Morocco Ready For France Rematch And Revenge

Azzedine Ounahi scored twice in Houston on Saturday to send Morocco back into a World Cup quarter-final, and he did it with the calm of a player who already looked used to the biggest moments this tournament has to offer. “It wasn’t easy for us,” he said afterwards. “They’re a team that caused us a lot of problems in the first half.” Now Ounahi and his Morocco team-mates face a quarter-final in Boston against France, the side that ended their remarkable 2022 run at the semi-final stage, with the chance to finally settle the score.

Ounahi delivers again

Morocco’s 3-0 win over co-hosts Canada in the round of 16 was not easily won. Canada were the busier side early on, with goalkeeper Yassine Bounou called into action twice inside the first quarter of an hour, and Morocco lost striker Ismael Saibari to injury after just 22 minutes. Eight yellow cards were shown in a match that produced more bookings than shots on target.

It was Ounahi, teed up by Achraf Hakimi, who broke the deadlock just after half-time, slotting home with composure. His second, set up by Brahim Diaz on the counter-attack, was finished with the same calm technique. Substitute Soufiane Rahimi added a third late on to complete the win and send Morocco through to a second consecutive World Cup quarter-final, a feat that in 2022 made them the first African side ever to reach that stage of the tournament.

Morocco boss Mohamed Ouahbi praised his side’s response after a difficult opening period. “It is a World Cup match and these are difficult games with teams playing for their lives,” he said. “We reacted very well in the second half in the second balls and the duels. I have to recognise that Canada were impressive, they played a top match. It was no surprise for us, but in the second half we were able to profit from the space they left us and that was the key.”

The result ended Canada’s own remarkable run as co-hosts, and Canada manager Jesse Marsch was gracious in defeat. “Across the pitch we had 11 incredible performances in the first half,” he said. “We were unlucky not to get the lead, then it was the fine details. What a privilege our fans have had to root for a team like this that goes after the game. We achieved tremendous success at the World Cup. Of course, we would have liked to be the ones celebrating instead of them, but this is as far as we could go.”

Mbappe draws level with Messi

France’s route to the same quarter-final was considerably more bad-tempered. Kylian Mbappe’s 70th-minute penalty was enough to see off a stubborn Paraguay side in a fiery last-16 tie in Philadelphia, a goal that also moved him level with Lionel Messi on seven World Cup goals at the time. Paraguay attempted to put Mbappe off before the spot-kick, scuffing up the penalty area, but he held his nerve to find the bottom corner.

Tempers frayed throughout. Mbappe caught an arm to the face from Matias Galarza without punishment, Juan Jose Caceres kicked out at the France captain in the closing stages without seeing a card, and confrontations continued between players after the final whistle. Remarkably, Paraguay did not pick up a single caution in the match, the first time that had happened in a World Cup game in 28 years, going back to 1998. They also completed just 54 per cent of their passes, the lowest accuracy recorded in a World Cup knockout match in 60 years, dating to 1966.

France manager Didier Deschamps had little sympathy for the approach Paraguay took. “Paraguay use every trick in the book,” he said. “It’s not necessarily the kind of football people enjoy watching, but we stayed focused and that’s not easy to do. They’re a physical side and they defend very well. It’s another important step forward. It’s always difficult against South American teams, but I’m delighted that the players got the job done. We’re into the quarter-finals and we have to enjoy that.”

Mbappe, meanwhile, pointed to the win as proof of his side’s range. “We knew what kind of match to expect,” he said. “I think it was really good for us to experience a game like that and to see how we handled it. We showed that we’re not just a team capable of playing attacking football. Every team uses its own strengths, there’s no right or wrong way to play. The only right way is to win.” He said France were “really looking forward to facing” Morocco, a side he rates highly.

Unfinished business from Qatar

Thursday’s meeting in Boston is a repeat of the 2022 semi-final, when Theo Hernandez struck inside the opening five minutes and Randal Kolo Muani added a second late on to seal a 2-0 France win in Qatar on their way to the final. That run made Morocco the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final, an achievement that turned the squad into heroes across the continent and beyond, even in defeat. Four years on, Morocco have the chance to go one better against the same opponent, this time at the quarter-final stage rather than the semi, and with a different manager in Ouahbi trying to finish the job Regragui could not.

Morocco have shown throughout this tournament that they can win in more than one way. They started with an early goal to see off Scotland, then outscored Haiti in a helter-skelter 4-2 win that showed they could win on the front foot just as well as they can defend a lead, before needing penalties to get past the Netherlands and cruising past Canada in the round of 16. Four different opponents have posed four different problems, and Morocco have found an answer to each one, a pattern their manager will point to as evidence that his side can adapt to whatever France try to do to them in Boston. Sky Sports’ analysis after the Canada win argued that Morocco should now be considered among the genuine contenders rather than dark horses, pointing to their consistency in different conditions and against different styles of opponent as evidence they can handle whatever comes next.

Mbappe’s remarkable record

For France, Mbappe’s own numbers continue to stand out. His penalty against Paraguay was his 11th World Cup knockout goal, a tournament record that no other player in history has come close to matching, with the next best mark standing at eight. He was denied a second goal in Philadelphia only by a superb late double save from Orlando Gill, a reminder that his tally could have been higher still. Mbappe refused to shake the Paraguayan goalkeeper’s hand at the final whistle, a small moment that summed up the mood of a bad-tempered contest neither side left in the best of spirits.

Messi has moved back ahead in the individual scoring race, scoring again in Argentina’s comeback win over Egypt, and the battle for the tournament’s Golden Boot has quietly become one of the storylines running alongside the knockout rounds themselves. Mbappe will have the chance to respond in Boston on Thursday, with the Golden Boot race now running alongside the fight for a place in the semi-finals.

A repeat with sharper stakes

Neither side arrives at Thursday’s quarter-final short of confidence. France have looked the more ruthless of the two throughout the knockout rounds, while Morocco have found a way through four different types of examination without being beaten. Both teams have also shown they can absorb pressure in matches that did not go entirely to plan, a quality that could prove just as valuable in Boston as any attacking threat either side brings into the game. Ounahi’s two goals against Canada showed a Morocco side capable of hurting opponents on the counter-attack, exactly the kind of threat that could trouble a France defence occasionally exposed by pace in behind.

For Ouahbi, appointed only months before the tournament began after Walid Regragui’s departure, victory over France would be the signature result of his short time in charge. For Deschamps, it would settle a rematch his side has already won once before, in far higher-stakes circumstances.

Both managers arrive with recent proof that their sides can win ugly when the occasion demands it. France’s route past Paraguay had almost nothing to do with fluent football, and Morocco needed a slow start against Canada to be turned around by two moments of quality from a player who was not even guaranteed a starting place before the tournament. Neither performance will feature in tournament highlight reels for the neutral, but both managers will point to results over style at this stage of a World Cup, and both sides have delivered exactly that when it mattered most.

Either way, Boston on Thursday promises a quarter-final with as much history behind it as anything left in the competition, and a chance for one of these two managers to finally close the book on a rivalry that has now stretched across two World Cups.