Defending champion France reached the semifinals together with Argentina, Croatia and the African juggernaut Morocco, which turned the primary African and Arab nation within the historical past of the FIFA World Cup to e-book a spot within the final 4.
While Argentina will play Croatia within the first semifinal, France will face the Atlas Lions, the large killers in Qatar World Cup, on Wednesday evening.
A former French colony Morocco is the one undefeated aspect to succeed in the semifinal on this World Cup.
Morocco defeated Belgium and Canada within the group stage, and 2010 champion Spain within the spherical of 16. In the quarterfinal, it beat Euro 2016 winner Portugal to safe a spot within the semifinals. Walid Regragui’s defensively robust aspect has conceded only one purpose en path to the semifinals towards Canada.
France, which gained its second World Cup title in Russia 4 years in the past, began its title defence with wins over Australia and Denmark however misplaced to African aspect Tunisia 1-0. In the pre-quarterfinal, the Les Blues registered a convincing 3-1 win over Poland and adopted that with a powerful 2-1 win over England within the quarterfinal.
As the stage is about for one more mouthwatering conflict, right here is how France and Morocco have fared of their earlier conferences.
France and Morocco have met 5 occasions to this point in worldwide friendlies. But they’ve by no means met within the World Cup. This can be their first assembly on the showpiece occasion.
Their first assembly got here in 1988 when France beat Morocco 2-1. However, in unrecognised matches, the 2 sides performed a number of occasions within the Sixties.
In a pleasant in 1998, Morocco prevailed over France in a penalty shootout. The Atlas Lions took a 2-0 lead from a brace by Salaheddine Bassir earlier than Laurent Blanc and Youri Djorkaeff levelled the rating. In the shootout, Morocco gained, its solely win over France.
HEAD TO HEAD
MATCHES: 5
FRANCE: 3
MOROCCO: 1
The two sides met once more in 1999 and 2000, with France beating Morocco 1-0 and 5-1, respectively. Thierry Henry, Djorkaeff, Christophe Dugarry, Nicolas Anelka, and Sylvain Wiltord scored for France.
The most up-to-date assembly between France and Morocco got here in a pleasant in 2007 after they settled for a 2-2 draw at Stade de France, Paris.
In the eighth minute, Tarik Sektioui put Morocco forward. Sidney Govou equalised inside seven minutes. In the second half, Samir Nasri gave France a 2-1 lead, however a late purpose by Youssef Mokhtari compelled the match to finish in a 2-2 draw.