Morocco’s dreams of a place in World Cup final were shattered on Wednesday night as they suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of France in Doha.
The Atlas will now face Croatia in the third-place playoff match, while France will face Argentina in the final on Sunday.
France went ahead in the fifth minute when Antoine Griezman ran down to the right before cutting it back to Kylian Mbappe who had a couple of cracks at shooting and his effort was deflected into the path of Theo Hernadez, who scored a very acrobatic volley at a tight angle.
Morocco came to scoring an equalizer in the 11th minute when Azzedine Onuahi found a space before hitting a 25-year shot across the goal toward the bottom corner but Hugo Lloris leaped across to the left and palmed the ball away.
Olivier Girous should have made it 2-0 for France in the 17th minute when he breezed past Romain Saiss only to mash his effort against the near post and wide.
Morocco were forced o make an early substitution in the 21st minute as defender Selim Amallah come in for Romain Saiss who limped off the pitch with an injury.
France continued to dominate as the half went on with Raphael Varane missing a seater in the 39th minute when he run to the near post only to volley a lower shot wide of target.
Morocco nearly level the matter on the stroke of the halftime through Jawad El Yamiq’s bicycle kick which Hugo Lloris palmed away.
Ten minutes into the second half, Mbappe did well to skip to the byline before playing a cutback but an onrushing Yassine Bounou cleared the danger.
In the 67th minute, Walid Regragui threw in fresh legs as Abderrazak Hamdallah and Zakaria Aboukhal came in for Youssef En Neysri respectively.
However, France added their second goal in the 78th minute when Mbappe found the ball inside the box and a rebound from his shot found Randal Muani who with the first touch sent the ball into the back of the net.
Morocco nearly grabbed a consolation in the closing minutes of the match but a scramble in the box resulted in Jules Kounde clearing the ball off the line.
How they started:
France: Hugo Lloris, Jules Kounde, Raphael Varane, Ibrahima Konaté, Theo Hernandez, Aurelien Tchouameni, Youssouf Fofana , Ousmane Dembele (Randal Kolo Muani 79), Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud (Marcus Thuram 65)
Morocco: Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi, Jawad El Yamiq, Romain Saiss (Selim Amallah 21, Abdessamad Ezzalzouli 78), Achraf Dari, Noussair Mazraoui (Yahya Attia Attia Allah 46), Azzedine Ounahi, Sofyan Amrabat, Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Boufal (Zakaria Aboukhlal 67), Youssef En-Nesyri (Abderazak Hamdallah 66)
