France end Morocco's World Cup adventure
France end Morocco adventure in the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup by beating them by two goals without reply, Wednesday evening at Al Bayt Stadium.
The goals of the match, Theo Hernandez and Colo Moani, were scored in the 5th and 79th minutes.
France continued their title defence to qualify for the final for the second time in a row, where they will face Argentina in the final on Sunday at Lusail Stadium.
As for the Moroccan team, it will play against Croatia for the bronze medal in a repeat of the confrontation between the two teams in the first round of the current edition, which ended in a goalless draw in Group F.
The match started at a very fast pace, and before Morocco caught their breath, the world champions surprised them with an early goal scored by Theo Hernandez after an attack started by Antoine Griezmann, involving Mbappe.
The Atlas Lions tried to make amends for this shock, and they stepped up to threaten the Roosters with a shot from Azzedine Onahi, which was kept out by Hugo Lloris, and another miserable attempt from Hakim Ziyech.
To make matters worse, when Morocco coach Walid Regragui was forced to replace captain Romain Saiss due to his injury, to replace him with Salim Maltah in the 21st minute.
The French response was very strong and dangerous, as a shot from Giroud was saved by the right post, and Mbappe missed an explicit solitary, the same attack responded to Giroud, to shoot near the post.
In the final minutes of the first half, Griezmann played a corner, which Raphael Varane met with his foot next to the post.
Jawad Yamiq almost equalized with a wonderful scissor kick, which Hugo Lloris narrowly kept out with help from the post, to bounce back to Sofiane Boufal, who shot off target.
At the start of the second half, Yahya Attiyatullah replaced Naseer Mizraoui, and the two fronts of the Moroccan national team were activated by reciprocal moves of Boufal with Hakimi on the right and Atiyatallah on the left, to help the spearhead, Youssef Nasiri.
The Moroccans pressed hard to equalise, but the French defence was solid and vigilant, with centre-backs Varane and Ibrahima Konaté clearing more than a cross.
Roosters coach Didier Deschamps moved to revitalize the ranks after 65 minutes, bringing on Marcus Thuram in place of Giroud, and Mbappe moved to the spearhead position in hopes of exploiting his speed on the counter deep into the Moroccan defence.
Walid Regraki responded with two substitutions at once, where Abdul Razzaq Hamdallah and Zakaria Abu were involved in the place of Al-Nasiri and Boufal, and then Abdul Samad Al-Zalzouli in place of Salim Malhat.
On the other hand, Kolo Mwani replaced Ousmane Dembélé, to reward his coach Deschamps seconds after coming down by scoring the second goal after following up on Kylian Mbappe's shot that hit the earthquake.
The Moroccan national team did not despair, but tried to score an honorable goal, as Ouahi and Hamdallah missed two opportunities, and did not achieve what he wanted, amid the tears and crying of its fans who left the stands of the "Al-Bayt" stadium sad for the loss of a new historic qualification.