France Vs Morocco Preview: As The FIFA World Cup 2022 moves into the Semifinals with the two teams facing off, here is all you need to know.
France, the 2018 champions, and Morocco, the first African country to ever make it to the World Cup semifinals, will face off in a genuine David vs. Goliath matchup.
Harry Kane’s last-second missed penalty allowed Les Bleus to barely escape an aggressive England charge, but their next battle will be considerably different.
Morocco has a patchwork team that is plagued by injuries, but the Atlas Lions have united to offer outstanding and unexpected depth.
They benefit from a virtual home field advantage because a large number of their supporters traveled to Qatar to help generate an electrifying environment.
Will France approach the brink of winning a successive World Cup, or will Morocco advance from World Cup participant to genuine title contender?
France Vs Morocco Key Stats
At the 2022 World Cup, Antoine Griezmann has generated the most chances (17) and the most predicted assists of any player (2.94 xA).
Jamal Musiala, who ranks 1.86 on the predicted assists table, is the next player closest. In the World Cup, Achraf Hakimi has attempted the most tackles (19), and his successful tackles rank second (15).
Noussair Mazraoui, a teammate at fullback, has 13 tackles overall with eight of them being successful, placing him sixth and seventh, respectively.
From Brazil’s appearances in the World Cup finals in 1994 and 1998, no team has advanced to back-to-back championship games; since 1958 and 1962, only Brazil has done so. There has never been a World Cup final with the same two teams in successive years. That might happen in the 2022 edition if France beat Morocco and Croatia beat Argentina to meet in the final of the World Cup. Recall that France beat Croatia in the last edition of the tournament.
Team News
Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Mike Maignan, Christopher Nkunuk, Presnel Kimpembe, and Karim Benzema’s pre-tournament withdrawals haven’t turned out to be nearly as significant as first thought.
Theo Hernandez has taken over at left-back for his injured brother Lucas Hernandez after the latter’s ruptured ACL in the group stage opener, and Olivier Giroud has successfully replaced Karim Benzema as the team’s top goal scorer.
Morocco’s injury situation is complicated. The injury to captain Romain Saiss, who apparently had it going into the Portugal game and had to be carried out in the second half, is the most worrisome.
Due to separate injuries, Noussair Mazraoui and Naif Aguerd were unable to play against Portugal. Morocco’s strength, meanwhile, has been in their unexpected depth.
Yahia Attiyat Allah performed brilliantly in the enormous shoes left by Mazraoui’s absence, and Badr Banoune replaced Saiss and held the line.
| Nation | Player suspended | Type | Card 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | NIL | — | — |
| Morocco | Walid Cheddira | Red Card (YC x2) |
France Vs Morocco Odds
Morocco is a huge underdog once more. They haven’t let it bother them up to this point because Morocco has been at least a 3/1 underdog in every successful outcome they’ve had so far.
The odds indicate they will struggle to score goals because of their strong defensive play, yet despite this, they still managed to attack Portugal on the break.
Despite having a powerful offensive arsenal, France is unable to dislodge Morocco’s well-organized defense, favoring the under significantly.
| BetMGM | Sports Interaction | SkyBet | Ladbrokes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| France win | -185 | 1.51 | 1/2 | 8/15 |
| Draw | +290 | 3.76 | 29/10 | 27/10 |
| Morocco win | +550 | 6.71 | 6/1 | 6/1 |
| Both teams to score Y / N | +130 / -190 | 2.29 / 1.48 | 11/8, 8/15 | 27/20, 8/15 |
| Over / Under 2.5 goals | +120 / -165 | 2.23 / 1.58 | 5/4, 4/7 | 5/4, 4/7 |
| France -0.5 | -200 | 1.50 | — | — |
| Morocco +0.5 | +140 | 2.47 | — | — |
| France advance | -450 | 1.22 | 1/5 | 2/9 |
| Morocco advance | +275 | 3.85 | 10/3 | 29/10 |
Match Time and Prediction
- Date: Wednesday, December 14
- Kickoff Time: 2:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm GMT / 6:00 am AEDT (Thu, Dec. 15)
- Location: Al Bayt Stadium
- Official: TBC
Predicted result: France 1-0 Morocco
It is obvious that France will find it extremely challenging to subdue Morocco.
Despite the fact that many of us had doubts about Morocco’s capacity to stop Portugal from scoring, the African country nonetheless managed to blank its European opponents over the course of 90 minutes despite numerous important players suffering injuries.
As a result, we no longer have any concerns about this quasi-home team’s performance.
France is a unique breed. Australia, Denmark, Tunisia, and England have all thrown punches at Les Bleus, but they have all recovered to win. This France team never gives up.
