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Doha (AFP) – France and Morocco play this Wednesday (2:00 p.m. Bogotá) an unexpected World Cup semifinal. The ‘Bleus’ entered the predictions but not the Maghrebi team, the first African team to reach that stage. The winner of this duel will come out the rival of Argentina and Leo Messi in the final on Sunday, December 18.
If France is a favourite, as the current world champion and with a player like Kylian Mbappé on a streak of play and goals, the calling card of the ‘guest’ Morocco is scary, after having left Belgium, Spain and Portugal on the road.
Messi, already qualified for his second World Cup final, after the failed attempt in the last step against Germany (1-0) in Brazil-2014, will continue to watch this duel between the French and Moroccans to find out his rival in the match for the title , after having eliminated Croatia in the semifinals on Tuesday (3-0).
The duel France vs. Morocco will bring together two close friends, teammates at Paris Saint Germain, Achraf Hakimi and Kylian Mbappé, who leads the scoring table tied with Messi (both with five goals) and who, at almost 24 years of age, who will be two days after the final, is looking for his second world title. Only Pelé achieved two of his three titles at such a young age.
Macron, in the stadium
In the presence of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who has traveled to Qatar for the match at the Al Bayt stadium, in Al Khor, north of Doha, and under high police surveillance in Paris, with 10,000 police officers mobilized in France, where a large Moroccan community lives, the match “should be a football match”, insisted Didier Deschamps, coach of the ‘Bleus’, for fear of riots in his country.
Morocco is delighted with the taste of victory and wants more. In five matches that they have played, they beat Belgium in the first round and then eliminated Spain on penalties in the round of 16 and defeated Portugal 1-0 in the quarterfinals.
His defensive rigor and his counter-attack efficiency have placed him in the semifinals, conceding only one goal in five games in the first phase, in the victory against Canada (2-1) and it was also an own goal.
“I have told the players: if they are happy to reach the semifinals and they think that whatever happens, we have managed to have a good World Cup, I don’t think so. We want to win the World Cup,” the ambitious coach stressed on Tuesday from Morocco, Walid Regragui.
Knowing how dangerous Morocco is on the counterattack, Deschamps will seek to have possession of the ball.
“Morocco focuses on counter-attacking, like many others, because when you rescue your opponent’s ball, very quickly you can create chances to score,” the French coach said Tuesday at the press conference ahead of the semi-final with Morocco.
“Morocco knows how to do it, we have a plan that we can adapt during the game. In this case, having possession as much as we can, but using it to create problems for our opponents,” he added.
no casualties
Morocco faces “recovered and without casualties” this World Cup semifinal, Regragui said.
In spite of everything, the central couple formed by Nayef Aguerd and Romain Saiss is doubtful. The former missed the quarterfinal match against Portugal (1-0), replaced by Jawad el Yamiq, and the latter, the captain, was stretchered off after 55 minutes.
For his part, Bayern Munich left-back Noussair Mazraoui also missed the Portugal match but should be available on Wednesday.
In the French field, the defender Dayot Upamecano, absent in training on Monday, and the midfielder Adrien Rabiot did not exercise on Tuesday.
This is the second consecutive session that Upamecano, the starting center-back, has missed.
The two players suffer from colds, indicated a source close to the ‘Bleus’, who rejected the hypothesis of a possible contagion of Covid-19.
France, with a strong Moroccan community, will be transfixed by this unexpected semi-final. The North African country is also anxiously awaiting this semifinal, in which the ‘Lions of the Atlas’ can continue writing history.
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