5 hours ago
18
Key events
74 min: Morocco make a double change, replacing Salah-Eddine and the strangely underwhelming Diaz with El Ouahdi and Yassine.
73 min: Talbi sweeps a cross in from the left. Upamecano slashes wildly at the ball, and slices it behind himself and over the bar. He had no idea what he was doing there. Thankfully for him and France, nothing comes of the corner.
72 min: Morocco stroke it around patiently as France sit back and hold their shape. “The Moroccan approach here is totally baffling,” begins Peter Crosby. “The first half they had zero ambition, and watching them sauntering out for the second half it just looked like they don’t want to be here. In a World Cup quarter final. Bizarre.”
71 min: The game restarts, with France having replaced Kone with Zaire-Emery, making his first appearance at this World Cup.
70 min: “As much as I disliked watching Paraguay, it seems to me that their strategy might be the only possible way of stopping this juggernaut,” suggests Steven Grundy. “France look inevitable.”
68 min … and that’s drinks. Morocco’s turn this half / third quarter, and they come through with some mint green tea and zaalouk, an aubergine and tomato dip. Some choices more isotonic than others.
67 min: Mbappe made some extra time and space for Dembele there, with a dummy run. Bounou won’t be happy with his attempted save, though: the shot wasn’t tucked tight into the corner, and he got a proper hand to it.
GOAL! France 2-0 Morocco (Dembele 66)
Dembele is allowed to advance a long way down the middle of the park. Nobody closes him down. Dembele finally pulls the trigger, threading a low drive into the bottom right from the edge of the D. Bounou gets a hand to it, but can’t keep it out. A quick-fire double whammy that may well have decided this quarter-final.
64 min: That goal now puts Mbappe on top of the Golden Boot table, assists giving him the edge over Lionel Messi. “Not content with merely chasing Messi’s goal record, Mbappé has now gone and done the Messi double of missing a penalty and then scoring in a single match,” notes Kári Tulinius.
63 min: Mbappe prepares to spin clear of Diop and is unceremoniously chopped down by the defender. Diop is booked and will miss the semi-final should Morocco get through.
62 min: Morocco respond to falling behind by making a double change. Amrabat and Rahimi come on for El Khannouss and the disappointing Bouaddi.
61 min: Morocco claim a handball earlier in the move … but VAR has a check and the goal stands.
GOAL! France 1-0 Morocco (Mbappe 60)
You can’t keep a good man down! Mbappe picks up possession on the left-hand corner of the box. He takes a touch infield and whip-cracks a curler around Diop and into the right-hand portion of the net. Bounou was fully extended, but couldn’t reach the ball. What a finish!
59 min: According to our old friend xG, France are bang on two goals exactly, while Morocco are stuck on 0.06.
58 min: Now it’s Doue feeding Mbappe down the left. Mbappe wedges a cross over the goalposts and harmlessly out for a corner. “Not familiar with Hamish Balfour?” splutters Ian Copestake. “Are you telling me some readers are actually under 55?”
56 min: Olise spins and bursts past a couple of challenges down the inside-left channel, leaving Bouaddi for dead. Olise slips the ball to Mbappe, who is clear in the box. Mbappe leans back and skies his shot over the bar. Terrible miss, though he’d have been flagged for offside had it gone in.
55 min: Doue zips in from the left and sends a low drive goalwards. It’s straight at Bounou, though the keeper makes a meal of gathering, almost diving past the ball, then nearly dropping it. But he manages to complete his task in the end.
54 min: Talbi turns on the jets and attempts to speed past Upamecano on the left touchline. He can’t quite manage it. A throw, which is worked all the way back to his defenders. Tension is trumping talent at the moment.
52 min: Talbi wins a corner down the left. Hakimi and Ounahi act out a short one, and balls it up. This game is just not happening right now.
51 min: It’s all a bit scrappy. France might be approaching the stage of irritability.
49 min: Olise has the opportunity to release Rabiot into the Morocco box down the left, but Diop reads the danger and cuts out the pass just in time.
47 min: Ounahi drives down the middle of the park, set on his way by El Khannouss’s cute reverse pass. He finds Diaz to his right. France are light at the back, but Diaz hesitates, caught between the idea of shooting and crossing. Mucho mistrust in his own ability. Eventually he does the latter, by which time Kounde is back and clears.
Morocco keep France waiting a while, but eventually turn up for the second half. In the meantime, Heart of Glass thumps out of the PA system, which is a pleasing distraction. France eventually get the second half started.
Half-time postbag. “This game is pretty tedious, it makes Colombia v Switzerland seem exciting” – Richard, California
“I am seriously considering going back to bed after setting the alarm for 3:50 am. I don’t think I can bear another 45 plus minutes of this. Even the two cups of coffee haven’t worked” – Alexandra Fullerton
“Three-minute hydration break. Three-minute VAR check. Five minutes added time. Yup. Makes sense” – Espen B
“Liberté, Égalité, Frustré” – Charles Antaki
“I think I’m going to describe Morocco as doughty. If they ever meet England, I’d be worried that the ball would never cross the halfway line: it would simply circulate among the defenders for an entire half” – Joe Johnson
“So far the French are not doing as well as Canada in pressing the Moroccans. According to arrogant English commentators, they were just playing cat and mouse with us in the first half. Can we expect them to see off France in the second half?” – Ric Arthur
“I feel it’s safe to say that Hot Shot Hamish would not have been a fan of the tippy toes approach to penalty taking. Pick your spot and put your laces through it, man. And even if the keeper guesses right, he’ll end up in the net too” – Simon McMahon
For those of you not familiar with the antics of Hamish Balfour, his Daddie and pet sheep McMutton, here is a primer …
HALF TIME: France 0-0 Morocco
Almost a total non-event, other than Mbappe’s penalty miss. Morocco will be far the happier.
45 min +5: … and in trying to catch Maignan out at the near post, Hakimi whips wide right. Nowhere near. That kind of sums this first half up.
45 min +4: Diaz crosses from the right. Rabiot sticks out an arm to stop it. A free kick just outside the box. Hakimi to take.
45 min +3: Dembele dribbles in from the right, tries a little trick … and there’s no way past Salah-Eddine. A perfectly timed challenge, and a brave one given it was inside the Moroccan box.
45 min +2: Digne sends a swerving, rising then dipping shot towards the top-left corner. The ball floats over Bounou, and pings off the top of the crossbar. Did the keeper get a little touch with the tips of his fingers? Not sure. France aren’t getting a corner, anyway.
45 min +1: Kone has a speculative whack from 25 yards out on the right. Straight into the nearest defender.
45 min: There will be five additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Kone robs Bouaddi, who so far has been showing a bit of inexperience this evening. He probes down the left … then Kounde advances down the right … but it’s all to little effect. Eventually the ball rolls out for a goal kick, and this half of football is petering out. If indeed it ever really got going.
42 min: Morocco are pressing higher up the pitch now, though France are yet to ship possession in a position problematic to them. Nothing much has happened since the penalty miss / hydration break momentum-jiggering combo.
40 min: Diaz buzzes around the French box but to little effect. Maignan has had the square root of bugger all to do.
38 min: The penalty aside, this game has kind of drifted by. “Was Mbappé waiting all that time because the US channels went to an ad break?” wonders Patrick McCarthy. “Surely it’s not come to this? What other reason could there have been?”
36 min: Doue strips the snoozing Bouaddi of the ball, and races towards the Morocco box. He aims for the bottom left, and Bounou is forced to tip the forensic shot around the post. Olise sends the corner in, but Kounde’s header has no power. Bounou gathers.
34 min: “The Spanish commentary team was suggesting that Mbappe was already falling over before the contact was made, hence the VAR check,” reports Casiano Martinez.
32 min: The game restarts and Dembele tries a curler from the right. It’s wide, but not by a great distance. Had that been on target, Bounou wasn’t getting to it.
31 min: That was an abysmal penalty by Mbappe. He gets sympathy for being kept waiting for a ludicrous amount of time … but none for the tippy-toes run-up. He looked unsure of himself, so why get clever? Ray Stewart has notes.
29 min: … and that’s drinks. France take care of first-quarter duties, and offer some beer, wine and traditional pastis liqueur, which to varying degrees help wash down some mini croque monsieurs.
Mbappe misses
28 min: Mbappe is kept waiting as the referee faffs over minutiae … then he’s told to re-spot the ball. Finally, three minutes and ten seconds after the penalty was awarded, Mbappe stutters his run and duffs a dismal effort towards the bottom right. Nowhere near the corner, no power, and that’s easy for Bounou. Mbappe never looked confident over that!
