The quarter-finals of the World Cup kicked off in Boston on Thursday, as France eased past Morocco thanks to a quickfire double from Kylian Mbappe ($10.5m) and Ousmane Dembele ($10.0m).
Les Blues, the tournament favourites, have now won every game at the World Cup.
They’ve booked their place in the semi-finals, too, where they will face Spain or Belgium.
Here are our Scout Notes from the game, featuring match stats from our World Cup Toolkit page.
FRANCE 2-0 MOROCCO
- Goals: Mbappe, Dembele
- Assists: Doue, Mbappe
- Penalty won: Mbappe
- Penalty saved: Bounou
- Shot on target bonus: Mbappe
- Big chance created bonus: Dembele
- Tackle bonus: El Aynaoui, El Khannouss
- Top points scorers: Mbappe (13), Dembele (10), Doue (8)
TEAM STATS
PLAYER STATS
SCOUT NOTES
- Didier Deschamps made just one change to the team that faced Paraguay in the Round of 16, with Desire Doue ($7.5m) in for Bradley Barcola ($8.0m) on the left wing.
- As for Morocco, the injury to Ismael Saibari ($6.8m) prompted a reshuffle in attack, with Bilal El Khannouss ($6.2m) playing as a false nine, flanked by Brahim Diaz ($6.4m) and Chemsdine Talbi ($4.4m).
- France are the bookies’ favourites to win the World Cup. Here, they showed exactly why. The superior team throughout, they outshot Morocco 21 to five and created five big chances to zero. The expected goals (xG) tally finished 3.04 to 0.14, further highlighting their dominance.
- Mbappe had a penalty saved but bounced back with a lovely curled finish to put France in front, drawing him level with Lionel Messi ($10.0m) in the race for the Golden Boot (eight goals each). He later turned provider for France’s second, setting up Dembele to finish low into the bottom corner.
- Mbappe ended the match with 13 points, likely enough for the majority of Fantasy managers to keep the armband on him. In addition to his goal, assist and penalty won, he also banked an extra point for his shots on target, something he’s achieved in every round so far.
- Before Mbappe’s opener on the hour mark, Dalot Upamecano ($5.3m) missed a very decent chance early on. Doue was denied too, while Lucas Digne ($5.0m) struck the crossbar with a swerving shot.
- Michael Olise ($9.5m) played centrally behind Mbappe but was quieter than usual, with just one key pass.
- The only concern from this match for France was an injury to Mbappe, who left the pitch on 76 minutes. He was subsequently spotted with an ice pack on his foot/ankle, but in a more encouraging development, was then seen jumping up and down in celebration of Les Blues’ victory. After the match, the player himself eased any injury concerns:
“I have a minor ankle injury, but I’m completely fine. Mateta was in a better position to play the remaining minutes of the match and was fitter at that moment. That’s all that happened.” – Kylian Mbappe, via The Athletic
- Lots has been made of France’s attack at this World Cup, but they’ve been really solid at the back too. Deschamps’ men have only conceded twice this tournament, against Norway and Senegal. Remarkably, since the start of the knockout phase, they’ve allowed just 0.97 xG across three matches.
- Manu Kone ($6.1m), who has played a key part in those defensive displays, was one booking away from being suspended, so it was no surprise he was taken off shortly after France went 2-0 up.
- Morocco were completely outclassed in this match. Devoid of any real quality in the final-third, it took them until the 84th minute to record a shot on target.
- At the back, Noussair Mazraoui ($4.4m) switched inside to play as a centre-half but conceded the penalty, having hacked down Mbappe.
- Only Yassine Bounou ($4.7m) emerged with a return for the Atlas Lions, having stopped the penalty and made six saves.
