France will play Morocco today in the first match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup quarter finals. This is a rematch of the 2022 World Cup semi finals in Qatar.

In 2022, France edged out Morocco 2-0 with goals from Theo Hernandez and Kolo Muani at the Al Bayt Stadium. Today, they battle at the Gillete (Boston) Stadium in Massachusetts.

Les Blues have been the most outstanding team in the 2026 World Cup, winning all 5 matches, scoring 14 goals with half of them from captain Kylian Mbappe. The Real Madrid star is only a goal behind Lional Messi in the top scorer’s chart in this edition.

They also have the reigning Balon D’Or – Ousmane Dembele from PSG and the assist master – Michael Olise from Bayern Munich. Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola are among the Champions League winning PSG side while Arsenal’s Saliba leads at the back.

Morocco have earned the right to punch in the heavyweight division. 6th ranked in the World, they eased through the group phase, overcame the Netherlands before seeing off hosts Canada in the previous rounds. They have game changers like Achraf Hakimi, Brahim Diaz and new star Ismael Saibari.

Their opening match against Brazil was signal of intent. Holding the Samba Boys to a 1-1 draw with the Brazilians struggling to hang on. The Atlas Lions needed penalties to overcome the Orange boys of Netherlands.

Head-to-head, the Africans have never defeated France in regulation time. They have met 6 times before today with 4 victories for the French team and 2 draws for Morocco. One of those draws was decided via the penalty shootout where Morocco won.

How will today play out? They both love to attack. The battle will be won by which defenders are more alert. I think France will edge out Morocco 2-1. I hope not.

Oh, there is the small matter of the Argentina vs Egypt game with question marks over the referee and the VAR decisions. I think the referee had a good game and the VAR was correct. They were right to cancel the Egyptian goal. And Salah wasn’t fouled. It is just emotions boiling over, distracting us from our actions. It is also a case of the next and potential opponents building up the agenda. Distractions.