France also needed luck to tame the “Lions of the Atlas”.

France still have a victory in the final on Sunday (4 p.m.) against Argentina from successfully defending their title. Only two nations in the history of World Cups have managed this feat: Italy in 1934 and 1938 and Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

Now the Equipe Tricolore is preparing to follow in their footsteps. Didier Deschamps’ team stopped the Moroccans’ flight yesterday, the “Lions of Atlas” were beaten 0:2 (0:1) in the last four.

The brave Africans “only” have the game for third place on Saturday against Croatia – also because they made a classic false start.

Hernandez from close range

Theo Hernandez, the French left-back, got past goalkeeper Yassine Bono in the 5th minute after assist work from Antoine Griezmann and a blocked Mbappe shot. By a man of his own, mind you. Nayef Aguerd hit the wrong net in a 2-1 win over Canada. Doesn’t matter.

“Les Bleus” put up with Adrien Rabiot’s illness-related absence and had an easy loss against the Moroccans, who injured French-born defender Romain Saiss early on with a thigh injury (21st) and later Bayern ace Noussair Mazraoui (45th). opportunity plus. Class then prevailed, although number 22 in the FIFA world rankings held up excellently.

Morocco have a very talented and tight-knit squad that also lacked luck in this intense and at times tough exchange of blows. For example, just before the break, when Jawad El Yamiq failed with a remarkable overhead kick on the pole and goalie Hugo Lloris (44th).

Morocco can do much more than “just” defend. It’s quite difficult against the lightning-fast Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud, who kissed aluminum in the 17th minute. Against Randal Kolo Muani too. The “joker”, which coach Oliver Glasner has under his wing at Eintracht Frankfurt, scored just seconds after being substituted on – 2-0 (79th).

State of emergency in Paris

While little or nothing has been reported from Qatar about the riots, France has braced itself for a “hot” night. Around 10,000 police officers across the country were mobilized to control the situation.

Half of them were deployed in the greater Paris area, a state of emergency prevailed – including on the boulevard Champs-Elysees, where both French and Moroccan fans celebrated their teams’ World Cup successes exuberantly.

There were around 20,000 on Saturday, including incidents. Scooters, benches and rubbish bins caught fire and 108 people were arrested.

The semifinals should be declared a high-security game, also in view of potential terrorist threats. 1.5 million Moroccans live in France, many of them in the third and fourth generation.

The state in north-west Africa has been independent since 1956 and is more relaxed about the former colonial power than the other two Maghreb countries, Algeria and Tunisia.

The explosive World Cup duel in front of 68,294 eyewitnesses in the Al Bayt Stadium in Al-Khor – most of them on the side of the outsider – was only the sixth footballing international comparison, the first ever at a competitive level.

Before that, Morocco had won 8-7 on penalties in Casablanca in a friendly manner in 1998. France won in 1988 (2-1), 1999 (1-0) and 2000 (5-1). In November 2007, Morocco drew 2-2 with Saint-Denis at the Stade de France. The only unwelcome background noise at the time: boos during the French anthem, the “Marseillaise”.

There couldn’t be a draw yesterday. It needed a winner. France lived up to their role as favourites, although tens of thousands of Moroccan fans in Qatar gave their all to make their “heroes” a sensation. It was not meant to be.

author

Alexander Zambarloukos

Sports Editor

a.zambarloukos@nachrichten.at

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