France 2-0 Morocco: Les Bleus cruise into final four with comfortable win | OneFootball

A replay of the 2022 World Cup semi-final saw France reach the final four of this year’s tournament with a comfortable win over Morocco.

Kylian Mbappé missed a golden opportunity to give his side the lead in the 28th minute when he saw his penalty saved by Yassine Bounou. However, he did eventually give France the lead, curling the ball into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area on the hour mark.

Les Bleus doubled their lead six minutes later when Ousmane Dembélé, who picked out the bottom corner with a fine finish.

As it happened

Didier Deschamps made one change to his French side following their battle with Paraguay last time out, with Desiré Doué replacing Bradley Barcola on the left-hand side. Meanwhile, Morocco made a brace of changes with Saibari forced out through injury, meaning he was replaced by Chemsdine Talbi, whilst Annas Salah-Eddine came in for Redouane Halhal.

Mbappé took on a long-range effort inside the opening moments, which forced a save and won France a corner. Bounou was called into action again from the set-piece as he denied Dayot Upamecano’s back-post header.

Dembélé was next to have a crack at the Morocco goal, but his looping header drifted well wide of the post. France continued to dominate proceedings, which paid off when Mbappé broke through the lines and won a penalty after being brought down by Noussair Mazraoui inside the area.

After a three-minute delay for a VAR check, which was inevitably cleared, the centre-forward stepped up to the plate but was denied by Bounou, who held on to the ball with relative ease. Dembélé looked to make up for his teammate’s error after the hydration break, but could only curl the ball wide.

Doué was next up, driving through the Moroccan defence with ease before seeing his shot well saved at the near post. Lucas Digne gave Morocco fans some cause for concern when his 30-yard strike dipped onto the crossbar before going behind, bringing the first half to a close.

The AFCON champions won their first corner of the match in the 51st minute; however, they failed to create a chance from it, losing the ball after playing the corner short. At the other end, Doué let fly with an ambitious strike that flew straight at Bounou.

They didn’t have to wait much longer for the breakthrough, though, with Mbappé picking out the far corner from the top of the box, a superb finish to make up for his earlier penalty miss.

Morocco responded by introducing Sofiane Rahimi and Sofiane Amrabat to replace Bilal El-Khannouss and Ayyoub Bouaddi. Issa Diop was shown the first yellow card of the match minutes later when he went through the back of Doué.

Les Bleus doubled their lead mere moments after through Dembélé, who picked out the bottom corner with a fine daisy-cutting strike. Another double change followed for Morocco, with Gessime Yassine and Zakaria El Ouahdi replacing Brahim Díaz and Salah-Eddine. Meanwhile, France’s first change saw Jean-Phillippe Mateta replace Mbappé for the final 15 minutes. Barcola also replaced Doué, further emphasising the French’s strength in depth.

France continued to push for a third goal, with Mateta nearly making an immediate impact when he was picked out by Barcola before seeing his header saved. Morocco’s first shot on target came in the 82nd minute, when Azz-Edine Ounahi tested Mike Maignan from range, but the keeper palmed it away convincingly. The resultant corner nearly saw Neil El Aynaoui give them a lifeline, but his header could only find the side-netting.

Olise looked to get in on the act with five minutes remaining, but clipped his shot well wide. Bounou made his fifth save of the match in the 88th minute, denying Barcola, who had broken away from his man. The following corner saw Mateta fail to keep his header down; if he had, it almost certainly would have been 3-0.

Six minutes of additional time were announced, with Morocco winning a corner in the opening stages of it. However, they once again failed to pose any real threat to the French goal. Mateta came close again moments later, but Bounou was equal to the shot once more.

Yassine went for the spectacular with little time left on the clock, attempting to catch Maignan off his line, but his strike sailed over the bar, bringing the game to a close and confirming France’s spot in the semi-final.