France vs. Morocco Best Bets: Top Picks for World Cup Quarterfinal Clash

The World Cup quarterfinals begin when France faces Morocco on Thursday afternoon in Foxborough, Mass.

France finally had a close call of sorts in its 1-0 victory over a petulant Paraguay side in Philadelphia. Morocco counterattacked to perfection in its 3-0 victory over Canada.

Let’s take a look at best bets for this intriguing clash, which is also a rematch of a 2022 semifinal.

90-minute Match Result

So far, we’ve seen Morocco face two global elites in Brazil and the Netherlands, and they’ve played to a draw in each over 90 minutes.

They’ve conceded only four goals across their five games. And even the 4-2 win over an overmatched Haitian side was less of a defensive blemish than it appears, with the Caribbeans scoring on an own-goal and a wondrous thunderbolt from Wilson Isidor.

While Paraguay were chastised for their foul play, their tactics against France also revealed a blueprint for solving Les Bleus' wealth of talent. And Morocco is well-equipped to follow it with more efficacy, based on their superior on-the-ball ability.

Oddsmakers are trying to tempt you into taking the France money line. The better play is a 90-minute draw at +300 odds and an implied 25.0% probability. Draws in the World Cup knockout stage have cashed about 30% of the time in the modern era World Cup (since 1982),

90-minute result: Draw (+300, Fanatics)

Morocco Exact Total Goals

The Atlas Lions have scored in all their matches, but they have only stacked multiple goals when facing Concacaf opposition.

Meanwhile, France have kept consecutive clean sheets in the knockout phase. But Paraguay hardly looked concerned with trying to score in their round of 16 encounter, and Sweden on a better finishing day would’ve managed at least one consolation tally in their round of 32 defeat.

Given the talent at their disposal, France are highly unlikely to alter their tactics here, which means there will be chances for opponents who search for them (i.e. not really Paraguay).

Count Morocco in that category and back them to get a single goal here at +155 odds and an implied 39.2% probability.

Morocco exact total goals: 1 (+155, Fanatics)

First-Half Total

Both Morocco and France have shown an ability to score early goals. But it’s important to note that ability has been more prevalent in the group phase, where the consequence of falling behind was far less significant.

In the four knockout stage matches we’ve seen these sides play so far, there’s only been one goal between them, scored by Kylian Mbappe just before halftime against a badly overmatched Sweden side that was fortunate only to lose 3-0.

Morocco’s a much better foe, and unlike Sweden and Paraguay, they also have the capability to keep France’s daunting attack at bay by keeping the ball.

The smart money here is on a scoreless first half, and it’s even smarter to buy a half goal so if there’s one first-half tally your wager will push.

First-half total under 1.0 goals (-110, BetRivers)