France primed for rematch with Morocco side that won't have top scorer

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- France and Morocco meet on Thursday in the World Cup's first quarterfinal, reprising their engrossing semifinal in 2022.

France again will be favored after edging that meeting in Qatar 2-0 on an early first goal from Theo Hernandez and late second from Randal Kolo Muani.

And this time, France's Kylian Mbappe enters in even better form than that of his Golden Boot-winning 2022 performance.

Mbappe owns seven goals through five matches, including his decisive penalty in France's professional 1-0 triumph over a petulant Paraguay in the round of 16 on Saturday. He's tied with Norway's Erling Haaland and one behind Argentina's Lionel Messi for the tournament lead.

Les Bleus also enter the match with a sense of minor injustice after they were the recipients of all three cautions issued by Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev on Saturday, despite Paraguay's consistent role as instigators.

That included one to Michael Olise, who leads the tournament with five assists but could be out of a possible semifinal if he earns another caution on Thursday. France appealed Olise's yellow card against Paraguay, but manager Didier Deschamps confirmed that FIFA's disciplinary committee had not overturned the decision.

Thursday's match will be officiated by Argentine Facundo Tello, with the two assistant referees and the fourth official also coming from Argentina, the nation that defeated France on penalties in the 2022 final and will play its own quarterfinal on Saturday.

"I try to trust the referees," Deschamps said through an interpreter. "I hope that Mr. Tello and his assistants, who we'll have tomorrow, are as good as (French referee Francis) Letexier and his assistants who refereed another match.

"Obviously, there are always decisions that can lead to discussion. It all depends on which side you're on, but I consider Morocco to be the opponent. I'm not going to consider the referee an opponent. Quite the opposite, he's there to ensure the laws of the game are applied as fairly as possible."

Meanwhile, the Atlas Lions will no longer be a surprise to the world at this stage.

They have followed their 2022 semifinal appearance by winning the 2025 African Cup of Nations -- albeit after the fact via an AFC ruling disqualifying Senegal for its behavior in the final -- and reaching this stage by drawing Brazil in the group stage and defeating the Netherlands on penalties in the round of 32.

But Morocco will have to carry on, at least on Thursday, without striker Ismael Saibari. He leads his side with three goals at this tournament, but he played only 22 minutes of their round of 16 victory over Canada on Saturday after succumbing to a muscle strain.

While his injury originally was not characterized as serious, he did not participate in Tuesday's training and was ruled out by manager Mohamed Ouahbi during his news conference Wednesday evening.

"Everybody is available except for Saibari," he said through an interpreter, "because the match is too early. But I am sure, and I hope that he is not out for the rest of the competition."

Without him, Morocco eventually overcame a resolute Canadian effort with a brace from Azzendine Ounahi and then Soufiane Rahimi's second goal of the tournament late in added time.

Only Belgium have more multiple-goal scorers this tournament with four.

--Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media