After a dazzling run of wins captivated the footballing world, Morocco crashed out in the semi-finals after France’s solid attacking display gave them a 2-0 win. Les Bleus will now take on Argentina in Sunday’s final, after the genius Lionel Messi powered them to a resounding win over Croatia.

This wasn’t the stylish, thrilling march to the final that saw France’s rivals Argentina vanquish Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday. But it was a clinical, decisive performance, with an early goal from Theo Hernandez and a late strike from Randal Kolo Muani giving them a solid 2-0 win.

Despite a recurrence of France’s occasional defence errors, Les Bleus gave Argentina a lot to worry about with that performance. Kylian Mbappé was dazzling as ever with his lacerating pace and cool ingenuity under pressure – especially when he kept the ball when surrounded by Morocco defenders to set Kolo Muani up with that second goal. But arguably the greatest performance tonight was from Antoine Griezmann, who not only linked midfield to attack with those lovely passes, but also tracked back to basically play in centre-half position when Morocco offensives rattled France in the second half.

There will be tears aplenty, though, for Morocco after that ended a remarkable series of victories which saw them become the first ever African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals.

Source: France 24