France is heading back to the World Cup final for a much-anticipated matchup with Argentina after ending Morocco's historic run. The champions beat Africa's first-ever semi-finalist 2-0, after being pushed to the final whistle. 9News MORE:
Brazil won that tournament and the next one in 1962. Now, France will head into the final against Argentina looking to become the first team to retain the World Cup since then.
Their players gave France a far-from-easy ride, too, before collapsing on the ground in despair after the final whistle.Remarkably, Hernandez's goal was the first scored against them by an opposition player in the tournament — the other had been an own-goal — and came amid defensive rearrangement forced by injuries to Morocco's two best centre backs.
Typically a defence-first team, Morocco was forced to come out and play and, roared on by tens of thousands of fans who dominated the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium, the team penned back France.Jawad El Yamiq hit the post with an overhead kick in the 44th minute and France's defenders had to make a number of last-ditch tackles in front of their own goal.
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