Thursday 9th July – 9:00pm BST
🌍 FIFA World Cup – Quarter-Finals ⚽
🇫🇷 France vs. Morocco 🇲🇦
| ⚽️ BET 1: France -1 💷 1pt Best Odds: 2.88 at Sky Bet ⚽️ BET 2: Kylian Mbappe to score two or more goals (inc. Extra Time) 💷 1pt Best Odds: 5.00 at Bet365 ⚽️ BET LADDER 🪜France to take 7 or more corners 💷 1pts Best Odds: 2.20 at William Hill 🪜France to take 8 or more corners 💷 0.75pts Best Odds: 3.25 at William Hill 🪜France to take 9 or more corners 💷 0.50pts Best Odds: 4.33 at William Hill 🪜France to take 10 or more corners 💷 0.50pts Best Odds: 6.50 at William Hill Risking 2.75pts in total |
While sitting in 6th of the FIFA World Rankings, Morocco are on quite the undefeated streak – sound good huh? BUT… they haven’t beat anyone!!!!
On 11 August 2025, the 111th‑ranked Kenya beat Morocco 1–0 in the CAF Nations Championship group stage — the last time Morocco were technically defeated. What most of the experts tipping them to win this World Cup conveniently leave out is that the CAF Nations Championship is a B‑team tournament, much like the FIFA Arab Cup, where nations field domestic‑league players, youth prospects, or second‑string squads. Not a single player involved that day is part of Morocco’s current World Cup roster. So that defeat in my analysis is excused.
To go back further, Morocco’s last defeat with something close to their full-strength squad came in January 2024, when 60th‑ranked South Africa beat them 2–0 in the AFCON last‑16. That’s the most recent time this actual team, or near enough, lost a competitive match.
Sounds impressive, right? Indeed.
Well, it needs proper context, as we always do before recommending a bet.
| Morocco’s first team games since failing at AFCON 2024. | ||||
| YEAR | PLAYED | WON | DRAWN | LOST |
| 2024 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| 2026 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
Since that defeat, Morocco’s first team (excluding the CAF Nations Championship and the Arab Cup, which use B‑team squads) have played 33 matches. They’ve won 25, drawn eight, and lost none. Indeed impressive right? Well, like I said, we need some proper context here. We go on…
Now let’s look at the results here.
In 2024, out of 10 games, Morocco played and beat Angola 1-0 (117), 2-1 Zambia (84), 6-0 Congo (92), 4-1 and 5-1 against Gabon (96), Lesotho 1-0 and 7-0 (152), 6-0 and 4-0 against Central African Republic (126). They actually drew the game against the worst ranked side they faced, Mauritania (176) in a goalless draw.
Into 2025, beat Niger 2-1 and 2-0 (129), Tanzania 1-0 (126), Tunisia 2-0 (44), Benin 1-0 (97), Zambia 2-0 (84), Bahrain 1-0 (86), DR Congo 1-0 (47), Mozambique 1-0 (111), Djibouti 7-0 (189) and Uganda 4-0 (92). They drew 1-1 with Mali (ranked 52).
This past year, we finally get a clearer picture of how good Morocco actually are. In the AFCON, they just edged Tanzania 1–0 (ranked 126th) and then beat Cameroon 2–0 (45th). After that came two stalemates: a 0–0 against Nigeria (26th), eventually winning on penalties, and the chaotic AFCON final. That match finished 0–0 in normal time, Senegal took the lead but the goal was disallowed, then their players walked off following a dubious penalty award. Brahim DĂaz, who flatters to deceive, made an arse of himself with a botched Panenka, and Senegal ultimately won 1–0, before Morocco were later awarded a 3–0 win. A complete mess, still unresolved, but anyways for our purposes… yet another draw over 90 minutes.
Moving on, they drew 1–1 with Ecuador (23rd), beat Paraguay 2–1 (40th), thrashed Madagascar 4–0 (92nd), and drew 1–1 with Norway (31st). Into the World Cup, they drew 1–1 with Brazil (6th), beat Scotland 1–0 (43rd), defeated Haiti 4–2 (84th), drew 1–1 with the Netherlands (7th), and beat Canada 3–0 (30th).
And now they face France — ranked No.1 in the world. Morocco have not played anyone inside the top five but look at the results of team in the top 30. One win, in six games – against Canada, where they could have easily lost. The table below makes that gap even clearer.
| Morocco’s first team results per rank since their last defeat | |||
| FIFA WR | WON | DRAWN | LOST |
| 1-10 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 11-30 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 31-50 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 51-100 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 101 onwards | 11 | 1 | 0 |
Technically, against elite opposition such as France, they have neither managed a win nor, to their credit, suffered a defeat, drawing both encounters. Those matches came against Brazil and the Netherlands at the World Cup. Before that, they had never truly been tested, so it is hard to see why anyone would have tipped them for a major tournament run.
Against Brazil, they enjoyed decent possession and struck early but after 26 minutes or so, they spent the remainder of the game pinned back, even though many pundits suggested they played well. Against the Dutch, they played with heavy physicality, dirty tactics, an elbow to the face, strong and high tackles, and amazingly escaped serious punishment from a lenient referee. After conceding on the counter in the second half, they created several chances but wasted them — until makeshift striker Issa Diop headed home late to force penalties, which they ultimately won.
Against teams ranked between 11th and 30th, they have managed just one win and three draws. That lone victory came in their most recent outing — a 3‑0 win over Canada — a match they should have been losing by half‑time. Canada’s pressure was relentless, but their finishing let them down. So, as mentioned earlier, Morocco have beaten no one of real stature… apart from Canada last week. Over nearly three years, they have not faced a genuinely elite opponent, and certainly not one of France’s calibre.
I have mentioned this in past articles, and this is nowhere near the team that finished fourth in the last World Cup.
The attacking prowess – gone.
The manager – gone.
The strong central defensive partnership – gone.
France will win it here and could be heavy.
Les Bleus showed real grit in their 1–0 win over Paraguay in the last‑16, and they’ll need that resilience again against a Morocco side that can make games awkward, especially if we have a dodgy referee. But Didier Deschamps has enough attacking firepower to seriously trouble a centre‑back pairing of two of Redouane Halhal, Chadi Riad or Issa Diop — the same Diop who was fortunate not to be sent off for pulling down Che Adams against Scotland. Don’t worry, he did the same a week ago to Brian Brobbey too – unpunished.
Whatever partnership is selected it will looked improvised. Diop and Riad had never played a competitive minute together until a March friendly with Ecuador, and even then Ecuador scored from one of their few openings in a 1–1 draw. Their frailties reappeared in the final group match against Haiti, when Morocco dropped Diop for Halhal. The outcome was a defensive mess. Haiti struck twice in a 4–2 defeat, with the opener brutally exposing Morocco’s structure: Jean‑Kevin Duverne breezed past PSV’s Anass Salah‑Eddine, at left-back, and squared for an unmarked Lenny Joseph, while Achraf Hakimi stood with his mouth open, watching after losing his man. Hakimi later bundled in a scruffy goal at the other end, but it did nothing to hide how shaky Morocco looked at the back.
Deschamps’ attacking options of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola, Marcus Thuram, Desire Doue, Rayan Cherki, Jean-Phillipe Mateta and Maghnes Akliouche are all way better than Che Adams, no disrespect to Che.
Mbappe has scored at least two in three of the five World Cups matches so far. Against this defence, who desperately foul to halt plays due to their lack of experience at this level and talent, he could easily get another brace, from the penalty spot alone. After the showing of grit, composure and determination of that Paraguay win, I can see France coming into this one, with their heads high and ready to unleash.
To make matters worse for the North Africans, Ismael Saibari, who scored in all three group matches, limped off early against Canada and is now a major doubt for this game.
Morocco will be difficult but like I say, I do see France getting a comfortable win. However, if they frustrate Deschamps’ men, corners looks a good play and we’ll have a few points on France corners.
France’s corner output makes this ladder very appealing. They hit 7 corners in the first half against Paraguay in the last‑16 and added another 5 after the break. In the round‑of‑32 match against Sweden, they produced 6 corners before half‑time and 3 more in the second half. Morocco, meanwhile, conceded 11 corners to Canada in their own last‑16 tie. With those numbers in mind, we’ll start the ladder at 7 French corners and look to climb toward 10.
Best of luck.
Will Burns
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