France punched their ticket to the World Cup semifinals on Thursday with a 2-0 win over Morocco that felt more like a formality than a fight. The 2018 champions are now the first team through to the final four, and if you watched this one, you know why everyone else should be nervous.
Kylian Mbappe scored first. Ousmane Dembele added the second. And Morocco, who were supposed to be the toughest test left in the bracket, barely got a sniff at goal. It wasn’t just that France won. It was how casually they did it.
We’re talking about a team that hasn’t broken a sweat since the tournament started. They rolled through a group that included Senegal, Iraq and Norway without conceding a single goal. Sweden got blown out in the round of 32. Paraguay managed to slow them down for a bit in the round of 16, but even that required them to basically turn the game into a street fight. It worked for about 70 minutes. Then Mbappe scored a penalty and that was that.
The real question nobody wants to answer
Is there actually a team left that can stop this France squad? Argentina has Lionel Messi, sure, but their defense has been shaky. Spain controls possession but doesn’t have the same knockout punch. England has talent but they’ve looked beatable in stretches. None of them have shown they can handle what France brings on the attacking end.
And it’s not just Mbappe, though he’s obviously the headliner. Dembele is playing the best soccer of his career. Michael Olise and Desire Doue give them options off the bench that most national teams would kill for as starters. This is a lineup that can hurt you from every angle.
Paraguay did prove one thing in the round of 16: you can frustrate France if you’re willing to get ugly. They hacked, they wasted time, they did everything short of calling a timeout. It almost worked. But relying on that kind of approach for two full halves against a team this deep is a gamble that usually loses.
France’s biggest test might come Friday
They’ll face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinal. Spain is the Euro 2024 champion, but even they stumbled out of the gate with a scoreless draw against Cape Verde in their opener. Since then they’ve been perfect, allowing zero goals in five games. They haven’t been tested either, so something has to give.
Belgium is the more dangerous matchup on paper because you never know which version shows up. But they’ll have to get past Spain first on Friday before anyone starts thinking about that.
The final is July 19 and right now it’s hard to picture anyone hoisting that trophy except France. They’ve got the star power, the form and the confidence of a team that knows it’s the best in the world. The rest of the field has a week to figure out how to prove them wrong.
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