On Wednesday at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, the reigning World Cup winners Franceand Moroccowill square off in a 2022 Qatar Semi-Final encounter. Les Bleus have dominated the tournament thus far, with their solitary loss coming at the hands of Tunisia.
France went down to a 1-0 defeat in their lone Group Stage match, despite Didier Deschamps using a backup team since they had already qualified. They played well against Poland (3-1 in the round of 16) and England (2-1 in the quarterfinals).
Conversely, Morocco topped Group F despite a 0-0 tie with Croatia and a 2-1 loss to Belgium. After advancing over Spain in the round of 16, the Atlas Lions upset Portugal 1-0 to become the first African team to reach the World Cup semifinals.Despite the fact that Kylian Mbappe’s sidearethe clear favorite for this matchup, Morocco will be trying to create even more history by eliminating another top team.
What would happenif France lose to Morocco in theQatar 2022 Semi-Finals?
Quite simply, ifthe Frenchnational soccer team suffera defeat,they would set up a meeting with Croatiain the third-place game, while Morocco would move on to the2022 World Cup Final.If Les Blues don’t win here, they will fail to secure their second consecutive World Cup Final.In the previous tournament, they played in the championship game and won in a nail-biter, 4-2 against their well-known opponents, Croatia in Russia.
For the World Cup, the Knockout Round consists of one-game playoffs. Therefore, there is no opportunity to win the series by taking game two. There is no room for a mistakein this win-or-go-home approach. For Deschamps’ squad to advance to theFinalwhere they wouldface Argentina, theymust win in regular time, after extra time, or triumph ina penalty series.