PLAYER RATINGS | France 2-0 Morocco: Les Bleus progress to the semi-final after a dominant victory

PLAYER RATINGS | France 2-0 Morocco: Les Bleus progress to the semi-final after a dominant victory Although it took an hour to make the breakthrough against an obdurate Morocco defence, second half goals from Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé gave France a comfortable 2-0 win in Boston, securing a Bastille Day semi-final against either Spain or Belgium. The Match Despite all the talk in the build-up about how Morocco would be far more willing to play football than Paraguay, they were in fact as defensive as the South Americans for the first half (albeit without the dirty tricks). France dominated possession but struggled to create clear-cut chances. Mbappé and Dayot Upamecano forced early saves from Yassine Bounou and later in the half Désiré Doué pushed the keeper into another stop, before Lucas Digne hit the crossbar late on. However, les Bleus ‘ big chance came just before the half-hour mark as they were awarded a penalty after Mbappé was felled in the area. It was a clear foul but the Argentinian referee made the striker wait over three minutes before taking the spot-kick. Perhaps unsettled by the wait, Mbappé stuttered, hit the ball tamely and Bounou made a comfortable save. France ahead on points but with nothing to show for it at the break. Morocco came out with more attacking intent in the second half, which worked to France’s advantage as they had far more space to play with. Doué went close before a lovely double-touch by Michael Olise sent Mbappé through. He blasted over but would have been flagged offside in any case. No harm done as, four minutes later and on the hour mark, Mbappé collected the ball on the edge of the area and, using Issa Diop as a shield curled the ball into the far top corner – his 20th goal in 20 World Cup matches and his eighth of this tournament, joining Lionel Messi at the top of the charts. Morocco now had to push forward and leave gaps and, six minutes after the opener, Dembélé doubled the lead, running on to an Mbappé flick and catching Bounou out with an early shot. From then on, France saw out the match relatively comfortably, the closest they came to conceding being a slice from Upamecano that sailed just over. Didier Deschamps took advantage to give a handful of players some game-time off the bench – most notably Warren Zaïre-Emery – his first appearance in a major tournament. Jean-Philippe Mateta missed a couple of late half-chances but it made no difference as the France squad celebrated their progression to the last four with their fans. The France team ratings Mike Maignan 6 – had very little to do but made a good regulation save and took some high crosses to maintain the two-goal lead Jules Koundé 6 – has grown into this World Cup and although his offensive contribution is still limited, he was rarely troubled on the defensive side Dayot Upamecano 6 – generally his dominant self and came close to scoring but marked down a little by his second half slice and poor header which could have caused problems  William Saliba 7 – like all his matches this World Cup – unruffled, secure and extremely effective Lucas Digne 6 – unlucky to see his shot come off the bar. Some poor touches but should take credit for keeping Achraf Hakimi and Brahim Diaz so quiet Manu Koné 7 – deputised excellently for Aurelien Tchouameni with an all-action display. Definitely not as defensively minded but much of France’s better chances came from him winning the ball and thrusting forward. Substituted for Zaïre-Emery’s World Cup debut Adrien Rabiot 6 – a typically intelligent display, knowing when to sit back if Koné pushed forward, committing and winning clever and well-timed fouls to break up Morocco play Ousmane Dembélé 6 – a really poor first half during which he failed to beat the first defender once, but his clever finish put the game out of Morocco’s reach Michael Olise 6 – not his best display – he did seem to come in for some treatment from the Morocco defence who were perhaps trying to rile him into a booking. Nevertheless, some beautiful touches once the game opened up Désiré Doué 6 – worked very hard but struggled to find space in the first half, but kept Bounou honest with a few pot-shots and served Mbappé for France’s opener Kylian Mbappé 7 – looked the brightest of France’s forwards until he won – but then missed – the penalty. Then went quiet until his goal, which he followed up with an assist for the second, before being taken off to protect himself from potential injury GFFN | Jeremy Smith