France vs Morocco Live Score, FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar: France set up date with Argentina in Sunday's final

France vs Morocco LIVE score and updates: France set up date with Argentina in Sunday's final Follow Sportskeeda for France vs Morocco Live Commentary and updates from the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

That's it for tonight's coverage. We will be back for the big final on Sunday. Do join us then. For now it's bye bye.

2018/2022 - France are the first nation to reach back-to-back World Cup finals since Brazil in 2002, and first European country to do so since Germany in 1990. Generation. pic.twitter.com/wWiJfKMq8r
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 14, 2022

✅ Beat Belgium
✅ Beat Spain
✅ Beat Portugal
✅ First African semi-finalist
✅ Incredible fans
✅ Lit up the World Cup

An incredible tournament from #MAR 👏 👏#FIFAWorldCup #TSWorldCup pic.twitter.com/zwKdTgJ86b
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) December 14, 2022

Christopher Nkunku
Presnel Kimpembé
Lucas Hernandez
Karim Benzema
Mike Maignan
N’Golo Kanté
Paul Pogba

All of them not available, Ballon d’Or winner included…

…but Didier Deschamps’ France reach again the World Cup final after Russia 2018.#Qatar2022 🏆🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/7tvvOezYRr
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 14, 2022

We will now sign off with a couple of tweets.

So France v Argentina in Sunday's final. Messi v Mbappe. What a final that is going to be.

FULL-TIME! France 2 Morocco 0. Consecutive World Cup finals for France who withstood all that Morocco threw at them. The gallant effort or Morocco did not meet its rewards as the ball would not go in at all. France move to the final.

Jules Kounde with a fine block on the line from Azzedine Ounahi to deny Morocco. That should be the last chance.

6 minutes of added time.

GOAL! Randal Kolo Muani in the 79th minute! France 2 Morocco 0. Mbappe with lovely feet and his shot deflects off a defender and falls to Kolo Muani who has just come on - 44 seconds later he has the easiest of tap-ins at the back-post thanks to the deflection.

France too make a change: Randal Kolo Muani comes for Ousmane Dembele.

Abde Ezzalzouli replaces Selim Amallah, who came on as a substitute in the first half for Morocco.

Abderrazak Hamdalla with a great chance but he dribbles too much and is forced into the corner.

Morocco too make a couple of changes: Youssef En-Nesyri goes off for Abderrazak Hamdallah. Sofiane Boufal is replaced by Zakaria Aboukhlal.

France make a change: Marcus Thuram on and Olivier Giroud off. That is a surprise.

Then Ibrahima Konate prevents a tap-in for Youssef En-Nesyri with a last-ditch sliding tackle.

End to end action now. Mbappe is away on the left but Sofyan Amrabat takes him out with a clean tackle.

Morocco made a change at half-time: Yahya Attiat-Allah has replaced Noussair Mazraoui.

Second half begins.

HALF-TIME! France 1 Morocco 0. After that early goal, Morocco have come back strong and towards the end of the half showed they were a threat with a series of corners. Jawad El Yamiq hit the post as well. A fascinating second half beckons.

3 minutes of added time.

Jawad El Yamiq hits the post! What an acrobatic scissor kick from the centre-back and Lloris on the dive just gets a fingertip to push it on to the post.

Great bursting run from Tchouameni and Mbappe on the left is away but his shot is cleared and then Giroud with time on hand on the turn fires it wide. If he had hit the target he would've scored.

YELLOW CARD TO Sofiane Boufal for a hefty challenge on Theo Hernandez.

Romain Saiss has to go off. He was not fully fit and that's a risk - now he is replaced by Selim Amallah.

Olivier Giroud hits the outside of the post. He gets in behind Romain Saiss and thumps a fierce left-footed drive that has Yassine Bounou beaten at his near-post but hits the post and goes wide.

Good save by Lloris as he dives to his left to keep the curler from outside the box from Azz-Eddine Ounahi to sneak in at the far-post.

That is the first goal Morocco have conceded to an opposition player. Their previous goal was an own goal conceded against Canada.

GOAL! Theo Hernandez in the 5th minute! France 1 Morocco 0. Jawad El Yamiq slides in and loses it allowing Griezmann to get away, he passes to Mbappe who shoots but is blocked. The stray ball falls to Hernandez on the left and he controls it beautifully to steer it past Yassine Bounou. The ball was bouncing and Hernandez got on top of it nicely.

KICK-OFF!

The players are in the tunnel and next up are the anthems.

The players are out for the warm-ups.

Morocco welcome back Nayef Aguerd and full-back Noussair Mazraoui after they missed the quarter-final.

Morocco XI: Bounou, Hakimi, Saiss, Aguerd, El Yamiq, Mazraoui, Amrabat, Ounahi, Ziyech, Boufal, En-Nesyri.

France make two changes: Ibrahima Konate and Youssouf Fofana come into the side. Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot are out.

France XI: Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Konate, Fofana, Hernandez, Tchouameni, Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud.

The lineups are out.

Head-to-head record between France and Morocco:

The defending champions have never lost against Morocco, with all five of their previous encounters coming in international friendlies (won three, drawn two).

The most recent encounter between the two sides was a 2-2 draw in November 2007.

Early team news: Morocco courtesy BBC:

Walid Cheddira is banned for Morocco after his red card against Portugal.

Their key fitness concerns are Nayef Aguerd, who missed the win against the Portuguese with a thigh injury, and fellow centre-back Romain Saiss, who was forced off in that game with a similar issue.

Full-back Noussair Mazraoui was unavailable for the last match, reportedly through illness and hip pain, but may come back into contention.

Early team news: France courtesy The Athletic:

Dayot Upamecano and midfielder Adrien Rabiot are both doubts after missing training on Tuesday through illness.

Should they be ruled out, Ibrahima Konate could start at centre-back, while Youssouf Fofana would likely be deployed alongside Antoine Griezmann and Aurelien Tchouameni in midfield.

Some more stats:

France are looking to become the first back-to-back finalists since another Brazil side — in 2002.

Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) are the only nations to have won two consecutive World Cups...

Pre-match facts courtesy BBC:

France were eliminated from each of their first three semi-finals (in 1958, 1982 and 1986) but have won their subsequent three matches at this stage (in 1998, 2006 and 2018).

The French have yet to keep a clean sheet at this tournament and have done so in just one of 11 matches since June.

Morocco will be the 25th different nation to play in a World Cup semi-final and the first from Africa. The last team to make their debut at this stage were Spain in 2010, who beat Germany 1-0 to reach the final.

The Moroccans have kept four clean sheets at this tournament - the last two sides to record five shutouts at a single World Cup (Spain in 2010 and Italy in 2006) lifted the trophy.

Regragui on his French connections:

“Yes I was born in France, I'm a dual national and that's an honour, a pleasure,” he said. “It's an honour and pleasure to face France.

“I'm the Morocco coach and we'll face the best team in the world tomorrow. The most important thing is to reach the final. As a coach, it doesn't really matter who we are playing, it doesn't interest me.

“I am a football coach, so I focus on the game. If it was England we were facing, it would be the same. As a coach, you want to test yourself as a team, that’s the message I send to my players.

“When we play for Morocco, we are Moroccan. It's a football match and should be a football festival, and for all dual nationals it should be a football festival. If it's Morocco or France who wins, I'm sure many dual nationals will be happy either way."

Morocco coach Walid Regragui says that he does not have any special plan to stop Kylian Mbappe.

“I'm not going to set up any tactical plan to counter Mbappe. Unfortunately, France has a lot of other good players, Griezmann between the lines, Dembele is also the perfect complement to Mbappe on the other wing. Hakimi is one of the best in the world at his position too.

“They are both champions, both world class players. We shouldn't be focussing on Kylian, but what we can do to cause problems for France. I have no doubt that Hakimi will be on top form to get the better of his friend.”

Meanwhile France captain and goalie Hugo Lloris has dismissed the notion that his side are the favorites to reach the final.

“It's the semi-final of the World Cup,” he said.

“It's a huge opportunity to get to the final. Obviously, it's already a success for Morocco to get to this stage, but believe me, they won't stop, they want to carry on and become even more heroes for the Morocco country.

“On our side, as I said, we prepare for the game to respond to the demands of the semi-final of the World Cup, it doesn't matter who the opposition is.

“We just try to focus on the situation and putting all our strength in this game.”

France midfielder Adrien Rabiot has said that Morocco will be a tough test for his side in the semi-final.

Rabiot said: “It will be a historic match.

“We are aware that if they are here, it’s because they have deserved it. We’ve watched the games, they have very good players. They also know how to suffer, how to take it on themselves.

“We won’t underestimate anyone, just as we have done up to now. And the important thing is also to recover well because we have played a lot of games and we’re starting to feel the fatigue.”

Morocco coach Walid Regragui has called his side "Rocky" of the World Cup after they stunned Portugal in the quarter-finals.

“We are becoming the team that everybody loves at this World Cup,” he said. “If you show that passion, desire, belief, you can succeed. We’ve beaten Spain, Portugal, Belgium without conceding; that’s not a miracle, that’s working hard.

“When you watch Rocky, you want to support Rocky because of his heart and commitment, and I think we’re the Rocky of this World Cup.

“When you are a small team you need to dream, to believe. I think it is a big, big message for the world. I think now the world is with Morocco.”

Asked about providing inspiration far beyond Morocco, Regragui added: “What’s important for future generations, is we’ve shown it’s possible for an African team to get the semi-final of the World Cup.

“Why shouldn’t we dream of winning it? If you don’t dream, you don’t get anywhere. We haven’t achieved anything yet (but) we’re in the semi-finals. Everyone will be afraid to play us. That’s the message I’m trying to send.”

Here's Deschamps on defender Dayot Upamecano:

“Upamecano did have an issue with his mental strength, which I think prevented him from becoming the top player who he could have become,” Deschamps said.

“He has managed to overcome that challenge and he now feels more relaxed, more confident and I do think that is what has helped him reach his best level and show all of his qualities.

“He is very fit, very good in tackling, very good at passing. Sometimes, he tries to overdo things a little bit with his passing, too ambitious, but he listens to advice. He's very open minded, he’s relaxed and happy.

“Some players tend to be more shy and introverted in nature, like him, so perhaps they need a bit more time to develop and flourish.

“Yes, he’s had challenges but is now more relaxed and confident, and showing he is a top, top player.”

Here's what Griezmann had to say about that move:

"I am quite free in this new role. I must be the link between the defence and the forwards.

"I have three players in front of me [Mbappe, Giroud and Ousmane Dembele], so more options - so it is easier for me.

"I owe him [Deschamps] everything in the national team. I give everything for France - for the shirt, but also for him. And I am trying to do everything I can so he keeps trusting me. Every move, every game is like a 'thank you' I am sending him. I want him to be proud of me."

With Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante injured before the tournament, coach Didier Deschamps moved Antoine Griezmann to midfield and it has worked wonders for the French. Deschamps praised the adaptability of Griezmann and lauded his ability to play in multiple roles.

"There is no sacrifice on his part, because he is so generous that he takes pleasure both when he touches the ball and when he passes.

"He will certainly score fewer goals, but he loves to tackle and recover the ball. With his left foot, he is capable of beautiful things and can shoot the set-pieces rather well.

"He has everything to play deeper: the vision, the work-rate, the touch, the energy, the intelligence."