The France team won the last quarter-final of the World Cup hard at the expense of England (2-1), after a tense and closed match on Saturday in al-Khor. In the semi-finals on Wednesday, the reigning world champions Blues will be opposed to the surprising Morocco, which fell from Portugal a little earlier in the day. This will be the first opposition in an official match between the two teams.
Olivier Giroud scored with an angry header (78th) the decisive goal, restoring the advantage to the Blues while Harry Kane had brought the English back on penalty (53rd) to height after the opener signed Aurélien Tchouaméni (17th) . The same Kane still had an equalizer at the very end of the match on a new penalty, but his shot did not catch the frame.
Tight start to the game
As often in these high-stakes matches, the first ten minutes were hardly exciting, caution being in order. A first semblance of an opportunity came in the 11th minute, when a cross from the right from Ousmane Dembélé forced Olivier Giroud to place a diving header that Jordan Pickford, the English goalkeeper, could easily capture.
Four minutes later, Adrien Rabiot on the counter-attack alerted Kylian Mbappé on the left side, but the cross at the far post for Dembélé was badly measured and the Barcelona striker could not negotiate the ball. The first real flash of the match came in the 17th minute: a clear low shot from Aurélien Tchouaméni from outside the area which deceived Pickford. 1-0, 17th!
From then on, the pace of the match went up a notch and the English, stung, in turn brought danger to the French goal, when Harry Kane got rid of Dayot Upamecano but then stumbled on Hugo Lloris, his teammate at Tottenham (22nd). Lloris who on Saturday broke the selection record (143) for the France team.
Kane misses a penalty
As soon as the recovery, a powerful shot from Jude Bellingham forced Lloris to a nice save (47th). Unquestionably, the English again took the game on their own at the start of the second period, and the Blues, under pressure, then committed the fatal fault: Tchouaméni hooked Bukayo Saka in the area and the referee whistled a penalty that Kane transformed into strength (55th, 1-1).
Worthy of the craziest matches of the World Cup, the meeting got carried away even more and in the 82nd minute Théo Hernandez, very badly inspired, roughly jostled Mason Mount in the surface: second penalty whistled by Mr. Sampaio after another VAR viewing.
But this time, Harry Kane chose to shoot hard and the ball flew into the clouds! Big sigh of relief in the French camp about ten minutes from the end of regulation time (84th).
The Blues continue their adventure, with one goal: to become the first world champions to retain their title since Brazil in 1962.