danced closer and shot and it was slowly deflected into the past of Kolo Muani, introduced seconds earlier. It was hardly deserved. France had been more like a 2018 version, playing as less than the sum of their parts but they’re missing parts too.
Jules Kounde cleared a Abderazak Hamdallah effort off the line right at the end as the French, remarkably, celebrated their first clean sheet of the tournament.
Argentina await and France will likely need to be better than this. But Morocco gave them a hell of a penultimate battle to prime them for one more — and Messi.
Lloris (C) 7; Kounde 7, Varane 7, Konate 8, Hernandez 7; Fofana 6, Tchouameni 7; Dembele 6 (Kolo Muani 79), Griezmann 9, Mbappé 7; Giroud 6 (Thuram 66).
Hernandez (5).
Bono 6; Hakimi 7, El Yamiq 6, Saiss 5 (Amallah 21, 7; Ezzalzouli 78), Dari 6, Mazraoui 6 (Attiat-Allah HT); Amrabat 8, Ounahi 8; Ziyech 7, En-Nesyri 6 (Hamdallah 66), Boufal 6 (Aboukhlal 66).
Boufal.
Cesar Ramos (MEX) 7.
68,294.
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