France vs Morocco Prediction | World Cup 2022 ‣ Betiton™

When this match kicks-off, we will know the name of one of the finalists, while one more team will have had their hopes and dreams shattered and will have to settle for a third/fourth Play-Off – the match that nobody really wants to play at a big tournament. The second semi-final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup will see France take on Morocco at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on the 14th of December at 19:00 GMT. If you want some top World Cup 2022 predictions for this big game, then you just have to keep on reading our France vs Morocco prediction.

France vs Morocco Preview

This France vs Morocco semi-final will be shown live on BBC 1, so do yourself a favour and tune into all of the action about half-an-hour before kick-off so that you can sit there and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the build up. With what is on the line and the fact that there are many Moroccans in France, this is bound to be a feisty game, and it is one that you do not want to miss out on.

So, how is it that France and Morocco both made it to the Semi-Finals of the 2022 Qatar World Cup? Well, below you can find the paths that these two teams had to tread in order to book a spot in the final four.

France:

• Round of 16: France 3 – Poland 1
• Quarter-Final: England 1 – France 2

Morocco:

• Round of 16: Morocco 0 – Spain 0 (after extra-time with Morocco winning 3-0 on penalties)
• Quarter-Finals: Morocco 1 – Portugal 0

🏠 France Form and Team News

Taking a bit of time from your day to look at how both sides have made it to where they are in a big tournament is something that you should definitely do when you are considering doing a bit of football betting because form is something that you should never ignore when you are betting on football, or any other sport for that matter. So, this is what we are going to do now.

France finished first in Group D courtesy of two wins and a defeat from the three games that they played. Their first match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup was against Australia, and Australia scored first to make it seem that there could be a huge shock on the cards, but this goal just galvanised a talented French side and they went on to win the match with a 4-1 scoreline. The next opponents for the French was Denmark, and France won the game 2-1 to claim another three points and book themselves a spot in the Round of 16 with a game left. Their final game was against Tunisia, and Didier Deschamps decided to make a number of changes to give his first team players a rest. France went on to put in a pretty poor performance and lost the match 1-0.

Their Round of 16 game was against Poland, and the French were the clear favourites to win this match, and they lived up to their favourites tag by picking up a 3-1 victory. The Polish attack did get behind the French defence a few times, but they lacked the quality needed to cause some real damage. With more than an hour gone, the French still had a 1-0 lead, so the Poles were still in the game, but two quick goals by Kylian Mbappe ended the match as a contest. Poland managed to score a consolation goal when Robert Lewandowski scored his second goal of the competition from the spot.

In their Quarter-Final match, France played against England, and they found themselves in the lead with a little over 15 minutes on the clock after the Brazilian referee failed to see a clear foul on Bukayo Saka in the build-up. England played their way back into the game and got the equalizer that their play deserved when Harry Kane converted a clear penalty. England were the team on the up, but then Olivier Giroud scored a header from 6 yards to give his team the lead again. England earned themselves another penalty late on after the use of VAR, although we must wonder how the referee failed to give it right away, but this time Kane blazed it over the top, and France held on to their lead to book themselves a spot in the semi-finals.

For their semi-final clash against Morocco, Deschamps does not have any additional injuries or suspensions that he has to contend with. He did have a couple of key players walking a suspension tightrope in the Quarter-Final, but all yellow cards have been wiped out ahead of the semi-finals. Deschamps will be hoping that nothing goes wrong in training and he has a full squad to pick from come Wednesday afternoon.

France Starting Lineup

In their match against England, France lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, which is one they have been using regularly throughout the competition, so we expect Deschamps to stick to this formation against Morocco on Wednesday. Since he currently has no injuries or suspensions, we also think that he will opt for the same starting XI that took to the field against England in their Quarter-Final:

• H. Loris
• T. Hernández
• D. Upamecano
• R. Varane
• J. Koundé
• A. Rabiot
• A. Tchouaméni
• O. Dembélé
• A. Griezmann
• K. Mbappe
• O. Giroud

When looking at this starting XI, there can not be that much surprise as to how France are now just two wins away from retaining the title that they won in Russia four years ago. However, as they showed against Tunisia, we do not think that it is unfair to say that they do not have strength in depth. While this has not been much of an issue so far, there is still the chance that it could end up derailing their campaign if they pick up a few injuries.

France Players to Watch

As we said above, this France starting XI is full of quality players, and we are going to now provide you with three French players that we believe the Moroccan players will need to pay very close attention to in the semi-final.

• Kylian Mbappe: Before the match against England, Mbappe was the main focus of attention, but he did not do an awful lot against England because Kyle Walker, like he has done on a number of occasions, kept him quiet for most of the match. However, he has such quality that we do not expect him to have two poor games in succession, and the Morocco defence will not have the pace of Walker to keep him quiet. So, we are expecting him to have an impact on this semi-final match
• Olivier Giroud: When Real Madrid star, Karim Benzema, was ruled out through injury at the start of the tournament, French fans probably feared the worst. However, Giroud has shown his quality and has scored four goals throughout the competition to help take his side to the final four. His winning header against England was just typical Giroud, and something Arsenal and Chelsea fans have seen him do on numerous occasions. The Moroccans have been beasts at defending in the air, so it will be interesting to see how the cope with one of the masters of heading
• Antoine Girezmann: The Atletico Madrid player, at times against England, looked like he was just having a kick about with his mates down the local park. He was always finding pockets of space to run into and try and set up his teammates, and it was his lovely cross that landed right on Giroud’s head and found the back of the net. He is a key figure for this French team, and we are looking forward to seeing how Morocco go about making sure that he does not have the time on the ball to work his magic

☍ Morocco Form and Team News

Morocco did something that no football betting fan would have put their money on, and that is top a group that also included Croatia and Belgium. From their three Group Stage matches, Morocco picked up two wins and a draw to finish top of the pile with 7 points, while conceding just the one goal. Their first match of the tournament was against Croatia, and the game finished in a 0-0 draw, which was a result that Morocco would have taken at kick-off – it is always important not to lose your first game of a big competition such as the World Cup.

Their second match of their successful campaign was against Belgium, and many football bettors would have had their money on the Belgians to win this match. However, the North Africans showed their quality and outplayed Belgium, going on to win the match 2-0 and give themselves a very good chance of making it through to the Round of 16. Their final Group Stage game was against Canada, and they knew that all they needed to go through was a draw. In the end, they won the game 2-1 and claimed first spot, while Croatia finished in second place and Belgium were sent crashing out.

For topping the group, Morocco earned themselves a Round of 16 tie with Spain, so obviously they started the match as the underdogs. However, as they showed against Belgium, they quite like the title of underdogs, and they put in another top-quality defensive display to keep Spain out for two hours – Spain made more than 1000 passes in this game, but over 120 minutes they only had the on shot on target. The match had to be decided on penalties, and Morocco kept their nerve to win 3-0 and send their fans and the whole of Africa into raptures.

Their quarter-final match was against a Portugal side that dispatched Switzerland 6-1 in their Round of 16 game, so many would have thought that this is where Morocco’s wonderful World Cup journey would come to an end. However, once again, Morocco showed the defensive grit and determination that they have shown throughout the competition and kept Portugal honest, despite the attacking wealth that they have. Y. En-Nesyri scored with a header just before half-time, and this was enough for Morocco to cause yet another upset and become the first African team to make it to the semi-finals of a World Cup. We would be happy to put money on there not being any World Cup 2022 predictions that predicted this.

While Deschamps does not have any injuries or suspensions to contend with for this semi-final, the same cannot be said for his counterpart, Walid Regragui. In the Quarter-Final against Portugal, his captain, Romain Saïss had to be stretchered off with a hamstring issue, so it is touch and go as to whether he will be able to play a part in his team’s historic semi-final game. Hakim Ziyech also had to go off injured, but there is more hope that he will be able to start on Wednesday. Nayef Aguerd picked up a muscle tear against Spain and had to sit out of the Quarter-Final, and it is unlikely that he will be fit in time to play against France. When it comes to suspensions, Walid Cheddira is suspended after having picked up two soft yellow cards against Portugal.

Morocco Starting Lineup

At the start of the World Cup, the Morocco squad, it is fair to say, was not full of huge household names, but this has definitely changed over the last three weeks. Even if they lose to France, this team has done themselves proud and their country will remember them forever. In their match against Portugal, they used a 4-3-3 formation, so we think this is what they will go for one again against the French.

In addition to this, we do not believe that Saiss will be fit enough to play, so Regragui will have to make at least one change to his starting XI that took to the field against the Portuguese. This is how we think Morocco will line up against France on Wednesday evening:

• Bono
• A. Hakimi
• J. Yamiq
• A. Dari
• N. Mazraoui
• A. Ounahi
• S. Amrabat
• A. Sabiri
• H. Ziyech
• Y. En-Nesyri
• S. Boufal

Morocco do not have the same squad depth that other teams have, but what they have in abundance is an urge to fight for each other and play together as one, and this togetherness could see them go all the way to the final of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Morocco Players to Watch

Although many of these Morocco players were not that well-known before this World Cup started, they still, as they have proved, have a lot of talent in their squad. Below you can find three Moroccan players that you should keep an eye on when they play France on Wednesday.

• Hakim Ziyech: The midfielder has had his struggles with Chelsea this season, but he is one of the main stars of this Morocco team. When he is playing at the top of his game, he has all the quality to cause the world’s best defenders a number of issues. If France give him space to work in, then he could cause them a number of issues, so we are interested in seeing whether he can cause any damage in this semi-final
• Achraf Hakimi: The 24 year od has already played at Inter Milan, Dortmund, Real Madrid, and Paris Saint-German, so this gives you a very good idea as to how much talent he has. You will not play for any of these teams if you do not have skills in abundance. Not only is he a really solid defender, but he also has a great attacking ability and has no issues finding the back of the net. Also, if this game was to go to penalties, he has shown that he s adept at those as well
• Bono: The Sevilla keeper has been in fine form during this World Cup, and if Morocco are going to make it through to the World Cup final, then he is going to have to carry on with his fine form. France will probably have most of the ball in this match, so Bono will need to command his defenders well and claim every cross that comes into the box. If Morocco do end up making it through, then we think it is fair to say that Bono will have played a major role in yet another shock victory

France vs Morocco Betting Odds

At Betiton, we love giving our customers great WC 2022 betting odds that they can use because we know that all of our punters deserve the chance to get the most from their hard-earned cash. No matter what market you want to place some World Cup bets on, one thing that we can guarantee our players is that there will always be competitive odds on offer here. Most of our football betting fans enjoy putting their cash on markets like the match winner and total number of goals, so below we have provided you with the odds for both markets:

Match Winner

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

Who Will Win? France vs Morocco Prediction

If we were doing some of our own online sports betting on this semi-final match between France and Morocco, then who would we be putting our money on? Well, despite Morocco’s heroics at this World Cup, we can only see one winner in this match, and that is France. The French will not find it easy to break down a defence that has only conceded one own goal in this tournament, but we think that their attacking talent will eventually get the job done. So, our World Cup betting advice for this game is to bet on France to get the job done in 90 minutes.

Our France vs Morocco prediction: France to win

Our France vs Morocco Betting Tips

What are some other World Cup tips that we can give you for this game? Well, if you do not want to bet on France to win in 90 minutes because the odds are not to your liking, then betting on the under 2.5 goals market might be something that appeals to you. If not, then consider putting your money on Giroud to score – there will be plenty of crosses into the box, and we would not be surprised to see him guide a cross home.