Posted 18:30 CET, 16 November 2024. Kickoff 20:45.
Morocco 1, France 1.
Two and a half years after Qatar. Different competition, different stakes, same fixture, same weight.
France is in a transitional phase. Deschamps is still in charge. Mbappé is the captain. The midfield has been reshaped after Pogba's exit from the international scene. The team is good. It is not the team that won 2018.
Morocco is also transitional. Regragui has had to manage the post-2022 expectations against a generation that is partially being renewed. Hakimi and Mazraoui still anchor. The midfield is still the most balanced in Africa. The forward line is being rebuilt around Brahim Díaz and Ezzalzouli.
The match is symbolically loaded in ways that the broadcast will avoid acknowledging. Both squads contain players whose families crossed the same Mediterranean in opposite directions. The match is a polite version of a much larger ongoing conversation about who gets to claim whom.
The football will be tight. France will start strong, fade in the middle third, and rely on a Mbappé moment in the final twenty minutes. Morocco will compress, absorb, and look for transitions through Hakimi.
Final prediction: 1-1, with the late goal coming from Morocco, against the run of play, in the 87th minute.