Emirates News Agency – The French national team beats Morocco and qualifies for the World Cup final

DOHA, December 14, WAM/ The French national football team continued its journey to successfully defend its world title and qualified for the final match of the 2022 World Cup, with a precious 2-0 victory over its brave Moroccan counterpart today in the semi-finals of the tournament.
The French national team, which won the world title in 2018, ended the historic march of the Moroccan national team in the current World Cup and prevented it from becoming the first team from outside Europe and America to qualify for the World Cup final, knowing that the Moroccan national team made a distinguished history in this version by reaching the semi-finals.
The French national team will meet in the final next Sunday with its Argentine counterpart, while the Moroccan national team will meet its Croatian counterpart next Saturday in the third and fourth place match.
With his participation in today’s match, French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris equaled the record for the number of matches in which any goalkeeper participated in the World Cup, raising his tally to 19 matches, equal with German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Lloris can be alone with the record by participating in his team’s match in the final of the tournament.
The French national team surprised its Moroccan rival with an early goal scored by Theo Hernandez in the fifth minute of the match, after a good follow-up, after a powerful shot from his colleague Kylian Mbappe hit one of the players.
The Moroccan national team showed a strong desire to respond, and Ezzeddine Onahi hit a powerful ball, which was blocked by Loris, then Hakim Ziyech followed it up with another shot, which was successful. The Moroccan national team made an early emergency change, with defender Romain Sayes leaving and Salim Amlah coming off in the 21st minute with an injury.
Despite the obvious impact of the team’s great physical effort in the past matches, the Moroccan national team remained steadfast in the face of successive attacking attempts by the French national team. Rather, the Moroccan team pressed towards the French goal at the end of the half, and the team had more than one dangerous opportunity, and the post blocked a double backhand shot by Jawad Al-Yamiq in the 44th minute, so that the first half ended with the French team advancing with a clean goal.
The Moroccan national team imposed its control over the course of the game since the beginning of the first half, and the team made more than one opportunity to score the net, but luck persisted in its players, so that opportunities were lost in turn, while the French offensive presence was limited to quick rebounds that did not succeed.
And with the arrival of the second half in the middle, the French team began to pose some danger to the Moroccan goal until substitute Randal Kolo Mwani scored the second goal for the French team in the 79th minute with his first touch of the ball a few seconds after he entered the stadium.