World Cup Semifinals Preview: What to Expect

On the surface, for all Deschamps’s insistence that his team will not fall victim to complacency, it would appear overwhelmingly likely that, four years after it lifted the trophy, France will return to the final. This time it is seeking to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to mount a successful defense of its World Cup title.

France, after all, has not only the tournament’s leading scorer — Kylian Mbappé — and the most gifted player on the planet — also Kylian Mbappé — but an enviable array of attacking threats, a well-balanced midfield and a redoubtable defense. It barely broke a sweat in this tournament before facing England, and such is France’s self-assurance that it needed to play well for less than a third of that quarterfinal to make it through.

There are two things, though, that will give Deschamps pause for thought. The first is Morocco’s bloody-minded obstinacy. Walid Regragui’s team has faced Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Croatia in this tournament, and it has not conceded a single goal to any of them. Indeed, the only time its defenses have been breached — against Canada — the wound was self-inflicted. If anyone can shut Mbappé down, it is probably his Paris St.-Germain teammate Achraf Hakimi.

Just as significant, though, is the fact that this will feel like a Moroccan home game. Regragui’s team has not just been followed to Qatar by tens of thousands of its own fans, it has picked up countless supporters on its way to becoming the first African team to make the semifinals of the World Cup.

It stands, now, as an avatar not only for its continent but for its region, too, an impassioned, inspired standard-bearer for the Arab world. That has manifested in each and every one of its games so far; the French may have faced more illustrious teams here, but they have certainly not encountered such a hostile atmosphere.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/sports/soccer/world-cup-semifinal-preview.html