France edged past Morocco in a frantic semi-final clash to secure a historic consecutive World Cup final appearance on Wednesday night. Les Bleus registered a 2-0 win inside the Al Bayt Stadium to set-up a date with Argentina with the hopes of matching Brazil's 60-year-old feat of winning back-to-back trophies.
After repelling every attacking threat in five World Cup matches, Morocco had their defense breached by an opposition player for the first time since the beginning of the tournament. An excellent start by France resulted in Theo Hernandez hitting a vital opening goal in the first five minutes after the North Africans failed to clear their lines properly.
An injury to Romain Saiss and his subsequent substitution affected Walid Regragui side as they lacked leadership at the back but the situation did not deter them from pursuing an equalizer. A series of glorious goalscoring opportunities went the way of the Atlas Lions but the defensive resilience of France kept them at bay.
In the end, Didier Deschamps' side got the all-important second goal, with Randal Kolo Muani scoring in less than 45 seconds after replacing Ousmane Dembele in the 79th minute. The result propelled his side to another World Cup final as they matched their feat in Russia four years ago.
Here are some of the milestones attained as a result of Wednesday night's victory over Morocco:
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France are the first nation to reach back-to-back World Cup finals since Brazil in 2002, and first European country to do so since Germany in 1990.
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France have reached the World Cup final four times in the last seven editions of the tournament (1998, 2006, 2018 and 2022), at least twice more than any other nation over the period.
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Randal Kolo Muani scored the third-quickest goal for a substitute in World Cup history (44 seconds after coming on), only behind Morales in 2002 (16 seconds) and Sand in 1998 (26 seconds).
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Youssef En-Nesyri had three touches against France, the fewest on record (since 1966) by any player to play 45+ minutes in a World Cup match.
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Theo Hernández's opener was the earliest scored by any side in a World Cup semi-final since 1958, when Vavá scored within two minutes for Brazil against France.
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France extended a run of never losing the last 26 matches in which they have led at half-time.
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Morocco's Sofyan Amrabat recovered possession of the ball 51 times during the 2022 World Cup, the most of any player on record at a single edition for an African nation (1966 onwards).
