• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

France edge out Morocco to reach World Cup final

france victory

It was not all doom and gloom on Wednesday after France defeated Morocco 2-0, helping them edge out a team that surprised everybody by making it to the World Cup semifinals.

A spectacular goal from Theo Hernandez in the 5th minute and another from substitute Randal Kolo Muani in the 79th minute were enough to take the French national football team to their second final in just four years.

Shouts of joy from fans in the Al Bayt Stadium erupted even louder after the centre referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match. The scene could only be described as overwhelmingly glorious as members of the French football national team, affectionately known as Le Blues, rushed to the pitch to hug each other and celebrate yet another victory.

The Moroccan national football team—the Atlas Lions, as they are fondly called—were saddened by the outcome. They had hoped that their dream of making it to the World Cup final would materialise with a victory.

Read also: Argentina wallop Croatia 3-0 to reach World Cup final

Perhaps the first goal from Hernandez disorganised the defensive solidity that has helped them edge past Portugal, Belgium, and Spain to get to the semifinals.

Unfortunately, even the cacophony of boisterous Moroccan fans in the stadium couldn’t spur the team to equalise, let alone take the victory from a French side that boasts star players such as Olivier Giroud, Kyrian Mbappe, and Antione Greizman.

“Beaten but not defeated” was how a journalist from a local radio station described the performance of the Moroccan team. The team has given a good showing of themselves, the African continent, and the entire Middle East.

According to sports analysts at cable sports channel Super Sport, with the Moroccan performance, African football will try even harder to fulfil Brazilian football icon Pele’s prophecy that Africa will one day win the World Cup.

Meanwhile, in France, a large crowd of French fans who gathered in Paris and other French cities erupted in shouts of joy as France advanced to the World Cup.

According to the Associated Press (AP), football fans streamed to the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, shooting off firecrackers and red flares to an unending chorus of honking cars.

On the famous avenue, many were brandishing French flags and singing, “We are in the final.”

Some Moroccan fans, wrapped in the North African country’s flag, also cheered their team in the streets of the French capital.

Supporters from both teams gathered in bars from the boulevards of Paris to the streets of Morocco’s capital Rabat, from the cosmopolitan French Riviera city of Nice to the historic Moroccan city of Marrakech.

France would like to win their second World Cup trophy after Russia 2018, and their third in their history. The heroics of the French team make them the second team after Brazil to appear in two successive World Cup finals (1994 and 1998).