France's Relentless Quality and Mbappé's Brilliance Overcome Morocco

There is a relentlessness to this France that might make them irresistible. Morocco no doubt had the best of intentions, ideas of how they could hurt the side that had beaten them in the semi-final in Qatar, but France press so well that they soon accepted they had no option but to retreat and endure, and France have such attacking quality that simply surviving isn’t really a viable option.

Kylian Mbappé, once again, was the key figure, missing a penalty, scoring a stunning opener and then teeing up Ousmane Dembélé for the second. He went off with 13 minutes remaining to a deserved ovation: the game had seemed to be drifting, and there had just been a sense that Morocco might conceivably pull off an implausible rearguard action, when he produced a goal from nowhere.

How can you stop France? You can defend with great organisation and concentration, block and tackle and harry and work, your keeper can make two or three excellent saves, and then one of their forwards conjures a goal like that. What is a defence supposed to do? Perhaps France have gone too early. Perhaps they will not be able to sustain this form. But if they do, it is going to take something remarkable to prevent them winning their third World Cup in 28 years.

For much of the first half, a French goal seemed only a matter of time and when Mbappé, released by Michael Olise after Achraf Hakimi had been dispossessed by Desiré Doué, was tripped in the box by Noussair Mazraoui, they had the perfect opportunity. But the wait for the VAR check, and then for Yassine Bounou to return to his line, was inexplicably long – three minutes and 10 seconds – for what seemed a straightforward decision. Perhaps the delay spooked Mbappé: his kick was hit limply to Bounou’s left and the keeper saved easily. For Bounou, who has a reputation as a penalty specialist, it was the first time he had saved a penalty for his country outside of shootouts.

Bounou pushed away a Dayot Upamecano header and kept out a Doué effort low to his right, and Lucas Digne smacked a drive against the bar, but the breakthrough would not come for France. By the time Morocco had their first effort on goal, a free kick slashed wide in the final minute of first-half injury-time, France had had 13 chances.

The rhythm that had elevated France in the group stage and the last-32 tie against Sweden is perhaps no longer quite there. But the intent is not lacking; it’s not that Didier Deschamps has retreated into the sort of cautious football that has characterised his France for the majority of his 14-year reign. Crosses were overhit and chances were snatched at. In that sense, there’s something of the West Germany of 1990 about them: a team of undeniable and obvious quality, probably the best in the competition, that puts in a couple of signature displays early on and then find itself grinding through the knockout phase.

But like that West Germany, this France are quite capable of scrapping. As well as missing the penalty, Mbappé had also badly skewed an opportunity wide early in the second half. But he is too good a player to let such things dismay him. On the hour, a loose clearance was nodded down to Digne who played it into the box for Mbappé. It was barely a quarter-chance. The ball was too close to him properly to curl it and Issa Diop was standing in front of him. The only way Mbappé could score was, using Diop as a shield, to strike the ball with a touch of draw past the defender and inside the post. He not only did so, but managed to strike the ball on a strange looping trajectory at 98kph (or so the stadium scoreboard claimed), a quite brilliant, unsavable finish.

With Ismael Saibari injured, Chemsdine Talbi had been brought in on the Morocco left with Bilal El Khannouss switching to the centre. The intention was presumably for the Sunderland wide man to run at Jules Koundé, just as Sofiane Boufal had in the semi-final four years ago. He didn’t get much chance to do so, though, and his main job was tracking the forward sallies of Koundé from right-back.

It soon became apparent that France’s pressing is so good that Morocco’s only route to a semi-final was to cling on and hope for penalties; once their initial resistance was broken, so the second goal rapidly followed. Again a defender was used as a shield, Mazraoui interrupting Bounou’s view as Dembélé arced his shot towards the bottom corner. The keeper got a hand to it but could not keep it out.

For France, this was extremely impressive. By the end they were able to withdraw players to keep them fresh for the next challenge, against Spain or Belgium in Dallas. They will take some stopping.