The dream of playing the World Cup final disappeared at the al-Bayt stadium in al-Khor, roughly three miles north of Doha.
There, France won 2–0.
Which means that the French are once again in the World Cup final, this time against Argentina in the match played on Sunday.
For Morocco, Croatia awaits on Saturday.
Bronze or nothing
A meeting that will decide whether they leave the FIFA World Cup in Qatar with bronze medals or nothing at all.
“It will be a challenge for us, mentally,” says national team captain Walid Regragui.
— We have many players who are injured, many players who are tired. We want to win the game but I also want to let players who haven’t played that much show what they can do.
— We will try to win, but after a loss like this it is difficult to think about the future. We have to give it some time.
It was all the easier to look back, at the semi-final that had just been played.
“Maybe this was too big for us, not in terms of quality or tactics – but the physics.” We weren’t enough. We had too many players who were at 60-70 percent, says Regragui.
“The players gave everything”
Morocco also got off to a tough start, conceding an early goal. The team then created several good chances but did not get any ball behind goalkeeper Hugo Lloris and instead the match was decided by the French’s late 2-0.
— But the players gave everything. They have shown the whole world what kind of team it is, what qualities they have. They wanted to make history but you can’t win the World Cup with miracles, you have to do it through hard work, says Walid Regragui.
— The only thing I regret is the start of the match. We started badly and conceded an early goal which made France comfortable and able to lay right. They let us have a lot of the ball but we made too many mistakes.