A fascinating tie between the World Cup favourites and a Morocco side that just keep on impressing and getting better and better in the process.
This is arguably the most intriguing quarter-final of the lot, and the winner of it may already be thinking about a place in the final, or better. Read on for the team news, stats, trivia and that all-important betting tip.
Atlas Lions Can at Least Force Extra Time
Morocco’s wins over Spain and Portugal at the last World Cup left many football fans stunned, but there’s no real reason why they can’t do it all over again, especially now that they’re arguably a better team than they were four years ago.
But France deserves respect, of course, so we’ll be just that little bit more cautious and bet that Morocco can at least get to extra time rather than actually go through, though of course a Morocco win in 90 minutes would mean this would be a winner anyway.
- Prediction: Morocco Win or Draw (Double Chance)
- Odds: 2.38 (at the time of writing)
- Key Stat: Kylian Mbappe is a serious candidate to be the Golden Boot winner with 7 goals already, no surprise given no-one has had more shots on target at the time of writing than his 17.
France
After four matches where France pretty much had it all their own way, they had to face a very different sort of challenge when up against the ultra-defensive, very cynical and overly-aggressive style of Paraguay in the Last 16.
Their whole gameplan appeared to be built around frustrating the opposition at best, at worst going out of their way to upset them, whether that was through verbal provocations- mostly aimed at star man Kylian Mbappe – or through persistent fouling.
The fact that it was ironically France ending up with three men booked and Paraguay none is a discussion for another day, but when all was said and done, it was France who got the job done, a Mbappe penalty the difference between the two sides.
In a way, it was the best thing that could have happened to France that they had to learn a new way of winning a game through sheer patience, persistence and keeping their cool. It was also a reminder to other teams they can win the tightest of games, a big asset in a World Cup. No wonder they’re still the 2.88 to go all the way.
- Player to watch: Kylian Mbappe - 5.0 to score 2 or more / 2.5 to have 2 or more shots on target.
Morocco
When is anyone going to really believe that a side like Morocco can actually go out and win the World Cup? Clearly not that many people because they’re still available at odds of 26.0 to do so.
But those odds may look ridiculously big if they somehow manage an upset here against France. We’re not going to pretend things are going to get any easier if they progress here because they’d probably be up against Spain (or Belgium) next, but they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.
Make no mistake: this will be France’s biggest test by some distance because Morocco are a serious team. Five games so far have resulted in two 90-minute draws (in one of which they ended up beating the Netherlands on penalties) and three wins, scoring 10 goals and conceding just three.
A semi-final at the last World Cup and that controversial ‘win’ at this year’s AFCON are further proof of how good they are. They certainly believe they can cause a huge upset here because they’re certainly not low on confidence. Whether they can recover if they go a goal down will be the acid test.
A big game from marauding right-back and occasional goalscorer Achraf Hakimi, also the skipper, would be a good starting point.
- Player to watch: Achraf Hakimi - 2.6 to have 1 or more shots on target / 4.5 to score or assist.
Did You Know?
While the 26 players in the France squad represent 17 different teams, one team accounts for five of them: PSG. All of Lucas Hernandez, Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaire-Emery and Desire Doue play for the Ligue 1 and Champions League winners.
