France eliminates England, advances to World Cup semifinal against Morocco
AL KHOR, Qatar — If things had worked out the way France planned, Olivier Giroud would largely have been a spectator at this World Cup.
Kylian Mbappe, arguably the world’s best player, and Karim Benzema, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, were supposed to be France’s main offensive weapons in Qatar, leaving Giroud to play second fiddle — if he was chosen to be part of the orchestra at all.
That was the plan.
How fortunate, then, for both Giroud and France that things didn’t go according to plan.
When Benzema tore a muscle in his left thigh four days before France’s World Cup opener, Giroud took his place in the starting lineup. And neither he nor the team have looked back, with Giroud’s late header Saturday lifting the defending champion to a 2-1 quarterfinal win over England.
The goal was Giroud’s fourth of the World Cup — only Mbappe has more. And three of those scores have given France a lead, the last clinching a spot in Wednesday’s semifinal against Morocco.
“Just four years after our last victory in the World Cup, we’re back in the last four. And I’m not thinking about anything else right now,” said French coach Didier Deschamps, who is seeking to become the first coach to take a team to consecutive World Cup finals since Argentina’s Carlos Bilardo and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer in 1990.
“In the past, the world champions didn’t always do well in the next World Cup and we’ve managed to do that.”
But, he added, “None of it is worth anything if you don’t get the results.”
Two more positive results and France would become the first team to win consecutive World Cups since Brazil in 1962. But while Les Bleus were a powerhouse four years ago in Russia, going unbeaten and trailing for only nine minutes over seven games, Qatar has been more difficult. France lost in group play for the first time since 2010 and scored four of its six goals in the knockout stages in the 74th minute or later.
Grant Wahl, a soccer writer who covered U.S. soccer in the past for Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports, died after collapsing while covering a World Cup match.
Part of that is because of the injuries that sidelined five potential starters, among them midfielders N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, and left back Lucas Hernandez, who were all key parts of the championship team four years ago. Those absences have created opportunities for players such as Giroud, who didn’t expect to get many.
Hernandez’s knee injury freed a lineup spot for his brother Theo, who has played all but 12 minutes in France’s last four games. And the loss of Kante and Pogba opened playing time for Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot, who have started all five World Cup games, accounting for the two French goals not scored by Mbappe and Giroud.
Yet for all the differences between 2018 and 2022, both Giroud and Deschamps said this year’s team shares one important trait with the one from four years ago.
“The mentality we had in 2018, that determination we showed,” Giroud said.
“We are mentally strong,” the coach agreed. “But the more games you win, the stronger you get. So gradually we’re getting stronger and stronger.”
France never trailed against England, taking the lead in the 17th minute when Tchouameni scored at the end of a well-executed counterattack that began with Dayot Upamecano taking the ball from Bukayo Saka deep in the French end and heading the other way. The ball then cycled through Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann on a six-pass sequence that ended with Tchouameni drilling a shot between the legs of England midfielder Jude Bellingham and into the lower left corner from about 30 yards.
That ended a 287-minute scoreless streak for English keeper Jordan Pickford and was the first goal England has conceded from outside the penalty area since the first group-play game in 2014.
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, playing in a French-record 143rd game with the national team, came up big twice to keep his team in front at the intermission, which was significant since France had never lost a World Cup game it led at halftime, going 24-0-1, while England had never won in eight tries when trailing at the break.
Everything you need to know to watch and follow the 2022 Qatar World Cup, including start times and TV and streaming information for knockout-round match.
Neither streak would be broken Saturday, although England gave France a fight. When Tchoaumeni tripped Saka on the edge of the box shortly after intermission, Harry Kane converted the resulting penalty kick to tie both the score and Wayne Rooney’s record as England‘s all-time scoring leader with 53 goals.
Giroud answered with some history of his own in the 78th minute, seconds after a spectacular diving save by Pickford pushed away his left-footed volley from the center of the box. He wouldn’t be denied a second time.
Following the ensuing corner kick, the ball worked its way to Griezmann on the left wing and he delivered an exquisite left-footed cross that Giroud headed in despite the fact England’s Harry Maguire was draped over his back. That made the 36-year-old only the second player that age to score four times in a single tournament, a big improvement over 2018 when he became the first player since 1966 to attempt at least 13 shots in a World Cup without putting one on target.
England had two chances to match that, the first in the 82nd minute when a video review awarded the Three Lions another penalty kick, one that Kane drove well over the crossbar, and the second on the final touch of the game, when Marcus Rashford’s free kick from the edge of the penalty kick just missed the upper right corner.
“However you go out of the tournament, it’s always really, really difficult,” said England coach Gareth Southgate, who took his team to the semifinals in Russia. “But I can only say that the pride I have in the players and the way they’ve gone about the whole thing, the whole group, ended up being exceptional. They really showed the character, they showed the balls, to play against a big team and go toe to toe with a big team.
Morocco became the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals by beating Portugal 1-0 to likely end Cristiano Ronaldo’s chances of winning soccer’s biggest prize.
“There are mistakes at both things that decide the outcome. But I think we’ve once again shown the rest of the world that English football is healthy. And we’ve got some very good players.”
Yet with another quarterfinal exit, the team’s seventh in World Cup play, things didn’t exactly go as planned for the English either.
