Thursday afternoon Gillette Stadium \u2014 temporarily renamed \u201cBoston Stadium\u201d for the World Cup \u2014 will host its final match of the tournament.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s going to be a doozy.<\/p>\n
Four years after facing off in the 2022 World Cup semifinals, France and Morocco are set to clash once again with a spot in the final four on the line. Last time in Qatar the French won 2-0 to secure a spot in the final, ending Morocco\u2019s bid for history, and this time in Foxboro the north African side will look to avenge that defeat.<\/p>\n
The quarterfinal match is set to begin at 4 p.m. and figures to be among the most compelling of the tournament so far.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s No. 1 team in FIFA\u2019s latest men\u2019s rankings, France has rolled through the tournament as it seeks its third consecutive finals appearance. Les Bleus are a perfect 5-0 in this World Cup with a plus-12 goal differential, though the French faced an unexpectedly tough challenge from Paraguay in their Round of 16 battle, winning 1-0 on a second half penalty kick goal by superstar striker Kylian Mbapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n
One of the world\u2019s most prolific goal scorers, Mbapp\u00e9 is once again in the mix for the Golden Boot. The 27-year-old enters Thursday with seven goals, which is tied with Norway\u2019s Erling Haaland for second in the tournament behind only Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi (8),\u00a0as well as two assists.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 is also chasing Messi for the all-time World Cup scoring lead. The Argentinian legend currently has 21 goals, two more than Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s 19.<\/p>\n
But the French aren\u2019t a one trick pony up front. Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 also ranks among the tournament\u2019s scoring leaders with four goals and two assists, including a hat trick against Norway during France\u2019s previous group stage game in Foxboro, and midfielder Michael Olise completes what\u2019s widely regarded as the world\u2019s most dangerous attacking trio.<\/p>\n
Morocco will enter Thursday\u2019s rematch as an underdog, but the Atlas Lions are no Cinderella.<\/p>\n
Coming in at No. 6 in FIFA\u2019s rankings, Morocco made history in 2022 when it became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semifinals. Its four knockout stage wins over the past two tournaments match the combined total of every other African team in World Cup history, and a win over France would also make Morocco the seventh team to reach the semis in consecutive tournaments.<\/p>\n
The others are a who\u2019s who of soccer royalty, including Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and France.<\/p>\n
Morocco finished second in Group C, tying with Brazil atop the standings with two wins and a draw each but losing the goal differential tiebreaker plus-six to plus-three. Morocco tied Brazil 1-1 in their opening match before beating Scotland 1-0 in Foxboro and Haiti 4-2 to advance to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n
Morocco faced its toughest test in the Round of 32 when it tied the Netherlands 1-1 and advanced on penalty kicks 3-2, after which it knocked out co-host nation Canada 3-0 in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n
The Atlas Lions are led by captain Achraf Hakimi, a star defender with two-time defending Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain. Hakimi is regarded as one of the world\u2019s best right backs, but he\u2019s also become a polarizing figure since he was charged with rape in 2023. Hakimi will stand trial in France after his bid to have the charges dropped was rejected last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Despite the allegations the Royal Moroccan Football Federation has continued to back Hakimi, who has played in all of Morocco\u2019s World Cup matches so far. When Morocco last played in Foxboro on June 19, Hakimi was booed by the crowd whenever he touched the ball.<\/p>\n
Beyond Hakimi, Morocco\u2019s other top players include Brahim Diaz, a standout midfielder with Real Madrid, goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who played a key role in Morocco\u2019s 2022 run, Noussair Mazraoui, a top defender with Manchester United, and Youssef En-Nesyri, who scored the winning goal in Morocco\u2019s 2022 quarterfinal win over Portugal.<\/p>\n
The winner of Thursday\u2019s quarterfinal will go on to face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinals. That match would be played Tuesday, July 14 in Dallas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday afternoon Gillette Stadium \u2014 temporarily renamed \u201cBoston Stadium\u201d for the World Cup \u2014 will host its final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2936,27576,31822,1203,5,758,112,272,189,31824,696,31826,457,409,31823,31825],"class_list":["post-47977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-achraf-hakimi","tag-boston-stadium","tag-brahim-diaz","tag-foxboro","tag-france","tag-gillette-stadium","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-michael-olise","tag-morocco","tag-noussair-mazraoui","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-quarterfinal","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-yassine-bounou","tag-youssef-en-nesyri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}