It smells of team spirit

From a record seven wins in the group stage to having a team in the semi-final for the first time, this has been the tournament for Africa. With their mothers in arms – Sofiane Boufal dancing with his mum after beating Portugal could be the tournament’s defining frame beating Walid Regragui climbing the terraces to meet his – Morocco have marched into unknown territory saying they are hungry for more.

“If you are not that is a problem, not everyone is lucky enough to come this far,” said Morocco’s coach after pointing out that the “best team, Brazil” did not. “I’m in the semi-final of the World Cup. I had dreamt of it as a little boy,” said Ilias Chair. That he hasn’t got a minute’s action in Doha didn’t matter, the midfielder said on Tuesday.

For Morocco’s dream to continue, Regragui said, there will have to be more sacrifices, organisation and focus. There will be more of the defence-heavy style they have brought to this World Cup because Regragui spoke about sticking to what has worked. From target man Youssef En-Nesyri to Yassine Bounou in goal, Morocco are going to stick together making it as difficult as possible for France to break through. And the try their luck on the counter with their ball-carrying midfielders.

England showed that it is possible to contain Kylian Mbappe by not changing their game. They played four at the back though with Kyle Walker in a more central defensive position than wing back and restricted Mbappe to the fewest touches he got inside the penalty area (3), since the last World Cup final. Mbappe did beat Walker in a sprint but it led to nothing. With Morocco leaving little space between their frontman and Bounou, with Hakim Ziyech and Boufal combining responsibilities of flying down the flanks and dropping deep to aid the backline, it could mean another difficult night for Mbappe but he can and does change games in a flash.

How France find space between the lines will depend on the kind of game Antoine Griezmann is having. Numbers don’t always tell the tale – and Regragui warned against too much importance to xG (Expected Goals) and a lot of possession saying they mean nothing if you don’t win – but Griezmann has had an excellent World Cup. He hasn’t added to his tally of 42 international goals which puts Griezmann behind only Olivier Giroud and Thierry Henry. He has not scored in 14 international games since the World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan in November 2021. But his importance can be gauged from the fact that he has started each of France’s last 72 games.

In 2018, Griezmann had four goals and four assists. In five World Cup games, having played nearly every minute except against Tunisia when Didier Deschamps rested a number of starters, Griezmann has two assists, both against England. After the quarter-final, no one, not even Zinedine Zidane or Henry, has more for France than his 28. “The ball from Grizi was superb,” Giroud said while describing his goal that knocked England out.

Beset by injuries, France have reorganised their midfield with Griezmann, in his words, “being there in the relationship between defence and forwards.” Unlike in Brazil when Deschamps was building a team that would conquer the world in four years, Griezmann doesn’t play on the left. Unlike in Russia, he doesn’t play further up the pitch either. Because Paul Pogba and N’ Golo Kante and Christopher Nkunku are not here, he plays in a central role linking up more with Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot than he would four years earlier. Griezmann still has the legs to help the defence and rush forward to join an attack. And he was always a player who didn’t shirk defensive responsibilities. He is also France’s set-piece master.

“We need him to be just as good tomorrow. He can change a team. He is a hard worker and technically qualified,” said Deschamps one day before the semi-final. “He is always thinking of the good for the team.”

Griezmann is among those Raphael Varane has called a “historical soldier”, one who knows what it takes to win a World Cup. Mbappe, Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud and he being the others, according to Varane. Players who transmit calm and composure to the team when needed.

Bounou does that for Morocco. There is a lot of France on the other side too – Regragui has grown up in a Paris suburb and spoke of the joy those who hold French and Moroccan nationalities will derive from the semi-final – but like Griezmann, Bounou plays in La Liga. Winner of the Ricardo Zamora Trophy, given to the best goalkeeper in La Liga, the Sevilla keeper typifies ‘niyyah’, the polyglot Regragui preferring an Arab word to describe his team’s intent, but does it with a smile.

He smiled after saving a late effort from Cristiano Ronaldo in the quarter-final and he did that after tipping over a rasping Joao Felix’s drive. Everything Portugal threw at him – and it was a lot – Bounou repelled with a smile. “When Yassine makes that kind of save (against Ronaldo) and gets into the game, we’re virtually unstoppable,” Regragui said after the match.

As he did against Spain, in the tie-breaker and before. “I wouldn’t change anything,” Spain coach Luis Enrique said about the penalties which knocked out Spain. “Just their goalkeeper.”

No team has been able to breach Bounou’s cage; the only goal Morocco have let in was a self-goal against Canada. “When you have one of the best goalkeepers in the world, it gives you confidence, and Yassine gives us that.”

Bounou has been singularly self-effacing in such moments. “I want to thank all the guys for the hard work. I was MVP because there are big players with me, it is because my friends were at a high level and did their jobs,” he said after collecting his second successive player-of-the-match award.

Football is at its best when the worth of the collective is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Griezmann and Bounou, both 31, typify that. What’s not to say that both will be smiling after a hard, fair duel.