FIFA World Cup 2022: France show clinical edge to beat Morocco despite lacking possession – tactical analysis

We all love an underdog story, especially when it comes to football. Recent international tournaments have seen new heroes establish themselves when nobody ever expected them to: From Wales’ historic run in Euro 2016 to Croatia reaching the World Cup final back in 2018. This year, we were treated to some brilliant performances from Morocco, who captured the hearts and imagination of fans around the globe as they made it all the way to the semi-finals. This made Morocco the first ever African nation to compete in a semi-final match at a World Cup competition.

To book their place in the final four, they’d knocked out footballing giants Portugal and Spain, and conceded only one goal on their amazing journey. Then, they met France, the reigning champions of the world. This was by far Morocco’s biggest test in the competition so far and proved to be a challenge too big, as the French broke hearts everywhere with a 2-0 victory, confirming their place in the final against Argentina.

This tactical analysis will provide a focus on the attacking tactics of both sides – how Morocco saw more of the ball and how they looked to break the strong French shape. We will also provide an analysis of how France looked in attack – the build-up to both goals as well as a look at their attacking tactics in general.

Lineups

Current World Cup holder France deployed a 4-2-3-1 with a mouth-watering lineup full of superstars. Only two changes were made from their 2-1 win over England in the previous round, with illness striking in the France camp, ultimately keeping Adrien Rabiot of Juventus and Dayot Upamecano out of the game. They were replaced by Youssouf Fofana and Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté respectively.

There could be an argument for dropping Upamecano even if he was fully fit as he was less than convincing against England, with Harry Kane exposing the central defender on more than one occasion. Rabiot silenced a few critics with a strong performance in the quarters so it can be argued that he was the bigger miss of the two absentees.

Morocco had previously been donning a 4-3-3 shape but opted for the switch to 5-4-1 in this tie. Some will argue that this was a theoretically sound move as it gave Morocco a better chance of containing a highly talented attacking unit, whereas others may deploy the mantra of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.

In terms of personnel, one of the changes occurred at left wing-back, with Bayern Munich defender Noussair Mazraoui coming back into the fold, while Achraf Dari came in as the extra central defender in the back five. Sofyan Amrabat has been the star of this Morocco side, operating from the middle again in this fixture, with wide presence being provided by Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal. Youssef En-Nesyri, who scored the only goal in the game against Portugal, led the line again but struggled to find the same spark.