Key events<\/p>\n
18 min: Doue crosses from the left. Dembele, rising highest on the right-hand corner of the six-yard box, loops a harmless header wide left and high. That move was started by a lovely little shimmy and shake from Olise, smoothly cutting in from the right before switching play. So easy on the eye.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n 16 min: Hakimi sends a dreadful free kick miles over everyone\u2019s head and out of play. Local hero Adam Vinatieri would have been proud of that one.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 15 min: Bounou is very nearly closed down by the onrushing Dembele, but shifts his feet just in time before clearing. The crowd enjoyed that. Morocco counter, and Ounahi wins a free kick out on the right, drawing a lazy leg from Digne. Morocco load the box as Hakimi prepares to deliver.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 13 min: Tell you what, not sure Kone got too much of the ball there. It should have been a free kick to Morocco, 30 yards out. There were covering defenders.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 12 min: France<\/a> probe patiently, but then Saliba slaps a poor pass straight at Diaz, who scuttles away on the counter. He\u2019s eventually stopped in his tracks by Kone. Saliba owes his mate one there, because had Kone not got a foot in, France were in serious trouble.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 10 min: Kone wins the ball 25 yards out and feeds Mbappe, who considers shooting but lays off to Doue instead. Doue takes a whack, but it\u2019s blocked at source. France<\/a> definitely on top during the opening exchanges.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 8 min: Doue dribbles hard down the left but just as he looks like entering the box, Bouaddi \u2013 who today becomes the second-youngest player to feature in a WOrld Cup quarter-final behind Pele \u2013 toes the ball away.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 7 min: Morocco calm things down a bit with some sterile domination, passing it back, forth and around the defence.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 5 min: Mbappe takes a speculative whack at goal from distance. Bounou isn\u2019t taking any chances and tips around the post. The corner comes in from the left, and Upamecano meets it, though he\u2019s mistimed his jump a little, and in falling backwards, only sends a weak header straight at the keeper. Bounou still needs to make the save, though, and does with a strong hand.<\/p>\n Dayot Upamecano gets his head on an early France chance. Photograph: Martin Meissner\/APShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a016.13 EDT<\/p>\n 3 min: A lot of France<\/a> possession during the early moments. Quite a bit of whistling as they attempt to establish a bit of order. \u201cLa Marseillaise sounded especially jaunty tonight,\u201d notes Charles Antaki. \u201cA different recording? I doubt if they have a band hidden away somewhere, though given the usual theatricals at US sporting events there may be a marching band doing the business somewhere in the bowels of the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 2 min: It\u2019s 32 degrees in Massachusetts. Positively British.<\/a> \u201cOn ITV during a discussion about players representing countries they weren\u2019t born in Mark Pougatch just said \u2018the world is a global entity now\u2019,\u201d reports Jon Collin. \u201cI thought too hard about that sentence and might have to sit this one out. May the best entity win!\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Morocco get the ball rolling. More specifically: they launch it. Anticipation crackles around Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFL\u2019s New England Patriots and the New England Revolution of the MLS.<\/p>\n Away we go. Photograph: Mike Segar\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a016.05 EDT<\/p>\n The teams are out! Morocco wear their first-choice red, so France<\/a> sport their change kit of mint green. We\u2019ll be off once the national anthems are sung. Morocco\u2019s speaks of \u201cheading for grandeur\u201d and its proud melody takes them there. It was composed during the final years of the French protectorate \u2026 speaking of which, there\u2019s this banger \u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n PLAY IT.Share<\/a><\/p>\n Pre-match postbag. \u201cSo will Morocco allow France<\/a> the time and space to show off their tuxedos or will they force them back into the sweat-soaked (and somewhat bloodied) overalls that Paraguay made them wear in Philadelphia? I think the French are in for a long shift this evening, and probably penalties\u201d \u2013 Justin Kavanagh<\/p>\n \u201cBest World Cup: nine African teams and three Concacaf in the knockouts. Unprecedented! \u201cIn hindsight, that wonderful thing, Scotland probably played their best match of the tournament against Morocco, and were slightly unlucky in the end not to get the point that would have seen them qualify for the knockouts. And then who knows what might have happened? Actually, I think we all do, a last 32 defeat by Mexico or some other team, that\u2019s what. But you get my drift, right? A little bit of reflected glory is always good. Remember McFadden in Paris? And it\u2019s not that long ago since we beat Spain and Norway in Euro qualifying, and thrashed England 0-0 at Wembley. So we know who the real winners are on July 19\u201d \u2013 Simon McMahon<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Time to view this World Cup<\/a> through a different lens. Our picture editor Jonny Weeks has adapted some of his favourite photos using an alternative process called slit-scanning, which produces some astonishing results \u2026 and has a longer and more varied history in sports photography than you might assume.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n France have long demonstrated the benefits of diversity at the World Cup<\/a>. Now Morocco are reaping similar rewards, with six members of Morocco\u2019s squad \u2013 Ayyoub Bouaddi, Issa Diop, Neil El Aynaoui, Samir El Mourabet, Gessime Yassine and Redouane Halhal \u2013 born in France. This piece from the Guardian Sport Network, on how today\u2019s quarter-final sums up the multicultural nature of the tournament, deserves your time and your love.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The pre-match press conferences. Didier Deschamps plays down the identity of tonight\u2019s referee, with officialdom having been front and centre this week, while giving his opponents their flowers: \u201cThis Morocco is of very high quality.\u201d His opposite number Mohamed Ouahbi meanwhile insists his team are here to win the whole thing.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Morocco make two changes to their starting line-up from the win over Canada. Anass Salah-Eddine replaces Redouane Halhal in defence, while midfielder Chemsdine Talbi takes the place of stricken striker Ismael Saibari. Brahim Diaz will likely play as a lone forward in Saibari\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n Chemsdine Talbi<\/a>Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a015.08 EDT<\/p>\n France make one change to their starting XI following the battle with Paraguay. D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9 replaces his PSG team-mate Bradley Barcola on the left flank.<\/p>\n D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9<\/a>Share<\/a>The teams<\/p>\n France: Maignan, Kounde, Upamecano, Saliba, Digne, Kone, Rabiot, Dembele, Olise, Doue, Mbappe. Morocco: Bounou, Hakimi, Diop, Mazraoui, Saleh-Eddine, Bouaddi, El Aynaoui, Diaz, Ounahi, Talbi, El Khannous. Referee: Facundo Tello Figueroa (Argentina).<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Morocco have played France on six previous occasions, and have never beaten them. Two draws, four defeats, six goals scored, 14 conceded. But one of those draws was against the France of Zinedine Zidane, Laurent Blanc, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry et al, a couple of months before les Bleus prevailed in the 1998 World Cup<\/a> final \u2026 and after sharing four goals, Morocco won a penalty shoot-out. Slim pickings, then, but at least it\u2019s not nothing at all. And there\u2019s always a first time.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Morocco were the stand-out team of Group C. They didn\u2019t win it, because they failed to put Brazil away<\/a>, but it only took 70 seconds to see off Scotland<\/a> and while they risked embarrassment against Haiti, they eventually overpowered the underdogs 4-2<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the knockouts, they were taken to the brink by the Netherlands, then took 45 minutes to warm up against Canada before swatting the co-hosts aside and out of their own tournament. And now we are here.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n France swanned their way through Group I. They elegantly survived the Senegal test<\/a>. Took a two-hour storm break in their stride to see off Iraq<\/a>. Then eased past Norway B<\/a> thanks to Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9\u2019s quick-fire first-half hat-trick.<\/p>\n Then in the knockouts, things went from the sublime to the ridiculous. And here we are.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u2026 and so to the business end of this World Cup<\/a>. But let\u2019s start this story from the very beginning.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble<\/p>\n
Worst World Cup: six Europeans in the last eight. Boring!!!
Best World Cup<\/a>?: four teams in last four that have never won (Norway, Morocco, Switzerland, Belgium).
Worst World Cup?: nothing new to see here, four past champions in the last four.
Here\u2019s hoping for the best.\u201d \u2013 Dominic O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n
Subs: Samba, Gusto, Tchouameni, Thuram, Kante, Konate, Zaire Emery, Theo Hernandez, Lucas Hernandez, Mateta, Risser, Cherki, Akliouche, Lacroix, Barcola.<\/p>\n
Subs: Mohamedi, Tagnaouti, Amrabat, Saadane, Saibari, El Ouahdi, El Mourabet, Yassine, Sbai, Belammari, El Kaabi, Amaimouni-Echghouyab, Halhal, Riad, Rahimi.<\/p>\n