We’ve reached the quarter final stage of the Fifa World Cup and the first of the match ups sees France clash with Morocco in Boston on Thursday.
France
France came up against an awkward opponent in the shape of Paraguay in the Round of 16 in Philadelphia on Saturday but they came through with a 1-0 victory. Kyian Mbappe scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot on 70 minutes of a match which had seen Paraguay frustrate the French who couldn’t turn their dominance of possession int goals. Bappe now has 7 goals and at the time of writing he is joint top scorer in the tournament so far.
In the Round of 32 France put Sweden away 3-0 in New Jersey. Mbappe scored in each half with Barcola also on target and Olise grabbed another 2 assists.
France were foot perfect in in Group I winning all 3 of their matches to finish 3 points clear of Norway, Senegal were third with 3 points and also made it through and Iraq were the also rans, failing to earn a point.
France opted to stick with pretty much a first choice line up whilst Norway made 10 changes for their final group match and France came out on top with a 4-1 win thanks to a Ousmane Dembele hat trick in 32 first half minutes and Desire Doue added the fourth late on. Mbappe scored twice as France eased to a 3-0 win over Iraq in their second group match in Philadelphia where Dembele added the third. In their opening game France were 3-1 winners against Senegal with Mbappe (2) and Barcola the scorers.
Morocco
Morocco reached the semi final of the 2022 WC Finals in Qatar and they are one match away from replicating that feat after a 3-0 win over co-hosts Canada in the Round of 16 in Houston on Saturday. The first half was poor but Morocco put it together in the second half with a brace for Azzedine Ounahi and an injury time striker from Soufiane Rahimi.
Morocco’s Round of 32 clash with the Netherlands in Monterrey went all the way to spot kicks where Morocco eventually prevailed. Regulation time had finished locked up at 1-1 with Issa Diop rescuing Morocco with a 91st minute equalizer after they had fallen behind on 72 minutes. Morocco had the better of the match and a combination of good goalkeeping and the Dutch woodwork had kept them out until the those closing moments.
Morocco came through Group C as runners up to Brazil on goal difference. Both those sides won 2 and drew 1 of their matches whilst Scotland were third with 3 points but didn’t make the cut and Haiti lost all of their games.
Morocco twice came from behind to see off already eliminated Haiti 4-2 in their final group match in Atlanta with goals from Achraf Hakimi, Ismael Saibar (who found the net in every group match), Soufiane Rahimi and finally Gessime Yassine. Morocco had pretty much assured themselves of a place in the knockout rounds when they edged out Scotland 1-0 in Boston in their second group outing where Ismael Saibari needed just 70 seconds to come up with the decisive goal. New Jersey was the venue for Morocco’s opening match against Brazil, they came flying out of the blocks and took a first half lead through Saibari. However it was 1-1 by half time and that’s the way it finished.
The Betting (Regulation time unless stated otherwise)
France are priced at around 4/7 to win the game with the draw available at 29/10 and Morocco can be backed at around 5/1
A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 9/10 and its 19/20 for both teams to score
Mbappe is 23/10 to score the first goal of the game and 5/6 to score during regulation time
To qualify for the next round by any method of victory Morocco are 11/4
The Verdict:
France have impressed me as much as any nation so far but Morocco will be no pushovers here. I’m going to go with France to win in regulation time but with Morocco contributing to the scoring.
Bets: France to win and both teams to score? Yes at 5/2 with Sportingbet
Note, odds are subject to change