France never really got out of shape. Class side, played well. Morocco went a goal down early doors so there’s only one way to go in knock out football- attack. They had a good go and more than played their part in a good game. And yes- had that overhead kick gone in, what a goal that would have been Reminded me of my playing days did that… Probably
I enjoyed the game but not the result, would’ve been good to see a team in the final who wasn’t even thought of. Morocco were an aggressive team, which I like to see, thought they played well but France just have that quality in attack. I can’t call the final, it’s going to be who is best/luckiest on the day I also thought the ref was excellent.
Score lines don't always reflect the way the teams played and that element of unpredictability and unfairness is one of he reasons football is such an interesting watch compared to snooze-fests like basketball where (as far as I can tell) the best team nearly always wins. Both France's goals were scrappy products of deflections that happened to land in the path of their own strikers, whereas I lost count of the number of times Morocco's wingers put balls into the box which got pinged around between players but didn't fall to one of their own guys or end up in the net. Morocco also dominated in terms of % possession and passing, they hit the post, had a shot blocked on the line by a seemingly oblivious defender and arguably they should have had at least one, possibly two penalties.
Just been watching all the ‘celebrating’ in France and Belgium last night. Didn’t see any of that in MSM. Strange eh?
Class team won. Not playing your best and still winning is the sign of a class team. France were my tip to lift the cup and they still are. You don’t seem happy with the result? Maybe you should petition for a peoples vote and demand a rematch
Well, apart from the hooliganism being reported in the Metro, iNews, Independent, Mail, Express, Mirror, Star, Sun, Sky, Talksport and numerous other MSM outlets.
I stood to win about £200 in a sweepstake if they won the WC, but other than that I'm only mildly bothered. I just liked the way they played and I felt they were really unlucky on the night.
Hmm... Others might say that despite their possession, Morocco wasted their numerous opportunities as they lacked the ability to finish? To not only score two more goals than your opponent, but also to deny them them scoring at all is significant. To say otherwise denigrates Morocco's performance even more. Lady luck always has a part, but thats the same for all teams.
Not to worry. To lift the WC would have been a very tall order!! It would have dwarfed Denmark’s European championship in 1992. When they beat the mighty Germans 3-0 in the final… remember that??
First, scoring wingers were not where they were by coincidence. They were there because : 1/ it was part of the plan 2/ they beat the opposing defenders to be there « free ». Secondly, don’t you think leaving the possession to the adversary and still scoring twice vs zero is not a sign of actually dominating your adversary ? If you want to know, this is actually a big part of Deschamps’ strategy. Finally, the aim of a sport competition is not to look better than the opposition but to score more. Or be faster. French athletes learnt that the hard way for the past 3 or 4 decades, believe me (football, rugby, motogp, formula 1, tennis, etc.)
Les Bleu aren't sooo terrible, but you've certainly been trashed in F1 -especially for a manufacturer team. Oh well, perhaps next season...
You seem to be missing the point. Grinding out a result when not playing well and/or riding your luck is often what separates champions from also-rans, but isn’t the same thing as being the better team on the day in a particular match. To summarise in one sentence - when they were in the opponent’s box, deflections fell kindly for France, but didn’t for Morocco and they also didn’t get the benefit of 2 refereeing decisions that on another day could have resulted in at least one but possibly two penalties.
I always try stay away from blaming the referee for a lost game, even when my guts ache to shout out : « À mort l’arbitre! ». I think refereeing is even more a factor in rugby. How many times, miscommunication between an English speaking referee (95% of them in the 6 Nations) and a non-English speaking team has totally ruined the day for that team… As competitors, working on their mindset, they work super hard in order to blame themselves and not the refereeing. I personally believe fans should try and do the same. Yesterday, I think France did not « grind out » their win. They allocated the minimum effort in order to go the the final with as much juice left as possible. Winners (and title holders) strategy, I think. Agreed, it may not have ended in displaying the greatest show, but that will come Sunday, when both team (Argentina and France) will both be « all in ». And if you think doing so, the French team was not a worthy opponent for a screaming raging Moroccan outsider squad, then you should go and talk to the Atlas Lions. I am 100% sure they’ll disagree with you. As pretty much all of them learnt football playing in France.
You’re reaching/straw manning as I never came anywhere near suggesting France weren’t worthy oppos, I’m not a Morocco fan and I’d be very surprised indeed if it was part of the French game plan to allow the Moroccan wingers to repeatedly make their defence look like fools, having to scramble dozens of crosses clear and stopping shots on the goal line. However, I suspect that you’re a loyal France supporter, so I’m unlikely to get an objective and balanced view! Play like that on Sunday and Messi & Co will them apart…..
Boys against men at the moment. Can’t bring myself to cheer for the argies but really don’t want France to win it again either
