LIVE | World Cup: Morocco v France – Wednesday, 14 December 2022

World champions France ensured that it’s certainly not ‘coming home’ with a hard-fought 2-1 win over England in their quarter-final, and now just two wins stand in their way of becoming the first side since Brazil in 1962 to successfully defend their World Cup crown.

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Never doing things the easy way, France are the only side left in the tournament yet to record a clean sheet, falling behind or conceding an equaliser in four of their five matches.

Les Bleus have some incredible attacking talents to thank for their progression to this stage with Kylian Mbappé (5 goals, 2 assists) and record-breaking scorer Olivier Giroud (4 goals) making 11 goal contributions between them.

French boss Didier Deschamps admitted that his side “got lucky” against England and he may need yet another slice of luck after France lost three of their last six World Cup games against African nations, including a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia in this edition.

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No matter what happens now, Morocco have made history at this tournament by becoming the first African nation to make it to the semi-finals of a World Cup.

Morocco have already knocked out two giants of European football in the knockout phase with a penalties win over Spain preceding a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Portugal in the quarter-final, results which prompted boss Walid Regragui to brand Morocco the “Rocky of this World Cup”.

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That film reference seems like a fair assessment considering Morocco have been outsiders in all but one of their five World Cup games, the 2-1 win over Canada.

Solid defensive play and great game management have been hallmarks of Morocco’s unlikely success story at this tournament, a statement backed up by the fact that no opposition player has scored past them in nine straight internationals.

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Kick-off is at 21:00 (SA time).

MOROCCO V FRANCE

Key battle

Mbappé has 33 international goals and will surely break Giroud’s goalscoring record (currently at 53) one day for France. He currently leads the way for the Golden Boot in this World Cup with five goals, hitting crucial braces in two of his last four appearances. Talented Moroccan full-back Achraf Hakimi produced one of the tournament highlights with a panenka penalty to eliminate Spain, but now his focus will firmly be on defence when he squares up directly against PSG teammate Mbappé, in what’s going to be a crucial battle.

Hot stat

France have recorded just one clean sheet across their last 11 internationals.

World Cup trivia

Born in Morocco, Frenchman Just Louis Fontaine still holds the record for most goals scored in a single tournament with an incredible 13-goal haul as France went on to finish in third back in 1958.