France beats Morocco 2-0; will seek the two-time world championship against Argentina

France will define the world title with Argentina after an early goal from Theo Hernandez and one near the end of Randal Color gave them a 2-0 victory in the World Cup semifinals on Wednesday and ended Morocco’s magical campaign.

Full-back Hernández made it 1-0 after five minutes, but the lead did not appear to be an incentive for the defending champions, who offered only occasional glimpses of their class after that.

Moroccoaffected by injuries, caused problems for his rival and forced goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to make a great save before a shot from Jawad El Yamiq at the end of the first part. The African cast also created chances in the plugin, but could not score.

The lack of goals prevented them from extending their amazing run that included victories over Belgium, Spain and Portugal, and made them the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final.

France resolved it in the 79th minute when a brilliant dribble from Kylian Mbappé left Kolo Muani facing goal to score the decisive goal with his first touch less than a minute after coming on and after a great collective play.

France is the first defending champion to reach back-to-back finals since Brazil in 2002, and on Sunday they will try to emulate Brazil (1962) and Italy (1938) as the third team to retain the title.

To achieve this, they will have to overcome Lionel Messi’s Argentina, who thrashed Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday to play their sixth World Cup final in search of winning their third Cup after the titles obtained in 1978 and 1986.