France Beat Morocco on Merit, Not on the Whistle

Mbappé missed a penalty in the 28th minute of Thursday's World Cup quarterfinal, then went the best part of an hour before France finally broke Morocco down. By the time it was over, the referee had almost nothing to do with how the match turned out.

France won 2-0 at Gillette Stadium, Mbappé curling in the opener on the hour mark before turning provider for Ousmane Dembélé six minutes later to send Les Bleus into a third straight World Cup semi-final, a rematch that saw Morocco unable to build on strong first-half chances before France pulled away in the second. NPR

The build-up to the game had nothing to do with either team's football. FIFA handed the match to an all-Argentine officiating crew led by Facundo Tello, a decision that infuriated French fans and media at a time when accusations of favouritism toward Argentina were already at their peak following the holders' controversial win over Egypt days earlier, as the Independent reported. None of that controversy showed up on the pitch. Yahoo Sports

Tello's biggest call actually went France's way, and it held up. Mbappé was chopped down in the box by Morocco defender Noussair Mazraoui in the 25th minute, and after a lengthy video review, the penalty was upheld. Mbappé then missed it himself, straight at Yassine Bounou. If Tello was supposedly there to help France, Mbappé didn't get the memo. Morocco defender Issa Diop picked up the only yellow card of the entire match, hardly the record of a heavily officiated or fixed contest.

What actually beat Morocco was the gap in quality. France held a 21-4 advantage in shots on goal and an 8-1 edge in shots on target, a dominance reflected in an expected-goals count of 3.04 to Morocco's 0.14, per ESPN. Morocco didn't register its first shot on target until the 83rd minute. Bounou kept the scoreline respectable for an hour on his own. ESPN

Morocco leave the tournament with real credit, a run that saw them avoid defeat against Brazil and beat the Netherlands on penalties before reaching another quarterfinal. That deserves recognition on its own terms, without pretending a whistle decided what a back four and a stalled attack could not. ESPN