Defending Champions France Wary Of Surprise Package Morocco Ahead Of Big Semifinal

https://ift.tt/RbFcV2y

Morocco defeated heavyweights Belgium, Spain and Portugal on their way to became the first African team to qualify for FIFA World Cup 2022 semifinal.

France players train in Doha ahead of their semifinal against Morocco. (Image: AP)

Doha: France defender Rafael Varane is wary of the Moroccan side ahead of the big semifinal in the going FIFA World Cup 2022 and stated that the African team is not into the last four by chance. Defending champions France face Morocco at the Al Bayt Stadium on Thursday night.

Morocco have eliminated heavyweights Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages to become the first African team to qualify for a FIFA World Cup semifinal. France, on the other hand, eliminated England in quarterfinals to keep their hopes alive for back-to-back trophies.

“We have enough experience in the team to not fall into that trap,” said Varane, who was one of France’s 2018 World Cup-winning members, in a pre-match press conference. “We know Morocco are not here by chance.

“It is up to us experienced players to make sure everyone is prepared for another battle.” Although France have already fulfilled country’s football federation’s target of reaching the last four, but for Varane the job is yet to be done.

“It is not easy to get to a World Cup semifinal so we are very pleased, but the only real objective is to win it,” added the Manchester United star. “That was always the aim.” During the group stages, Walid Regragui men had defeated Belgium and also drew with Croatia.

France defender Jules Kounde heaped high praise for Morocco and also chalked out how to stop their opposition. “They are very compact, with lines that are close together, and they leave little time for the player on the ball to organise himself,” said Kounde.

“They also run really fast, so we’ll need to play with few touches, move the ball around quickly and try to unbalance them by moving from one side to the other. It is remarkable to have only conceded one goal at this stage of the competition, all the more so given the teams they have faced,” added the Barcelona right-back.

Topics

Published Date: December 12, 2022 11:22 PM IST

$(document).ready(function(){ $('#commentbtn').on("click",function(){ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=178196885542208"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

$(".cmntbox").toggle(); }); });



Source link

from https://www.thetimesofbengal.com/national/defending-champions-france-wary-of-surprise-package-morocco-ahead-of-big-semifinal/
via The Times of Bengal | An exclusive 24*7 daily news portal RSS Feed